Sydney - Australia's urban paradise

[Morn]

Here's Newtown, which is known as the hipster district. Took these mostly in 2011.


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[Morn]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

I feel like Sydney is a perfect city. It looks so vibrant, exciting, clean, and orderly....yet anything but sterile. Love the European street layout...interesting that the city is not in the boring grid pattern given how young it is.

It reminds me of a - dare I say it - nicer version of SF.

The reason there isn't a grid pattern is that it started as a prison colony. It was the first settlement in Australia and the original convict site. Unplanned, they just added new streets as needed. Then the gold rush of the 1850s brought a huge growth of population and by accident it turned into a big city. Melbourne is a planned city with a grid.
And San Francisco is Sydney's official sister city.

[volguus zildrohar]

This is the shot:



Nicely done. We need more street-level Sydney.

[mousquet]

Fabulous downtown. You can sense something thriving just in the pictures, the place is sure enviable, but don't show it off too much, people get ridiculously mean when they're jealous.
Well, when you've got some big Apple and Louis Vuitton stores in your freaking downtown, it's a good sign.

[Architype]

I am really impressed by your coverage of Sydney. A great variety of photos, keep it up, please !

[Architype]

Originally Posted by Morn

The reason there isn't a grid pattern is that it started as a prison colony. It was the first settlement in Australia and the original convict site. Unplanned, they just added new streets as needed. Then the gold rush of the 1850s brought a huge growth of population and by accident it turned into a big city. Melbourne is a planned city with a grid.
And San Francisco is Sydney's official sister city.

It sounds a bit like New York's beginnings, without the prison colony thing. It always makes for a more interesting urban fabric to not ahve a grid pattern.

[DetroitSky]

Very, very nice photos! I am looking forward to more!

[Morn]

Okay. Here's some of my shots from New Years Eve.

You got to get there early to get a spot. I arrived a 12pm... and was not able to get through the queues and to Mrs Macquarie's Chair until 2pm. This years celebrations had 1.5 million participants, which is one third of the cities population.


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Once I finally got through the queue, I had hours of camping out ahead of me, and a 30 minute wait just to use the toilet. But the view was fantastic.


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I was unfortunately mobbed for the fireworks show and was lucky to get a spot where I could see the fireworks through the trees at all. Next year I'm trying one of the paid entry spots! But the crowd thinned after the fireworks, and the light show continued all night.


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Wasn't able to get back to the CBD till 1:30am, having to walk through the Domain with crowds. George Street still had quite a few people, even though I missed the crowd crush from Circular Quay.


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Street performers were having a great night.


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And the mounted cops were out in force.


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[destroycreate]

How walkable is Sydney as a whole, and how is the public transportation system compared to say, SF?

[Morn]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

How walkable is Sydney as a whole, and how is the public transportation system compared to say, SF?

It's almost like two cities. The west is a car and mall centric lifestyle, much suburban sprawl. Yet the city centre is entirely based around public transport and there is no parking, nobody drives to the downtown and people in west drive to the nearest train station to commute. The eastern side of the city is much more urban and walkable. The rail system handles 1 million passengers trips a day, but quite a few neighbourhoods are missing a line, hence the 5000 buses in the city. There is also a ferry system around the harbour, which also have become very popular with tourists.

[Morn]

Here are some shots I took around Sydney's train system.

Town Hall Station, handles 162,480 passenger movements a weekday on 6 platforms. It's ranked 2nd in the network and was built in 1932.


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Central Station, ranked number one with 173,560 passenger movements a weekday on 27 platforms. Is also the terminal for country, interstate and intercity trains. Built 1855.


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Martin Place, 37,600 passenger movements a weekday ranked 10th, 2 platforms. Built 1979.


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Macquarie University. 17,030 passenger movements a weekday, ranked 26th. Built 2009.


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[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar

This is the shot:



Nicely done. We need more street-level Sydney.

<3 <3 future boyfriend <3 <3

[Muji]

An urban paradise indeed! It almost looks like Los Angeles and London had a baby.

[atlantaguy]

Spectacular, Morn! What a vibrant and beautiful city you are fortunate to call home.

[Morn]

Thanks!

Chinese New Year this week! So here are some older photos of Chinatown.


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[Morn]

Happy year of the snake!!!

From this Sunday, the Sydney Chinese New Year Twilight Parade.


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[novaCJ]

Thanks for all of these, Morn. Sydney looks fantastic.

[giallo]

Yeah. I really like this photo thread. Please keep up the postings.

[10023]

Well that's interesting for the Skybar fashion thread... looks like Sydneysiders don't dress any better than Americans for the most part.

[MolsonExport]

To all people living in Sydney, I only have this to say: Lucky bastards.

I fell in love with the place when I visited in 2003. Going to Melbourne this summer (their winter).