Sydney
is the most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan
area population of approximately 4.28 million (2006 estimate).
It is the state capital of New South Wales, and the site
of the first British colony in Australia, established in
1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip, leader of the First
Fleet from Britain. A resident of the city is referred to
as a Sydneysider.
Sydney is situated
on Australia's south-east coast. The city is built around
Port Jackson, which includes Sydney Harbour, leading to
the city's nickname, "the Harbour City". It is noted for
the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, and its beaches.
The metropolitan area is surrounded by national parks, and
contains many bays, rivers and inlets. It is listed as a
beta world city by the Loughborough University group's 1999
inventory. The city has hosted international sporting, political
and cultural events, including the 1938 British Empire Games,
2000 Summer Olympics and the 2003 Rugby World Cup. In September
2007, the city hosted the leaders of the 21 APEC economies
for APEC Australia 2007, and in July 2008 hosted World Youth
Day 2008. The main airport serving Sydney is Sydney Airport.
Sydney is one of the most multicultural
cities in the world, which reflects its role as a major destination
for immigrants to Australia. According to the Mercer cost of
living survey, Sydney is Australia’s most expensive city, and
the 21st most expensive in the world.
Sydney's urban area is in a coastal basin, which is bordered
by the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Blue Mountains to the
west, the Hawkesbury River to the north and the Royal National
Park to the south. It lies on a submergent coastline, where
the ocean level has risen to flood deep river valleys (ria)
carved in the hawkesbury sandstone. Port Jackson, better known
as Sydney Harbour, is one such ria and is the largest natural
harbour in the world. The Sydney area is not affected by significant
earthquakes. The urban area has around 70 harbour and ocean
beaches, including the famous Bondi Beach. Sydney's urban area
covers 1,687 km˛ (651 sq mi) as at 2001. The Sydney Statistical
Division, used for census data, is the unofficial metropolitan
area and covers 12,145 km˛ (4,689 sq mi). This area includes
the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains, and national parks and
other unurbanised land.
Geographically, Sydney lies over two regions: the Cumberland
Plain, a relatively flat region lying to the south and west
of the harbour, and the Hornsby Plateau, a sandstone plateau
lying mainly to the north of the harbour and dissected by steep
valleys. The parts of the city with the oldest European development
are located in the flat areas south of the harbour. The North
Shore was slower to develop because of its hilly topography
and lack of access across the harbour. The Sydney Harbour Bridge
was opened in 1932 and linked the North Shore to the rest of
the city.
Sydney's central
business district (CBD) extends southwards for about 3 kilometres
(1.25 mi) from Sydney Cove, the point of the first European
settlement in the area at the southern end of the bridge known
as "The Rocks". Densely concentrated skyscrapers including Sydney
Tower which is the city's tallest structure. Other buildings
including historic sandstone buildings such as the Sydney Town
Hall and Queen Victoria Building are interspersed by several
parks such as Wynyard and Hyde Park. The Sydney CBD is bounded
on the east side by a chain of parkland that extends from Hyde
Park through the Domain and Royal Botanic Gardens to Farm Cove
on the harbour. The west side is bounded by Darling Harbour,
a popular tourist and nightlife precinct while Central station
marks the southern end of the CBD. George Street serves as the
Sydney CBD's main north-south thoroughfare.
As the site of
earliest European settlement in Australia, the CBD contains
many other historic buildings such as the Sydney Mint, one of
Australia's oldest buildings, Fort Denison, a penal site which
was built in the colonial days on a small island situated on
the harbour, as well as heritage listed buildings in The Rocks.
The area also boasts well known modern architectural sites such
as the Sydney Opera House and Martin Place.
Although the
CBD dominated the city's business and cultural life in the early
days, other business/cultural districts have developed in a
radial pattern since World War II. As a result, the proportion
of white-collar jobs located in the CBD declined from more than
60 per cent at the end of World War II to less than 30 per cent
in 2004. Together with the commercial district of North Sydney,
joined to the CBD by the Harbour Bridge, the most significant
outer business districts are Parramatta in the central-west,
Penrith in the west, Bondi Junction in the east, Liverpool in
the southwest, Chatswood to the north, and Hurstville to the
south.
The extensive area covered by
urban Sydney is formally divided into more than 300 suburbs
(for addressing and postal purposes), and administered as 38
local government areas. There is no city-wide government, but
the Government of New South Wales and its agencies have extensive
responsibilities in providing metropolitan services. The City
of Sydney itself covers a fairly small area comprising the central
business district and its neighbouring inner-city suburbs. In
addition, regional descriptions are used informally to conveniently
describe larger sections of the urban area. These include Eastern
Suburbs, Hills District, Inner West, Canterbury-Bankstown, Lower
North Shore, Northern Beaches, Northern Suburbs, North Shore,
St George, Southern Sydney, South-eastern Sydney, South-western
Sydney, Sutherland Shire and Western Sydney. However, many suburbs
are not conveniently covered by any of these categories.
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