Sydney

Museum

Australian Army Museum of NSW

The Australian Army Museum of NSW is housed within Victoria Barracks in Paddington, Sydney, presenting the history of the Australian Army in New South Wales through uniforms, weapons, medals and personal stories. Part of the Army Museums Network, the museum covers military operations from colonial times through both World Wars to modern peacekeeping missions.

Gallery

Australian Centre for Photography

The Australian Centre for Photography is the country's leading independent organisation dedicated to the art of photography, presenting exhibitions, artist talks, and education programs in Sydney.

Museum

Australian Museum

Australia's oldest museum, founded in 1827, houses world-class collections in natural history, anthropology, and Pacific cultures, with significant First Nations and fossil collections.

Cultural Centre

Bangarra Dance Theatre

Born in 1989 from NAISDA graduates and now led by Artistic Director Frances Rings, Bangarra brings together professional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dancers at Wharf 4/5 on Walsh Bay's Gadigal Country. The company draws on 65,000 years of culture to make new theatre — dance, music, poetry, design — then tours it from capital cities to regional towns and back to Country.

Cultural Centre

Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative

Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative is a nationally significant cultural centre in Sydney, NSW. The cultural centre explores themes of indigenous, contemporary art, multicultural. Core activities include exhibition, community, artist support. The venue serves as a community hub. Visitors can enjoy shop, accessible, family friendly, events. Notable for being long established. Nearby towns include Leichhardt, Marrickville, Stanmore.

Heritage Site

Cockatoo Island

A former convict gaol and shipyard sitting in the middle of Sydney Harbour, Cockatoo Island — Wareamah to the Wallumedegal, Wangal, Cammeraygal and Gadigal peoples — is reachable only by ferry. The UNESCO-listed convict site anchors the history; waterfront camping and heritage accommodation mean you can stay after the day-trippers leave. New Year's Eve here, with the harbour on all sides, is self-evidently something else.

Heritage Site

Hyde Park Barracks

Designed by convict architect Francis Greenway and built between 1817 and 1819, this UNESCO World Heritage-listed sandstone building on Macquarie Street housed 15,000 male convicts, then 40,000 immigrant women. The museum within uses 4,000-plus original artefacts and a location-aware audio soundscape to animate those lives — spare, specific, and harder to shake than most history you'll encounter in this city.

Heritage Site

Hyde Park Barracks Museum

Designed by convict architect Francis Greenway and completed in 1819, Hyde Park Barracks is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that housed thousands of convict men before becoming a female immigration depot.

Museum

Jervis Bay Maritime Museum & Gallery

One of the South Coast's largest museums and galleries, featuring an internationally significant maritime collection including historic vessels, navigational instruments, and naval memorabilia. Explore the frozen frontier through immersive exhibitions, discover the extraordinary Antarctic, and experience creative community programs throughout the year.

Museum

Justice and Police Museum

The former Water Police Court building now houses Sydney's most forensically compelling museum — one undergoing its first major transformation in over two decades. Criminal records, weapons, mugshots and the architecture of colonial justice make this a place where the city's uglier history refuses to stay locked up.

Heritage Site

Lindesay Heritage House Darling Point

Lindesay Heritage House Darling Point is a heritage-listed heritage site in Sydney, NSW. The heritage site explores themes of colonial history, architecture, social history. Core activities include conservation, exhibition. The venue is housed in a historic building. Visitors can enjoy guided tours. Nearby towns include Darling Point, Double Bay, Point Piper.

Gallery

Macquarie University Art Gallery

A university gallery with genuine reach: 3,900 works spanning painting, photography, ceramics, glass and video, with particular depth in Australian Modernism and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. Sidney Nolan, Grace Cossington-Smith, Fred Williams — the collection punches well above its campus setting. Six exhibitions a year keep the program moving.

Heritage Site

Millers Point Heritage Precinct

Millers Point Heritage Precinct is a  heritage site in Sydney, NSW that explores themes of colonial history, social history, architecture. Core activities include conservation, education, community. The venue is housed in a historic building. Visitors can enjoy tours, accessible, cafe, public transport. Notable for being long established. Nearby towns include Circular Quay, Barangaroo, The Rocks.

Gallery

Mosman Art Gallery

The Mosman Art Prize has run annually since 1947 — first judged by Lloyd Rees, first won by Margaret Olley — and the gallery that grew around it holds that history seriously. Free entry, a permanent collection tracing Streeton and Roberts through to contemporary work, and a program that reaches back 60,000 years to the Borogaigal and Cammeraigal peoples make this a suburb gallery that earns genuine attention.

Museum

Museum of Sydney

The museum sits directly above the archaeological remains of Australia's first Government House — you're standing on the colonial foundation, literally. Entry is free, the First Nations Hub offers a dedicated space for Indigenous stories and perspectives, and the shop stocks Robin Boyd and walking guides worth lingering over.

Heritage Site

Nutcote — May Gibbs Home and Museum

Nutcote is the beloved Sydney harbour home of May Gibbs — creator of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie — preserved as a museum that celebrates the life and work of Australia's most famous children's author and illustrator, with original furnishings, artworks and a beautiful garden overlooking Middle Harbour.

Botanical Garden

Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

Australia's oldest scientific institution, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney was established in 1816 and now comprises 30 hectares on Farm Cove with harbour views, giant Moreton Bay figs, and historic plant collections.

Gallery

S.H. Ervin Gallery

The S.H. Ervin Gallery at Observatory Hill presents an acclaimed program of historical Australian art exhibitions, with a particular focus on reclaiming the reputations of underrepresented Australian artists and presenting the colonial and Federation-era art that shaped Australia's visual identity.

Archive

State Library of New South Wales

Started as a subscription library in the 1820s for book-starved colonials, this Macquarie Street institution now holds over five million items across its sandstone Mitchell building and modern extension. The collections span Indigenous stories, Australian history and rare materials — all publicly accessible. The reading rooms alone justify the visit.

Museum

Sydney Living Museums — Museum of Sydney

Sydney Living Museums — Museum of Sydney is a nationally significant museum in Sydney, NSW. The museum explores themes of social history, colonial history, archaeology. Core activities include exhibition, education, research, community. The venue provides immersive experiences. Visitors can enjoy guided tours, cafe, shop, accessible, family friendly. Notable for being major collection and long established. Nearby towns include Sydney CBD, Circular Quay, The Rocks.