Darling Harbour

Writing this post might make me cry.

I know Darling Harbour is a total tourist trap.

But I ended up loving it.

We stayed at the Medina Grand Harbourside which was right next door to Sydney Wildlife World. We were extremely close to the Darling Harbour ferry station, the Lizard Lounge, and The Sydney Aquarium.

We weren't pleased with the current prices at Medina so we had to take our business elsewhere. It's probably better in the long run. We'll have a new experience in a new place. We won't be too far from Darling Harbor so I'm sure we'll go back there.

The tough decision I have to make is about buying memberships or not.

Last year, we bought memberships to Wildlife World and the aquarium. Since we were right next door, we went to them almost everyday. It usually wasn't for a long visit--twenty minutes to an hour. There was this great feeling of we're members. We can stop in at anytime!

Okay little psychological aside here: I sort of have a THING about memberships. I'm very attracted to them. I think it's because I moved around so much in my life. I rarely feel like I really belong anywhere. So, having a membership to a place (ie. zoo, museum, amusement park) makes me feel like I sort of belong. I know that's very pathetic.


For 2009 we're not going to be staying super close to Darling Harbor, so it will be harder to do a quick last minute visit. Also, we'll be in Sydney for a shorter time. I think last time we were there for three weeks. This time we'll be there for two weeks. And there's so much other stuff I want to see.

Okay. Never mind. I think I have the issue solved. I just looked at the Sydney Wildlife World Website and it doesn't even seem like they have a membership. I'm not sure if they simply don't post it on their website or if they got rid of it. I remember when we were there, one of the staff members said we were one of the first people to get a membership. It must have been pretty new.

Anyway, I'm thinking we'll skip the Sydney Wildlife World pass (sniff) and go for the aquarium pass. This will allow us to do the behind the scenes tours which we loved last year, and it also gives us discounts to Wildlife World and the Maritime museum. Oh! It also gets us into Oceanworld Manly. The cost of membership equals the cost of three visits to the aquarium so that's not bad. We need to go only three times to feel like we got our money's worth. I'm sure we'll go at least that much.

And here's something else! You get a discount to Questacon too!

Okay, now I'm all happy about this. Although I would still be MUCH happier if they would just include Wildlife World with the Aquarium membership--even if they have to increase the price a little bit. The damn buildings are connected! They share a kitchen! So, they should also share a membership thing.

I've rambled on enough about this. I meant to write about the history of Darling Harbour.

I guess I shall do that now.

I think most of us can guess who Darling Harbour was named for. I say this because most people reading my blog are actually Australian. But for my fellow Americans (or other nationalities) it's named after Governor Darling.

Lord Wiki says that during the Great Depression, the eastern section of Darling Harbour was called The Hungry Mile. This name refers to all the people on the wharves searching for work. It was pretty much just a working port after that--not a big attraction for tourists. Then in the 1980's, some people decided to turn the place into a tourist trap.

I'm trying to figure out which part of Darling Harbour is the east side. Is that where we stayed? Or is it the other side?

Google Map Time!

All right. If I'm reading the map right, the aquarium was on the east side. Lord Wiki says all this interesting stuff about the east. He says by 2020 this area will be the new "Wall Street". They're going to call the area Barangaroo. I can't help but be a bit shocked and weirded out by all of this. Sometimes, I have a hard time adjusting to change.

One of the seasons of MTV's The Real World was filmed in Darling Harbour. I missed that one, but one of my friends told me about it. She's all into the reality TV thing!

The official Darling Harbour website has some more history.

The first name given to the place by the white folks was Long Cove. I guess this is because it was a long cove. Since there was a lot of shell middens (Aboriginal version of food rubbish) the name Cockle Bay soon replaced Long Cove. In 1826 it became Darling Harbour. But it wasn't yet quite that darling.

In the 1970's, Darling Harbour was a place to avoid. Deserted, lonely, and not quite pretty.

The announcement that it was going to become exciting and wonderful occurred in 1984. It then reopened during Australia's Bicentennial in 1988.

I tried to find more information about Darling Harbour of 2020. I found this. I quickly skimmed through it--not sure it's something I want to carefully read. But if anyone is into that kind of thing, it's there for you to study.

I'm looking at the Powerhouse Museum website now. I'm sure we'll go back there. They're going to be having the Star Wars exhibit. It was here in Fort Worth last summer. It's pretty cool, although I'm sure it's much more exciting for people who are Star Wars fans.

Oh crap. I was going to go and end this so I could get ready for our playdate. But it turns out The Powerhouse museum has a fascinating history.

Lord Wiki says it all began in 1879. They were going to open the museum in The Royal Botanical Gardens. It was going to be placed in a building called The Garden Palace. There was a fire before the poor museum even opened. It seems a lot of stuff was destroyed. One of the few survivors was an elephant statue. It seems Lord Ganesha was looking out for that guy!

The curator rebuilt his collection and brought it to a tin shed in The Domain. Sadly, he had to share this shed with the Sydney Hospital Morgue. A museum where you can smell dead people. Wow. Gross and also ironic. Why? Because the original name of the museum was The Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum of New South Wales.

The museum was moved and named the Technological Museum.

Then it was moved again and became The Powerhouse Museum. I don't think you can smell dead people there. But if you're a medium, maybe you can SEE dead people. I don't think I'd want to be able to see dead people. But I think I'd much rather see dead people than smell them.

The Australian National Maritime Museum looks really awesome. They have a replica of the Endeavor. I hope it's still there in February. You can go in it and everything. If my bladder was full right now, I'd probably be in danger of peeing in my pants from all my excitement. Seriously.

What would our world be like if we

knew for sure there 

was life after death, and 

we could easily talk to our 

dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts