Sydney Harbour and extends about 70 km (43.5 mi) towards the Blue Mountains to the west, Hawkesbury to the north, the Royal National Park and Macarthur to the south and south-west.[6] Greater Sydney is made up of 658 suburbs, spread across 33 local government areas. Residents of the city are known as "Sydneysiders".[7] The estimated population in June 2021 was over 5.2 million,[8] meaning the city is home to approximately 66% of the state's population.[9] Nicknames of the city include the "Emerald City" and the "Harbour City".[10]
Despite being one of the most expensive cities in the world,
most liveable cities in the world.[15][16][17] It is classified as an Alphaglobal city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world.[18][19] Ranked eleventh in the world for economic opportunity,[20] Sydney has an advanced market economy with strengths in finance, manufacturing and tourism.[21][22] Established in 1850, the University of Sydney was Australia's first university and is regarded as one of the world's leading universities.[23]
Sydney has hosted major international sporting events such as the 2000 Summer Olympics. The city is among the top fifteen most-visited cities in the world,[24] with millions of tourists coming each year to see the city's landmarks.[25] The city has over 1,000,000 ha (2,500,000 acres) of nature reserves and parks,[26] and its notable natural features include Sydney Harbour and Royal National Park. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the World Heritage-listed Sydney Opera House are major tourist attractions. Central Station is the hub of Sydney's rail network, and the main passenger airport serving the city is Kingsford Smith Airport, one of the world's oldest continually operating airports.[27]
Toponymy
In 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales, named the cove where the first British settlement was established Sydney Cove after Home Secretary Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney.[28] The cove was called Warrane by the Aboriginal inhabitants.[29] Phillip considered naming the settlement Albion, but this name was never officially used.[28] By 1790 Phillip and other officials were regularly calling the township Sydney.[30] The town of Sydney was declared a city in 1842.[31]
The
Gadigal (Cadigal) clan, whose territory stretches along the southern shore of Port Jackson from South Head to Darling Harbour, are the traditional owners of the land on which the British settlement was initially established, and call their territory Gadi (Cadi). Aboriginal clan names within the Sydney region were often formed by adding the suffix "-gal" to a word denoting the name for their territory, a specific place in their territory, a food source, or totem. The modern Greater Sydney area covers the traditional lands of 28 known Aboriginal clans.[32]
The first people to inhabit the area now known as Sydney were Aboriginal Australians who had migrated from northern Australia and before that from southeast Asia.[33] Flaked pebbles found in Western Sydney's gravel sediments might indicate human occupation from 45,000 to 50,000 years BP,[34] while radiocarbon dating has shown evidence of human activity in the Sydney region from around 30,000 years ago.[35] Prior to the arrival of the British, there were 4,000 to 8,000 Aboriginal people in the greater Sydney region.[36][11]
The inhabitants subsisted on fishing, hunting, and gathering plant foods and shellfish. The diet of the coastal clans was more reliant on seafoods whereas the food of hinterland clans was more focused on forest animals and plants. The clans had distinctive sets of equipment and weapons mostly made of stone, wood, plant materials, bone and shell. They also differed in their body decorations, hairstyles, songs and dances. Aboriginal clans had a rich ceremonial life which was part of a belief system centering on ancestral, totemic and supernatural beings. People from different clans and language groups came together to participate in initiation and other ceremonies. These occasions fostered trade, marriages and clan alliances.[37]
The earliest British settlers recorded the word 'Eora' as an Aboriginal term meaning either 'people' or 'from this place'.[38][11] The clans of the Sydney area occupied land with traditional boundaries. There is debate, however, about which group or nation these clans belonged to, and the extent of differences in language, dialect and initiation rites. The major groups were the coastal Eora people, the Dharug (Darug) occupying the inland area from Parramatta to the Blue Mountains, and the Dharawal people south of Botany Bay.[11] Darginung and Gundungurra languages were spoken on the fringes of the Sydney area.[39]
Aboriginal clans of Sydney area, as recorded by early British settlers
South side of Port Jackson, from Darling Harbour to Rose Hill
Clans of the Sydney region whose territory wasn't reliably recorded are: the Domaragal, Doogagal, Gannalgal, Gomerigal, Gooneeowlgal, Goorunggurregal, Gorualgal, Murrooredial, Noronggerragal, Oryangsoora and Wandeandegal.
Note: The names and territory boundaries do not always correspond with those used by contemporary Aboriginal groups of the greater Sydney area.[39][40][41]
The first meeting between Aboriginals and British explorers occurred on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay (Kamay[42]) and encountered the Gweagal clan.[43] Two Gweagal men opposed the landing party and in the confrontation one of them was shot and wounded.[44][45] Cook and his crew stayed at Botany Bay for a week, collecting water, timber, fodder and botanical specimens and exploring the surrounding area. Cook sought to establish relations with the Aboriginal population without success.[46]
Britain had been sending convicts to its American colonies for most of the eighteenth century, and the loss of these colonies in 1783 was the impetus for the decision to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay. Proponents of colonisation also pointed to the strategic importance of a new base in the Asia-Pacific region and its potential to provide much-needed timber and flax for the navy.[47]
The First Fleet of 11 ships under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Botany Bay in January 1788. It consisted of more than a thousand settlers, including 736 convicts.[48] The fleet soon moved to the more suitable Port Jackson where a settlement was established at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.[49] The colony of New South Wales was formally proclaimed by Governor Phillip on 7 February 1788. Sydney Cove offered a fresh water supply and a safe harbour, which Philip described as being, 'with out exception the finest Harbour in the World [...] Here a Thousand Sail of the Line may ride in the most perfect Security'.[50]
The settlement was planned to be a self-sufficient penal colony based on subsistence agriculture. Trade and ship building were banned in order to keep the convicts isolated. However, the soil around the settlement proved poor and the first crops failed, leading to several years hunger and strict food rationing. The food crisis was relieved with the arrival of the Second Fleet in mid-1790 and the Third Fleet in 1791.[51] Former convicts received small grants of land, and government and private farms spread to the more fertile lands around Parramatta, Windsor and Camden on the Cumberland Plain. By 1804, the colony was self-sufficient in food.[52]
A smallpox epidemic in April 1789 killed about half the Indigenous population of the Sydney region.[11][53] In November 1790 Bennelong led a group of survivors of the Sydney clans into the settlement, establishing a continuous presence of Aboriginal Australians in settled Sydney.[54]
Phillip had been given no instructions for urban development, but in July 1788 submitted a plan for the new town at
After the departure of Phillip in December 1792, the colony's military officers began acquiring land and importing consumer goods obtained from visiting ships. Former convicts also engaged in trade and opened small businesses. Soldiers and former convicts built houses on Crown land, with or without official permission, in what was now commonly called Sydney town. Governor William Bligh (1806–08) imposed restrictions on trade and commerce in the town and ordered the demolition of buildings erected on Crown land, including some owned by past and serving military officers. The resulting conflict culminated in the Rum Rebellion of 1808, in which Bligh was deposed by the New South Wales Corps.[57]
Governor Lachlan Macquarie (1810–1821), played a leading role in the development of Sydney and New South Wales, establishing a bank, a currency and a hospital. He employed a planner to design the street layout of Sydney and commissioned the construction of roads, wharves, churches, and public buildings. Parramatta Road, linking Sydney and Parramatta, was opened in 1811[58] and a road across the Blue Mountains was completed in 1815, opening the way for large-scale farming and grazing in the lightly wooded pastures west of the Great Dividing Range.[59][60]
Following the departure of Macquarie, official policy encouraged the emigration of free British settlers to New South Wales. Immigration to the colony increased from 900 free settlers in 1826–30 to 29,000 in 1836–40, many of whom settled in Sydney.
In 1804, Irish convicts led around 300 rebels in the Castle Hill Rebellion, an attempt to march on Sydney, commandeer a ship, and sail to freedom.[64] Poorly armed, and with their leader Philip Cunningham captured, the main body of insurgents were routed by about 100 troops and volunteers at Rouse Hill. At least 39 convicts were killed in the uprising and subsequent executions.[65][66]
As the colony spread to the more fertile lands around the
Darug people intensified, reaching a peak from 1794 to 1810. Bands of Darug people, led by Pemulwuy and later by his son Tedbury, burned crops, killed livestock and raided settler huts and stores in a pattern of resistance that was to be repeated as the colonial frontier expanded. A military garrison was established on the Hawkesbury in 1795. The death toll from 1794 to 1800 was 26 settlers and up to 200 Darug.[67][68]
Conflict again erupted from 1814 to 1816 with the expansion of the colony into Dharawal country in the Nepean region south-west of Sydney. Following the deaths of several settlers, Governor Macquarie despatched three military detachments into Dharawal lands, culminating in the
Appin massacre (April 1816) in which at least 14 Aboriginal people were killed.[69][70]
Colonial city (1841–1900)
The New South Wales Legislative Council was transformed into a semi-elected body in 1842. The town of Sydney was declared a city the same year, and a governing council established, elected on a restrictive property franchise.
Aerial illustration of Sydney, 1888
The discovery of gold in New South Wales and Victoria in 1851 initially caused some economic disruption as male workers moved to the goldfields. Melbourne soon overtook Sydney as Australia's largest city, leading to an enduring rivalry between the two cities. However, increased immigration from overseas and wealth from gold exports increased demand for housing, consumer goods, services and urban amenities.[71] The New South Wales government also stimulated growth by investing heavily in railways, trams, roads, ports, telegraph, schools and urban services.[72] The population of Sydney and its suburbs grew from 95,600 in 1861 to 386,900 in 1891.[73] The city developed many of its characteristic features. The growing population packed into rows of terrace houses in narrow streets. New public buildings of sandstone abounded, including at the University of Sydney (1854–61),[74] the Australian Museum (1858–66),[75] the Town Hall (1868–88),[76] and the General Post Office (1866–92).[77] Elaborate coffee palaces and hotels were erected.[78] Exotic plants such as jacarandas and frangipani were introduced in parks and gardens.[79] Daylight bathing at Sydney's beaches was banned, but segregated bathing at designated ocean baths was popular.[80]
Drought, the winding down of public works and a financial crisis led to economic depression in Sydney throughout most of the 1890s. Meanwhile, the Sydney-based premier of New South Wales, George Reid, became a key figure in the process of federation.[81]
State capital (1901–present)
tramcar on George Street in 1920. Sydney once had one of the largest tram networks
in the British Empire.
When the six colonies federated on 1 January 1901, Sydney became the capital of the State of New South Wales. The spread of bubonic plague in 1900 prompted the new state government to modernise the wharves and demolish inner-city slums. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 saw more Sydney males volunteer for the armed forces than the Commonwealth authorities could process, and helped reduce unemployment in the city. Those returning from the war in 1918 were promised "homes fit for heroes" in new suburbs such as Daceyville and Matraville. "Garden suburbs" and mixed industrial and residential developments also grew along the rail and tram corridors.[62] The population reached one million in 1926, after Sydney had regained its position as the most populous city in Australia.[82] The government created jobs with massive public projects such as the electrification of the Sydney rail network and building the Sydney Harbour Bridge.[83]
Sydney Harbour Bridge opening day, 19 March 1932
Sydney was more severely affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s than regional NSW or Melbourne.[84] New building almost came to a standstill, and by 1933 the unemployment rate for male workers was 28 per cent, but over 40 per cent in working class areas such as Alexandria and Redfern. Many families were evicted from their homes and shanty towns grew along coastal Sydney and Botany Bay, the largest being "Happy Valley" at La Perouse.[85] The Depression also exacerbated political divisions. In March 1932, when populist Labor premier Jack Lang attempted to open the Sydney Harbour Bridge he was upstaged by Francis de Groot of the far-right New Guard, who slashed the ribbon with a sabre.[86]
In January 1938, Sydney celebrated the Empire Games and the sesquicentenary of European settlement in Australia. One journalist wrote, "Golden beaches. Sun tanned men and maidens...Red-roofed villas terraced above the blue waters of the harbour...Even Melbourne seems like some grey and stately city of Northern Europe compared with Sydney's sub-tropical splendours." Meanwhile, a congress of the "Aborigines of Australia", declared 26 January "A Day of Mourning" for "the whiteman's seizure of our country."[87]
With the outbreak of war in 1939, Sydney experienced a surge in industrial development to meet the needs of a wartime economy. Unemployment virtually disappeared and women moved into jobs previously male preserves. Sydney was attacked by Japanese submarines in May and June 1942 with 21 lives lost. Households throughout the city built air raid shelters and performed drills.[88]
A post-war immigration and baby boom saw a rapid increase in Sydney's population and the spread of low-density housing in suburbs throughout the Cumberland Plain. Immigrants—mostly from Britain and continental Europe—and their children accounted for over three-quarters of Sydney's population growth between 1947 and 1971.[89] The newly created Cumberland County Council oversighted low-density residential developments, the largest at Green Valley and Mount Druitt. Older residential centres such as Parramatta, Bankstown and Liverpool became suburbs of the metropolis.[90] Manufacturing, protected by high tariffs, employed over a third of the workforce from 1945 to the 1960s. However, as the long post-war economic boom progressed, retail and other service industries became the main source of new jobs.[91]
An estimated one million onlookers, most of the city's population, watched as
Australian Royal Tour. It was the first time a reigning monarch stepped onto Australian soil.[92]
Increasing high rise development in Sydney and the expansion of suburbs beyond the "green belt" envisaged by the planners of the 1950s resulted in community protests. In the early 1970s, trade unions and resident action groups imposed green bans on development projects in historic areas such as The Rocks. Federal, State and local governments subsequently introduced a range of heritage and environmental legislation.[62] The Sydney Opera House was also controversial for its cost and disputes between architect Jørn Utzon and government officials. However, soon after it opened in 1973 it became a major tourist attraction and symbol of the city.[93] The progressive reduction in tariff protection from 1974 began the transformation of Sydney from a manufacturing centre focused on the domestic market to a "world city" providing financial, commercial, cultural and educational services to local residents and Australian and overseas markets.[94] From the 1980s, overseas immigration to Sydney grew rapidly, with Asia, the Middle East and Africa becoming major sources of immigrants. By 2021, the population of Sydney was over 5.2 million, with 40% of the population born overseas. China and India overtook England as the largest source countries for overseas-born residents.[95]
Sydney is a coastal basin with the Tasman Sea to the east, the Blue Mountains to the west, the Hawkesbury River to the north, and the Woronora Plateau to the south.
Sydney spans two geographic regions. The
Seventy surf beaches
can be found along its coastline with Bondi Beach being one of the most famous.
The Nepean River wraps around the western edge of the city and becomes the Hawkesbury River before reaching Broken Bay. Most of Sydney's water storages can be found on tributaries of the Nepean River. The Parramatta River is mostly industrial and drains a large area of Sydney's western suburbs into Port Jackson. The southern parts of the city are drained by the Georges River and the Cooks River into Botany Bay.
There is no single definition of the boundaries of Sydney. The Australian Statistical Geography Standard definition of Greater Sydney covers 12,369 km2 (4,776 sq mi) and includes the local government areas of Central Coast in the north, Hawkesbury in the north-west, Blue Mountains in the west, Sutherland Shire in the south, and Wollondilly in the south-west.[96] The local government area of the City of Sydney covers about 26 square kilometres from Garden island in the east to Bicentennial Park in the west, and south to the suburbs of Alexandria and Rosebery.[97]
Geology
Almost all of the exposed rocks around Sydney are Sydney sandstone
.
Sydney is made up of mostly
volcanic necks (typically found in the Prospect dolerite intrusion, west of Sydney).[98] The Sydney Basin was formed when the Earth's crust expanded, subsided, and filled with sediment in the early Triassic period.[99] The sand that was to become the sandstone of today was washed there by rivers from the south and northwest and laid down between 360 and 200 million years ago. The sandstone has shale lenses and fossil riverbeds.[99]
The
Hawkesbury sandstone of the coastal region where Sydney now lies. The rising sea level between 18,000 and 6,000 years ago flooded the rias to form estuaries and deep harbours.[99] Port Jackson, better known as Sydney Harbour, is one such ria.[100] Sydney features two major soil types; sandy soils (which originate from the Hawkesbury sandstone) and clay (which are from shales and volcanic rocks), though some soils may be a mixture of the two.[101]
Directly overlying the older Hawkesbury sandstone is the
Southern Annular Mode[122][123] play an important role in determining Sydney's weather patterns: drought and bushfire on the one hand, and storms and flooding on the other, associated with the opposite phases of the oscillation in Australia. The weather is moderated by proximity to the ocean, and more extreme temperatures are recorded in the inland western suburbs.[124]
At Sydney's primary weather station at
Western Sydney a few times in winter. Autumn and spring are the transitional seasons, with spring showing a larger temperature variation than autumn.[132]
Rainfall has a moderate to low variability and has historically been fairly uniform throughout the year, although in recent years it has been more summer-dominant and erratic.
Sydney is informally divided into a number of customary "regions". Some regional names overlap, and some are subsets of other regions. Regions that are commonly referred to include the
The Greater Sydney Commission, a planning body, divides Sydney into three "cities" and five "districts" based on the 33 LGAs in the metropolitan area. The "metropolis of three cities" comprises:
Eastern Harbour City: approximately including the City, the Inner West, the Eastern Suburbs, the North Shore, the Northern Beaches, St George, Sutherland and Canterbury-Bankstown. The Sydney CBD is the centre of this city.
Central River City: approximately including the Greater Western Sydney suburbs bounded by Hornsby, Rouse Hill, Blacktown, Fairfield, Bankstown and Sydney Olympic Park. Parramatta is the centre of this city.
Western Parkland City: approximately including the remainder of Greater Western Sydney, to the west of the Central River City. This expansive city has multiple centres, including Penrith, Liverpool, Campbelltown-Macarthur and the future Western Sydney Airport Aerotropolis.
The more precisely defined "districts" are the following:
Central City District: including the northwestern local government areas of Blacktown, Cumberland, Parramatta and the Hills Shire.
Eastern City District: including the eastern, central and inner western local government areas of Bayside, Burwood, Canada Bay, City of Sydney, Inner West, Randwick, Strathfield, Waverley and Woollahra.
North District: including the northeastern local government areas of Hornsby, Hunter's Hill, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Mosman, North Sydney, Northern Beaches, Ryde and Willoughby
South District: including the southern local government areas of Canterbury-Bankstown, Georges River and Sutherland
Western City District: including the western local government areas of Blue Mountains, Camden, Campbelltown, Fairfield, Hawkesbury, Liverpool, Penrith and Wollondilly.[159]
The Greater Sydney Commission envisions a resident population of 1,338,250 people by 2036 in its Eastern City District (including the City, Eastern Suburbs and Inner West).[160]
The Australian Bureau of Statistics also includes City of Central Coast (the former Gosford City and Wyong Shire) as part of Greater Sydney for population counts.[161] This adds another 330,000 people to the metropolitan area covered by Greater Sydney Commission.[162]
The local government areas of Greater Sydney participate in "Regional Organisations of Councils" (ROCs), which provide an administrative way of grouping the many parts of the sprawling metropolis. The main ROCs located in Sydney are:
The Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) includes 12 councils in the oldest parts of the city on the southern shore of the harbour and Parramatta River, in the south-east of the metropolitan area. This ROC includes the City of Sydney, the four Inner West councils, as well as the councils in the Eastern Suburbs and Southern Sydney regions, and Canterbury-Bankstown council.[163]
The Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (NSROC) includes eight councils located to the north of the harbour and Parramatta River, in the north-east of the metropolitan area. This ROC includes councils in the upper and lower North Shore and other parts of Northern sydney, but not the Northern Beaches.[164]
Historical buildings in Millers Point, an inner suburb north of the CBD.
The CBD extends about 3 km (1.9 mi) south from Sydney Cove. It is bordered by Farm Cove within the Royal Botanic Garden to the east and
The Rocks to the north. Most of these suburbs measure less than 1 km2 (0.4 sq mi) in area. The Sydney CBD is characterised by considerably narrow streets and thoroughfares, created in its convict beginnings in the 18th century.[166]
Several localities, distinct from suburbs, exist throughout Sydney's inner reaches. Central and Circular Quay are transport hubs with ferry, rail, and bus interchanges. Chinatown, Darling Harbour, and Kings Cross are important locations for culture, tourism, and recreation. The Strand Arcade, which is located between Pitt Street Mall and George Street, is a historical Victorian-style shopping arcade. Opened on 1 April 1892, its shop fronts are an exact replica of the original internal shopping facades.[167]Westfield Sydney, located beneath the Sydney Tower, is the largest shopping centre by area in Sydney.[168]
Since the late 20th century, there has been a trend of
high density housing, tourist accommodation, and gambling.[169] Originally located well outside of the city, Darlinghurst is the location of the historic, former Darlinghurst Gaol, manufacturing, and mixed housing. It had a period when it was known as an area of prostitution. The terrace style housing has largely been retained and Darlinghurst has undergone significant gentrification since the 1980s.[170][171][172]
Green Square is a former industrial area of Waterloo which is undergoing urban renewal worth $8 billion. On the city harbour edge, the historic suburb and wharves of Millers Point are being built up as the new area of Barangaroo. The enforced rehousing of local residents due to the Millers Point/Barangaroo development has caused significant controversy despite the $6 billion worth of economic activity it is expected to generate.[173][174] The suburb of Paddington is a well known suburb for its streets of restored terrace houses, Victoria Barracks, and shopping including the weekly Oxford Street markets.[175]
The western parts of the Inner West are characterised by picturesque waterways and low density homes.
The Inner West generally includes the
University of Technology, Sydney and a campus of the Australian Catholic University. Geographically, the Parramatta River, which forms the northern boundary of this area, forms a series of large bays, including Homebush Bay, Hen and Chicken Bay and Iron Cove, creating a series of picturesque riverfront suburbs. The southern boundary is the smaller Georges River. The Anzac Bridge spans Johnstons Bay and connects Rozelle to Pyrmont and the city, forming part of the Western Distributor
.
The Inner West is today well known as the location of village commercial centres that have acquired cosmopolitan flavours, such as the "Little Italy" commercial centres of Leichardt, Five Dock and Haberfield,
Waverley Municipal Council, and parts of the Bayside Council. They include some of the most affluent and advantaged areas in the country, with some streets being amongst the most expensive in the world. As at 2014, Wolseley Road, Point Piper, had a top price of $20,900 per square metre, making it the ninth-most expensive street in the world.[186] More than 75% of neighbourhoods in the Electoral District of Wentworth fall under the top decile of SEIFA advantage, making it the least disadvantaged area in the country.[187] As of the end of 2021, of the 20 most expensive postcode areas in Australia (measured by median house price), nine were in the Eastern Suburbs.[178]
Construction of the CBD and South East Light Rail was completed in April 2020.[191] Main construction was due to be completed in 2018 but was delayed until 2020.[192] The project aims to provide reliable and high-capacity tram services to residents in the City and South-East.
The suburb of Cronulla in southern Sydney is close to Royal National Park, Australia's oldest national park. Hurstville, a large suburb with a multitude of commercial buildings and high-rise residential buildings dominating the skyline, has become a CBD for the southern suburbs.[193]
The North Shore includes the commercial centres of North Sydney and Chatswood. North Sydney itself consists of a large commercial centre, with its own business centre, which contains the second largest concentration of high-rise buildings in Sydney, after the CBD. North Sydney is dominated by advertising, marketing businesses and associated trades, with many large corporations holding office in the region.
The Northern Beaches area includes
mono-ethnic district in Australia, contrasting with its more-diverse neighbours, the North Shore and the Central Coast.[195]
As of the end of 2021, half of the 20 most expensive postcode areas in Australia (measured by median house price) were all in Northern Sydney, including four on the Northern Beaches, two on the Lower North Shore, three on the Upper North Shore, one (straddling
Hunters Hill and Woolwich) in Northern Sydney (the other 10 were also all in metropolitan Sydney: nine in the Eastern Suburbs and one in the Inner west).[178]
. Actual suburbs and localities that are considered to be in the Hills District can be somewhat amorphous and variable. For example, the Hills District Historical Society restricts its definition to the Hills Shire local government area, yet its study area extends from Parramatta to the Hawkesbury. The region is so named for its characteristically comparatively hilly topography as the Cumberland Plain lifts up, joining the Hornsby Plateau.
An aerial view of Greater Western Sydney; as well as being mostly suburban in nature, western Sydney is also made up of various industrial precincts and business parks
.
The greater western suburbs encompasses the areas of Parramatta, the sixth largest business district in Australia, settled the same year as the harbour-side colony,
vocational trade.[198] Toongabbie is noted for being the third mainland settlement (after Sydney and Parramatta) set up after the British colonisation of Australia began in 1788, although the site of the settlement is actually in the separate suburb of Old Toongabbie.[199]
The western suburb of
volcanic activity,[205] is also listed on the NSW State Heritage Register.[206]
To the northwest,
World Heritage List in 2010 (as part of the 11 penal sites constituting the Australian Convict Sites), making it the only site in greater western Sydney to be featured in such lists.[210] Moreover, the house is Australia's oldest surviving public building.[211]
Further to the southwest is the region of Macarthur and the city of Campbelltown, a significant population centre until the 1990s considered a region separate to Sydney proper. Macarthur Square, a shopping complex in Campbelltown, has become one of the largest shopping complexes in Sydney.[212] The southwest also features Bankstown Reservoir, the oldest elevated reservoir constructed in reinforced concrete that is still in use and is listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register.[213] The southwest is home to one of Sydney's oldest trees, the Bland Oak, which was planted in the 1840s by William Bland in the suburb of Carramar.[214]
The earliest structures in the colony were built to the bare minimum of standards. Upon his appointment, Governor Lachlan Macquarie set ambitious targets for the architectural design of new construction projects. The city now has a world heritage listed building, several national heritage listed buildings, and dozens of Commonwealth heritage listed buildings as evidence of the survival of Macquarie's ideals.[216][217][218]
From the late 1850s there was a shift towards Classical architecture.
French Second Empire style Town Hall was completed in 1889.[230][231]Romanesque designs gained favour amongst Sydney's architects from the early 1890s. Sydney Technical College was completed in 1893 using both Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne approaches.[232] The Queen Victoria Building was designed in Romanesque Revival fashion by George McRae and completed in 1898.[233] It was built on the site of the Sydney Central Markets and accommodates 200 shops across its three storeys.[234]
As the wealth of the settlement increased, and as Sydney developed into a metropolis after Federation in 1901, its buildings became taller. Sydney's first tower was Culwulla Chambers on the corner of King Street and Castlereagh Street which topped out at 50 m (160 ft) making 12 floors. The Commercial Traveller's Club, located in Martin Place and built in 1908, was of similar height at 10 floors. It was built in a brick stone veneer and demolished in 1972 to make way for Harry Seidler's MLC Centre.
have each made their own contribution to the city's skyline.
The Great Depression had a tangible influence on Sydney's architecture. New structures became more restrained with far less ornamentation than was common before the 1930s. The most notable architectural feat of this period is the Harbour Bridge. Its steel arch was designed by John Bradfield and completed in 1932. A total of 39,000 tonnes of structural steel span the 503 m (1,650 ft) between Milsons Point and Dawes Point.[237][238]
International architecture came to Sydney from the 1940s. Since its completion in 1973 the city's Opera House has become a World Heritage Site and one of the world's most renowned pieces of Modern design. It was conceived by Jørn Utzon with contributions from Peter Hall, Lionel Todd, and David Littlemore. Utzon was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2003 for his work on the Opera House.[239] Sydney is home to Australia's first building by renowned Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building (2015), based on the design of a tree house. An entrance from The Goods Line
–a pedestrian pathway and former railway line–is located on the eastern border of the site.
Contemporary buildings in the CBD include
heritage overlays have been in place since at least 1977 to protect Sydney's heritage after controversial demolitions in the 1970s led to an outcry from Sydneysiders to preserve the old and keep history intact, sufficiently balancing old and new architecture.[250]
Sydney surpasses both New York City and Paris real estate prices, having some of the most expensive in the world.[251][252] The city remains Australia's most expensive housing market, with the mean house price at $1,142,212 as of December 2019 (over 25% higher the national mean house price).[253]
There were 1.76 million dwellings in Sydney in 2016 including 925,000 (57%) detached houses, 227,000 (14%) semi-detached terrace houses and 456,000 (28%) units and apartments.
terrace houses
are common in the inner city areas, it is detached houses that dominate the landscape in the outer suburbs.
Due to environmental and economic pressures, there has been a noted trend towards denser housing. There was a 30% increase in the number of apartments in Sydney between 1996 and 2006.
Mount Druitt. The Government has announced plans to sell nearly 300 historic public housing properties in the harbourside neighbourhoods of Millers Point, Gloucester Street, and The Rocks.[257]
Sydney is one of the most expensive real estate markets globally. It is only second to Hong Kong with the average property costing 14 times the annual Sydney salary as of December 2016.[258] A range of heritage housing styles can be found throughout Sydney. Terrace houses are found in the inner suburbs such as Paddington, The Rocks, Potts Point and Balmain–many of which have been the subject of gentrification.[259][260] These terraces, particularly those in suburbs such as The Rocks, were historically home to Sydney's miners and labourers. In the present day, terrace houses now make up some of the most valuable real estate in the city.[261]
Royal Botanic Garden is the most iconic green space in the Sydney region, hosting both scientific and leisure activities.[263] There are 15 separate parks under the administration of the City of Sydney.[264] Parks within the city centre include Hyde Park, The Domain
and Prince Alfred Park.
The Centennial Parklands is the largest park in the City of Sydney, comprising 189 ha (470 acres).[265]
The Centennial Parklands is the largest park in the City of Sydney, comprising 189 ha (470 acres).
Hyde Park is the oldest parkland in the country.[268] The largest park in the Sydney metropolitan area is Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, established in 1894 with an area of 15,400 ha (59 sq mi).[269] It is regarded for its well-preserved records of indigenous habitation and more than 800 rock engravings, cave drawings and middens have been located in the park.[270]
The area now known as The Domain was set aside by Governor Arthur Phillip in 1788 as his private reserve.[271] Under the orders of Macquarie the land to the immediate north of The Domain became the Royal Botanic Garden in 1816. This makes them the oldest botanic garden in Australia.[271] The Gardens are not just a place for exploration and relaxation, but also for scientific research with herbarium collections, a library and laboratories.[272] The two parks have a total area of 64 ha (0.2 sq mi) with 8,900 individual plant species and receive over 3.5 million annual visits.[273]
To the south of The Domain is Hyde Park, the oldest public parkland in Australia which measures 16.2 ha (0.1 sq mi) in area.[274] Its location was used for both relaxation and the grazing of animals from the earliest days of the colony.[275] Macquarie dedicated it in 1810 for the "recreation and amusement of the inhabitants of the town" and named it in honour of the original Hyde Park in London.
The central business district. Sydney is the financial and economic centre of Australia, having the largest economy and contributing a quarter of Australia's total GDP.[276]
The prevailing economic theory in effect during early colonial days was mercantilism, as it was throughout most of Western Europe.[282] The economy struggled at first due to difficulties in cultivating the land and the lack of a stable monetary system. Governor Lachlan Macquarie solved the second problem by creating two coins from every Spanish silver dollar in circulation.[282] The economy was clearly capitalist in nature by the 1840s as the proportion of free settlers increased, the maritime and wool industries flourished, and the powers of the East India Company were curtailed.[282]
Wheat, gold, and other minerals became additional export industries towards the end of the 1800s.[282] Significant capital began to flow into the city from the 1870s to finance roads, railways, bridges, docks, courthouses, schools and hospitals. Protectionist policies after federation allowed for the creation of a manufacturing industry which became the city's largest employer by the 1920s.[282] These same policies helped to relieve the effects of the Great Depression during which the unemployment rate in New South Wales reached as high as 32%.[282] From the 1960s onwards Parramatta gained recognition as the city's second CBD and finance and tourism became major industries and sources of employment.[282]
Sydney's nominal gross domestic product was AU$400.9 billion and AU$80,000 per capita[283] in 2015.[284][281] Its gross domestic product was AU$337 billion in 2013, the largest in Australia.[284] The Financial and Insurance Services industry accounts for 18.1% of gross product and is ahead of Professional Services with 9% and Manufacturing with 7.2%. In addition to Financial Services and Tourism, the Creative and Technology sectors are focus industries for the City of Sydney and represented 9% and 11% of its economic output in 2012.[285][286]
Businesses
There were 451,000 businesses based in Sydney in 2011, including 48% of the top 500 companies in Australia and two-thirds of the regional headquarters of multinational corporations.[287] Global companies are attracted to the city in part because its time zone spans the closing of business in North America and the opening of business in Europe. Most foreign companies in Sydney maintain significant sales and service functions but comparably less production, research, and development capabilities.[288] There are 283 multinational companies with regional offices in Sydney.[289]
Sydney has been ranked between the fifteenth and the fifth most expensive city in the world and is the most expensive city in Australia.[291] Of the 15 categories only measured by UBS in 2012, workers receive the seventh highest wage levels of 77 cities in the world.[291] Working residents of Sydney work an average of 1,846 hours per annum with 15 days of leave.[291]
The labour force of Greater Sydney Region in 2016 was 2,272,722 with a participation rate of 61.6%.[292] It was made up of 61.2% full-time workers, 30.9% part-time workers, and 6.0% unemployed individuals.[254][293] The largest reported occupations are professionals, clerical and administrative workers, managers, technicians and trades workers, and community and personal service workers.[254] The largest industries by employment across Greater Sydney are Health Care and Social Assistance with 11.6%, Professional Services with 9.8%, Retail Trade with 9.3%, Construction with 8.2%, Education and Training with 8.0%, Accommodation and Food Services 6.7%, and Financial and Insurance Services with 6.6%.[2] The Professional Services and Financial and Insurance Services industries account for 25.4% of employment within the City of Sydney.[294]
In 2016, 57.6% of working age residents had a total weekly income of less than $1,000 and 14.4% had a total weekly income of $1,750 or more.[295] The median weekly income for the same period was $719 for individuals, $1,988 for families, and $1,750 for household.[296]
Unemployment in the City of Sydney averaged 4.6% for the decade to 2013, much lower than the current rate of unemployment in Western Sydney of 7.3%.[281][297] Western Sydney continues to struggle to create jobs to meet its population growth despite the development of commercial centres like Parramatta. Each day about 200,000 commuters travel from Western Sydney to the CBD and suburbs in the east and north of the city.[297]
Home ownership in Sydney was less common than renting prior to the Second World War but this trend has since reversed.[255] Median house prices have increased by an average of 8.6% per annum since 1970.[298][299] The median house price in Sydney in March 2014 was $630,000.[300] The primary cause for rising prices is the increasing cost of land and scarcity[301] which made up 32% of house prices in 1977 compared to 60% in 2002.[255] 31.6% of dwellings in Sydney are rented, 30.4% are owned outright and 34.8% are owned with a mortgage.[254] 11.8% of mortgagees in 2011 had monthly loan repayments of less than $1,000 and 82.9% had monthly repayments of $1,000 or more.[2] 44.9% of renters for the same period had weekly rent of less than $350 whilst 51.7% had weekly rent of $350 or more. The median weekly rent in Sydney is $450.[2]
Financial services
State Savings Bank
Macquarie gave a charter in 1817 to form the first bank in Australia, the Bank of New South Wales.[302] New private banks opened throughout the 1800s but the financial system was unstable. Bank collapses were a frequent occurrence and a crisis point was reached in 1893 when 12 banks failed.[302]
The Bank of New South Wales exists to this day as Westpac.[303] The Commonwealth Bank of Australia was formed in Sydney in 1911 and began to issue notes backed by the resources of the nation. It was replaced in this role in 1959 by the Reserve Bank of Australia which is also based in Sydney.[302] The Australian Securities Exchange began operating in 1987 and with a market capitalisation of $1.6 trillion is now one of the ten largest exchanges in the world.[304]
The Financial and Insurance Services industry now constitutes 43% of the economic product of the City of Sydney.
Sydney has been a manufacturing city since the protectionist policies of the 1920s. By 1961 the industry accounted for 39% of all employment and by 1970 over 30% of all Australian manufacturing jobs were in Sydney.
industrial estate in the Southern Hemisphere and is the centre of manufacturing and distribution in the region.[312]
Sydney is a gateway to Australia for many international visitors and ranks among the top sixty most visited cities in the world.[313] It has hosted over 2.8 million international visitors in 2013, or nearly half of all international visits to Australia. These visitors spent 59 million nights in the city and a total of $5.9 billion.[25] The countries of origin in descending order were China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong, and India.[314]
The city also received 8.3 million domestic overnight visitors in 2013 who spent a total of $6 billion.[314] 26,700 workers in the City of Sydney were directly employed by tourism in 2011.[315] There were 480,000 visitors and 27,500 people staying overnight each day in 2012.[315] On average, the tourism industry contributes $36 million to the city's economy per day.[315]
Sydney is the highest-ranking city in the world for international students. More than 50,000 international students study at the city's universities and a further 50,000 study at its vocational and English language schools.[279][320] International education contributes $1.6 billion to the local economy and creates demand for 4,000 local jobs each year.[321]
The population of Sydney in 1788 was less than 1,000.[323] With convict transportation it almost tripled in ten years to 2,953.[324] For each decade since 1961 the population has increased by more than 250,000.[325] The 2021 census recorded the population of Greater Sydney as 5,231,150.[1] The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) projects the population will grow to between 8 and 8.9 million by 2061, but that Melbourne will replace Sydney as Australia's most populous city by 2026.[326][327] The four most densely populated suburbs in Australia are located in Sydney with each having more than 13,000 residents per square kilometre (33,700 residents per square mile).[328] Between 1971 and 2018, Sydney experienced a net loss of 716,832 people to the rest of Australia, but its population grew due to overseas arrivals and a healthy birth rate.[329]
The median age of Sydney residents is 37 and 14.8% of people are 65 or older.[254] The married population accounts for 48.6% of Sydney whilst 36.7% of people have never been married.[254] 49.0% of families are couples with children, 34.4% are couples without children, and 14.8% are single-parent families.[254]
A language other than English is used in 42% of households in Sydney. The most widely used non-English languages at home are Mandarin (5%), Arabic (4.2%), Cantonese (2.8%), Vietnamese (2.2%) and Hindi (1.5%).[332]
In 2021, 30.3% of Sydney residents identified themselves as having no religion.
Anglicanism at 9.2%. The most common non-Christian religious affiliations were Islam (6.3%), Hinduism (4.8%), Buddhism (3.8%), Sikhism (0.7%), and Judaism (0.7%). About 500 people identified with traditional Aboriginal religions.[13]
The Church of England was the only recognised church before Governor Macquarie appointed official Catholic chaplains in 1820.[333] Macquarie also ordered the construction of churches such as St Matthew's, St Luke's, St James's, and St Andrew's. Religious groups, alongside secular institutions, have played a significant role in education, health and charitable services throughout Sydney's history.[334]
Crime
Main article:
Crime in Sydney
Crime in Sydney is low, with The Independent ranking Sydney as the fifth safest city in the world in 2019.[335] However, drug use is a significant problem. Methamphetamine is heavily consumed compared to other countries, while heroin is less common.[336] One of the biggest crime related issues to face the city in recent times was the introduction of lock-out laws in February 2014,[337] in an attempt to curb alcohol fuelled violence. Patrons could not enter clubs or bars in the inner-city after 1:30am, and last drinks were called at 3am. The lock-out laws were removed in January 2020.[338]
, is the fourth largest public gallery in Australia.
rock art sites exist in the Sydney region, such as in Terrey Hills and Bondi, although the locations of most are not publicised to prevent damage by vandalism, and to retain their quality, as they are still regarded as sacred sites by Indigenous Australians.[341]
Sydney's first commercial theatre opened in 1832 and nine more had commenced performances by the late 1920s. The live medium lost much of its popularity to the cinema during the Great Depression before experiencing a revival after World War II.
George St
in 1913, under its former Greater Union brand; the theatre currently operates, and is regarded as one of Australia's busiest cinema locations.
The Sydney Opera House is the home of
Sydney Symphony. It has staged over 100,000 performances and received 100 million visitors since opening in 1973.[239] Two other important performance venues in Sydney are Town Hall and the City Recital Hall. The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is located adjacent to the Royal Botanic Garden and serves the Australian music community through education and its biannual Australian Music Examinations Board exams.[352]
Filmmaking in Sydney was quite prolific until the 1920s when spoken films were introduced and American productions gained dominance in Australian cinema.
Sydney is the host of several festivals throughout the year. The city's
Sydney Mardi Gras
has commenced each February since 1979.
Sydney's Chinatown has had numerous locations since the 1850s. It moved from George Street to Campbell Street to its current setting in Dixon Street in 1980.[367] Little Italy is located in Stanley Street.[282]
Australia's national broadcaster, the ABC, is headquartered in Ultimo
.
The Sunday Telegraph respectively. The Bulletin was founded in Sydney in 1880 and became Australia's longest running magazine. It closed after 128 years of continuous publication.[373] Sydney heralded Australia's first newspaper, the Sydney Gazette
, published until 1842.
Each of Australia's three commercial television networks and two public broadcasters is headquartered in Sydney.
North Ryde and sells subscription cable television to most parts of the urban area.[378] Sydney's first radio stations commenced broadcasting in the 1920s. Radio became a popular tool for politics, news, religion, and sport and has managed to survive despite the introduction of television and the Internet.[379]2UE was founded in 1925 and under the ownership of Nine Entertainment is the oldest station still broadcasting.[379] Competing stations include the more popular 2GB, ABC Radio Sydney, KIIS 106.5, Triple M, Nova 96.9 and 2Day FM.[380]
Sydney's earliest migrants brought with them a passion for sport but were restricted by the lack of facilities and equipment. The first organised sports were boxing, wrestling, and horse racing from 1810 in Hyde Park.[381] Horse racing remains popular to this day and events such as the Golden Slipper Stakes attract widespread attention. The first cricket club was formed in 1826 and matches were played within Hyde Park throughout the 1830s and 1840s.[381] Cricket is a favoured sport in summer and big matches have been held at the Sydney Cricket Ground since 1878. The New South Wales Blues compete in the Sheffield Shield league and the Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder contest the national Big Bash Twenty20 competition.
First played in Sydney in 1865, rugby grew to be the city's most popular football code by the 1880s. One-tenth of the state's population attended a New South Wales versus New Zealand rugby match in 1907.
Women were first allowed to participate in recreational swimming when separate baths were opened at Woolloomooloo Bay in the 1830s. From being illegal at the beginning of the century, sea bathing gained immense popularity during the early 1900s and the first surf lifesaving club was established at Bondi Beach.[381][382]Disputes about appropriate clothing for surf bathing surfaced from time to time and concerned men as well as women. The City2Surf is an annual 14 km (8.7 mi) running race from the CBD to Bondi Beach and has been held since 1971. In 2010, 80,000 runners participated which made it the largest run of its kind in the world.[383]
Sailing races have been held on Sydney Harbour since 1827.[384] Yachting has been popular amongst wealthier residents since the 1840s and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron was founded in 1862. The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is a 1,170 km (727 mi) event that starts from Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day.[385] Since its inception in 1945 it has been recognised as one of the most difficult yacht races in the world.[386] Six sailors died and 71 vessels of the fleet of 115 failed to finish in the 1998 edition.[387]
2000 Olympics
and has become a major sporting and recreational precinct.
The
Royal Randwick Racecourse opened in 1833 and holds several major cups throughout the year.[388]
Sydney benefitted from the construction of significant sporting infrastructure in preparation for its hosting of the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Sydney Olympic Park accommodates athletics, aquatics, tennis, hockey, archery, baseball, cycling, equestrian, and rowing facilities. It also includes the high capacity Stadium Australia used for rugby, soccer, and Australian rules football. The Sydney Football Stadium was completed in 1988 and was used for rugby and soccer matches. Sydney Cricket Ground was opened in 1878 and is used for both cricket and Australian rules football fixtures.[381]
The first five governors had near autocratic power in the colony of New South Wales, subject only to the laws of England and the supervision of the Colonial Office in London. Sydney was the seat of government for the colony which encompassed over half the Australian continent.[389] The first Legislative Council met in 1826,[390] and in 1842 the imperial parliament expanded and reformed the council, making it partly elected.[391] In the same year, the town of Sydney officially became a city and an elected municipal council was established.[392][393] The council had limited powers, mostly relating to services such as street lighting and drainage.[394] Its boundaries were restricted to an area of 11.6 square kilometres, taking in the city centre and the modern suburbs of Woolloomooloo, Surry Hills, Chippendale, and Pyrmont.[63] As Sydney grew, other municipal councils were formed to provide local administration.[395]
In 1856 New South Wales achieved responsible government with the introduction of a bicameral parliament, based in Sydney, comprising a directly elected Legislative Assembly and a nominated Legislative Council.[396] With the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901, Sydney became the capital of the state of New South Wales and its administration was divided between the Commonwealth, State and constituent local governments.[396]
Government in the present
In common with other Australian capital cities, Sydney has no single local government covering its whole area. Local government areas have responsibilities such as local roads, libraries, child care, community services and waste collection, whereas the state government retains responsibility for main roads, traffic control, public transport, policing, education, and major infrastructure project.[397] There are 33 local government areas which are wholly or mostly within Greater Sydney as defined by the Australian Statistical Geography Standard.[96][398]
In the past, the state has tended to resist amalgamating Sydney's more populated local government areas as merged councils could pose a threat to its governmental power.
In federal politics, Sydney was initially considered as a
Prime Ministers have been born in Sydney, more than any other city, including first Prime Minister Edmund Barton and current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
.
Essential public emergency services are provided and managed by the State Government. Greater Sydney is served by:
Education became a proper focus for the colony from the 1870s when public schools began to form and schooling became compulsory.[410] By 2011, 90% of working age residents of Sydney had completed some schooling and 57% had completed the highest level of school.[2] 1,390,703 people were enrolled in an educational institution in 2011 with 45.1% of these attending school and 16.5% studying at a university.[254] Undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications are held by 22.5% of working age Sydney residents and 40.2% of working age residents of the City of Sydney.[2][411] The most common fields of tertiary qualification are commerce (22.8%), engineering (13.4%), society and culture (10.8%), health (7.8%), and education (6.6%).[2]
Sydney has public, denominational, and independent schools. 7.8% of Sydney residents are attending primary school and 6.4% are enrolled in secondary school.
New South Wales Department of Education.[414] 14 of the 17 selective secondary schools in New South Wales are based in Sydney.[415]
Public vocational education and training in Sydney are run by
South Western Sydney Institute. At the 2011 census, 2.4% of Sydney residents are enrolled in a TAFE course.[412]
The first hospital in the new colony was a collection of tents at
typhoid. Healthcare facilities remained hopelessly inadequate despite the arrival of a prefabricated hospital with the Second Fleet and the construction of brand new hospitals at Parramatta, Windsor, and Liverpool in the 1790s.[416]
Governor Lachlan Macquarie arranged for the construction of Sydney Hospital and saw it completed in 1816.[416] Parts of the facility have been repurposed for use as Parliament House but the hospital itself still operates to this day. The city's first emergency department was established at Sydney Hospital in 1870. Demand for emergency medical care increased from 1895 with the introduction of an ambulance service.[416] The Sydney Hospital also housed Australia's first teaching facility for nurses, the Nightingale Wing, established with the input of Florence Nightingale in 1868.[417]
Healthcare gained recognition as a citizen's right in the early 1900s and Sydney's public hospitals came under the oversight of the Government of New South Wales.
The motor vehicle, more than any other factor, has determined the pattern of Sydney's urban development since World War II.[427] The growth of low density housing in the city's outer suburbs has made car ownership necessary for hundreds of thousands of households. The percentage of trips taken by car has increased from 13% in 1947 to 50% in 1960 and to 70% in 1971.[427] The most important roads in Sydney were the nine Metroads, including the 110 km (68 mi) Sydney Orbital Network. Sydney's reliance on motor vehicles and its sprawling road network has been criticised by proponents of mass public transport and high density housing.[428][429][430] The Light Horse Interchange in western Sydney is the largest in the southern hemisphere.[431]
There can be up to 350,000 cars using Sydney's roads simultaneously during peak hour, leading to significant traffic congestion.[427] 84.9% of Sydney households own a motor vehicle and 46.5% own two or more.[254]Car dependency is an ongoing issue in Sydney–of people who travel to work, 58.4% use a car, 9.1% catch a train, 5.2% take a bus, and 4.1% walk.[254] In contrast, only 25.2% of working residents in the City of Sydney use a car, whilst 15.8% take a train, 13.3% use a bus, and 25.3% walk.[432] With a rate of 26.3%, Sydney has the highest utilisation of public transport for travel to work of any Australian capital city.[433] The CBD features a series of alleyways and lanes that provide off-street vehicular access to city buildings and as well as pedestrian routes through city buildings.[434]
Bus services today are conducted by private operators under contract to Transport for NSW. Integrated tickets called Opal cards operate on bus routes. In total, nearly 225 million boardings were recorded across the bus network[435]NightRide is a nightly bus service that operate between midnight and 5am, also replacing trains for most of this period.
connects Sydney's CBD with the South Eastern suburbs.
Sydney once had one of the largest tram networks in the British Empire after London.[436] It served routes covering 291 km (181 mi). The internal combustion engine made buses more flexible than trams and consequently more popular, leading to the progressive closure of the tram network with the final tram operating in 1961.[427] From 1930 there were 612 buses across Sydney carrying 90 million passengers per annum.[437]
is the busiest railway station in Australia, and the city's main public transport hub
Established in 1906, Central station is the largest and busiest railway station in the state and is the main hub of the city's rail network.[440]Sydney Trains is the suburban rail service. Its tracks form part of the New South Wales railway network. It serves 175 stations across the city and had an annual ridership of 359 million passenger journeys in 2017–18.[441] Sydney's railway was first constructed in 1854 with progressive extension to the network to serve both freight and passengers across the city, suburbs, and beyond to rural New South Wales. The main station is the Central railway station in the southern part of the CBD. In the 1850s and 1860s, the railway reached areas that are now outer suburbs of Sydney.[427]
Sydney Metro, a driverless rapid transit system separate from the suburban commuter network, commenced operation in May 2019 and will be extended into the city and down southwest by 2024 and through the inner west to Parramatta by 2030.[442][443] It currently serves 13 stations. A line to serve the greater west is planned for 2026 and will include a station for the second international airport.
At the time the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932, the city's ferry service was the largest in the world.[444] Patronage declined from 37 million passengers in 1945 to 11 million in 1963 but has recovered somewhat in recent years.[427] From its hub at Circular Quay, the ferry network extends from Manly to Parramatta.[444]
Airports
Sydney Airport, officially "Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport", is located in the inner southern suburb of Mascot with two of the runways going into Botany Bay. It services 46 international and 23 domestic destinations.[27] As the busiest airport in Australia, it handled 37.9 million passengers in 2013 and 530,000 tonnes of freight in 2011.[27]
It has been announced that a new facility named Western Sydney Airport will be constructed at Badgerys Creek from 2016 at a cost of $2.5 billion.[445]Bankstown Airport is Sydney's second busiest airport, and serves general aviation, charter and some scheduled cargo flights. Bankstown is also the fourth busiest airport in Australia by the number of aircraft movements.[446]Port Botany has surpassed Port Jackson as the city's major shipping port. Cruise ship terminals are located at Sydney Cove and White Bay.
air quality was 11 times the hazardous level in some days,[449][450] even making it worse than New Delhi's,[451] where it was also compared to "smoking 32 cigarettes" by Associate Professor Brian Oliver, a respiratory diseases scientist at the University of Technology Sydney.[452]
Australian cities are some of the most
electric cars, the largest order of the pollution-free vehicle in Australia.[458] Electric cars do not produce carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide, gases which contribute to climate change.[459][460]Cycling trips have increased by 113% across Sydney's inner-city since March 2010, with about 2,000 bikes passing through top peak-hour intersections on an average weekday.[461] Transport developments in the north-west
and east of the city have been designed to encourage the use of Sydney's expanding public transportation system.
The City of Sydney became the first council in Australia to achieve formal certification as
Solar panels have been established on many CBD buildings in an effort to minimise carbon pollution by around 3,000 tonnes a year.[467]
The city also has an "urban forest growth strategy", in which it aims to regular increase the tree coverage in the city by frequently planting trees with strong leaf density and vegetation to provide cleaner air and create moisture during hot weather, thus lowering city temperatures.[468] Sydney has also become a leader in the development of green office buildings and enforcing the requirement of all building proposals to be energy-efficient. The One Central Park development, completed in 2013, is an example of this implementation and design.[469][470][471][472]
Obtaining sufficient fresh water was difficult during early colonial times. A catchment called the Tank Stream sourced water from what is now the CBD but was little more than an open sewer by the end of the 1700s.[473] The Botany Swamps Scheme was one of several ventures during the mid-1800s that saw the construction of wells, tunnels, steam pumping stations, and small dams to service Sydney's growing population.[473]
The first genuine solution to Sydney's water demands was the Upper Nepean Scheme which came into operation in 1886 and cost over £2 million. It transports water 100 km (62 mi) from the Nepean, Cataract, and Cordeaux rivers and continues to service about 15% of Sydney's total water needs.[473] Dams were built on these three rivers between 1907 and 1935.[473] In 1977 the Shoalhaven Scheme brought several more dams into service.[474]
The two distributors which maintain Sydney's electricity infrastructure are Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy.[477][478] Their combined networks include over 815,000 power poles and 83,000 km (52,000 mi) of electricity cables.
^In accordance with the Australian Bureau of Statistics source, England, Scotland, Mainland China and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau are listed separately.
^Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry.
^Global Power City Index 2010(PDF) (Report). Tokyo, Japan: Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation. October 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
^Dennis, Anthony (2013). ""Too expensive" Sydney slips from top 10 tourism list". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2016. In this year's World's Best Awards, announced in New York this week, Sydney came in as the world's number 12 ranked best city.
^Haines, Robin, and Ralph Shlomowitz. "Nineteenth century government-assisted and total immigration from the United Kingdom to Australia: quinquennial estimates by colony." Journal of the Australian Population Association, vol. 8, no. 1, 1991, pp. 50–61. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41110599. Accessed 20 July 2021.
^ abcdFitzgerald, Shirley (2011). "Sydney". Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
^Earth Resource Analysis PL (1998). Cumberland Plains Woodland: Trial Aerial Photographic interpretation of remnant woodlands, Sydney. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service – Sydney Zone (Unpublished report).
^Recovering bushland on the Cumberland Plain Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW). (2005). Recovering Bushland on the Cumberland Plain: Best practice guidelines for the management and restoration of bushland. Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW), Sydney. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
^"Sydney Blue Gum High Forest"(PDF). Nationally Threatened Species and Ecological Communities. Environment.gov.au. Archived from the original(PDF) on 18 June 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
^"Modelling and simulation of seasonal rainfall"(PDF). Centre for Computer Assisted Research Mathematics and its Applications (CARMA). 20 May 2014. Archived from the original(PDF) on 13 March 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2016. Brisbane and Sydney each have a humid sub-tropical or temperate climate with no pronounced dry season...the classification is Cfa
^Sharples, J.J. Mills, G.A., McRae, R.H.D., Weber, R.O. (2010) Elevated fire danger conditions associated with foehn-like winds in southeastern Australia. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.
^Sharples, J.J., McRae, R.H.D., Weber, R.O., Mills, G.A. (2009) Foehn-like winds and fire danger anomalies in southeastern Australia. Proceedings of the 18th IMACS World Congress and MODSIM09. 13–17 July, Cairns.
^Power, S., Tseitkin, F., Torok, S., Lavery, B., Dahni, R. and McAvaney, B. 1998. Australian temperature, Australian rainfall and the Southern Oscillation, 1910–1992: coherent variability and recent changes. Aust. Met. Mag., 47, 85–101
^"Sydney winter not snow, just hail". Sydney Morning Herald. 27 July 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2013. Mr Zmijewski doubted the 1836 snow report, saying weather observers of the era lacked the expertise of today. "We are almost in the sub-tropics in Sydney", he said.
^"Sydney in 2009". Bom.gov.au. 4 January 2010. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
^"Sydney in 2010". Bom.gov.au. 4 January 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
^"The Strand". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 16, 858. New South Wales, Australia. 2 April 1892. p. 5. Retrieved 27 October 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
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^Jones, I., and Verdel, C. (2015). Basalt distribution and volume estimates of Cenozoic volcanism in the Bowen Basin region of eastern Australia: Implications for a waning mantle plume. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 62(2), 255–263.
^Degotardi, Peter (1 February 2004). The Month in Review(PDF) (Report). Herron Todd White Property Advisors. Archived from the original(PDF) on 20 August 2006.
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^Boulous, Chris (20 April 2018). "Nothing Bland about our Oak tree". Fairfield City Champion. FAIRFAX REGIONAL MEDIA. Archived from the original on 29 August 2018. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
^"Major parks". City of Sydney. 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
^"Centennial Park". Centennial Parklands. Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust. Archived from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
^"Royal National Park". Office of Environment and Heritage. 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
^"Archived copy". www.censusdata.abs.gov.au. Archived from the original on 20 June 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^Jupp, James (2008). "Immigration". Dictionary of Sydney. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
^Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry.
^Maguire, M., 'Atkinson, (Caroline) Louisa Waring', in R. Aitken and M. Looker (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens, South Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 35.
of 1804
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