Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
HISTORIC BUILDING
CUSTOMS HOUSE
11am-5pm Sun; Circular Quay)
Emerging phoenixlike from extensive renovations in 2005,
this cavernous harbourside edifice (1885) now houses the three-level
Customs House
Library
( 9242 8555; 10am-7pm Mon-Fri, 11am-4pm Sat & Sun)
. There's a great selection of in-
ternational newspapers and magazines to scan, as well as internet access and interesting
temporary exhibitions.
In the lobby, look for the swastikas in the tiling (and the plaque explaining their sym-
bolism), and a charmingly geeky 1:500 model of the inner city under a glass floor. Café
Sydney is on the top floor.
JUSTICE & POLICE MUSEUM
( 9252 1144;
www.hht.net.au
; cnr Albert & Phillip Sts; adult/child/family $10/5/20; 9.30am-5pm; Circular
Quay)
In the old Water Police Station (1858), this mildly unnerving museum mimics a
late-19th-century police station and court. Focusing on disreputable activities, exhibits in-
clude weapons, butt-ugly mugshots, forensic evidence from Sydney's most heinous
crimes and at least two stuffed dogs. Wheelchair access to the ground floor only.
MUSEUM
MACQUARIE PLACE
(cnr Loftus & Bridge Sts; Circular Quay)
Beneath some shady Moreton Bay fig trees a block or
two back from the Quay is this little historic triangle. Look for the actual
cannon and an-
chor
from the First Fleet flagship (HMS
Sirius
), an ornate but defunct 1857 drinking
fountain, a National Trust-classified gentlemen's
pissoir
(closed) and an 1818
obelisk
erected 'to record that all the public roads leading to the interior of the colony are meas-
ured from it'.
SQUARE
The park is overlooked by the imposing 19th-century
Lands Department Building
;
the north facade bears statues of Sturt, Hume, Leichhardt and other early Australian
movers and shakers.
SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC
designed by convict architect Francis Greenway as the stables and servants' quarters of
Governor Macquarie's new government house. Partly because of the project's extravag-
ance, Macquarie was ousted before the house could be completed. In 1915 the stables
HISTORIC BUILDING
