Circular Quay

Circular Quay is Sydney's harbour-side front door, a semicircular cove where ferries, trains and foot traffic converge between the Opera House to the east and the Harbour Bridge to the west. This is where the First Fleet came ashore in 1788, and the modern quay — built over the mouth of the old Tank Stream — remains the working heart of the harbour.

The setting is pure Sydney. A broad waterfront promenade curves past ferry wharves numbered one to six, buskers, and the Writers Walk, a series of bronze plaques set into the pavement honouring Australian authors. Green-and-yellow ferries fan out from here to Manly, Watsons Bay, Taronga Zoo and the western suburbs, making the quay the cheapest way to sightsee across the water.

Overhead runs the Cahill Expressway and the elevated Circular Quay railway station, whose platforms offer a rare high vantage over the cove. On the western side sits the Rocks, Sydney's oldest quarter, climbing the slope in sandstone lanes; on the eastern side the Royal Botanic Garden opens toward Mrs Macquarie's Chair.

Practical notes: the concourse is fully step-free and doubles as a transport hub served by trains, light rail and buses. Mornings are calm and photogenic; evenings bring commuter bustle and, each winter, the Vivid Sydney light festival, when surrounding facades are washed in projections and the water reflects the show. Waterfront cafes and seafood kiosks line the walk, though prices reflect the prime position. Come early for the clearest views of both icons in a single frame. On New Year's Eve the surrounding foreshore becomes the city's grandest natural amphitheatre for the harbour fireworks, while a summer dawn brings joggers, fishers and the first ferries to an otherwise hushed quay.