2016: It's a big year for Sydney anniversaries

With a handful of the city's biggest institutions and landmarks celebrating significant anniversaries, she says its a fantastic chance for locals to rediscover their magnificent city.

"I'm issuing a challenge to Sydneysiders to get out and about next year and take part in the celebration of these great attractions and institutions.

"Spend a day picnicking in the Botanic Gardens, observe the magnificent wildlife at Taronga Zoo or see the opera or a theatrical production and stay a night in some of the great accommodation our city has to offer – we've got so much on our own doorstep it's a travesty not to be part of it."

TARONGA ZOO

Millions of Sydneysiders have visited Taronga Zoo, but only a handful can match the daring entry method of John Dansie.

Dansie, 74, grew up in Mosman and the zoo was a playground in his back yard as a child.

"When we were kids, it would have been about 1947, we were little buggers," he said. "We used to climb up inside the stormwater pipes at the zoo. They were about 18 inches wide and we would crawl inside and come out in the bison's enclosure. We would make sure the animals were over the other side and then jump over the fence.

"You could buy a bag of broken biscuits and feed them to the animals. Now it's all diet controlled. We used to get on the back of the tortoise. You weren't allowed to but we did. Even until the 1960s there was an elephant ride with three seats on either side."

Thankfully, most people use more conventional methods to access the harbourside institution, which will celebrate its centenary in 2016.

It all began in 1916 when an unconvinced elephant was lowered on to an open-top barge and ferried across Sydney Harbour to the newly built Taronga Park. Sydney zoo had started life across the water at Billy Goat Swamp, now better known as Moore Park (see below). The idea for the move was to emulate Hamburg Zoo which had developed enclosures without having to place the exhibits behind bars.

An article in The Sydney Morning Herald reported the new zoo was: "Quite secure without locks and iron bars... a deep moat in front, hidden by a garden plot, will keep these beasts of the forests and jungle from doing anyone harm."

The public seemed safe enough but there were two incidents involving keepers. In 1988 keeper Victoria Scrivener was mauled to death by two Sumatran tigers as she tried to photograph their cubs. More recently in 2012 keeper Lucy Melo suffered severe injuries when two-year-old elephant Pathi Harn crushed her with his trunk.

Encounters between visiting young royal princes and gentle furry creatures ensure Taronga gets regular global media attention. Others big names to visit include Sir David Attenborough, Nelson Mandela and Alfred Hitchcock.

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS

The grandfather of all the institutions celebrating anniversaries in 2016 is the Royal Botanic Gardens which will notch up its bicentenary. Its history is as colourful as the tulips on Spring Walk with secret assignations, nudity, buried treasure and alleged arson.

It is the oldest botanic garden in the Southern Hemisphere and even predates The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew near London by 25 years.

In 1825 one visitor was Baron Hyacinthe de Bougainville, son of French Pacific navigator, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville after whom the vine is named. He was enjoying the company of a Mrs Harriott Ritchie, married daughter of John Blaxland, brother of Gregory Blaxland of Blue Mountains crossing fame. She agreed to a midnight rendezvous on his ship anchored off the Gardens. The Gardens' website notes: 'She has known him less than a month, but has already been in his company on 11 occasions.'

In 1833 Richard Cunningham was appointed Colonial Botanist and Superintendent but two years later he was clubbed to death on the Bogan River in western NSW during an expedition. Fast forward to 1848 and director Charles Moore introduced more regulations to keep out "all persons of reputed bad character… persons who are not cleanly and decently dressed".

The Domain in 1861 was grazed by cattle (to reduce cost of grass cutting) and native trees were dying off and had to be replaced. When some of the trees were removed there were complaints that "ladies driving past in carriages might see naked bathers". It was noted that there was immorality in the Domain and gas lights were needed.

The history is spiced further by conspiracy theories surrounding the loss of the magnificent Garden Palace in a blaze in 1882 and also of undiscovered buried bushranger treasure.

Flying foxes are a feature of the garden's history and in 1920 director Joseph Maiden called in the rifle club to dispatch them, a rather more radical solution than the playing of heavy metal music employed in 2012.

The highlight of 2016 will be the June opening of the Calyx horticultural display centre, described as "a cathedral of plants".

OPERA AUSTRALIA

Others lighting birthday candles include Opera Australia marking its 60th. Extra police were needed to control the big crowds when the Elizabethan Theatre Trust presented its first performance, The Marriage of Figaro, in Adelaide in July 1956. Average takings of £1000 per performance were needed to cover expenses. To celebrate the company in 2016 is presenting Sydney Opera House – The Opera, arguably the only opera about the building of an opera house. It has all the elements of high drama – architect Jorn Utzon walked out, the premier died, costs ballooned and the years marched on. With the audience outside on the Opera House Forecourt and the opera on the Monumental steps, the performance couldn't get much closer to home.

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM

The Maritime Museum marks its 25th. It was planned as part of the massive Darling Harbour and Pyrmont redevelopment. Prime Minister Bob Hawke opened it on November 29, 1991. US President George Bush, with Australia's new Prime Minister Paul Keating, dedicated the museum's US Gallery on January 1, 1992 and the Queen visited a month later. In November 2015 it opened the $12 million Action Stations experience giving visitors an insight into what life in the Royal Australian Navy is really like.

SYDNEY HARBOUR FEDERATION TRUST

The Trust may be a lesser known institution, but it celebrates its 15th year in 2016. It is the custodian of 10 historic gems, former defence and Commonwealth sites and is literally changing the face of Sydney. These magnificent and historic foreshore lands had been off-limits to the public for decades and were degraded, run-down and, in some cases, contaminated. These sites are not conventional parklands and are the legacy of obsolete defence, industrial and maritime activity. The challenge for the self-financing Harbour Trust was to open them to the public and preserve their history.

One of the best examples is the once contaminated shipyard Cockatoo Island, which opened to the public in 2007. In July 2010, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Listed site and is now the only Sydney Harbour island where people can stay overnight on a waterfront camp ground

MOORE PARK

Veteran Moore Park is marking 150 years since the first public zoo in New South Wales opened in its grounds in 1884. The extensive tram system serviced Moore Park, with one of the largest annual drawcards being the Royal Easter Show, held there for 115 years. By the end of the 19th century Moore Park was Sydney's most popular sporting and entertainment precinct. In the lead-up to the 150th anniversary, Centennial Parklands will hold a public consultation process to lay the foundation for its future to 2040.

BARANGAROO RESERVE

And finally, a first birthday is always special. Barangaroo Reserve opened to the public on August 22, 2015.

With its roots firmly in the Indigenous past it is the youngest institution which commemorates our ancient past in this anniversary year.