Authentic Aussie Items in Sydney

This city has become very expensive, and one doesn’t expect to find many bargains these days. But what my husband and I hoped to find during our visit last September were authentic Aussie items that are hard to find outside Australia. And, conveniently, we found a good many of them close to the hotel we had the good fortune to book in the Rocks.

The Rocks is the charming, restored historic district at the heart of Sydney, an upscale neighborhood where just about everything is within walking distance: historic sites, parks, hotels, cafes, restaurants . . . and shops.

Named for its prominent sandstone formations, the Rocks is Sydney’s oldest neighborhood. It lies on the waterfront in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with the magnificent Opera House in view across the harbor. We arrived at the Old Sydney Parkroyal Hotel about 6:30 a.m., bleary-eyed and exhausted after a 17-hour flight. But, determined to adjust to the staggering 18-hour time difference, we headed right out again for sightseeing--and some window shopping. (We try not to buy things we’ll have to lug around the entire trip. It’s better to wait until the last few days, or mail things back if necessary.)

After a shower and a “cuppa” tea in our room, our first stop was the Rocks Visitors Center, conveniently located across the street from our hotel. Here we picked up a walking tour map noting attractions and historic sites in the area, such as Sydney’s oldest building, the stone Cadmans cottage, built in 1816. I asked one of the guides to also mark some of the better shops in The Rocks on the map, and she was glad to oblige.

In such a tony area, we wondered if prices might be a bit higher than elsewhere, but a later stroll through downtown Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building, which houses more than 200 shops and cafes, proved The Rocks’ prices to be competitive.

Many of the best shops in the Rocks are located along George Street, but as we meandered through the area one of our most delightful diversions was on Playfair Street, a pedestrian mall where we found Bennelong Boomerangs. Paul Bryden, the enthusiastic owner and Australia’s boomerang champion for six of the last eight years, was happy to take a few minutes to explain the various types of boomerangs displayed in the shop.

Bryden’s boomerangs range from large aboriginal works of art made of solid mulga ($331 at the time of our visit, when the exchange rate was 80 cents to the Australian dollar). These are designed for display, not sport, but the smaller Swallow ($15 to $30), Bennlong’s his most popular model, is designed for relatively easy throwing. The Swallow is made from five layers of laminated hoop pine.

“Inferior models have only three layers,” he cautioned. We promised to remember that.

Back on George Street, we next dropped into the Crafts Centre, operated by the Crafts Council of New South Wales. The display room is filled with vivid colors, wild patterns and contemporary designs of locally produced crafts, not the simple basketry or needlepoint usually associated with arts and crafts but contemporary museum-quality pieces. There were brightly colored glass perfume bottles by renowned Australian glass designer Richard Clements ($75-$100) and whimsical ceramics--such as you might find in Dr. Seuss illustrations--by designer Jenny Orchard. My favorites were Orchard’s Z-shaped coffee mugs ($68). Also on display were sleek wood lacquer bowls and boxes, brilliant blue cobalt glasses, vases, platters and bowls ranging in price from $25 to $770.

Noticing the absence of aboriginal art, we asked the manager, Lucie Leibig, where we could find some. She directed us to the adjacent shop.

Sure enough, next door the Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery seemed filled with what we were looking for. Conveying a sense of history and mysticism found in aboriginal culture, the changing exhibits feature collectors items ($2,250 to $3,750) by known aboriginal artists. The exhibit we saw focused on wood sculpture and featured the works of Sabo Tipiloura, Paddy Fordham Wainburranga and Mayila Wunungmurra, among others. Since we are hardly experts in this area, we asked for some explanation of what we were seeing. This request was met with a skeptical look, and a one-page sheet on the exhibit that wasn’t much help.

In a small gift shop behind the gallery, however, we found less expensive, yet still authentic aboriginal items such as baskets, carved birds and animals, clothing and pillows. I was intrigued by a small ceramic turtle, and made a mental note to come back on our last day to get it. (Although we were also seeing other parts of Australia, we would return two weeks later to depart from Sydney.)

To compare prices and selection, we checked out Crocodile Rocks, another aboriginal art shop just a few blocks away, on Harrington Street. The store offers fewer collector-quality works, but the staff was more helpful and less haughty than at the Coo-ee Gallery.

Looking for the perfect rendition of “Waltzing Matilda,” we stopped in a George Street music store called Folkways, which sells Australian music on cassette tape and CD. Not only did the manager, David Higgins, steer us in the right direction, but he proceeded to play several versions for us. Two popular collections are “Up the Track Down Under,” featuring contemporary and traditional music of all kinds, and “Waltzing Maltilda: Songs of the Australian Bush,” which showcases ballads and folk tunes of the Outback.

“You know, it’s not supposed to be sung like a national anthem . . . It’s just a bush song about sheep stealing,” Higgins said.

He then played a selection from “Proud to Be Aborigine,” a recording by the Tgapukai Dance Theatre that is the shop’s biggest seller, both with locals and tourists. The Aboriginal group’s traditional music is atonal, similar in structure to American Indian music, but they also perform songs combining native instruments like the didgeridoo with modern electronic sounds.

Folkways carries a wide selection of aboriginal folk and other Australian music, and even has a section marked “Aboriginal Rock.”

For a comestible souvenir, we set out for the Australia Wine Center, tucked into a small space in the waterfront Campbell Storehouse, a converted warehouse featuring restaurants with outside seating areas. Here, the wines are racked up according to region, and the staff is happy to guide you to a Chardonnay from Hunter Valley (north of Sydney) or a South Australian Shiraz. We were buying three moderately priced bottles, but they were as happy to help us as they were a European visitor who was ordering by the case.

Later during our stay, a search for authentic Aussie clothing took us a long walk away from The Rocks and into the heart of modern Sydney. But the walk was worth the scene we found at R.M. Williams: Crocodile Dundee wanna-bes (mostly tourists) trying on traditional Australian bush gear, including a genuine Akubra hat ($103), moleskin trousers ($149; not made from the skin of moles, but from a heavy cotton fabric), kangaroo leather belts ($81), oilskin riding coats ($206), sheepskin coats ($864) and Bushman’s boots ($200-$384). We enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere, and picked up a bag of Australian Bush potpourri (eucalyptus leaves and other dried plants indigenous to Australia, $6) to take home and savor with the memories.

On another day, we returned to Eliza Blue’s, an inexpensive and informal cafe in the Circular Quay, one of the few modern buildings in the Rocks district. On our first day in Sydney we had taken a shopping and sightseeing break here and tried some Billy Tea, a traditional bush concoction served in a large metal kettle at your table. Mostly tourists order it in the cities, and we found it weak and disappointing, but Eliza Blue’s scones and biscuits (cookies) were good enough to prompt a return visit.

There are plenty of other places for a meal in The Rocks, and they range from such expensive places as Rockpool (Sydney’s trendiest nightspot) and Bilson’s (French food with a view of the Opera House) to the inexpensive Lord Nelson, one of Sydney’s oldest pubs.

Our hotel was unbeatable. The Old Sydney Parkroyal is large enough--174 rooms--to have all the amenities, but small enough that the friendly staff remembers your name. Upper floor rooms have views of the Opera House or the Sydney skyline. It’s also inexpensive, by Sydney’s standards. We paid $160 per night for a double by using a discounted voucher plan in which we paid for a full stay in advance. The vouchers are available through Southern Pacific Hotels, owner of a number of other hotels in Australia and New Zealand.

Not in the economy class, but in a spectacular setting directly across from the Opera House, is the Rocks’ new Park Hyatt Sydney. Doubles begin at $307. We limited ourselves to an elegant afternoon tea served in the harborside lounge.