Bondi To The Opera House: The Trams That Linked Sydney

Sydney's tram system was once the world's largest, extending from Narabeen in the north to La Perouse in the south; from Bondi in the east to Ryde in the west. Isolated steam-operated lines served other outlying districts. Trams also ran in Newcastle. From the 1920s to the 1940s there were up to 1500 trams operating on 290 kilometres of line serving the city and more than 70 suburbs. Trams carried more than a million people every weekday. It was a mighty undertaking, but a few decades later it had all gone. Apart from some localities that retain 'junction' in their name, the occasional kerbside shelter and some oddly placed areas of inner suburban parkland, there are today very few reminders of the time when Sydney was a city of trams. With over 250 photos and informative text, 'Bondi to the Opera House' captures the colour and life of Sydney over the 80 years when trams were part and parcel of living in the city. It will fascinate those who can recall travelling by tram as well as others interested in seeing how Sydney has changed between the tram era and today.