Sydney, a city arranged around a drowned river valley

Twenty thousand years ago, at the height of the last ice age, the sea level was far lower than it is now, and the coast of eastern Australia lay well to the east of its present line. A river, the ancestor of today's Parramatta River, flowed through a deep, winding sandstone valley to reach it. As the ice melted and the seas rose, the ocean flooded into the valley, drowning its lower reaches and turning its side valleys into a maze of bays, inlets and coves between steep, wooded sandstone headlands. Geographers call such a feature a ria, or drowned river valley. Its official name is Port Jackson. Everyone else calls it Sydney Harbour.

The harbour and its first people

For many thousands of years before Europeans arrived, the shores of the harbour were home to the Gadigal and other clans of the Eora, who fished its waters, gathered shellfish on its rocks and left their engravings on its sandstone. In January 1788, the First Fleet from Britain, carrying convicts, marines and officials to found a penal colony, sailed into the harbour and landed at a small cove on its southern shore. Its commander, Arthur Phillip, described it as one of the finest harbours in the world. The colony that grew from that landing became the city of Sydney, and the arrival of the fleet is marked each year on 26 January, a date that for many Aboriginal Australians is a day of mourning rather than celebration.

The bridge and the Opera House

Two structures define the harbour today. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, opened in 1932, is a vast steel arch linking the city centre to the north shore, known affectionately as the coathanger. It is possible to walk across it, and, on guided climbs, to climb over its arch. The Sydney Opera House, on the headland of Bennelong Point, was designed by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon and opened in 1973 after years of delays, arguments and spiralling costs, during which Utzon himself resigned and left Australia, never to return. Its white shells, rising above the water like sails, are now one of the most famous buildings in the world and a World Heritage Site.

Seeing it from the water

The best way to understand the harbour, and Sydney, is from one of the ferries that criss-cross it. They leave Circular Quay, beside the Opera House and below the old convict-era district of The Rocks. The ride to Manly, at the harbour mouth, passes the Opera House, the bridge behind and the bays and headlands of the inner harbour. Manly lies within sight of the Heads, the cliffs at the harbour entrance, with the open Pacific beyond. Smaller ferries run to Watsons Bay, Taronga Zoo, Cockatoo Island and up the Parramatta River.

On land, the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee follows the sandstone cliffs past beaches and ocean pools. The Royal Botanic Garden curves around Farm Cove beside the Opera House, with views across the water, and there are harbour beaches at Balmoral, Nielsen Park and elsewhere. Sydney's best season for walking and the beaches is spring to autumn, though its mild winters are pleasant for sightseeing.

The Rocks, the old district beside Circular Quay, is where the colony began, and it keeps more of early Sydney than anywhere else. Its narrow lanes and sandstone warehouses, built by convicts and their descendants, were once a notorious waterfront slum. They were nearly demolished in the 1970s, before a campaign by residents and trade unions saved them. Today they hold pubs, markets and small museums, and they give a sense of the rough little port the city once was.

Starting a trip in Sydney

Sydney is where most first trips to Australia begin or end. Just You's Australian Highlights, twenty-two nights for solo travellers, includes Sydney and the coast to the north: Port Stephens, known for its dolphins and sand dunes, Port Macquarie, Brisbane and Byron Bay. Its other places include Cairns, Uluru and Alice Springs, Adelaide, the Barossa Valley, Hahndorf and Warrnambool.

Travelsphere's Highlights of Australia, twenty-one nights, includes Sydney with Melbourne, Uluru, Alice Springs, Darwin, Kakadu, Katherine, Cairns and Brisbane. Travelsphere's The Wonders of Australia, twenty-nine nights, adds Perth, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and Warrnambool.

Give Sydney at least three days. Spend one of them on the water, one on the coastal walks and one at the Opera House, preferably for a performance. The harbour will do the rest.