Sydney Insiders Blog

Monumental in scale and ambition, The Eyes of the Land and the Sea by Alison Page and Nik Lachajczak commemorates the 250th anniversary of the 1770 encounter between Aboriginal Australians and Lt James Cook’s crew of the HMB Endeavour at Kamay Botany Bay National Park, Australia. The artwork is cast in bronze and takes the…

Hanging Rock, a large sandstone object hanging out from a sandstone cliff, is one of the most iconic landmarks in the greater Blue Mountains region. It is situated a few moments away from the Baltzer Lookout, from where visitors can enjoy eye-dropping views of the Grose Valley and surrounding escarpments. These two beautiful sights can…

Marrickville in Sydney’s Inner West has been named No. 10 in the top 40 coolest neighbourhoods in the world by Time Out – and, despite living in Sydney all my life I’m ashamed to say, I haven’t really explored it properly. Here is why you must add Faversham Lane to your list of things to…

Post war in the 1950’s and 60’s there was a wave of mass migration from Italy to Australia, and specifically from the lesser-known hillside town of San Fele (located in the southern region of Basilicata), to the then Drummoyne Municipality of Sydney, Australia. Thousands of men and women arrived to this new land, and bandied…

The date is 5th July, 1938. The place is Rose Bay, Sydney. An Empire Class flying boat rumbles and bobs towards its departure point and then turns slowly into the wind. As the engines roar, the plane gradually gathers speed before skimming across the sparkling, blue waters and starting its lazy climb into the sky….

Barrenjoey Lighthouse sits majestically on Sydney’s most northern point – Barrenjoey Head at Palm Beach. Positioned 91m above sea level, the lighthouse can be reached by a couple of walks and offers breathtaking views. It’s an easy day trip from Sydney and a great place to bring overseas visitors – they may recognise the lighthouse…

In 2014, Sydney endured one of the darkest moments in our history. A lone gunman, Maron Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café located at Martin Place in Sydney, Australia. After a 16-hour standoff, a gunshot was heard from inside and police officers from the Tactical Operations Unit stormed the café. Tragically,…

Before the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Harbour was filled with ferries and punts plowing their way across the blue waters to join the north to the south of the city. There were private and public punts with them all providing a simple, small and spectacular journey. With the opening of the bridge…

On a recent wander through the city one quiet evening my wife and I stumbled upon a small bird sitting still on a railing within Macquarie Park. The dull light of the evening dusk obscured our view and we thought that this small bird was such a brave little thing, standing ever so still as…

Tucked away on the eastern shore of Hen and Chicken Bay is the small and secret suburb of Wareemba. Out of all the 658 suburbs in Sydney, this is the smallest in land area and one of the most least known and unheard of in all of Sydney considering where it is located. It only…

In a suburb known for its high concentration of Groodles, Cavoodles, Labradoodles and Schnoodles, there once lived an old, ugly, battle-scarred mongrel dog with arthritis in all four legs who was almost totally deaf. His name was Billy. For 17 of his 19 years, the fox-terrier walked the streets of Mosman behind his loving master…

If you never liked school, you may have just been attending the wrong one. Located in Mosman with views of Sydney Harbour you will be the lessons you have been looking for. But no one is looking out the window during these lessons, they’re too busy mixing huge bowls of melted chocolate or sprinkling on…