Central Sydney

The CBD (central business district)

Central Sydney is the heart of the central business district - the CBD- originally the area within a mile or two of the old Central Post Office in Martin Place.

The Post Office in Central Sydney has been turned into a luxury office block and a first class hotel, but the old stone facade and stone pillars of the Victorian-era building have been preserved.

Martin Place is the heart of the Central Sydney banking district, and the 'Big Four' Australian banks - Westpac, ANZ Bank, National Bank and the Commonwealth Bank all have buildings there or nearby.

At the high (eastern) end of Martin Place is Macquarie Street, Central Sydney. It's famous for it's medical specialists, just like London's Harley Street and its top Australian legal firms. It's also where you'll find the NSW State Parliament, and State Library and the very old but distinguished Sydney Hospital.

The low (western) end of Martin Place is where it meets George Street and the War Memorial - a Central Sydney testament to Australia's part in British and US conflicts ever since the Boer War.

The center of Martin Place has an open air Ampitheatre where lunchtime concerts and other entertainment are occasionally performed, and enjoyed by Central Sydney office workers taking their lunch break.

The main Central Sydney streets (running north-south) are Sussex Street, Kent Street, Clarence Street, York Street, George Street, Pitt Street, Castlereagh Street and Elizabeth Street. They run between Circular Quay and The Rocks area at Sydney's north tip, to Central Railway Station near Chinatown at the south.

Pitt Street has been turned into a pedestrian mall area between King Street and Market Street in Central Sydney, so you cannot drive along it all the way. Both sides approaching the Pitt Street Mall are one-way streets heading for each other, but the mall itself has great shopping and lunchtime entertainment - buskers and musicians.

These sometimes include an Australian Aborigine playing a "Didge" (or Didgeridoo). Far from being stone-age, these Central Sydney buskers sometimes have their own sophisticated electronic music machines to accompany their Didjeridoo pipe. And some will sell you CDs of their recorded music.

The other place around Central Sydney to see buskers and street entertainers is near the Sydney Harbour Ferry piers at Circular Quay.