Newtown History & Coffee Tour

This tour starts at 8.30am at Newtown train station next to the old red letterbox. We walk south along King st, discussing some history and enjoying the sights and smells of Sydney's longest restaurant & retail strip.

We will head through some back streets of this vibrant and bohemian suburbs, where we'll see modern street art and Victorian elegance side by side. We pass Mary Reiby's old home and the Enmore Theatre, Australia's oldest theatre.

We offer an urgent coffee stop before then continue via some of Newtown's iconic pubs and the old Camperdown cemetery, the third oldest in the country and home to many of the famous and infamous colonials, among others: Napoleon's harpist, Governor Bligh's chief officer and the Sir Thomas Mitchell, our first surveyor who mapped and named most of the colonial Australia. It contains many stories and tragic naval victims, such as the 121 Dunbar victims, also a wealthy lady who possibly inspired Charles Dickens' Miss Havisham and, significantly, the first indigenous burials in an Anglican cemetery. There is a beautiful example of a neo Gothic church at St Stephens, and one of the most iconic fig trees in the city. You will also hear the story of the tragedy which captured a nation and forced them to wall the cemetery in!

After this, another coffee stop at Newtown's Brewtown before checking out some of Newtown's most elegant Victorian homes, which fetch over $5-million!

We then pay a visit to Australia's oldest university, which dates back about 170 years and looks rather like Hogwarts! Hear stories of Newtown's rich history and witness the unique mix of academics and students, goths and other locals, who frequent this bustling hub.

Stay on afterwards at your own expense for lunch at Sydney's very own "Eat Street".

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