OZtralia.tv Blog

Celebrating OZ Country Music

Here at OZtralia.tv, we are country fans. Sure, we like our Kelly Clarkson, Britney, and Beyonce’ but we are also (closet) country fans. 

In Sydney the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival just has kicked off. Last year Forbes rated the festival as number 8 of the “World’s Coolest Music Festivals.”  They say that last year over 50,000 people came to the festival. You can bet your boots that helps the economic situation of the area. 

Photos: D. Arnold/WireImage.com 

The Phantom Scares Again

By: Phoenix Arrien

I think it is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s best musical and one of the longest running musicals on Broadway. The Phantom of the Opera is playing in Sydney again and it is as good as ever.

The story about a disfigured musical genius who haunts the depths of the Paris Opera House is one of those productions you can see again and again. The Phantom loves a young singer whom he teaches to sing but when he realises she loves someone else, jealousy sets in and everything blows apart.

It’s an amazing production with wonderful stars and that chandelier. Best of all one of the greatest talents in Australia, Anthony Warlow, stars and makes this his own.

The City Of The Land Down Under

By: The OZtralia Producers

When we were just lads, we watched that movie with mice, “Rescuers Down Under.” Do you remember that flick? They pictured the Sydney Opera House and we sat there and knew Sydney had to be a cool place.Now that we are all grown up (in some respects) and saw Sydney for real, and yep… we were right, it is a cool place.

With Australia only having a total population of 20 million people, Sydney is Australia’s most populous city. In fact, recent estimates say that around 4.3 million people call Sydney home. It is said that Sydney is on of the most multicultural cities in the world.

What makes Sydney so famous? Its beautiful harbor which gives it the title “the Harbor City.” When you visit Sydney, spend a lot of time by the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge. Where is the best place to see Sydney’s Harbor by land? Well that would be at Mrs. Macquaries Point in Sydney’s Botanic Gardens. This is just east of the Sydney Opera House and gives you a breathtaking view of the harbor.

Australia’s history somewhat begins in Sydney also. The Rocks area is where the first convicts were dropped off. They say that The Rocks area is the “birthplace of Australia.”

Another famous place to visit in Sydney is Bondi Beach. We highly recommend this place (somehow Rescuers Down Under missed Bondi). When you go to Bondi don’t just be a beach bum, make sure to take a walk on the southern trails. They offer some great sights that a lot miss.

We also recommend Manly Beach which you can visit via ferry from Circular Quay. What is great about taking this ferry is you get a harbor cruise as well as you see in the above video.

If you are looking to get into some trouble, you can go to Kings Cross. We say that you should be a smart traveler and maybe avoid this area. Prostitution, drugs, and other naughty things go on here. With that said, the Sydney police have been working very hard to clean Kings Cross up.

If you are looking for no strings fun, and a little cleaner of a place to enjoy a night out on the town, check out Oxford Street. With that said, the trendy place to go out in is Darling Harbor. We stayed here while on our visit in Sydney and found it to be a central location to enjoy what the city had to offer.

To check out more videos on Sydney, click here.

Added Sydney Resources and Information

By: Phoenix Arrien

Sydney Tower…well…towers above Sydney. We rocket up in a lift to the top to find a circular observation deck offering 360 degree views of Sydney, the harbour and beyond.

Here you get a real sense of the city, the beautiful parts, the parks, the industrial sections and the grimy poorer areas. The waterways stretch and snake shiny blue tentacles everywhere and it appears such a vibrant, colourful city from up above.

Sydney is serviced by an effective system of public transport including trains, buses and a monorail, which is useful as most Australians shudder at the traffic congestion on the city’s streets. Shopping, dining, information and entertainment abounds, making Sydney a great starting point for your Australian holiday.

Check out:

Captain Cook Cruises www.captaincook.com.au/sydney

The Rocks Walking Tour www.rockswalkingtours.com.

Star City www.starcity.com.au

Taronga Zoo www.zoo.nsw.gov.au

Sydney Aquarium www.sydneyaquarium.com.au

Sydney Tower www.sydneyskytour.com.au/tower

More information on Sydney www.sydneyguide.net.au

A Visit To Australia’s Most Famous City

By: Phoenix Arrien

It’s the most visited city in Australia. A glowing, eclectic, fun and warm place with easy transport and family activities.

We are here and keen to have a look at the city’s famous waterways. Joining Captain Cook Cruises for a lunch tour seems the best way. One can only envy the lifestyle that harbour households enjoy by the sparkling Harbour (or it is sparkling when we sail). The spectacular views of water, hills, ocean and cityscapes from the hills surrounding the harbour attract some of the most expensive real-estate in the country and we can see why.

As we munch on fish and chicken, salads and pastas, thousands of yachts float by, testimony to an active outdoor lifestyle for the residents. The harbour is dominated by the Sydney Harbour Bridge, locally known as The Coathanger referring to its arched shape and passing under it, we can see little ant-like people puffing up the rim of the arch on a walk to the top of the bridge.

We decide to walk into history and the place for this is The Rocks, a preserved patch of Sydney that gives a glimpse into the ‘how it was’ ambience of early colonial living. We set off with an outfit called The Rocks Walking Tour, diving into forgotten alleyways and learning about secret escape routes that drunken convicts used to get out of the old hotels.

Churches and brothels jostled for the moralities of colonials (has anything changed?) and terraces of brick reveal the small hovels of the poor. It’s a fascinating look into historic Sydney without it being too strenuous or too long.

With kids in tow, it’s hard to get away from a city without visiting zoos and fun parks so we troop over to Taronga Zoo and find a teeming smorgasboard of talks and shows to give us a feel of the animals and the challenges of keeping them.

Not far away, Luna Park offers the usual rides and thrills that keep kids engaged for hours. I feel sick just looking at those heaving, spinning wheels where the blur of contorted faces amid a cacophony of screams and yells, makes me wonder just what evolution has in mind for the human species. However the kids, of course, adore the place.

A far more interesting and balanced establishment is the Sydney Aquarium. Here underwater creatures of all sorts are on display and it’s an amazing tour of the diversity of life in the sea.

Accommodation in Sydney varies. Everything from budget to sumptuous is on offer and we went middle of the range, staying at one of the apartments at Star City. Comfortable and centrally located. Yawn! I will sleep well tonight - see you tomorrow…

The Second Icon of Sydney

By: The OZtralia Producers

Before there was the world famous Sydney Opera House, there was they Sydney Harbor Bridge.

The Harbor Bridge’s construction was completed in 1932 and just just around twenty million dollars to build. Now the Harbor Bridge and Opera House together compliment one another to make Sydney’s Harbor a very exciting area to visit.

If you are keen, you can pay a dear bit of money to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge, or you start down by The Rocks area and walk across the bridge by foot - that is what we did. But be sure to visit the bridge at night to see the lights.

If you are lucky enough, visit Sydney for their New Year’s festivities. Fireworks are launched off the bridge with great fanfare.