Sydney Harbour, with its internationally recognised icons – the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House – is the ideal venue for a major maritime and naval event.

Sydney grew up by the harbour, with the maritime history of Sydney being as old as the city itself. Australia’s first European settlement began at Sydney Cove in 1788, with the arrival of over 700 convicts and 250 free settlers from Britain in the ships of the first fleet sent to establish a colony.

Today, Sydney is Australia’s largest city and one of the major business centres of the Asia Pacific region. With a wealth of maritime infrastructure, Sydney is a deep water port and boasts a flotilla of ferries, water taxis and hire craft, large ship berthing, central mooring facilities, an abundance of premier hotels and some of the world’s most beautiful waterways.

Its temperate climate, sandy beaches, scenic attractions and cosmopolitan facilities make Sydney a leading tourist destination and a favourite port of call for visiting naval vessels from around the world.

Sydney is the home of the Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet Headquarters and the Australian Defence Force’s Joint Operations Command Headquarters. The Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet Base East is just one kilometre from the Opera House along the southern shoreline of Sydney Harbour and adjacent to Australia’s largest dry dock and ship repair facility, the historic Garden Island dockyard. Sydney also hosts the Royal Australian Navy’s Heritage Centre and the Maritime Warfare Training Centre.

One of the nation’s major commercial shipping centres, Sydney is a principal destination for many passenger ships and cruise lines. Located midway between the industrial seaport cities of Newcastle and Wollongong, massive quantities of container, bulk, liquid and general freight pass through Sydney’s ports every year.

Sydney has a proud maritime history spanning more than two centuries and is the home of the Australian National Maritime Museum.

the location – one of the world’s great
harbour cities

the ideal venue
PACIFIC 2008 will be staged in the The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre on the shores of Sydney Harbour. The Centre is just 2 kilometres from the Harbour Bridge and 3 kilometres across town from the Royal Australian Navy’s facilities at Potts Point and Garden Island. It is adjacent to the Australian National Maritime Museum and close to Sydney’s overseas passenger shipping terminals.

The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, which is just a short walk from central Sydne y and easily accessible by car, monorail, ferry and water taxi, is part of Sydney’s Darling Harbour shopping and entertainment precinct.

A former dockside area, the small inlet has been transformed into a major tourist, convention and exhibition site. It embraces Sydney’s Star City Casino and some of Australia’s finest restaurants, hotels and shopping facilities, the Cockle Bay Wharf restaurant and café complex, IMAX Theatre, Sydney Aquarium and the Harbourside Shopping Centre (which boasts 150 shops, several waterfront restaurants and an International Food Court with 40 outlets).

Appropriate to the role of PACIFIC 2008 as a major international industry forum, the The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour provides world-class exhibition facilities in a spectacular harbour-side setting. Within close proximity to ship berths and moorings for participating vessels, it represents the ideal location.

Combining business with pleasure, PACIFIC 2008 will also offer a range of quality hospitality options and meeting facilities.

Sydney Harbour, with its natural beauty and abundance of facilities, provides the perfect venue for shipboard government and corporate hospitality. It also boasts a wealth of watercraft ideal for corporate entertainment or for ferrying guests to participants’ vessels which may be moored in the harbour.