From rooftops to rivers: Why Parramatta's buzzing with new appeal

Visit Nick & Nora's at Skye Suites Parramatta at sunset and you will see the City of Parramatta laid out before you, bathed in a coppery light. No amount of megapixels can do the hues justice. It's like someone has set fire to the sky. There's perhaps no better place to get a perspective on all that is happening in Parramatta than at this glamorous rooftop bar on level 26 of the vertical village.

While travellers visiting Sydney might have once overlooked the city's second CBD, there is now, more than ever, plenty to explore here. Originally settled as an outlying farm colony of Sydney dubbed Rose Hill, the area - located in today's Greater Western Sydney - was in 1791 renamed Parramatta, an Aboriginal word from the Dharug clan meaning "place of many eels". To this day, that river - where the people of the Dharug nation lived and hunted for thousands of years - remains a focal point.

On weekends, when the sun is glinting off the water, a trip to the river is an essential stop for local residents who flock here to press pause, exercise, socialise and reflect. Today, there are a few keen fishermen by the water's edge. Elderly women doing tai-chi. Families sprawled on picnic rugs. And children pinballing around the playgrounds.

A vibrant scene also awaits at Parramatta's Riverside Theatres, where films from the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival are screened each year. Well-dressed Francophiles make an entrance even for a matinee screening at this year's festival of The President's Wife, which stars Catherine Deneuve and is received with much laughter and applause. It's one of many world-class festivals wowing audiences in Sydney's west.

Although the $188 million re-imagination of the Riverside Theatres is not set to be completed until 2028, the arts facility still has a rich program of works slated for the rest of 2024 and into 2025. Sydney Writers' Festival also brings its program out west each year and Indigenous performers descend for Warami, an annual celebration of First Nations culture.

Parramatta's built history is also worth exploring and on display everywhere, from the National Heritage-listed Parramatta Female Factory to Hambledon Cottage Museum and Old Government House - Australia's oldest surviving public building. While the focus for Parramatta is on its fast-growing geographic centre, Old Government House preserves its colonial past. Downstairs, the house has been re-created to transport visitors back to the 1820s, when Lachlan Macquarie and his family and the convicts who served them lived and worked here. Upstairs is all about art, with a major exhibition held annually. Next year, Fashionable Silhouettes will showcase fashion from the 1740s to the 1960s, and will run from March to November.

The new award-winning library, community, cultural and civic building, PHIVE - an amalgam of Parramatta and hive - is also a must-visit when it comes to telling the city's story. On a free guided tour you can admire PHIVE's state-of-the-art sustainable design. Pop inside the two-storey building, which extends over the original Town Hall, to pick up a piccolo from the Scandi-chic cafe on the ground floor before musing over artworks such as Ripple Effect by Pakistani-Australian artist Abdullah MI Syed, said to be a visual statement about Parramatta's transformation.

Read more on Explore:

PHIVE visitors can also join a weaving workshop with Ngiyampaa and Guringai artist Tarni Eastwood or get their culture fix on a free, two-hour walking tour. It starts in the pedestrianised Parramatta Square Precinct with a look at the Place of the Eels by Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, a large-scale sculpture that nods to the area's Indigenous history. It also loops in buildings splashed with street art, all within a short walk of PHIVE.

While first-time visitors to Parramatta should factor in a tour of its architecture and history, it's worth scratching deeper to find under-the-radar spots. The fact many of the city's financial institutions and the national broadcaster, the ABC, have moved into gleaming new buildings here is indicative of the new dynamism unfolding in Parramatta.

You'll find plenty of plum places to linger over lunch and dinner. After raising a glass at Nick & Nora's, you can move on to elegant eateries such as Misc Parramatta in Parramatta Park. The restaurant skews Middle Eastern and reflects the area's multiculturalism with signature share plates such as cumin-rubbed lamb, wood-fired pita and smoked labneh. Other excellent places to wine and dine include Euro-style brasserie and bar Ruse, and Lilymu, known for its cocktails and cracking Chinese food.

Getting there: Parramatta is about 40 minutes from Sydney's CBD by ferry or train.

Staying there: Skye Suites, 30 Hunter Street, Parramatta, has rooms from $260, less for members. skyeparramatta.com.au

Explore more: atparramatta.com

The writer was a guest of Skye Suites Parramatta.