World City Guide

Shopping

The city’s flagship department stores are David Jones, 86-108 Castlereagh Street, gentlemen’s emporium Gowings, corner of Market Street and George Street, which dates back to 1868, and the down-to-earth Myer, 436 George Street.

Castlereagh Street is considered Sydney’s designer row, although this does not take account of prestige stores in Chifley Plaza, 2 Chifley Square, and the MLC Centre, 19-29 Martin Place. There are shopping malls galore and two splendid Victorian arcades: the Strand, 412-414 George Street, and the palatial Queen Victoria Building, 455 George Street, also known as QVB. Market City, Thomas Street, Haymarket, has factory outlets and traditional markets.

An impressive homegrown stable of fashion designers has established Sydney as a regional fashion capital, reaching both the Asian and the US markets. Among the most popular designers are Paris Fashion Week regular Collette Dinnigan, 33 William Street, Paddington, and Lisa Ho, 2a-6a Queen Street.

For gifts with a local flavour, the most exquisite gourmet foods can be found at Simon Johnson Quality Foods, 55 Queen Street, Woolahra, Aboriginal artefacts at Coo-ee Aboriginal Art, 31 Lamrock Avenue, Bondi Beach, and the trendiest of board gear at Surfection, shop 2021, 500 Oxford Street.

It is worth exploring the length of Oxford Street, just to experience the variety of shopping genres, from the camp end at Darlinghurst, past the small fashion stores of Paddington and on into Woollahra and the top-of-the-range antique shops in and around Queen Street. Further still into Bondi Junction leads to Westfield Bondi Junction, a quality shopping complex featuring international designer fashion stores, department stores and specialist stores for every conceivable need.

Darling Harbour, Chinatown and The Rocks historic district are teeming with souvenir and craft shops. The Rocks is also the place for shoppers to pick up gems from the major Australian opal fields. The Rocks Opal Mine, 13 Clocktower Square, and Flame Opals, 119 George Street, both have good selections of stones, as does the downtown Gemstone Boutique, 388 George Street. For pearls from the northwest coast of Australia, Paspaley Pearls, 142 King Street, has some world-class examples.

There are markets at Balmain, Bondi Beach and The Rocks but perhaps the one with the strongest local flavour is the Sydney Fish Market, open daily 0700-1600, in Pyrmont, offering over 100 species of the freshest seafood, sushi bars and fish cafés.

Shop opening hours are generally Monday-Saturday 0900-1800, with late-night shopping until 2100 on Thursday. Increasingly, shops are opening on Sunday. There is a 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is included on the price tags. There are several duty-free shops in the city centre, as well as at the airport. Shoppers must show their passport and onward ticket on collection of goods.