Sydney's Customs House has stood on Circular Quay since 1845, watching the colony grow into a city. It was the first point of contact for goods and people arriving by sea, a place of taxes, declarations and determined smugglers trying to slip contraband past sharp-eyed officials.

The French neoclassical façade carries a surprise inside. Sixteen black swastikas are inlaid into the terrazzo floor. Laid when the building was reconstructed between 1915 and 1917, architect George Oakeshott chose them as classical ornaments, the decorative motif common in European banks at the time. During World War II, the Customs Service covered the floor. It stayed hidden until a 1990s refurbishment.

VoiceMap's self-guided tours use Customs House to trace Sydney's colonial origins, connecting the building's long career as a gateway for goods and convicts to the Eora people who watched the First Fleet arrive at this very spot in 1788.