Sydney

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge across Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular and pedestrian traffic between the Sydney... central business district and the North Shore. The dramatic view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is an iconic image of both Sydney and Australia. The bridge is locally nicknamed "The Coathanger" because of its arch-based design. The bridge was designed and built by Dorman Long and Co Ltd, Middlesbrough Teesside and Cleveland Bridge, Darlington, County Durham and opened in 1932. Until 1967 it was the city's tallest structure. According to Guinness World Records, it is the world's widest long-span bridge and it is the tallest steel arch bridge, measuring 134 metres from top to water level. It is also the fifth-longest spanning-arch bridge in the world. The southern bridge end is located at Millers Point in The Rocks area, and the northern end at Milsons Point in the lower North Shore area.
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[By Farhan Aussie Big Fan][Image:Darlin harbour siidney.jpg|thumb|390px|Darling Harbour from the Pyrmont Bridge]] Darling Harbour, a locality of... Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central business district. The locality extends northwards from Chinatown, along both sides of Cockle Bay to King Street Wharf on the east, and to the suburb of Pyrmont on the west. Cockle Bay is just one of the waterways that makes up Darling Harbour, which opens north into the much larger Port Jackson. The precinct and its immediate surroundings are administered independently of the local government area of the City of Sydney, by a New South Wales state government statutory authority, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority. Darling Harbour is named after Lieutenant-General Ralph Darling, who was Governor of New South Wales from 1825 to 1831. It was originally part of the commercial port of Sydney, including the Darling Harbour Railway Goods Yard.
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Bondi Beach is a popular beach and the name of the surrounding suburb in Sydney, Australia. Bondi Beach is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney... central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council, in the Eastern Suburbs. Bondi, North Bondi and Bondi Junction are neighbouring suburbs. "Bondi" or "Boondi" is an Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over rocks or noise of water breaking over rocks. The Australian Museum records that Bondi means place where a flight of nullas took place. In 1809, the road builder William Roberts received a grant of land in the area. In 1851, Edward Smith Hall and Francis O'Brien purchased 200 acres of the Bondi area that included most of the beach frontage, which was named the "The Bondi Estate." Hall was O'Brien's father-in-law. Between 1855 and 1877 O'Brien purchased his father-in-law's share of the land, renamed the land the "O'Brien Estate," and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O'Brien threatened to stop public beach access.
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Luna Park Sydney is an amusement park, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Luna Park is located at Milsons Point, on the northern shore of Sydney... Harbour. The park was constructed at the foot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during 1935, and ran for nine-month seasons until 1972, when it was opened year-round. Luna Park was closed in mid-1979, immediately following the Ghost Train fire, which killed six children and one adult. Most of the park was demolished, and a new amusement park was constructed; this originally operated under the name of Harbourside Amusement Park before resuming the Luna Park name. The park was closed again in 1988 as an independant engineering inspection determined that several rides needed urgent repair. The owners failed to repair and reopen the park before a New South Wales government deadline, and ownership was passed to a new body.
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Trent Sullivan is an Australian movie and television actor. He received his start in acting at four years of age when he played Rupert in the... comedy-drama film Me Myself I. At the time, he stated he was excited at the chance to "do a fake wee and eat a lot of Twisties". Sullivan currently performs in the Channel Ten and Nickelodeon UK programme H2O: Just Add Water, where he plays Elliot Gilbert, the younger brother of main character Emma. He has also appeared in The Sleepover Club, Jeopardy and The Condemned.
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Cyril Ritchard was an Australian stage, screen and television actor, and director. He is probably best remembered today for his campy performance as... Captain Hook in the Mary Martin musical production of Peter Pan. He was born Cyril Trimnell-Ritchard in Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, son of Sydney-born parents, Herbert Trimnell Ritchard, a Protestant grocer, and his wife Marguerite, a devout Roman Catholic who ensured her son was raised and educated as a Catholic. In consequence, he became an equally devout Roman Catholic who attended Sunday Mass wherever he happened to be. Early in his career, Ritchard played in numerous musical comedies, including Yes, Uncle! and Going Up, both in 1918 and both with Madge Elliott . He achieved star status in 1954 as Captain Hook in the Broadway production of Peter Pan co-starring Mary Martin, with whom he shared the same birthday . For his work in the show, Ritchard received a Tony Award.
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Elle Macpherson is an Australian model, actress, and businesswoman. She is perhaps best known for her record five cover appearances for the Sports... Illustrated Swimsuit Issue beginning in the 1980s. She is also known as the founder and primary model for a series of business ventures including Elle Macpherson Intimates, a lingerie line, and "The Body", a line of skin care products. According to Forbes, Macpherson possesses assets around 60 million pounds sterling. In 2010, she became the host and executive producer of Britain's Next Top Model. Macpherson was born in the Cronulla neighborhood of Sydney, Australia, and she was the daughter of Peter Gow, a former president of a Sydney rugby league team, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. Her mother Frances worked as a nurse before she married. Macpherson reportedly grew up in Killara, a North Shore suburb of Sydney, and she attended the Killara High School. Macpherson is the eldest of four children including the activist and sometimes model, Mimi Macpherson. Macpherson’s parents divorced when she was 10 years old, and she was moved away with her mother and two siblings.
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Kevin Bloody Wilson is a comedy singer/songwriter who uses a heavy Australian accent/style with great success. Without the aid of radio or TV... coverage , he has built up a widespread cult following. Bryant was born in Sydney, New South Wales, although he identifies himself with Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, where he was an electrician in the gold mines. In the 1970s Bryant fronted his own band called 'Bryan Dennis and the Country Club'. He also used the name 'Bryan Dennis' when he hosted a country music show on 6KG in Kalgoorlie from 1973 to 1980, before he was thrown off air for playing the parody song, "I'm Heaving On A Jet Plane". He moved to Perth and began playing bawdy songs as a hobby, singing at pubs and football clubs. In 1984 he put together a cassette of his songs called Your Average Australian Yobbo, which he sold at gigs and by mail order. He managed to sell 22,000 copies of the cassette before it was eventually transferred to LP, where it went on to sell many thousands more. He is notable as Perth's most famous comedian.
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Brendan Cowell is an Australian actor, screenwriter and director. Cowell was born in Cronulla, Sydney, New South Wales. He was stumbled upon acting... by accident while waiting for his sister to come out of a rehearsal, he was then cast in a commercial at age 8. He went to Charles Sturt University, in Bathurst, to complete Bachelor of Arts in Theatre/Media, originally considering journalism as a career option. Although he is generally known as an actor, he also has many off-screen credits to his name, such as writing and producing and has won the Patrick White Playwrights' Award for his drama Bed. His most famous role is playing the rather enigmatic Tom on Australian cable TV's Love My Way and playing Todd for the first 2 seasons on Life Support, on SBS TV. Brendan features in a fortnightly reality radio show called the THE ACTOR FACTOR on Triple J's Top Shelf drive show. His most recent acting credit is as "second flower buyer" in an advertisement for an upcoming Pay TV Personal Digital Recorder. It was filmed in the walkway behind the ABC studios in Ultimo, NSW.
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Tania Davis is the violist of the British/Australian classical crossover string quartet Bond. She was educated at SCEGGS Darlinghurst in Sydney... before acquiring a first-class Bachelor of Music honors degree from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and then moving on to gain a postgraduate diploma in performance with distinction from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Her experience includes playing with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony and the London Symphony Orchestra. Pieces which Davis has written include "Odyssey", and pieces that she has arranged include "Señorita". She has a son, named Lukas Davis.
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Geraldine Brooks is an Australian journalist and author whose 2005 novel, March, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. While still retaining her... Australian passport, she became an American citizen in 2002. She is not to be confused with the Emmy- and Tony Award-nominated actress Geraldine Brooks. A native of Sydney, Geraldine Brooks grew up in its inner-west suburb of Ashfield, where she attended the all-girls' Bethlehem College and the University of Sydney. Following graduation, she was a rookie reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and, after winning a Greg Shackleton Memorial Scholarship, moved to the United States, completing a Master's degree in journalism at New York City's Columbia University in 1983. The following year, in the Southern France artisan village of Tourrettes-sur-Loup, she married American journalist Tony Horwitz and converted to his religion, Judaism.
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Claudia Lee Black is an Australian actress, known for her portrayals of Aeryn Sun in the science fiction television series Farscape and Vala Mal... Doran in the science fiction series Stargate SG-1. Black was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. She was educated at the Kambala Girls School, in Sydney. Black has spent most of her life in Australia, New Zealand, and North America. Claudia has acted in Australian and New Zealand television and movies. She portrayed a hermaphrodite named Jill Mayhew in the Australian television series Good Guys Bad Guys. She also had a leading role in the New Zealand soap opera City Life playing the role of Greek lawyer Angela Kostapas. For her roles in Farscape, Black was nominated for a Saturn Award in the Best Actress category in both 2001 and 2002, and won the award in 2005. She has appeared in the feature films Queen of the Damned and Pitch Black. Black also appeared as Vala Mal Doran in Stargate SG-1 as a regular cast member in the tenth and final season, and previously had a role as a recurring character in season 8 and season 9. Her first appearance was in the episode "Prometheus Unbound".
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Tim Campbell is an Australian actor best known for playing the character of Dan Baker in the soap opera Home and Away. Campbell formerly starred in... the children's television show Snobs with Indiana Evans. He also appeared briefly in Water Rats as a police officer. Campbell is also the only Home and Away actor to make an appearance on the show's first podcast, Baycast. Campbell was a contestant in series six of Dancing with the Stars, which premiered on 20 February 2007. He made it to the semi-final on 24 April, maintaining impressive scores throughout the series. He left Home and Away on 5 October 2007 after filming his final scenes. He also hosted the Seven Network's National Bingo Night with former Girlband member Renee Bargh. In November 2007 he played Roger in the musical Rent and followed this with the lead role of Johnny O'Keefe in Shout, first in Melbourne and then in Sydney. In 2008, he cut ties with the Seven Network and transferred to the Nine Network to host a revived version of Wheel of Fortune titled Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune which premiered on 26 May. However on 27 June it was announced that the show was to be cancelled.
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Poppy Montgomery is an Australian actress. She is best known as Samantha Spade in the American television series Without a Trace. Montgomery was... born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, the daughter of Nicola , an executive and market researcher, and Phil Donahue, a restaurateur. Her parents named her and her sisters after flowers, and their brother after Jethro Tull. She attended the Ascham School in Edgecliff, New South Wales. Montgomery and boyfriend, actor Adam Kaufman, have a son together, Jackson Phillip Deveraux Montgomery Kaufman, born on December 23, 2007 in Los Angeles. Montgomery quit school to travel with her then-boyfriend, emigrating to the United States when she was 18. She came into prominence with her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in the 2001 CBS mini-series Blonde, based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates. Her big break came in 2002, when she was picked out of over 100 women for the role of Samantha Spade on Without A Trace.
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Ryan Kwanten is an Australian actor. He played Vinnie Patterson from 1997 to 2002 on the Australian soap-opera Home and Away. After his stint ended... he joined the teen-oriented drama Summerland portraying Jay Robertson. In 2008 he was cast as Jason Stackhouse in True Blood. Kwanten was born in Sydney, New South Wales of Flemish descent. Kwanten began acting on the television shows A Country Practice and Spellbinder. In 1997, he joined the cast of the Australian soap opera Home and Away, playing lifeguard Vinnie Patterson. He eventually chose to leave the series in 2002, shortly after his character married and became a father. Moving to the United States, Kwanten was cast as Jay Robertson in the Lori Loughlin-starring series Summerland, which ran from 2004 to 2005. He appeared in the films Flicka, with Maria Bello, Alison Lohman and Tim McGraw, and Dead Silence, a horror movie in which he played the leading role.
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Rodney Sturt Taylor is an Australian-born actor. Born in Lidcombe, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, Taylor was the only child of William Sturt Taylor,... a steel construction contractor and commercial artist, and the former Mona Thompson, a writer of plays and children's books. His middle name comes from his great-great grand uncle, Captain Charles Sturt, a famous British explorer of outback Australia in the 1800s. He attended Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College before deciding to become an actor upon seeing Laurence Olivier in an Old Vic touring production in Australia. After acquiring radio and stage experience in Australia , Taylor moved to the United States in 1954, where he became a leading man in feature films of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1955, Taylor guest-starred in the third episode entitled "The Argonauts" of the first hour-long western television series, Cheyenne, an ABC program starring Clint Walker. Taylor and Edward Andrews played gold seekers Clancy and Duncan, respectively, who are best of friends until they strike it rich, only to see Native Americans release their gold dust to the wind.
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