Art Gallery of New South Wales

The state gallery, on the edge of the Domain, in a nineteenth-century sandstone building with a second, much newer building beside it — Naala Badu, opened at the end of 2022 and stepping down the hillside into a converted wartime oil tank.

Between them they hold the Australian collection, a strong Asian collection, and the Yiribana Gallery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, which was moved into the new building and given the space it had never had.

What it costs

⭐ General entry is free to both buildings. Major temporary exhibitions are ticketed separately, and the Archibald Prize each winter is the one that queues.

When to go

Weekday mornings are quiet. ⚠️ Check the closing day and the late night before you cross the park — the two buildings have not always kept identical hours.

Getting there

A ten-minute walk east across the Domain from Hyde Park, or fifteen from Circular Quay through the Botanic Garden, which is the better approach.

If you only have an hour

Start in Yiribana in the new building, then the tank below it, then cross to the old building for the Australian rooms. An hour, and in that order it reads as an argument rather than a collection.

What people get wrong

⚠️ People do the old building and leave. The two are connected and the newer one holds the collection most visitors say afterwards they came for.