Fun Facts about Sydney

We have been in Sydney now for about one week, and let me tell you, it was way more hectic than we thought it would be. Between getting all the paper work done (I will do a separate blog post for those arriving on a WHV on what needs to be done before you start to work or travel), opening a bank account, getting Australian phone numbers, the RSA and finding a job, we had only little time to discover Sydney for now. So we though we would go on a free tour to find out a little bit more about sydney! Here are some fun facts that were told to us -- some are very interesting!

Let's start with the town hall:

The town hall was previously a graveyard. Bodies were lying there but after 30 years, when the bodies started to decay, people living next to it, started to complain about the smells. Sydney then decided to dig out all of the bodies and built their town hall on it! What a great idea ;) However, every time they work on the building, they find more remaining of bodies. The digger must have been pretty lazy.

The Queen Victoria Building:

Previously, the Queen Victoria Building was used as the local market location, however, it wasn't very successful. They then renovated it and turned it into a shopping mall but with some very special characteristics. Every hour, on the wing facing the queen victoria statue, the clock displays a video of the beheading of Charles I.

Even more interesting: on the second floor of this building, is a letter written by Queen Elisabeth II in 1986, which is still sealed. Indeed, she only gave Australia the right to open this letter in 2085! I really wonder what that letter will reveal!

Queen Victoria's dog:

Yes, they even made a sculpture for him (Islay) and they gave him the power of speech!

The white Ibis:

I was super astonished by this bird at first. They just walk in the street and no one reacts! Well apparently that's normal. In fact, people really aren't fans of these birds as they love to steal people's food straight from their hands. That's why they call them the bin chicken.

Convict town:

After its discovery and the british colonisation, the british decided to transport its convicts to Australia. They were in prison here, but they were also pretty free, as they were only surrounded by other convicts. They couldn't really do much to run away as they knew that if they tried to do so, they would probably die by a heat stroke, by being eaten by the beautiful ferocious animals of Australia or simply get lost.

They were also the first to construct buildings on the territory.

The 40 bird cages:

This is a permanent exhibition shown in the streets of Sydney. 40 bird cages representing the 40 bird species that have gone extinct.

There probably are a lot more fun facts and please let me know if you know about some! I love these.

Apart from that we are doing great! We are looking for a room right now as we only booked the hostel until this Sunday and we both have some trials for work! Let's see how that goes.

Love,

Jil