Swamp Travel Guide: Australia

[Keg]

Folks, I am flying to Australia for work next week.

I'll be in:

Brisbane for two days.
[Two weeks underway for this: http://www.cpf.navy.mil/news.aspx/010407" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;].
Darwin for a day and a half.
Sydney for four days.

I will have plenty of free time in all three cities. Is there anything I must do while I am out there? I am open to any and all suggestions. I will be meeting up with a buddy/co-worker in Darwin and Sydney, and with a bunch of people I don't know in Brisbane.

[A_B]

Read "In a Sunburned Country"! Not for tips, just because it's awesome.

[DaveInSeattle]

Skipping Melbourne?

Anyways, Sydney is awesome. Both Bondi and Manley beaches are great. The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel (http://www.lordnelsonbrewery.com/) is awesome.

[Keg]

AB, thanks for the book rec. I'm going to have a ton of down time so I will definitely check that out.

Dave, unfortunately Melbourne isn't a part of the exercise and I didn't think about it when making my personal travel plans. I think I dropped the ball here.

The hotel/brewery is booked full when I'll be in Sydney, so I can't stay there but I will definitely stop by for drinks.

Thanks, gents.

[travzilla]

It's been 9 years since I was there, but I really liked Brisbane. It's not really on the coast like the rest of the cities in Australia, so it felt different. The city straddles a river, and one side was really developed with a man-made beach and markets and fair and stuff, it was pretty neat. (eta: South Banks is apparently what it is called). Downtown seemed nice and compact and easily walkable.
The Rugby and AFL stadiums are nice, not sure if the leagues are in season or not.
Darwin had a lot of good bars/restaurants/coffee shops, but I don't remember much about the town. 2 really nice national parks in that area, not sure you'd have time though.

[Keg]

That's good to hear about Darwin. I was not as excited about that leg of the trip since I had never heard of the town until recently.

AFL will be in season but it seems like there will be no games while I am in either city. Seems like all the damn teams play in Melbourne.

Thanks, Trav.

[DaveInSeattle]

AFL will be in season but it seems like there will be no games while I am in either city. Seems like all the damn teams play in Melbourne.

Yep, they do. AFL (the national league) has 18 teams, and 9 of them (Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Hawthorn, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda, and Western) are based in Melbourne, with another (Geelong) just about 45 minutes down the road. All of the Melbourne teams play in either the Melbourne Cricket Ground or Etihad Stadium.

Has to do with how the sport originated. Aussie rules was huge in Victoria state, where as Rugby was much bigger in New South Wales (16 teams total in the Aussie Rugby league, and 10 of them are based in NSW).

The year I was there, the fact that the AFL champ was the Sydney Swans and the Rugby Championship was won by the Melbourne Storm was viewed as a goofy quirk.