Sydney Central

Distinguished and Famous people from Sydney Central

🎨 Brett Whiteley

Brett Whiteley found a working home in Surry Hills when he and Wendy bought a former T-shirt factory at 2 Raper Street in 1985. He converted it into a studio and gallery, moving in permanently in 1987 after their separation. His Birds exhibition in July 1988 was the only formal exhibition he held there. Following his death in 1992, the New South Wales Government acquired the property and key works; the studio opened to the public in 1995 under the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The former factory preserves a direct encounter with the spaces and materials of an artist's working life.

🎼 Dame Joan Sutherland

Dame Joan Sutherland's international singing career had an enduring central Sydney stage at the Opera House. She first performed there in 1974 and gave her operatic farewell on 2 October 1990 in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, conducted by her husband Richard Bonynge. The theatre later named in her honour makes that association part of the building itself. Recordings and film preserve a performance history that reached beyond those able to attend in person. For Sydney, her story joins the remarkable voice of a locally born singer with the venue that became a major home for Australian opera.

🎥 George Miller

George Miller's filmmaking career had a long working base in Potts Point's former Metro Theatre, originally the Minerva. For more than thirty years the building housed his production company, Kennedy Miller Mitchell, connecting an Art Deco entertainment landmark with internationally successful film production. By the time he offered the property for sale in 2019, the building's screen-industry history had become as significant as its earlier life as a theatre and cinema. The local connection is a production headquarters where creative and practical work took place, adding another chapter to a building already familiar with performers, premieres and audiences.