Sandy and Tom: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

Sydney was discovered when Captain Cook sailed in in 1770 and claimed it for Britain. Nothing was done with it until Britain wanted a place to send their convicts. In January 28,1788 (they celebrate this every year as Australia Day) the First Fleet of eleven ships arrived carrying convicts, sea farers, and military. Our guide told us an interesting fact. She said people were getting interested in genealogy and were tracing their ancestors back to those ships. Some were not so happy when they traced their lineage to the convicts.

Sydney is a clean, modern, and a beautiful city. It has about four and a half million people and there is about 24 and half million people in all of Australia. There are a great number of Chinese people here that came over in 1860 to work in the Gold rush. They have a Costco here but not a Walmart!

The Aboriginal people, it has been determined, have been here for about 60,000 years. They practiced birth control and inter-breeding through tribal law. When the Europeans came they did not view them as people. They gave them alcohol to control them. The Aboriginal people have a gene that cannot take alcohol. Afterwards, they killed them and almost wiped them out. It was not until 1968 before they were recognized as people by law instead of flora and fauna. It seems now the Australians are trying to help them preserve their heritage and their art.

The Opera House is beautiful structure. We were lucky enough to get a tour through it. In 1955 there was a world-wide competition for design. A Danish architect, Jon Utzon, won. New South Wales, the State Sydney is in, had a budget of 10 million. The design was so radical but they did not have the plans on how to build the building. It was finally finished in 1973 for 102 million and it was dedicated by Queen Elizabeth. The cost overrun was paid by having a lottery. The wonderful cover over the Opera House is 1,056,000 off white and buff ceramic tiles made in Sweden. There are two separate halls, one for opera and ballet, and the other for all other venues. When we toured we got to see and hear the symphony practicing and in the other we saw the stage set for a production of the opera “Carman”.

We got to go to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. We saw such things as crocodiles, echidnas, pelicans, dingos, the Tasmanian devil was hiding, and Koalas. I got to pet a Koala. I looked at him and he looked at me and I fell in love.