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Bus #135. You can take in more of the Sydney Harbour National Park south of Manly: catch the #135 bus from Manly Wharf to North Head , the harbour mouth's upper jaw, and follow the short circuitous Fairfax Walking Track to three lookout points including the Fairfax Lookout for splendid views. If you have your own car, there's a fee for parking ($3 per hour or $5 per day), but you can drop in en route to the NPWS office, 1km before the lookouts (daily 9am-4.30pm), to pick up free information leaflets. Smack bang in the middle of all this is National Park, a military reserve with its own National Artillery Museum (Wed, Sat, Sun & public holidays noon-4pm; $6) sited in the historic North Fort , which consists of a curious system of tunnels built into the headland. There's more history at the old Quarantine Station , on the harbour side of North Head. From 1828 until 1984, arriving passengers and crew on ships where anyone had a contagious disease were set down at Spring Cove to serve a spell of isolation, all at the shipping companies' expense. Sydney residents, too, were forced here, most memorably during the plague which broke out in The Rocks in 1900, when 1832 people were quarantined (104 plague victims are buried in the grounds). The site, its buildings still intact, is looked after by the NPWS which offers guided history tours (Mon, Wed & Fri-Sat 1.10pm; 1hr 30min-2hr; $11; booking essential on tel 9247 5033), giving an insight not only into Sydney's immigration history but the evolution of medical science, often in gory detail. The tours (co-ordinating with the #135 bus; bus fare extra) provide the only opportunity to get out to this beautiful isolated spot. Night-time ghost tours (Wed & Fri-Sun; 3hr; $22 Wed, $27.50 Fri-Sun, including billy tea and damper; over 12s only) are very popular but there's no public transport in the evening.
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