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Kangaroo Bakpak

665 South Dowling Street, Sydney, Australia, .

Description

Set in a beautifully restored Victorian style terrace Kangaroo Backpack is a relaxed and friendly place where travelers can enjoy all of the beauty that Sydney living has to offer.

Situated right in the heart of Surry Hills squeezed in between Central Station and Oxford St. It's an interesting multicultural area with plenty of cafes bars and restaurants to suit any budget.

It is a short walk to Oxford St and the city centre. Just 15 minutes on the bus from Coogee and Bondi Beach with great shopping facilities close by Kangaroo Backpack makes life easy for the weary traveler.

The Surry Hills area is an eclectic mix of world cultures. Some of Sydney's best cheap eats are within a stones throw. A pub or bar is available to suit every style and if you enjoy a good coffee there are a number of trendy cafes all within the local area.

Here is a short list of some of the other nearby attractions:

Crown Street pubs cafes and cheap eats
Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney football Stadium
Fox Studios
Fox Studios movie centre
Centennial Park
Moore Park
A number of small theatres and art galleries
Swimming pool
Gym

History of Surry Hills

The fashionable traveler who calls the chic district of Surry Hills home for a while should ponder that the area?s vibrant streets were not always Sydney's trendiest address. As Sydney's hip-set sips on café lattes and local wines in cafes, bars and restaurants that line the inner-city suburbs pavements, they are surrounded by a history of crime, sleaze, toil and hardship.

The area's seedy undercurrents of shame started in 1792 when Captain Joseph Foveaux- the paymaster of the corrupt New South Wales Corps- was suspiciously granted 100 acres of land in the shifting sandhills just south of the city centre. The ?Rum Corps?- as they were known for their illegal trade in liquor- were at the time presiding over a governor-less, anarchic Sydney.

By the 1840s, the Riley Estate had developed into an overcrowded slum, attracting the city?s new and desperate, being infected by the reaches of The Rocks? Bubonic Plague. In the late 1800s, the area was a haven for criminals, boasting 200 ?rough as guts? pubs- with the area near Campbell Street acquiring the name ?South Sydney Hell?- before being demolished and rebuilt. Wexford Street suffered a similar fate, with the Chinese community?s opium and gambling dens and brothels replaced by Commonwealth Street- a manufacturing hub that mercilessly underpaid its workers.

When the Depression hit in the 1930s and welfare queues grew, the Surry Hills Anti-Eviction Committee formed with the support of the communist Unemployed Workers Movement to keep themselves off the streets. But, ultimately, the working-class were gentrified from the suburb- first by immigrants seeking cheap, central housing in the fifties, then hippie students in the 60s, and by the time the trendophiles were mainstays in the eighties, the district was evolving into the bohemian and eclectic space it is today.