Pop. 300,000. Two hours up the coast by road from Sydney lies Australia's eighth largest city although its residents number less than 300,000! I was quite taken with the mixture of architecture including a good sample of fine art deco.

I like to draw parallels with other cities. Three cities (in my view) have something in common although they are very different: San Francisco, Lisbon and Newcastle. The steep streets of town and quaint terraced townhousing reminds me of a miniature version of San Francisco although it's only a third of its size and not quite so lively! It also has an element of a nice British seaside town by the coast itself.