Port Jackson is the formal name for the great natural harbour at the heart of Sydney, the deep, branching inlet more widely known simply as Sydney Harbour. Carved by a drowned river valley and fed by the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers, it stretches inland from the Pacific between the sandstone cliffs of North and South Head and takes in the bays, coves and headlands that frame the modern city. The harbour was named by James Cook in 1770 as he sailed past, though he did not enter it; it was Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet who in 1788 found within it the sheltered cove that became the first European settlement in Australia. Its deep, protected waters were central to the colony's survival and to Sydney's growth into a major port city. Today Port Jackson is one of the most photographed waterways in the world, its shores carrying the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, naval dockyards, ferry wharves and a string of harbourside parks and beaches. Ferries crisscross it constantly, and its islands, including Fort Denison and Cockatoo Island, carry layers of colonial and wartime history. For visitors the harbour is less a single attraction than a setting for dozens of them, from cruises and sailing trips to coastal walks along its foreshore reserves. Swimming enclosures, kayaking spots and lookouts dot its edges, and its sheltered bays remain busy with pleasure craft, racing yachts and working vessels. Beyond the postcard views, Port Jackson supports a surprising range of marine life and is bordered by remnants of the bushland that once lined its entire shore. It is at once a working harbour, a recreational playground and the geographic reason Sydney exists where it does, which is why so many visits to the city revolve around its blue water. The traditional owners of the land and water around the harbour are the Gadigal and other clans of the Eora nation, whose middens, rock art and fishing grounds long predate the arrival of the First Fleet, and their connection to the foreshore is increasingly acknowledged in the naming and interpretation of harbour sites. For the visitor, the simplest pleasures are often the best, whether a ferry ride to Manly, a swim in a netted harbour pool or a walk out to a headland to watch the boats, and these cost little yet capture why the harbour remains the city's defining feature.

Type: Outdoors

Address: Sydney, Australia