Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House from Circular Quay (where the Sydney ferries go from).

It appears to float on the water but actually sits at the tip of Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour. For those vainly scouring international atlases, Sydney Harbour is also known as Port Jackson.

Our Opera House turned 35 on Sunday. Yep, the cool white pointy one on the Harbour. We love our Opera House as much as the tourists do.


House stats
(Bugger the stats, gimme the photos!)

* Planning started late 1940s

* Site chosen 1954

* Competition for design started 1955, got 233 from 32 countries

* 1957 Jørn Utzon's design announced as winner & Utzon arrives to supervise construction

* Old tram depot on site demolished 1958, construction begins March 1959

* 1961 spat erupts about who designed construction method for roof ribs, Utzon eventually buggers off home (Denmark) in 1966

* Opened by the Queen in 1973, a mere 13 years late

* Final bill $102 million, only $95 million over budget

* Made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007

* Used for all the usual purposes an opera house is used for: ballet, opera, musical theatre & sumo wrestling

* Roofs consist of 1,056,006 white and cream tiles, which have to be scrubbed every now and then by not as often as you'd think

* Held up by 588 concrete piers sunk up to 25 metres below sea level

* Power supply is equivalent to that needed for a town of 25,000 people and snakes about through 645 kilometres of electrical cable

* covers 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres) of land

* 183 metres (605 ft) long and about 120 metres (388 ft) wide at its widest point



The Coathanger & the House

The Coathanger and the Opera House. Seen from Garden Island in 2006.

The House, couple of Sydney ferries & the Toast-Rack


Sydney Opera House
Wiki Creative Commons, high res photo, click for bigger


Sydney Opera House
Wiki Creative Commons, high res photo, click for bigger


Sydney Opera House under construction 1968
Wiki Creative Commons, high res photo, click for bigger


Sydney Opera House
Wiki Creative Commons, high res photo, click for bigger


For your reading pleasure

Sydney Opera House at Wiki

Official website

Opera House paperweights etc

Construction photos

Photos and Art

La Opera de Sídney o Sydney Opera House (Espanol, fotos)

Mitts off our Opera House, writes Paul Keating (former Prime Minister

The House on Flickr (all angles & sides)

The House on Google's logo


Just because

Beverly Hills Sydney Australia

Beverly Hills. In suburban southern Sydney.


In unrelated news

Women office-workers prefer computer to men (Dr* Spike recommends straight guys wash more often)


Stuff up unstuffed

Michael's photos of Woy Woy & nearby are here not there. Only took me three goes to get it right!


Holiday

I'm snatching a holiday while it's snatchable. Back 3rd or 4th of November. Stick yer thingy in the slot for update email. (No bloody spam)


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* Doctorate found in cereal packet

8 comments:

Ron Bloomquist said...

You are definitely on a roll.

Good job!

Have a great vacation.

Anonymous said...

thank you for the update to mylink and have a good break see you when you get back

Anonymous said...

Magnificent photography as usual. As a Melburnian, I am honour-bound to point out that your Opera House is falling apart and is too cramped for proper opera.

It would look nice in Port Philip Bay, however.

Steve said...

enjoy your break Spike

Inexplicable DeVice said...

* sigh *

Now, instead of doing everything I was supposed to, I shall be reading all about the Opera House.

Damn you!

But have a great holiday.

Spike said...

Ron, thank yer.

Michael, after staring gormlessly for a scary amount of time, I worked out what mylink meant.

Kitchen hand, thank yer kindly.

It also looks like the interior of a 1976 Torana :_(

But you may not have it!

Steve, thank yer, I did.

Device dear

*laughs evilly*

*puts finger in corner of mouth*

Anonymous said...

yeah sorry about that my bloody space bar doesnt work properly and it gets stucks sometimes it should be 'my link'
I have updated my flickr with pics taken from Green Point reserve and Koolewong wharf

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