Greater Sydney

Adjoining the Australian Wildlife Park is a large 200 ha theme park, Australia's Wonderland, which is somewhat reminiscent of Disneyland. Divided into seven different theme areas, it has numerous exciting rides and giant slides as well as stage shows.

ATTRACTION CLOSED IN 2004.

Balmain, one of Sydney's nearer suburbs, lies on an inlet to the west of Darling Harbour. Like Paddington it has well preserved Victorian houses and is the home of many artists.

Camden (pop. 18,700) lies near Campbelltown, and like that town has grown considerably in size as a result of its proximity to the Sydney conurbation. John Macarthur acquired great areas of grazing land here in 1805 and, with his wife Elizabeth, experimented with new breeds of sheep. Also associated with Macarthur is the Elizabeth Farm House at Parramatta.

The town was founded around 1840, and many old building have survived from that period (Belgenny, Camden Park House, St John's Church, Macaria).

Campbelltown (pop. 141,800), since the 1970s has been a rapidly growing satellite town of the state capital of Sydney.

There are only scanty remains of the town founded by Governor Macquarie around 1820 and given his wife's maiden name.

St Peter's Church (1823), a fine example of Georgian architecture; old houses of the colonial period on Queen Street (Nos. 284-98).

Glebe, south of Balmain, has become a very popular residential area in recent years. In this area is Sydney University, the oldest in Australia.

Liverpool was founded by Governor Macquarie in 1810, but until the second world war remained a secluded rural settlement. It has since developed into an independent industrial center within the Sydney conurbation. It has preserved many historic buildings of the early 19th C, among them St Luke's Church and Liverpool Hospital, both designed by Francis Greenway.

The well-known Sydney suburb of Manly, on the north side of the harbor entrance (North Head), can be reached by ferry or hydrofoil. Its principal tourist attraction is Marineland, a large aquarium with shark feeding and other shows. The beach is well equipped with facilities for holidaymakers, including a large water slide.

To the north of Manly is a string of popular beach resorts extending up to Palm Beach and Barrenjoey Head, on Broken Bay, the estuary of the Hawkesbury River.

North Sydney with its numerous suburbs and satellite towns and its beautiful beaches on the Pacific, separated from the city center by the harbor, has developed independently in the last few decades into an important administrative and commercial center. The eight-lane Harbour Bridge can no longer cope with the heavy volume of traffic at certain times and in 1992, after long planning, it was supplemented by a tunnel under the harbor.

West of Sydney extends an endless succession of suburbs, for the most part consisting of detached houses with gardens, with only the occasional district (e.g. Parramatta) more densely built up with houses and apartment blocks. Even in a large city Australians like to have a house of their own with a garden, however tiny.

On Saturdays there are often yacht races in the harbor.

On the north side of the harbor, below the zoo (Ashton Park) and round Cremorne Point, there are pleasant paths for walkers.

Penrith (pop. 34,000) is an historic old town on the Nepean River, and the center of the Sydney-Blue Mountains-Hawkesbury River region.

After the construction of the road through the Blue Mountains (1815) a courthouse and a small jail were built here. There are occasional boat races on the Nepean River.

Richmond, sister town to Windsor, only 8km away, was founded in 1810 during the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie (Famous People). Both towns do well out of their relative nearness to Sydney.

The town features Hobartsville, a mansion in Castlereagh Road, St Peter's Church (1841), and a graveyard in which some notable pioneers are buried.

South of Bondi, the popular bathing beaches of Tamarama,, Bronte, Coogee and Maroubra are also good for surfing. Botany Bay, with its sharks, is more suited to boating and sailing than to swimming.

In Vaucluse, between the harbor and the Pacific, is romantic Vaucluse House (open to the public), built between 1827 and 1850 by the explorer and politician William Wentworth for himself and his large family, set in beautiful gardens.

From Watsons Bay there are good views of the South Head, the harbor entrance and Sydney.