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Darling Harbour

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Darling Harbour is a locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia with a large recreational, pedestrian precinct. It is situated at 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.

The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour was a key meeting venue of APEC Australia 2007.

History

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. During the Great Depression, the eastern part of Darling Harbour became known as The Hungry Mile, a reference to the waterside workers searching for jobs along the wharves. By the mid-to-late 1980s it had become largely derelict and was redeveloped as a pedestrian and tourist precinct as an initiative of then New South Wales Minister for Public Works, Laurie Brereton.

Housing and infrastructure

East Darling Harbour is now part of a massive urban renewal development, adding more high rises and public space to the Sydney CBD. The state government of New South Wales, have announced plans for the 18-hectare site to be 50% business and residential development, while the other half be open public space. The government declared plans to include "Globe St" in the renewal project. "Globe St" is a street designed to become Australia's and Asia Pacific's new "Wall St," succeeding Martin Place (also in the Sydney CBD). It will be the centre for corporate trade. The urban renewal development is not expected to be completed until 2020. East Darling Harbour will have the same postcode as Sydney, 2000, and the area is now called "Barangaroo." The name "Barangaroo" was chosen from a state competition to name the site.It also has an Overseas Passenger Terminal (Wharf 8) which is mainly used by Pacific Dawn (ship) which is the P&O Australia fleet which was previsouly served by Pacific Sun (ship) which is now based in Brisbane. MS Sun Princess which is operaterd by Princess Cruises also uses this as a home port.

Attractions

The Darling Harbour precinct is home to a number of major public facilities and attractions, including:

* Harbourside Shopping Centre which includes Kingpin Bowling Alley, M9 Laser wars as well as Australia's first retail jet-Flight simulator.
* Sydney Entertainment Centre
* Paddy's Market
* Sydney's Chinese Gardens
* Tumbalong Park
* Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre
* Australian National Maritime Museum (featuring museum ships including HMAS Vampire)
* Star City Casino
* Powerhouse Museum
* Sydney Aquarium
* the IMAX theatre - the largest in the world
* Sydney Wildlife World
* Aboriginal Centre
* Sega World Sydney (closed in 2000)
* Network Ten Office (1996-present)
* Seven Network Office & Studios (2005-present)

The Darling Harbour precinct is linked to the CBD by the Sydney Monorail by several stations.

Appearances in TV and film

Darling Harbour is the location of the castmates house on MTV's reality TV show, The Real World: Sydney, which aired in late 2007. The house has a large "Darling Harbour" sign along its edge, and the World Tower high rise building can be seen behind it. The Seven Network's Sydney production studios are where interior shots for Home and Away are filmed, as well as other shows such as Larry Emdur & Laura Csortan's Wheel Of Fortune (Late 2005-2006). The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie, shot in Sydney, had some scenes filmed in Darling Harbor as well. Seven's Saturday morning TV Music Show "Eclipse Music TV" is filmed weekly at the precinct's shopping centre, Harbourside. (Credit: Wikipedia).

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