A guide to world cities: Britain through the looking glass

Though we share a language and a head of state, don’t be fooled into thinking Australia is just a warmer, more friendly version of Old Blighty. While the world economy looks increasingly gloomy, in Sydney business gets done with characteristic cheeriness. Ros Weaver reports

Strolling around Sydney you may want to pinch yourself. Familiar British sights mix with the exotic in an unfamiliar climate to make you feel you have passed through the looking glass. Here you can find a very Victorian-style tea house in a city park where neat flower beds are filled with flowers of extra-terrestrial strangeness and cockatoos fly freely from one strange tree to another. And beyond the tea house there’s a beach.

You’re never far from a beach in Sydney. Having grown up around a huge coastal inlet off the wild Tasman sea, the city boasts an astonishing 149 miles of foreshore. It’s common for businesspeople to leave their desks in the early afternoon to go sailing from one of the many marinas around the bay. The sense of surreality is added to by the fact that people really do say things like ‘fair dinkum’ and ‘g’day mate!’.

The gloomy aspect of the world’s financial markets has done little to mar the characteristically cheery atmosphere on the streets of Sydney, partly because
the Australian economy is somewhat sheltered from the credit crunch by
high commodity prices and insatiable demand from China, and partly because
of the warm climate and easy-going lifestyle of Australia’s business capital. With good food and wine available round the clock at reasonable prices it’s not surprising that Britons top the list of foreign residents born outside Australia. Of
Sydney’s four-million residents, a third were born outside Australia, with 16.5
per cent from the UK. In addition to its complicated points-system immigration
policy, the Australian government offers incentives to ‘Business Skills migrants’ – successful foreign businesspeople who want to set up companies and are likely to contribute to the economy.

But doing business in Australia can be complicated by inconsistent and overlapping business regulations in areas such as occupational health and safety, building regulation and product safety, across the country’s six separate states and its federal government. Prime minister Kevin Rudd has already made cutting back the maze of business regulations and red tape one of his top policy priorities, but a report by the Business Council of Australia calls for reforms to be speeded up to harmonise regulations by 2010.

The central business district (CBD), also referred to as ‘the City’, is the main
commercial centre of Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, Australia. The financial services industry takes up much of the available office space. As well as being home to some of the largest Australian companies, and the Asia-Pacific headquarters for many large international ones, it is also a transport hub housing the central ferry terminal at Circular Quay and Central Railway station. Behind Circular Quay lie the oldest buildings in Sydney in an area known as The Rocks. The CBD has spread out from Sydney Cove, the first European settlement, and is bordered by parkland including Hyde Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens, where fruit bats hang from the trees.

A host of districts radiate from this central hub with its iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House and each has a distinct character. Darling Harbour, a
waterside leisure complex reinvented for the 1998 bicentenary; Chinatown, a
popular place to go for Yum Cha; Darlinghurst, one of Sydney’s trendiest districts with great restaurants, shopping facilities, bars and nightclubs; and Kings Cross, a popular tourist hangout where fashion boutiques, luxury hotels, youth hostels and late-night bars sit side by side. Woolloomooloo, surprisingly not named after a London location, is one of Sydney’s oldest districts and Paddington, with Oxford Street as its spine, is an attractive residential area, with treelined avenues, Victorian buildings and a Saturday market.

Further past Paddington — and the green expanse of Centennial Park — are
the eastern beaches of Bondi, where British backpackers rubs shoulders with models, surfers and daytrippers, and the more laid back Clovelly, Bronte
and Coogee. A breathtaking coastal walk connects the beaches and good cafes are waiting at either end.

Eating and drinking

The nation shares Britain’s predilection for drinking as a pastime, but you
won’t find a pint in sight - beer comes in schooners (425 ml) or a middy (285
ml). Sydney’s liquor laws are more relaxed in some senses, with plenty of
places to drink until all hours, but stricter in others - booze can only be
bought from “bottle shops” (off licences), not supermarkets, and
drinking on the street, or the beach, is frowned upon. To step away from the tourist hotels in the Rocks such as The Lord Nelson, The Australian or The Mercantile, head to the waterside suburb of Balmain or to the eastern suburbs of Paddington or Surry Hills. For wine culture try DeVine or the Bambini Wine Room in the CBD. A recent trend involves embarking on a ‘progressive dinner’, that’s one drink and a bite to eat at each of a progression of restaurant bars such as Bodega, Salon Blanc, Bentley or Aperitif. Michelin-starred restaurant Tetsuya’s, which ranks at number five in the world’s best restaurants (in the same league as Two Fat Ducks and El Bulli), offers a 10 course degustation for around $185 (£90), but it can be hard to get a booking.

It’s worth taking the ferry to Manly at the outer northern tip of the harbour, either to gulp down a few oysters or to have a full seafood dinner right on the beach at Manly Ocean Beach House. Australia has not succumbed to the same rash of coffee chains as high street Britain has and many great cafes can be found in the suburbs and the CBD. Try Seasalt next to the beach at Clovelly — bring your snorkel and mask for a dip afterwards and you’ll catch a glimpse of the majestic blue groper (a wrasse) and colourful schools of smaller fish. Barzura at Coogee with its spectacular views of the golden beach is another great seaside cafe. For a scene-setting cocktail, try Icebergs in Bondi, named after the all-weather swimmers who train in the ocean pool below, or the Blu Horizon Bar at the top of the Shangri-La Hotel in the Rocks, which has panoramic views of the harbour bridge, Opera House and the whole city. At Circular Quay, Customs House, the fifth-floor Cafe Sydney boasts an outdoor terrace with a fabulous harbour view. The food, a global mix of flavours known as modern Australian, matches the splendour of the location.

Sightseeing and entertainment

Obvious places to visit are the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The more adventurous can climb over the 134-metre-high arch, but the more cautious and money-conscious can climb the 200-odd steps of the pylon for similarly incredible harbour views. Darling Harbour’s Sydney Aquarium underwater glass tunnels, where you can walk among the sharks and sting rays, are worth a visit as is the nearby and perfectly ordered Chinese Garden. The Museum of Sydney has exhibits tracing Aboriginal and settler history. In summer, catch a test or one-day match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, or in winter, see the Sydney Swans play Aussie Rules there. For a day’s break from city life take a tour of the vineyards in the scenic Hunter Valley, less than two hours north of Sydney, or visit the spectacular Blue Mountains, where flocks of lorikeets and galahs swoop across the immense valleys. The city is over-run at New Year with spectacular firework displays over the harbour and in February/March when the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras takes over. In January, traditionally a quiet period when many of the city’s residents go on holidays, there’s the Sydney Festival with world-class performing and visual arts. The Sydney Theatre Company, whose artistic directors are Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton, is worth visiting at any time of the year.

Top tips

Currency: Australian banknotes are made of plastic polymer, which means you can take them swimming or even put them in the wash with impunity. £1 = AUD $2.12.
Time zone: Sydney is 10 hours ahead of GMT and located within Eastern Standard Time (EST), one of the three standard time zones in Australia. Climate: Summer temperatures average 26C, but many days are over 30C. Winter averages 17C.
Media: The Sydney Morning Herald is the city’s only broadsheet, but business travellers may find the national Australian Financial Review more useful. Australia’s version of the BBC, the ABC, is also worthwhile.
Getting around: Sydney’s famous green and gold ferries from Circular Quay are a fantastic way to get around. Both the Manly Ferry and the Parramatta Jetcat give you stunning views of Sydney Harbour. A DayTripper ticket ($16), available at ferry or rail ticket booths, is good value.

Hotels

Marriott Sydney Harbour (around £156) at Circular Quay has great views and is ideally situated for the CBD, buses and ferries, but doesn’t have wi-fi in rooms. For slightly shabby showbiz glamour in a quieter location, you can’t beat Stamford Plaza Double Bay (around £130), formerly the Ritz-Carlton hotel, where Michael Hutchence met his untimely end. These days one of the coolest addresses is the hotel Blue in Woolloomooloo (around £280). It’s a boutique hotel in a converted timber wool warehouse, on a harbour wharf, and Russell Crowe lives next door. The three-star Sullivans (around £65) in Oxford Street, Paddington, boasts a solar-heated pool. It’s very handy for the eastern suburb’s shopping, dining and night life.