1. Sydney lies at 33' 55' south - similar latitude to Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Casablanca and Beirut.

2. By air, Sydney is 17,174km from London, 16,025km from New York and 7,821km from Tokyo.

3. The Sydney metropolitan area's ocean coastline stretches for 60km and Sydney has more than 30 golden beaches stretching north and south - all within 20 minutes of the city centre.

4. The opening and closing scenes for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert were both filmed on the same day at the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville (www.theimperialhotel.com.au), a real drag hotel in this Sydney suburb.

5. Since 2006 Priscilla has become a major musical in Australia, first in Sydney and currently playing Melbourne’s Regent Theatre. Look out for world dominance soon.

6. Sydney was founded on 26 January 1788 when the 11 convict-bearing ships of the first fleet arrived from England to establish the colony of New South Wales.

7. This date (26 January 1788 - keep up!) is celebrated with Australia Day. In 1837 the event was first held only in Sydney as the other colonies originally frowned on the celebration.

8. Now the traditional celebrations take place throughout the whole country with favourite events being BBQ’s or going to the races. Large crowds also flock to Sydney harbour to watch the large flotilla of boats which traditionally goes out on the harbour.

9. The first Sydney Mardi Gras parade took place in 1978 and was organised by Sydney University. Many of the marchers were arrested, outed in the Sydney Morning Herald and lost their jobs as homosexuality was still illegal here until 1984. Sydney Mardi Gras is now one of the largest gay and lesbian parades in the world with over 500,000 people watching the parade.

10. The city was named after Thomas Townsend, the first Viscount Sydney, who was Secretary of State for the Colonies of Britain at the time of NSW's founding.

11. Convicts were transported to Sydney and New South Wales from 1788 up until 1840 and Sydney was first officially created a city in 1842.

12. In 1993 Sydney was named the host city for the 2000 Olympic Games. The postcode for Sydney is also 2000.

13. Sydney is now home to almost 3.9 million people, well over half of the state's (NSW) total population of 6.3 million.

14. More than 20 languages are in widespread daily use, but Sydney's major languages are English, Chinese (spoken 5.1 per cent of the population) and Arabic (3.8 per cent). Indigenous Australians make up just 0.6 per cent (16,242 people) of the city's population.

15. Sydney is one of the largest cities in its land size. It reaches across 1580 square kilometres. This is the same as London and more than double New York's 780 square kilometres. Amsterdam is 167 square kilometres and Paris is a mere 105 square kilometres. There are 1, 426, 266 dwellings in Sydney.

16. Sydney is without sunshine for only 23 days of the year.

17. The Sydney Harbour Bridge (affectionately dubbed 'The Coathanger') requires regular paint jobs as part of its maintenance. The surface area to be painted is equal to about the surface area of 60 sports fields.

18. In 1989 on the site of the Australian Hotel in Cumberland Street, three intriguing artefacts were found - not at all what you would expect from the remains of houses dating back to the 1820s. There was an Egyptian 'ushabti' figure made around 400BC, a topaz ring inset made in the first century BC, and a Roman coin dating to 123BC. It is unclear how these pieces were brought to Australia by the 1820s.

19. Approximately 4.5 million people visit the Sydney Opera House each year. This is about a quarter of Australia's total population and more than twice the number of yearly visitors to America's White House.

20. According to the Guinness World Records, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is the widest long-span bridge in the world and also the highest steel arch bridge, with the top of the bridge standing 134 metres (429.6 feet) above the harbour. 6,000,000 rivets used in the construction of the bridge.

21. The Sydney Opera House is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007.

22. Officially called Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour stretches from the headlands, 20km inland, to join the mouth of the Parramatta River. 

23. The best views of the city are available from the Sydney Tower, the Harbour Bridge, Mrs Macquarie's Point and from ferries on Sydney Harbour.

24. In 1932, Australia had 23,000 international visitors. Today this number of people can be accommodated in Central Sydney in one night alone.

25. Opera Australia is the third busiest opera company in the world. Based for seven months of each year at the Sydney Opera House, the company presents approximately 235 performances of some 18 operas annually.

26. It is a little known fact that Sydney is older than many other great world cities including San Francisco, Washington, Los Angeles, Singapore, Toronto and Johannesburg.

27. Sydney has had only one fatal shark attack since 1937.

28. In 1915, Sydney became the first place in the world to appoint female police officers.

29. Sydney Harbour covers an area of 55 square kilometres around a shoreline of 240 kilometres and has a volume of 503,786 megalitres.

30. Sydney is known for its amazing beaches and currently the most popular gay beach is North Bondi, particularly right infront of the North Bondi Surf Club, although gay groups can be found all over this beach!


Sydney Mardi Gras 2008: Brave New Worlds
Saturday 9 February-Saturday 1 March. Find out more at www.mardigras.org.au and check out our image gallery from the 2007 parade!

Find out all the latest gay travel information by ordering the brand new 2008 Spartacus International Gay Guide. Get it online and save some money to put towards the other Bruno Gmunder guides - Hotel and Restaurant Guide and Sauna Guide.