13 Incredible Sydney Opera House Facts

The Sydney Opera House is one of Australia’s most popular attractions. It is an iconic structure that represents the best and distinct 20th-century architecture. Aside from being a great Australian iconic image, the Sydney Opera House is also one of the best venues for worldwide performing arts. Here are some Sydney Opera House Facts that you may want to know.

1. Tourists from all over the world and from all ages love visiting and viewing the Sydney Opera House even if they are not really interested in the opera. The pure pleasure of enjoying the view it offers is one of the many amazing Sydney Opera House Facts.

2. The Opera Australia, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Theater Company proudly call the Sydney Opera House its home.

3. The Sydney Opera House is being managed by the Opera House Trust under the administration of the Ministry of Arts of New South Wales (NSW).

4. One of the most commonly known Sydney Opera House Facts is that it covers a land area of 18,000 sq/m. It stands at 183 meters high and the widest point is measured at 120 meters.

5. The 580 concrete docks/piers supporting the Opera House is sunk down to 25 meters below sea level.

6. The Opera House has one thousand rooms – five rehearsal studios, five theaters (Concert Hall, Opera Theater, Drama Theater, Playhouse and Studio Theater), four restaurants, six bars, two main halls, and several souvenir shops. It is being powered up by a power supply equivalent to similar supply for town with 25,000 residents.

7. The Concert Hall (one of the five theaters) is hone to the Sydney Opera House Grand Organ, the world’s biggest mechanical tracker action organ with more than 10 thousand pipes.

8. Probably one of the less commonly known Sydney Opera House Facts is its roof is made of imported tiles (a total of 1,056,000 glazed/glossy granite tiles) from Sweden.

9. Some of the parts of the interior though were locally yielded like the pink granite from Tarana in New South Wales, and the brush box and white birch plywood from Northern New South Wales.

10. The site holding the Sydney Opera House used to be the site for the Bennelong Point Tram Depot, which was knocked down in 1958. A year later, the construction of the Opera House began.

11. It took three stages to build the Sydney Opera House. First stage was done from 1959 to 1963 and it was focused on the construction of the upper podium. Second stage was done from 1963 to 1967 and the outer shells were built. Last stage was done from 1967 to 1973 and it was focused on the design and building of the interior part.

12. Total amount of the Sydney Opera House construction reached to $AUS 102 million (from the original estimate of $AUS 7 million).

13. The Sydney Opera House was finally opened on October 20 of 1973, with no less than Queen Elizabeth heading the ceremony.