DARLING HARBOUR

Description

Essentials about Darling Harbour in brief

Darling Harbour is one of the tourist highlights of Sydney, because the district has everything you want as a tourist: a beautiful location in the heart of Sydney right on the water, lots of great attractions and very good restaurants, bars and clubs. Located directly west of the city center and on both sides of Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour is one big recreational area with numerous hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, theaters, museums and entertainment centers, which is largely designated as a pedestrian zone.

The history of Darling Harbour

Darling Harbour was named after Ralph Darling, who was governor of the province of New South Wales from 1825 to 1831. Originally, Darling Harbour was part of Sydney’s commercial port with ship berths, numerous warehouses, loading facilities and factories. In the 1960s, the area around Darling Harbour began to deteriorate. Many harbor facilities and warehouses were no longer used and fell into disrepair. Because this emerging eyesore was located in the cityscape close to the city center and could be seen from the offices in the skyscrapers, there was a desire to redevelop and repurpose the harbor facilities.

In the early 1980s, the port facilities were demolished and work began on redesigning and redeveloping the neighborhood. The first sections were completed by the end of the 1980s. The completion of all facilities and buildings in the further construction phases took until the end of the 1990s.

The sights and attractions at Darling Harbour

Today, Darling Harbour enjoys great popularity among both locals and tourists as one of Sydney’s largest recreational and leisure districts. It is home to many of the city’s attractions, such as the Harbourside Shopping Centre, the Sydney Entertainment Centre, the Powerhouse Museum, the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Sydney Aquarium, the WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo, the Australian National Maritime Museum and the LG IMAX cinema, which has the largest screen in the world.