Sydney’s Harley Davidson ride – Yvonne 02.11.23

Sydney’s Harley Davidson ride was organised for a bit of fun. Yvonne is a local who wanted to see the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. Our Harley rider picked her up from a prearranged place in the city.

St Mary’s Cathedral

Firstly, they rode through the city and past St Mary’s Cathedral which is very impressive, even when riding past. It’s a Gothic Revival architectural building which opened in 1928. It took from 1866 to 1928 to build and has a height of 75m.

Domain

Next, they rode through the city and past the Domain. The Domain is a heritage-listed 34-hectare (84-acre) area of open space located on the eastern fringe of the Sydney CBD.

Royal Botanical Gardens

Riding along Art Gallery Road is always interesting. Past the Royal Botanical Gardens to Mrs Macquarie’s Point. The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney’s history is no ordinary tale, despite the name, it wasn’t until 1959 that it became ‘Royal’.

They were officially recognised as a botanic garden in 1816, while only becoming ‘Royal’ in 1959 when Queen Elizabeth II visited. The site is one of the world’s oldest colonial botanic gardens and one of the most important botanical gardens in the Southern Hemisphere (only Rio de Janeiro is older). The area attracts around 4 million people a year.

Mrs Macquarie’s Point

Next is Mrs Macquarie’s Point. It has beautiful views looking west towards the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They ride past Mrs Macquarie’s Chair. Mrs Macquarie’s Chair is an exposed sandstone rock cut into the shape of a bench, on a peninsula in Sydney Harbour. It was hand carved by convicts in 1810, for Elizabeth Macquarie, the wife of Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of NSW.

Art Gallery of NSW

The Art Gallery of NSW is also along this road, it’s beautiful historic sandstone buildings were built between 1896 and 1909. The Art Gallery of New South Wales began without a collection and without a building on 24 April 1871 when a group of 30 art-loving citizens established a society to support artists and promote knowledge and enjoyment of art in the wider community. In 1874 they secured government support for their project and by 1880 they had their own dedicated building, the first of its kind in Australia.

Woolloomooloo, Harry’s and Garden Island

Not far is the inner eastern suburb of Woolloomoolloo has the famous Harry Cafe De Wheels. Harry’s Café de Wheels has been serving customers for over 80 years. They make delicious pies, hotdogs and more. Lots of interesting photos are on the walls, mostly of famous celebrities who have visited over the years. They rode past Garden Island and up the hill through Potts Point.

Kings Cross

Continuing on, they rode through the infamous Kings Cross, though it has calmed down a lot since it’s heyday – home of the famous and huge Coca Cola sign. Kings Cross is also home to nightclubs and ladies of the night though it is not nearly as raunchy as it was in the 1970s (apparently).

Eastern suburbs

They headed east through the posh suburbs of the eastern suburbs of Sydney, including the Bays: Rose Bay, Double Bay and Rushcutters Bay. Already, Sydney’s Harley Davidson ride has shown our passenger so much of the interesting areas in Sydney.

Centennial Park history

It was originally a swamp and then set aside as land for the water source for Sydney. Centennial Park was reconstructed as a public park and opened in 1888 at a size of 189 ha. Sir Henry Parkes’ vision was to create a ‘People’s Park’ in which the citizens of Sydney could ‘take in the air’ away from the Sydney town centre.

Bronte + Tamarama

Riding further east they arrived at Bronte. Bronte Beach sits on Nelson Bay, surrounded by Bronte Park. Bronte offers scenic cliff-top walking paths south to Coogee via the Waverley Cemetery and north to Tamarama and Bondi Beach.

Just north of Bronte is the suburb of Tamarama. It has a small ocean beach about 1 kilometre south of Bondi Beach and a couple of hundred metres north of Bronte Beach. It is an extremely narrow beach and deceptive for its size. Tamarama Beach is often referred to as Glamarama (or Glamourama), owing to the alleged abundance of glamorous people who sunbathe (often topless), on what must be one of the smallest strips of sand in the state (Wikipedia).

Bondi Beach

Next, they rode north and past the world famous Bondi Beach, the south side is closed for the moment, due to Sculptures by the Sea. This is the beach where Bondi Lifeguards of the Bondi Rescue TV series is filmed. When in Sydney it is one of the places you should visit. The beach is seriously nice (but not our favourite) and we usually stop near the lifeguard station, made famous by the TV series “Bondi Rescue”. Bondi Beach is one of the most visited tourist sites in Australia. Bondi Beach is recorded by the Australian Museum that Bondi means place where a fight using boondi sticks (nullas nullas or fighting sticks) took place.

They turned around and headed south. However, the hour was almost up so our rider dropped Yvonne back in Bronte. In conclusion, Sydney’s Harley Davidson ride was informative, memorable and fun. Check out the tour here!