Sydney is the
most populous city in
Australia, with a
metropolitan area population of approximately 4.28 million (2006 estimate). It is the
state capital of
New South Wales, and was the site of the first
British colony in Australia. It was established in 1788 at
Sydney Cove by
Arthur Phillip, leader of the
First Fleet from
Britain. A resident of the city is referred to as a
Sydneysider.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a
steel arch bridge across
Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular and pedestrian traffic between the
Sydney central business district (
CBD) and the
North Shore. The dramatic view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby
Sydney Opera House is an iconic image of both
Sydney and
Australia. The
bridge is locally nicknamed The
Coathanger because of its arch-based design, although this usage is less prevalent than it once was.
The bridge was designed and built by
Dorman Long and Co Ltd,
Middlesbrough,
Teesside and was the city's tallest structure until 1967. According to
Guinness World Records, it is the world's widest long-span bridge and its tallest steel arch bridge, measuring 134 metres from top to water level. It is also the
fourth-longest spanning-arch bridge in the world.
The Sydney Opera House is located in
Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia. It was made a
UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007. Based on the competition winning entry by Danish architect
Jørn Utzon, the Sydney Opera House is one of the world's most distinctive 20
th century buildings, and one of the most famous
performing arts venues in the world.
Both icons together.
Sydneys Botanic Gardens.
The Sydney
Opera House is an
expressionist modern design, with a series of large precast concrete '
shells', each taken from a
hemisphere of the same radius, forming the roofs of the structure. The Opera House covers 1.8 hectares of land. It is 183 metres long and about 120 metres wide at its widest point. It is supported on 588 concrete piers sunk up to 25 metres below sea level. Its power supply is equivalent for a town of 25,000 people. The power is distributed by 645 kilometres of electrical cable.
The roofs of the House are covered with 1,056,006 glossy white and matte cream Swedish-made tiles, though from a distance the tiles look only white. Despite their self-cleaning nature, they are still subject to periodic maintenance and replacement.
The Concert Hall and Opera Theatre are each contained in the two largest groups of shells, and the other theatres are located on the sides of the shell groupings. The form of the shells is chosen to reflect the internal height requirements, rising from the low entrance spaces, over the seating areas and up to the high stage towers. A much smaller group of shells set to one side of the Monumental steps houses the
Bennelong Restaurant. Although the roof structures of the Sydney Opera House are commonly referred to as shells (as they are in this article), they are in fact not shells in a strictly structural sense, but are instead precast concrete panels supported by precast concrete ribs. The building's interior is composed of pink granite quarried in
Tarana and
wood and brush box
plywood supplied from
Wauchope in northern New South Wales.
During the tour around the Opera we were sitting in this very hall when the guide asked if someone would like to test the acoustic. So a woman sang "Amazing Grace".