MLC Centre (25 Martin Place)
A stark white concrete tower that won Australia's height record — built on the rubble of three Victorian landmarks it demolished to get there.
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Harry Seidler's 1978 octagonal column held Australia's tallest-building title for nine years and won the 1983 Sir John Sulman Medal. It is one of the world's tallest reinforced concrete structures, and its rise came at the cost of the 19th-century Australia Hotel, the original Theatre Royal, and the Commercial Travellers Club — a trade-off Sydney's architecture debates have never quite settled.
What to look for
- Eight massive load-bearing corner columns that taper slightly as they climb the 67-storey facade
- The octagonal floorplan — easiest to read from across Martin Place where the geometry doesn't flatten into a slab
- The Theatre Royal in the podium, a 1,186-seat house that replaced the one demolished to build this very building
Located at 25 Martin Place in central Sydney; the podium level holds a shopping centre and the Theatre Royal entrance.
MLC Centre (25 Martin Place) is one of 23 sights worth the detour in Sydney, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Sydney pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Sydney
- Sydney Opera HouseJørn Utzon won the design competition in 1957, directed construction, then resigned before it ever opened — Queen Elizabeth II cut the ribbon on 20 October 1973.
- Sydney Harbour BridgeWalk the arch of the world's tallest steel bridge — nicknamed "the Coathanger" — with Sydney Harbour spread out below you and the arch top rising 134 m above the water.
- Accor StadiumBuilt in 1999 for A$690 million, this was the largest Olympic stadium ever constructed — originally squeezing in 115,000 people.
- Sydney Tower EyeAt 309 m above the CBD, this is the highest observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere by deck elevation — clearing Auckland's Sky Tower by nearly 30 m.
- Australian MuseumThe world's fifth oldest natural history museum has been in Sydney since 1827 — older than the colony could really afford it.
- Taronga ZooFive thousand animals on the Mosman shore — and the Sydney skyline watches from across the water.