Sydney
The harbor city of New South Wales, and the port where Constellation drew her largest crowd of the cruise.
AustraliaThe Port
Sydney, capital of New South Wales, is built around one of the most beautiful harbors on earth — Sydney Harbour, spanned by the Harbour Bridge and watched over by the white sails of the Opera House. Garden Island, in the heart of the harbor, is the Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet Base East.
Garden Island has been a working naval dockyard since the age of sail, and the harbor has welcomed visiting fleets for more than a century. Few arrivals in the Navy match the sight of a warship standing in past the Heads and up the harbor beneath the bridge, the city rising on either side.
Allies in the Pacific
Australia and the United States are among the oldest of allies — comrades in every major conflict since the First World War, and bound by the ANZUS treaty since 1951. The two navies have trained and sailed together across the Pacific for generations, and a U.S. carrier in Sydney Harbour is an event the city turns out for.
Constellation drew the warmest welcome of the deployment in Sydney. On a bright April day in 1995, some 30,000 people lined up for hours to tour the carrier — to walk her flight deck and look down into her hangar bay beneath one of the most famous skylines on earth.
Ashore
For the crew, Sydney was the highlight of the cruise: a great harbor city of beaches and ferries, the Rocks and the Opera House, and the easy welcome of an ally that treats the U.S. Navy as family.
See Sydney in the cruise book →Questions & Answers
How many people visited USS Constellation in Sydney?
On a bright April day in 1995, some 30,000 people lined up for hours to tour Constellation in Sydney Harbour — the largest crowd the ship drew during the deployment.
Where do U.S. Navy ships berth in Sydney?
Sydney Harbour is home to the Royal Australian Navy's Fleet Base East at Garden Island, which frequently hosts visiting U.S. Navy ships.
Are the U.S. and Australia naval allies?
Yes. The United States and Australia are treaty allies under ANZUS (1951) and have fought together in every major conflict since World War I, with close cooperation between their navies across the Pacific.