Sydney Opera House.
Sydney Opera House.
Interesting facts about the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House sits on Bennelong Point. Bennelong Point was named after Woollarawarre Bennelong, a senior Eora man at the time of the arrival of British colonisers in Australia in 1788.
The original cost estimate to build Sydney Opera House was $7 million. The final cost was $102 million and it was largely paid for by a State Lottery.
233 designs were submitted for the Opera House international design competition held in 1956. Jørn Utzon from Denmark was announced the winner, receiving ₤5000 for his design.
Construction was expected to take four years. It took 14 years. Work commenced in 1959 and involved 10,000 construction workers.
Paul Robeson was the first person to perform at Sydney Opera House. In 1960, he climbed the scaffolding and sang Ol' Man River to the construction workers as they ate lunch.
Sydney Opera House was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2007
There are more than 1 million roof tiles covering approximately 1.62 hectares sitting over the structure. They were made in Sweden. Original public domain image from Flickr