The majority of the important Garden Island naval base is off-limits to the strolling public, but you can visit the tip by ferry. Here, there's a pleasant garden and lookout as well as a cafe and a naval museum. It's a well-arranged modern display with wartime paraphernalia, weapons, control consoles from a submarine, and a periscope which you can use to observe the harbour. There are also some rather unusual sailors' trophies and a gloriously out of place porcelain iris with butterfly.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Sydney attractions

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