Sydney, Australia

Sydney is the capital of New South Wales and, with a population of nearly 5.5 million, the largest city in Australia. Metropolitan Sydney has 658 suburbs distributed over fifteen boroughs and administered by thirty-three local government areas (LGAs). Sydney’s central business district and surrounding suburbs are in the City of Sydney LGA. Initially settled at Sidney Cove, Melbourne has grown to completely surround Port Jackson and Botany Bay, extending 50 km north to the Hawkesbury Region and 45 km south to the Macarthur Region. Sydney is bounded on the east by the Tasman Sea and on three sides by Ku-ring-gai Chase, Marramarra, Blue Mountains, Nattai and Dharawal National Parks.

Originally a settlement for convicts, Sydney is a global hotspot for heavy industry and technological advancement alike. Some of the Southern Hemisphere’s most iconic landmarks (the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Sydney Tower) are in Sydney. The city’s relatively mild climate makes its dozens of beaches well-known tourist attractions. It is the home of national and international residents and the destination of tourists from around the country and around the world. It is a coastal city full of early history (as the point of arrival of the First Fleet of settlers from Great Britain) and recent history (as host city for the 2000 Summer Olympics).

Historical Perspective

Aboriginal Australians were living in what is now Sydney as far back as 30,000 years ago. European settlement was much more recent. In 1770, English explorer James Cook sailed into what he later called Botany Bay, claiming the bay and the land for as far as he could see in the name of the Government of Great Britain. Cook named it New South Wales because the landscape looked to him like the south of Wales.

Cook was not aboard the First Fleet of eleven ships bearing about 850 convicts that arrived in Botany Bay in January of 1788. Commanding that mission was Captain Arthur Philip, who found conditions in Botany Bay difficult and almost immediately moved the colony farther north, to what is now Port Jackson. Philip called the more agreeable harbour Sydney Cove, after Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, then the British home secretary.

In the next four years, more than 4,200 convicts, men and women, arrived. The first crude wooden huts gave way to convict-built brick houses. Sydney was not entirely a penal settlement, however. The first free settlers arrived as early as 1793. The early years of the Sydney settlement were known for their hardship, as the settlers struggled to find good places to grow food. Soldiers ran the colony, punishing the prisoners severely for slight infractions. Men and women were executed for stealing food.

Relations with the Aboriginal peoples living in the area were strained and, at times, violent. The British had an advantage in both firepower and contagious disease—smallpox proved just as deadly as British bullets and bayonets. A different sort of conflict arose in 1804, when Irish convicts rose up against their captors in an area called Castle Hill. The Castle Hill Rebellion was put down by martial law. Four years later, the Rum Rebellion resulted in an armed takeover of the government, ousting then-Governor William Bligh (who nineteen years before had been ousted as captain of the ship Bounty). The resulting military rule ended with the installation of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who served in that post from 1810 to 1821. Macquarie played a leading role in transforming Sydney from a penal settlement into a modern city. Following his lead, the settlers built a bank and churches and embarked on a number of other public works programmes, including paved roads and the Botanic Garden.

Settlement increased inland. The first road connecting two cities was the Parramatta Road, which connected the city of Parramatta with the central business district of Sydney. This road was first used in 1811. In 1840, the last year of convict resettlement to Sydney, the population was 35,000. Gas first lit street lamps in 1841, and Sydney became a city a year later. The discovery of gold nearby in 1851 resulted in a skyrocketing population, to nearly 200,000 in 1871. Chronicling all of this settlement and expansion were a series of newspapers, starting with the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, in 1803. The Sydney Herald followed in 1831. At first a weekly, the Herald became a daily paper in 1840.

City construction and financing boomed throughout the 1850s and 1860s. Sydney University opened its doors in 1850. Also under construction were holiday resorts designed to entice the rich. The mechanisms of government were never far from the minds of the builders. Government House was built in 1845; the Customs House was erected in 1885, two years after the construction of Macquarie Lighthouse. The Town Hall followed in 1889. A railroad connected Sydney and Parramatta as early as 1855. Sydney’s central business district featured horse-drawn trams in the 1880s.

Sydney was hit hard by an economic downturn in the 1890s but recovered enough to be onboard with the rest of the colonies for the federation of Australia in 1901. Sydney became the capital of the State of New South Wales. Sydney served as a departure point for the Australian armed forces who went to Europe and the Middle East to fight during World War I. More than 60,000 Australians were killed during the four-year conflict; the number of injured, imprisoned or missing was more than 150,000. Sydney built the Anzac War Memorial in 1934.

Sydney’s economic suffering during the Great Depression was tempered somewhat by the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which created jobs for 1,400 people between 1924 and 1932. The city’s population topped one million in 1925. Australia joined Great Britain in declaring war on the Axis Powers during World War II, and Sydney contributed large amounts of manufacturing of war materiel. Sydney Harbour suffered a submarine attack from Japan, in May 1942; by and large, though, the city escaped direct conflict.

Sydney enjoyed a post-war boom, in economy and population, as war refugees moved to the city in large numbers and business picked up across economic sectors. A mining boom in the 1960s created even more growth. This prosperity led to the construction of many large buildings throughout the Sydney metropolitan area. The city’s best known landmark, the Sydney Opera House, opened in 1973. Other landmarks and skyscrapers followed, creating the modern Sydney skyline.

Geography and Climate

Sydney is mostly situated on a large plain but also has areas of wide valleys and rolling hills. Waterways in the city or nearby include the Cooks River, the Georges River, the Nepean River and the Parramatta River. The most famous geographical element of Sydney is Botany Bay, site of the landing of the First Fleet in 1788. Port Jackson Bay is at the mouth of Sydney Harbour. Metropolitan Sydney sprawls in all directions, most notably nearly to the edge of the Blue Mountains in the west. Estimates as of 2017 were that the total geographic area of Sydney was about 70 kilometres.

International climatic descriptions list Sydney as humid subtropical. Summers are warm and winters are mild. On an average summer day in Sydney, temperatures will range from 18 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius; some summer days can be very humid. Moving through the calendar year, autumns are mild in terms of temperature and humidity. Temperatures in winter can dip into the single digits of degrees Celsius; winter has the highest rainfall of any of Sydney’s seasons. The highest temperature ever recorded in Sydney was 45.8 degrees Celsius, in 2013; the lowest temperature the city ever recorded was 2.1 degrees Celsius, in 1932.

Economy

Sydney is home to a booming economy, powered by many major industries, along with trade and tourism. A majority of Australian companies have their head offices in Sydney, the economic and financial capital of the country, led by the Australian Stock Exchange and the Reserve Bank of Australia; of the ninety-six banks that have operations in Australia, more than forty have their head offices in Sydney. The suburbs of Campbelltown, Chatwood and Parramatta contains some of the city’s most prominent businesses and buildings.

According to the 2021 Census, the top industry in Sydney is hospitals. Other important industries include computer systems and banking.

Demographics

The population of Sydney as of 2021 was nearly 5.5 million people, living in more than 648 suburbs run by thirty-three local government areas. Women were a majority (50.6%). The age group with the largest population was 30–34 (8.0), followed by 25–29 (7.5).

The top country of origin for Sydney residents, according to the 2026 Census, is Australia, followed by China, with India, England, and Vietnam rounding out the top five. English is the language spoken most by Sydney residents, followed by Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese and Vietnamese.

Landmarks

Sydney’s best-known building is the Sydney Opera House, which sits on Bennelong Point, a tongue of land in Sydney Harbour. Nearby and spanning the harbour from Dawes Point to Milsons Point is the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Nicknamed “The Coathanger”, the bridge is the world’s sixth longest spanning arch bridge, with the top of the arch rising 134 metres above sea level. Traffic across Sydney Harbour Bridge had become so intense that in 1992, the city opened the Harbour Tunnel. The Rocks area of the city, where Dawes Point is located, is home to the Big Dig, an archaeological site that preserves artefacts from the late eighteenth century. The 309-metre-tall Sydney Tower offers an observation deck skywalk that ends in a trek on a glass platform 250 metres above the city.

Sydney Harbour National Park has more than 970 acres of land, foreshores and islands. The harbour has played host to sailing races since 1827. One of the world’s best-known sporting events is the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race; the 1,170-kilometre event dates to 1945 and is considered one of the most difficult sporting events in the world.

Taronga Zoo has a large number of native species and also many international animals and plants. The most popular way to access the zoo is a combination of ferry and cable car. The zoo also features Wild Ropes, an aerial adventure involving cross-suspension bridges and treetop obstacle courses. Sydney Aquarium features 4,000 animals from the more than 700 species. One part of the aquarium features a domed walkway the top of which is a large tank featuring marine life.

Sydney is a centre of national and international culture as well, with a number of museums and galleries, including the Australian Museum, Australian National Maritime Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Sydney and Powerhouse Museum. The city is home to the Royal Society of New South Wales and the Sydney Observatory.

Rugby was played in Australia first in Sydney, in 1865. The city is home to nine of sixteen teams in the National Rugby League. The national rugby union team, the Wallabies, call Sydney home. The Sydney Cricket Ground, which dates to 1878, regularly plays host to high-profile pro test matches and one-day events.

Bibliography

“2021 Greater Sydney, Census and Quickstats, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021.

https://abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/1GSYD. Accessed 11 J une 2024.

“Destination Sydney.” National Geographic, 1 July 2018. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/oceania/australia/sydney/top-activities-things-to-do/. Accessed 11 June 2024.

“Greater Sydney.” City of Sydney, 26 Apr. 2018. https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/research-and-statistics/the-city-at-a-glance/greater-sydney. Accessed 11 June 2024.

“Our Flora and Fauna.” Sydney Olympic Park, https://www.sopa.nsw.gov.au/Environment/Biodiversity/Our-flora-and-fauna. Accessed 11 June 2024.

“Our Story.” Sydney Opera House. https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/our-story.html. Accessed 11 June 2024.

“Profiling Our Community.” City of Sydney, 1 Oct. 2021. https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/research-and-statistics/profiling-our-community. Accessed 11 June 2024.