Places to visit in New South Wales, Australia
34 places to visit in New South Wales, Australia, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Blue Mountains National Park, Cockatoo Island, Dorrigo National Park and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your New South Wales volume.
8 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 10 Famous places to visit · 16 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in New South Wales (8)
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Blue Mountains National Park
A huge sandstone plateau west of Sydney, cut into deep valleys and cliffs and covered in eucalyptus forest. Despite the name these are not really mountains, and the blue comes from the haze given off by the gum trees.
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Cockatoo Island
The largest island in Sydney Harbour, where the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers meet, used first as a convict prison and then as a shipyard. Its sandstone cells and dockyard sheds are a World Heritage site, reached by ferry, and you can camp there overnight.
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Dorrigo National Park
Rainforest on the escarpment off the Waterfall Way, a few kilometres east of the town of Dorrigo. Part of the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage area, it has a skywalk over the treetops and tracks down to waterfalls.
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Hyde Park Barracks
A brick compound on Macquarie Street built in 1817 to 1819 to house convict men and boys, designed by the convict architect Francis Greenway. It later served as an asylum and courts, and is now a museum of the convict era and part of a World Heritage listing.
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Lord Howe Island
A crescent of volcanic rock in the Tasman Sea, about 780 kilometres north-east of Sydney and only some 10 kilometres long. Its lagoon holds the world's most southerly coral reef, and the twin peaks of Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird rise from its southern end.
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Mungo National Park
A dry lake bed in the far south-west of New South Wales, part of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage area. Along its eroded dunes, the Walls of China, archaeologists found the remains of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man, among the oldest known people in Australia.
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Old Government House
The country residence of ten early governors of New South Wales between 1800 and 1847, set in Parramatta Park in western Sydney. It is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Australia and part of the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage listing.
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Sydney Opera House
A cluster of white tiled shells on Bennelong Point, designed by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon and opened in 1973. It is a working arts centre with several stages for opera, theatre and concerts, and it is counted among the great buildings of the 20th century.
Famous places to visit in New South Wales (10)
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Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sydney's leading public gallery, founded in 1872 and set in The Domain behind a classical sandstone front. A second, modern building opened beside it in 2022, and the collection spans Australian, Aboriginal, Asian and European art.
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Bondi Beach
A curve of golden sand and surf about 7 kilometres east of the city centre, and one of the most visited places in Australia. The clifftop coastal walk to Bronte and Coogee starts at its southern end, beside the ocean pool of the Bondi Icebergs.
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Mount Kosciuszko
The highest mountain on the Australian mainland, 2,228 metres, on the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains. The summit is a gentle rounded top, reached on foot by a walk from the chairlift at Thredbo, and it is named after the Polish hero Tadeusz Kościuszko.
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Queen Victoria Building
A Romanesque Revival market hall that fills a whole city block on George Street, built between 1893 and 1898 to designs by George McRae. Under its copper domes and stained glass it is now a shopping arcade, 190 metres long.
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St Mary's Cathedral
The seat of Sydney's Catholic archbishop, a Gothic Revival church in honey-coloured sandstone facing Hyde Park. It is a minor basilica dedicated to Our Lady, Help of Christians, patroness of Australia.
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Sydney Cricket Ground
A stadium in Moore Park that has hosted Test cricket since the 19th century and is home to the New South Wales cricket team and the Sydney Swans. Its old green-roofed members' and ladies' stands still sit among the modern ones.
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Sydney Harbour Bridge
A steel arch opened in 1932 that carries trains, cars, cyclists and walkers from the city to the North Shore. Sydneysiders call it the Coathanger, and you can walk across on its footpath or climb over the top of the arch for the view of the harbour.
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Sydney Tower
A slim mast topped by a golden turret, the tallest structure in Sydney and one of the tallest observation towers in the Southern Hemisphere. From the observation deck the view runs from the harbour to the Blue Mountains on a clear day.
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Taronga Zoo
A zoo on the slopes of Mosman above the harbour, reached by ferry from Circular Quay. Taronga is an Aboriginal word for beautiful view, and the giraffes really do graze with the city skyline behind them.
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Three Sisters
Three sandstone pillars on the escarpment above the Jamison Valley, the best known sight in the Blue Mountains. Their names are Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo, and they are seen best from Echo Point, where the forest below turns blue in the haze.
Hidden gems in New South Wales (16)
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Australian Museum
The oldest museum in Australia, founded in the 1820s as the Colonial Museum and housed in a sandstone building facing Hyde Park. Its natural history and First Nations collections run from dinosaurs and minerals to Pacific cultures.
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Australian National Maritime Museum
The national museum of the sea, under a wave-shaped roof designed by Philip Cox on the Darling Harbour waterfront. Moored outside are real vessels you can board, including a navy destroyer, a submarine and a replica of Cook's Endeavour.
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Cape Byron Lighthouse
A white lighthouse built between 1899 and 1901 on the headland at Cape Byron, the most easterly point of mainland Australia. The walking track up from the town passes beaches, and whales are often seen offshore in winter.
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Circular Quay
The ferry terminal and harbourside promenade on Sydney Cove, between the Opera House and The Rocks. Once the colony's shipping port, it is now where the city's ferries come and go, with the bridge on one side and the Opera House on the other.
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Darling Harbour
A harbour inlet on the western edge of the city centre, rebuilt for the bicentenary in 1988 as a pedestrian waterfront. Around its promenades sit the aquarium, the maritime museum, restaurants and the convention centre.
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Featherdale Wildlife Park
A wildlife park in Doonside, about 40 kilometres west of the city, given over entirely to Australian animals and birds. Koalas, kangaroos, wombats and reptiles are kept close, and it holds one of the largest collections of native fauna anywhere.
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Hyde Park
The oldest public parkland in Australia, 16 hectares on the eastern edge of the city centre. An avenue of fig trees runs between the Archibald Fountain at the north end and the Art Deco Anzac Memorial at the south.
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Jenolan Caves
Limestone caves west of the Blue Mountains, about 175 kilometres from Sydney, dated to around 340 million years old and the oldest known open cave system in the world. Guided tours lead through chambers of stalactites and pale crystal formations.
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Manly Beach
A long ocean beach on the Northern Beaches, running from Queenscliff through North Steyne to South Steyne. Most people arrive on the ferry from Circular Quay and walk up the Corso, a pedestrian street that crosses from the harbour side to the surf.
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Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
A gallery of contemporary art in the Art Deco former Maritime Services Board building on the western side of Circular Quay. A modern wing was added in 2012, and its rooftop looks straight across the quay to the Opera House.
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Nan Tien Temple
A Fo Guang Shan Buddhist temple complex on the southern outskirts of Wollongong, about 90 kilometres south of Sydney. Its halls, pagoda and gardens are open to visitors, and it is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the Southern Hemisphere.
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Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
Thirty hectares of lawns and plant collections around Farm Cove, between the Opera House and the city. Its paths lead out to Mrs Macquarie's Chair, a sandstone bench carved for a governor's wife, with the bridge and Opera House lined up across the water.
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Royal National Park
Coastal heath, rainforest and sandstone cliffs on Sydney's southern edge, declared in 1879 and often called the second oldest national park in the world. Walking tracks lead along the clifftops to beaches and rock pools.
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Scenic World
A family-owned attraction on the cliff edge at Katoomba with four ways into the Jamison Valley. The Scenic Railway is a very steep ride down an old mining incline, the Skyway crosses the gorge, and a 2.4 kilometre boardwalk winds through rainforest.
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Sea Life Sydney Aquarium
An aquarium on the eastern shore of Darling Harbour, opened in 1988, devoted to the creatures of Australia's own waters. It holds more than 700 species, and its glass tunnels take you under sharks, rays and a reef tank.
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The Rocks
The oldest part of Sydney, on the harbour's southern shore beside the bridge, where the colony began in 1788. Its sandstone lanes, old pubs and terraces now hold galleries and weekend market stalls.
Collecting in New South Wales
What are the best places to visit in New South Wales?
LOQAH lists 34 places in New South Wales. The best known include Blue Mountains National Park, Cockatoo Island, Dorrigo National Park, Hyde Park Barracks and Lord Howe Island. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in New South Wales?
34, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in New South Wales?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in New South Wales before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose New South Wales and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
More in Australia
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