Sydney Scavenger Hunt and Self-Guided Tour

The route: from Darling Harbour through the CBD to Circular Quay and the Harbour Bridge

10 stops · about 68 min walking · start: Darling Harbour · finish: Bridge Stairs

The hunt starts at Darling Harbour and heads into the centre past St Andrew's Cathedral School to the Town Hall and the Queen Victoria Building. You then walk to St Mary's Cathedral and Queens Square at the top of Macquarie Street, down to the Museum of Sydney and Customs House on Circular Quay, on to the Sydney Opera House, and finish at the Bridge Stairs in The Rocks below the Harbour Bridge. Sandstone façades, statues and plaques hold all the answers, so the game never sends you through a turnstile, and if Circular Quay is handier than Darling Harbour, the app will open the hunt at Customs House and line up the other stops from there.

Open the route map ↗

1. 

   1Darling HarbourStart

   Named after Governor Ralph Darling, this harbour west of the city centre was once lined with wharves, warehouses and railway goods yards. It was rebuilt as a waterfront promenade for Australia's bicentenary in 1988, and the Pyrmont Bridge of 1902 is one of the oldest electrically operated swing bridges in the world.

2. 

   2St Andrew's Cathedral School

   The school belongs to St Andrew's Cathedral, the Anglican cathedral beside the Town Hall, and was founded as its choir school in 1885. The sandstone cathedral, designed in the Gothic Revival style largely by Edmund Blacket and consecrated in 1868, is the oldest cathedral in Australia.

3. 

   3Sydney Town Hall

   Sydney Town Hall was built between 1868 and 1889 from local sandstone in a richly decorated Victorian style, with a clock tower rising above George Street. Its Centennial Hall houses a grand organ that was one of the largest pipe organs in the world when it was installed in 1890.

4. 

   4Queen Victoria Building

   This Romanesque Revival building, designed by George McRae and completed in 1898, fills a whole city block as a former market hall under a large central dome. Saved from demolition and restored in the 1980s, it has a statue of Queen Victoria outside and a wishing well with her dog Islay.

5. 

   5St Mary's Cathedral

   Sydney's Catholic cathedral was designed by William Wardell in the Gothic Revival style after a fire destroyed the earlier church in 1865. Built from local sandstone over many decades, it faces Hyde Park and only received its two southern spires in 2000.

   Read the full story →

6. 

   6Queens Square

   At the top of Macquarie Street, a statue of Queen Victoria stands between St James' Church and the Hyde Park Barracks, both designed by the convict architect Francis Greenway. The barracks, finished in 1819, housed convicts and are now part of the Australian Convict Sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

7. 

   7Museum of Sydney

   The museum, opened in 1995, stands on the site of the first Government House, built for Governor Arthur Phillip in 1788. Traces of the old foundations can be seen, and the forecourt sculpture Edge of the Trees recalls the first meeting of the Gadigal people and the British settlers.

8. 

   8Customs House

   This sandstone building faces Circular Quay on Sydney Cove, where the First Fleet landed in 1788. Its present form dates largely from colonial architect James Barnet in the 1880s, and today it houses a library with a large model of the city beneath a glass floor.

9. 

   9Sydney Opera House

   The Danish architect Jørn Utzon won the design competition in 1957, and the Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973. Its roof shells are covered with more than a million cream and white tiles, and it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007.

10. 

    10Bridge StairsFinish

    These stairs in The Rocks lead up to the footway of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the steel arch locals call the Coathanger. Built under chief engineer John Bradfield and opened in 1932, the bridge carries road, rail and pedestrians across the harbour, with views back to the Opera House.