Secret Sydney

The Chau Chak Wing Museum is free to visit! But that’s not the best news for Sydney’s newest museum, which opened just this week in the middle of the University of Sydney. The purpose-built space, designed by Sydney-based design studio Johnson Pilton Walker, now houses three distinct collections that, until now, were showcased separately and…

In 1964 The Beatles traveled to Australia for their first and only tour. At the time, all the best and brightest stars in the entertainment galaxy stayed at one hotel, The Chevron Hilton Hotel in Kings Cross. This was Sydney’s only first Five Star international hotel. The “Silver Spade” dining room, was on the first…

Before large cemeteries were created throughout Sydney, the local parishes buried their dead within their own grounds.  Sydney’s first official cemetery was located where Sydney Town Hall now stands. Dating back to the 1790s, the site is commonly called the Old Sydney Burial Ground. The site, on the outskirts of town, was chosen by Governor…

Sydney Harbour may be the city’s sparkling centre piece but its sandy bottom reveals its darker side. The city’s coast and harbour have claimed more than 140 ships and hundreds of lives since the First Fleet arrived in 1788. For example, when you sail over the Middle Head stretch of Sydney Harbour, you may not…

Callan Park has a storied past. Its sandstone buildings and expansive grounds were originally a mental health facility. The myth that echoed through these halls is that there was an underground tunnel system that transported unsightly patients from ship ports to the Callan Park facility. It’s rumoured that an intricate water tunnel system stretched from…

Ex-convict Michael Gannon was a carpenter, and given how profitable death was in The Rocks in those days, he focused especially on coffins. This led to him beginning work as an undertaker (a natural career progression, of course) in the rear of the property. Today the building houses the Gannon House Gallery, which showcases incredible…

A new favourite of one of our guides is this Wonka-esque playground. With one of the most epic super slides you’ve ever seen (it stands at 3-stories high!), colourful climbing towers, multiple observation decks, climbing nets, swings, and a large nearby lawned area with a handball court and two tennis tables, this is one of Sydney’s…

Strange rumours surround the Wakehurst Parkway on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, but the standout tale is of a ghost who hops into the backseat of unsuspecting cars driving down it after midnight. Stories vary, but most centre around a section of the road near Oxford Falls, where it’s been reported that a young girl opens a…

Sydney’s Oxford street has not always been the rainbow capital of Australia. Once this street was the centre for high fashion for the gentleman and the common man. One of the first was Zink & Sons (est. 1895) which grew to be the busiest tailors’ shop in Sydney, making suits, coats and trousers for every…

Non-Indigenous Australia has a pretty brief culinary history. The First Fleet arrived here in 1788, when Chinese cuisine was already well over a millennium old. But while many of our chefs can’t draw on generations of tradition, they’re also not constrained by it. They can experiment as much as they like.  Despite this, Sydney’s superb…