Sydney Harbour: Rocks to Opera House

Photo: Sheba_Also 43,000 photos, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)

This walk circles the cove where modern Sydney began. Long before 1788 this was Gadigal Country, and the harbour fed its people for thousands of years. Then eleven British ships sailed in, and the colony of New South Wales was founded on these shores.

You'll start at Circular Quay, the ferry hub right beside the cruise ship terminal, and wander into The Rocks, the convict-built quarter of sandstone cottages, pubs and lanes that locals saved from the bulldozers in the 1970s. From Observatory Hill you'll head out onto the Harbour Bridge walkway, then come back down to the water and follow it around to the Opera House. The tour ends in the Royal Botanic Garden at Mrs Macquaries Chair.

Allow about two and a half hours for roughly 4.5 kilometers. There are stairs up to the bridge and some steep streets in The Rocks. It's one way: from the last stop, walk back through the garden to Circular Quay in about 20 minutes.

11 stops on this tour:

Circular Quay - Where the First Fleet Landed

Museum of Contemporary Art - Art Deco on the Quay

Cadmans Cottage - The Coxswain's House

The Rocks Laneways - Convict Town Saved

Observatory Hill - Time Ball over the Harbour

Harbour Bridge Walkway - Across the Coathanger

Campbells Cove - Merchant Stores and Cruise Ships

Sydney Opera House - Sails on Bennelong Point

Government House - A Gothic Castle for Governors

Royal Botanic Garden - From Failed Farm to Garden

Mrs Macquaries Chair - The Governor's Wife's View

Plan your visit

Route: 11 stops · about 2.4 miles · walking, one way
Time: about 2.5 hours at an easy pace, with stops
Start: Circular Quay (directions)
Cost: free tour
Audio: narrated - tap ▶ Listen at the top of any stop

Stops on this tour

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