Sydney Info

Information for people new to NICTA, UNSW and Sydney.

Index: NICTA | UNSW | Sydney | Entertainment | Transport | Maps | Media | Housing | Insurance | Finance | Misc

NICTA

• External NICTA website
  • Scholarships or top-ups from NICTA for UNSW students
  • Events Calendar
• Internal NICTA website and its sitemap
  • People finder
  • restaurant recommendation system for Kensington
  • Events
  • NICTA Dialogue
  • Webmail
  • Publications approval
  • ESS - Employee Self Service
    Only works for limited OS/browser combinations.
  • Debit Card reconciliation
  • Admin, A to Z
  • CENTRIC project management system
  • performance management
  • proposing NICTA projects
  • IT help
  • change NICTA password
• Emergency? Call 000 or 56666 from within NICTA
• Novalease for salary sacrifice
• SMB for salary sacrifice
• A Braille alphabet

• CSE - School of Computer Science and Engineering and its academic staff,
• Computing support is a mess. There is a Getting help FAQ, and CSE Forums. Older stuff includes a FAQ on CSE computing facilities, system status, the Helpdesk, the Computer Support Group, including System Support, and the system status.
• Library, its catalogue, and search for subscribed on-line resources, including the ACM digital library, IEEExplore, and SpringerLink
• Research Office
• There is an Internet quota that is reset at the start of each session.
• UNSW, myUNSW, and an A to Z guide (not completely up-to-date) and official publications
• CSE Thesis DB
• The Grant Management Office has info on grants and funding schemes
• Teaching resources: assessment rules, CSE's teaching admin pages, including a FAQ and the teaching committee, Student Office info for staff, Bill Wilson's home page has lots of links to important things for teaching
• UNSW Academic calendar
• Maps of UNSW.
  CSE and NICTA are at the Kensington campus (the main campus). Many buildings are named by their grid reference: letters denote the row and numbers denote the column. CSE is in building K17, NICTA is in building L5. (NICTA was previously in the Electrical Engineering building.) Unfortunately, these maps don't seem to have the grid! L5 is lower left and K17 is lower right.
• There is a security shuttle bus that runs around the campus and Randwick between 6pm and 11:30pm. There is a stop near CSE between the Red Centre and the Mechanical Engineering building, and a stop near NICTA on Day Avenue. Call 9385 6000 or 1 800 626 003.
• Facilities at UNSW have an informative web site.
• Telephones
  • Dial 0 for an outside line.
  • Extensions in UNSW are the last five digits of the phone number.
  • International calls: 0011, then country code, etc
  • Security: 9385 6666
  • The emergency phone number in Australia for Fire, Police, Ambulance is 000. From UNSW, dial 0-000 (the first 0 to get an outside line). For text-based emergency calls (for the hearing or speech impaired) call 106. For GSM mobile phones, call 112 if 000 doesn't work. (This might work for CDMA mobile phones, varying by service provider.)
  • internal UNSW directory
  • Voicemail: 9385 8888
• Nearby restaurants for restrictive diets and a NICTA-only restaurant recommendation system
• Justices of the Peace (who certify documents, witness signatures, etc) at UNSW can be found from this list, which is dated and uptodate. You might also get some help from CONTACT at 9385 5880, or at floor 2, east wing of Quadrangle building, but they probably use the same list.
• Some health services are available on campus. See also the AtoZ description of the University Health Service. Nearby there is the Kingsford Family Medical Centre.
• OH&S
• The CSE Gallery. What we think of you.

• The City of Sydney and its visitors guide
• Accessibility information for greater Sydney and for the CBD
• Guides to Sydney
  • Sydney Online
  • ThingsToDo
  • CitySearch
  • Big City Life
  • Leisure and Tourism Link
  • ViewSydney
  • Lonely Planet
  • The Economist
  • SmartVisit card ... maybe worthwhile for a whirlwind tour of Sydney, but not for long term touristing
• Restaurant Guides
  • de Groots
  • Australian Gourmet Pages
  • Eatability
  • Mietta's
  • SydneyRestaurants.com
  • Tables Online
  • Sydney cafes
  • Restaurants.com
  • The Entertainment book has restaurant coupons
• Weather forecasts from the Weather Zone (with radar), ABC, BBC (5 days), SMH, Yahoo, Weather Channel (10-day), Bureau of Meteorology

• Tickets from Ticketmaster, Ticketek, and Bass
• Opera Australia
• Sydney Opera House
• Sydney Theatre Company, the Ensemble Theatre, and the Belvoir St Theatre
• Sydney Dance Company
• Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and the Sydney Youth Orchestra
• Movies: customized movie listings, movie info at IMDB, and the movie review query engine.
  A list of cinema chains: Greater Union, Hoyts, Reading, Village cinemas (not in Sydney), IMAX, Palace, Ritz, Moonlight,
  Eastern suburbs: Paddington, Leichhardt, Bondi Junction, Moore Park (Fox Studios): arthouse and standard, Randwick ($5 Tuesdays), Eastgardens, Newtown,
  Outdoor: Bondi, Centennial Park, and near Botanic Gardens,
  City: Haymarket, George St, Dendy Opera Quays, IMAX, Darling Harbour, NSW State Library, NSW Art Gallery, Broadway,
• Australian Museum, the Museum of Sydney, and the Powerhouse Museum
• State Library of NSW
• Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Gallery of NSW
• Sydney's Bus and Truck Museum and Tramway Museum
• Moore Park
• SCG
• Sydney Swans - AFL football
• Rugby, Union and League (go Rabbitohs!)
• Soccer (aka football): Sydney FC in the A-League
• Sydney Kings - NBL basketball
• Golf courses in Sydney and selected courses in NSW.
• Some BIG things and a list of even more big things,
• Shopping
  • city shops
  • list of shopping centres
  • Choice magazine, provides independent comparison and evaluation for many things (subscription required).

• Trip Planner for public transport (13 1500) and other information.
• Public transport. There is information on tickets, timetable and maps.
  • Buses
  • Ferries
  • Trains for Sydney and country NSW and interstate
  • Monorail
  • Sorry, no trams, but there is light rail.
• Some buses stop running before 8pm. A map of bus stops at UNSW. and another one from SydneyBuses. There is a more detailed bus guide for UNSW. There is a transportation guide for people new to UNSW. Maps for regions and terminuses.
• Taxis
  • Silver Service Taxis: 13 3100
  • Legion Cabs: 13 1451
  • Taxis Combined Services: 8332 8888 and 13 3300
  • St. George Cabs: 13 2177
  • Premier Cabs : 13 1017
  • Wheelchair Accessible Taxi Service: 8332 0200
• Driving
  • tollways and toll charges
  • Roads and Traffic Authority and their traffic reports
  • You need to get a NSW drivers licence within 3 months of taking up residence if you are new to NSW.
  • NRMA
  • Buying a car: drive.com.au, CarBroker, carguide.com.au, carsguide.news.com.au, carpoint.com.au, howsafeisyourcar.com.au, ...
    Ford, Holden, Honda, Mazda, Subaru, Toyota, etc.
• Zuji for flights, cars, hotel, ...
• Car rental
  I don't know much about these
  • car hire cost comparison
  • Bayswater car rental
  • Rent-a-Bomb car rental, close to airport
  • M2000 also near airport
  • Airport Rent A Car - a car hire company with a good website
  • ATM Car Rentals, 9319 3281, Botany Rd, near Green Square
  • The usual suspects (Australian sites): Avis, Thrifty, Budget, Europcar,
• Air Travel
  • American
  • Qantas
  • United and their Australian site
  • Virgin Blue
  • Jetstar
  • Flight Centre
  • Oz Flights Guide
  • Sydney Airport and their flight info
  • other airports

• whereis street directory
• Street directory from Ausway
• Google Maps
• Interactive map of central Sydney
• Map with find suburbs feature
• The most comprehensive and clearest paper directory is Sydway by Ausway.

• Google in Australia, Yahoo in A&NZ, Web Wombat
• Newspapers: The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian
• ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corp - and their streaming media, and SBS
• Commercial free-to-air TV: 7, 9, 10
• Cable TV: Foxtel and Optus
• Channel NSW (Channel 45) NSW government channel
• A TV guide, another, and another, and a list of radio stations
• Telephone:
  • Lookup: White Pages, Yellow Pages, Pink Pages, Sensis,
  • Information: Phonechoice, imobile,
  • wired: Primus, Optus, Telstra, ... ?
  • unwired (= mobile = cell phone): ? Vodaphone, 3, Orange, dodo,
  • VoIP: ?
  • Phone cards seem to have the best rates for international calls. See your local newsagents.
  • International call prefix: 0011, and 0018 for half-hour blocks
• Internet access: info on ISPs
• this page

• The UNSW housing service has listings, and also information about tenancy agreements, etc. The A to Z pages on housing and accomodation list some housing possibilities, including residential colleges.
• Flatmates
• Last-minute accommodation Wotif and Cheaper than Hotels
• A rent vs. buy calculator from the NYT - be sure to fix advanced settings.
• Information about buying a property.
• Property listings:
  • Domain
  • JustListed
  • Real Estate Australia
• Mortgage brokers, beware their motivations: Cannex seems to be well-considered and lists rates of most major banks (this list is soon out-of-date; access through their home page), as does another website. Some loan calculators. If your lender is covered, disputes up to $100,000 can be pursued with the Credit Ombudsman after you have tried resolving them with the lender.
• Incentives for first home owners (federal) and some support for stamp duty from NSW.
• RPData has suburb profiles and sells reports with more information for buyers. HomePriceGuide shows recent sales and also sells reports to buyers.
• NSW Dept of Lands online services
• Hints on house inspections, and tradesmen,
  Building inspectors: Home & Investment Property Services were thorough.
  Others: ArchiCentre, NSW PrePurchase, Diamond Inspections ??? , David Hall,
  Info on sub-floor ventilation, and more.
• Heritage Listing: Search for heritage listing. Care of heritage-listed housing. An inspection schedule.
• Utilities
  • Gas: AGL (13 1245)
  • Electricity: EnergyAustralia (13 1535)
  • Water: SydneyWater

• Universal Health Care - Medicare outline, more details
• Private Health Insurance Ombudsman and Admin Council
• Private Healthcare - the government's description
• Private health insurers: HCF (13 1439), NIB (13 1463), MBF (13 1137), Medibank Private (9349 8443)(East Gardens), Manchester Unity (13 1372)
• NICTA corporate health insurance is through MBF, but is not as comprehensive as other plans.

• CPA Australia
• Aust Taxation Office
• Banks on campus: ANZ, Commonwealth, UniCom Credit Union, and where they are. Other banks have branches in nearby (walking distance) Kingsford and/or Randwick.
• Banks: NAB, Commonwealth, ANZ, Westpac, St. George, UniCom, Citibank, ING Direct, etc
• RateCity provides comparisons of credit cards, loans, bank accounts
• UniSuper is the superannuation fund for UNSW and the default fund for NICTA. NICTA employees can choose a different fund.
• ASIC and their consumer website

• A similar guide by Felix Rauch Valenti
• Unit conversions for the metrically challenged
• The CIA World Factbook entry for Australia
• Legal information from Law4u and the NSW Legal Aid Commission. Legal help is available from legal centres such as the Kingsford Legal Centre, the Redfern Legal Centre and the Inner City Legal Centre.
• Australian Electoral Commission and the NSW one
• Government: federal, state, and local
• Australian Immigration Department and forms
• Trading Post
• Choice magazine, organ of the Australian Consumer Association, has comparison and evaluation information on all kinds of consumer products (subscription required).
• .au domain names
• Tourism guide for RTCSA 2006.

All information provided on a best-effort basis. Links are short-cuts, not recommendations.

National ICT Australia is funded by the Australian Government's Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts and the Australian Research Council through Backing Australia's Ability and the ICT Centre of Excellence program.