Sydney - WikiHQ

Chinese (11.6%)
Irish (7.2%)
Scottish (5.6%)
Indian (4.9%)
Italian (4.3%)
Lebanese (3.5%)
Filipino (2.7%)
Greek (2.6%)
Vietnamese (2.5%)
German (2.2%)
Korean (1.4%)
Nepalese (1.4%)
Australian Aboriginal (1.4%)
Maltese (1.1%)

At the 2021 census, 40.5% of Sydney's population was born overseas. Foreign countries of birth with the greatest representation are mainland China, India, England, Vietnam, Philippines and New Zealand.

Language

42% of households in Sydney use a language other than English, with the most common being Mandarin (5%), Arabic (4.2%), Cantonese (2.8%), Vietnamese (2.2%) and Hindi (1.5%). 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.

Crime

Crime in Sydney is low, with The Independent ranking Sydney as the fifth safest city in the world in 2019. However, drug use is a significant problem. Methamphetamine is heavily consumed compared to other countries, while heroin is less common. One of the biggest crime-related issues in recent times was the introduction of lockout laws in February 2014, 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 lockout laws were removed in January 2020.

Culture

Science, art, and history

thumb|The [[Art Gallery of New South Wales, located in The Domain, is the fourth largest public gallery in Australia.]]

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is rich in Indigenous Australian heritage, containing around 1,500 pieces of Aboriginal rock art – the largest cluster of Indigenous sites in Australia. The park's indigenous sites include petroglyphs, art sites, burial sites, caves, marriage areas, birthing areas, midden sites, and tool manufacturing locations, which are dated to be around 5,000 years old. The inhabitants of the area were the Garigal people. Other 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.

alt=|thumb|The [[State Library of New South Wales holds the oldest library collections in Australia.]]

The Australian Museum opened in Sydney in 1827 with the purpose of collecting and displaying the natural wealth of the colony. It remains Australia's oldest natural history museum. In 1995 the Museum of Sydney opened on the site of the first Government House. It recounts the story of the city's development. Other museums include the Powerhouse Museum and the Australian National Maritime Museum.

The State Library of New South Wales holds the oldest library collections in Australia, being established as the Australian Subscription Library in 1826. The Royal Society of New South Wales, formed in 1866, encourages "studies and investigations in science, art, literature, and philosophy". It is based in a terrace house in Darlington owned by the University of Sydney. The Sydney Observatory building was constructed in 1859 and used for astronomy and meteorology research until 1982 before being converted into a museum.

The Museum of Contemporary Art was opened in 1991 and occupies an Art Deco building in Circular Quay. Its collection was founded in the 1940s by artist and art collector John Power and has been maintained by the University of Sydney. Sydney's other significant art institution is the Art Gallery of New South Wales which coordinates the Archibald Prize for portraiture. Sydney is also home to contemporary art gallery Artspace, housed in the historic Gunnery Building in Woolloomooloo, fronting Sydney Harbour.

Entertainment

thumb|left|upright|The [[State Theatre (Sydney)|State Theatre on Market Street was opened in 1929.]]

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. Prominent theatres in the city today include State Theatre, Theatre Royal, Sydney Theatre, The Wharf Theatre, and Capitol Theatre. Sydney Theatre Company maintains a roster of local, classical, and international plays. It occasionally features Australian theatre icons such as David Williamson, Hugo Weaving, and Geoffrey Rush. The city's other prominent theatre companies are New Theatre, Belvoir, and Griffin Theatre Company. Sydney is also home to Event Cinemas' first theatre, which opened on 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 Opera Australia and Sydney Symphony. It has staged over 100,000 performances and received 100 million visitors since opening in 1973.

thumb|A concert at the [[Sydney Opera House]]

Many writers have originated in and set their work in Sydney. Others have visited the city and commented on it. Some of them are commemorated in the Sydney Writers Walk at Circular Quay. The city was the headquarters for Australia's first published newspaper, the Sydney Gazette. Watkin Tench's A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay (1789) and A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson in New South Wales (1793) have remained the best-known accounts of life in early Sydney. Since the infancy of the establishment, much of the literature set in Sydney were concerned with life in the city's slums and working-class communities, notably William Lane's The Working Man's Paradise (1892), Christina Stead's Seven Poor Men of Sydney (1934) and Ruth Park's The Harp in the South (1948). The first Australian-born female novelist, Louisa Atkinson, set several novels in Sydney. Contemporary writers, such as Elizabeth Harrower, were born in the city and set most of their work there–Harrower's debut novel Down in the City (1957) was mostly set in a King's Cross apartment. Well known contemporary novels set in the city include Melina Marchetta's Looking for Alibrandi (1992), Peter Carey's 30 Days in Sydney: A Wildly Distorted Account (1999), J. M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year (2007) and Kate Grenville's The Secret River (2010). The Sydney Writers' Festival is held annually between April and May.

Filmmaking in Sydney was prolific until the 1920s when spoken films were introduced and American productions gained dominance. The Australian New Wave saw a resurgence in film production, with many notable features shot in the city between the 1970s and 80s, helmed by directors such as Bruce Beresford, Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong. Fox Studios Australia commenced production in Sydney in 1998. Successful films shot in Sydney since then include The Matrix, Lantana, Mission: Impossible 2, Moulin Rouge!, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Australia, Superman Returns, The Great Gatsby and Anyone but You. The National Institute of Dramatic Art is based in Sydney and has several famous alumni such as Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, Baz Luhrmann, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Jacqueline Mckenzie.

Sydney hosts several festivals throughout the year. The city's New Year's Eve celebrations are the largest in Australia. The Royal Easter Show is held every year at Sydney Olympic Park. Sydney Festival is Australia's largest arts festival. The travelling rock music festival Big Day Out originated in Sydney. The city's two largest film festivals are Sydney Film Festival and Tropfest. Vivid Sydney is an annual outdoor exhibition of art installations, light projections, and music. In 2015, Sydney was ranked the 13th top fashion capital in the world. It hosts the Australian Fashion Week in autumn. 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. Little Italy is located in Stanley Street. Kings Cross was previously considered the red-light district. The Star is the city's casino and is situated next to Darling Harbour while the new Crown Sydney resort is in nearby Barangaroo.

Media

alt=|thumb|Australia's national broadcaster, the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC, is headquartered in Ultimo.]]

The Sydney Morning Herald is Australia's oldest newspaper still in print; it has been published continuously since 1831. Its competitor is The Daily Telegraph, in print since 1879. Both papers have Sunday tabloid editions called The Sun-Herald and 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. 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. Nine's offices and news studios are in North Sydney, Ten is based in Pyrmont, and Seven is based in South Eveleigh in Redfern. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is located in Ultimo, and the Special Broadcasting Service is based in Artarmon. Multiple digital channels have been provided by all five networks since 2000. Foxtel is based in North Ryde and sells subscription cable television to most of the urban area. Sydney's first radio stations commenced broadcasting in the 1920s. Radio has managed to survive despite the introduction of television and the Internet. 2UE was founded in 1925 and under the ownership of Nine Entertainment is the oldest station still broadcasting.

Sport and outdoor activities

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. Horse racing remains popular 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. Disputes about appropriate clothing for surf bathing surfaced occasionally and concerned men as well as women. The City2Surf is an annual 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.

Sailing races have been held on Sydney Harbour since 1827. 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 event that starts from Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day. Since its inception in 1945 it has been recognised as one of the most difficult yacht races in the world. Six sailors died and 71 vessels of 115 failed to finish in the 1998 edition.

thumb|[[Sydney Olympic Park was built for the 2000 Olympics and has become a major sporting and recreational precinct.]]

The Royal Sydney Golf Club is based in Rose Bay and since its opening in 1893 has hosted the Australian Open on 13 occasions.

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.

The Sydney International tennis tournament is held here at the beginning of each year as the warm-up for the Grand Slam in Melbourne. Two of the most successful tennis players in history (Ken Rosewall and Todd Woodbridge) were born in and live in the city.

Sydney co-hosted the FIBA Oceania Championship in 1979, 1985, 1989, 1995, 2007, 2009 and 2011.

Government

Historical governance

alt=|thumb|The [[Parliament of New South Wales|New South Wales parliament sits at Parliament House, which is the oldest public building in Australia.]]

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. The first Legislative Council met in 1826, and in 1842, the imperial parliament expanded and reformed the council, making it partly elected. In the same year, the town of Sydney officially became a city and an elected municipal council was established. The council had limited powers, mostly relating to services such as street lighting and drainage. 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.

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. 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. There are 34 local government areas which are wholly or mostly within Greater Sydney as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Greater Sydney's boundaries encompass 49 state electoral districts and 24 federal electoral districts.

Bayside
Canterbury-Bankstown
Blacktown
Blue Mountains
Burwood
Camden
Campbelltown
Canada Bay
Central Coast
Cumberland
Fairfield
Georges River
Hawkesbury
The Hills
Hornsby
Hunter's Hill
Inner West
Ku-ring-gai
Lane Cove
Liverpool
Mosman
North Sydney
Northern Beaches
Parramatta
Penrith
Randwick
Ryde
Strathfield
Sutherland
Sydney
Waverley
Willoughby
Wollondilly
Woollahra

alt=|thumb|[[Government House, Sydney|Government House is the official residence of the Governor of New South Wales]]

Sydney is the location of the secondary official residences of the Governor-General and Prime Minister – Admiralty House and Kirribilli House respectively. The Parliament of New South Wales sits in Parliament House on Macquarie Street. This building was completed in 1816 and first served as a hospital. The Legislative Council moved into its northern wing in 1829 and by 1852 had entirely supplanted the surgeons from their quarters. Several additions have been made as the Parliament has expanded, but it retains its original Georgian façade. Government House was completed in 1845 and has served as the home of 25 Governors and 5 Governors-General. The Cabinet of Australia also meets in Sydney when needed.

The highest court in the state is the Supreme Court of New South Wales, located in Queen's Square. The city is also the home of numerous branches of the intermediate District Court of New South Wales and the lower Local Court of New South Wales.

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. Established in 1842, the City of Sydney is one such local government area and includes the CBD and some adjoining inner suburbs. It is responsible for fostering development in the local area, providing local services (waste collection and recycling, libraries, parks, sporting facilities), promoting the interests of residents, supporting organisations that target the local community, and attracting and providing infrastructure for commerce, tourism, and industry. The City of Sydney is led by an elected Council and Lord Mayor.

In federal politics, Sydney was initially considered as a possibility for Australia's capital city; the newly created city of Canberra ultimately filled this role. Seven Australian 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:

New South Wales Police Force
New South Wales Ambulance
Fire and Rescue NSW

Infrastructure

Education

alt=|thumb|The [[University of Sydney]]

Education became a focus for the colony from the 1870s when public schools began to form and schooling became compulsory. By 2011, 90% of working age residents had completed some schooling and 57% had completed the highest level of school. 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%). The University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney are ranked equal 19th in the world, the University of Technology Sydney is ranked in the top 100,

Sydney has public, denominational, and independent schools. 7.8% of Sydney residents are attending primary school and 6.4% are enrolled in secondary school. 14 of the 17 selective secondary schools in New South Wales are based in Sydney.

Public vocational education and training in Sydney are run by TAFE New South Wales and began with the opening of the Sydney Technical College in 1878.

Governor Macquarie arranged for the construction of Sydney Hospital, completed in 1816.

Healthcare was recognised as a right in the early 1900s and Sydney's public hospitals came under the oversight of the Government of New South Wales. The Prince of Wales Hospital was established in 1852 and became the first of several major hospitals to be opened. St Vincent's Hospital was founded in 1857, the Prince Henry Hospital in 1881, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1882, the Royal North Shore Hospital in 1885, the St George Hospital in 1894, and the Nepean Hospital in 1895. Westmead Hospital in 1978 was the last major facility to open.

Transport

Roads

thumb|[[Light Horse Interchange, the largest of its kind in Australia]]

The motor vehicle, more than any other factor, has determined the pattern of Sydney's urban development since World War II. 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 70% in 1971. The Light Horse Interchange in western Sydney is the largest in the southern hemisphere.

There can be up to 350,000 cars using Sydney's roads simultaneously during peak hour, leading to significant traffic congestion. In contrast, in 2014 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. Several significant infrastructure projects have been completed since. 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.

Suburban trains

thumb|[[Central railway station, Sydney|Central station is the busiest railway station in Australia, and the city's main public transport hub.]]

Sydney has the largest public transport network in Australia, with 67% of residents having access to adequate public transport services. Sydney's rail network began with the construction of a rail line to present-day Granville in 1855. Afterwards, the network grew with European settlement in the 19th century. In the 1850s and 1860s, the rail network reached areas that are now outer suburbs of Sydney. The rail network, as well as all public transport within Sydney, is ticketed through Opal cards, reusable and contactless cards that are used to automatically calculate and collect transport fares.

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. Sydney Trains is the suburban rail service. Its tracks form part of the New South Wales railway network. It serves 168 stations across the city and had an annual ridership of 302 million passenger journeys in 2023–24. Sydney's railway was first constructed in 1854 with progressive extension to the network to serve both freight and passengers. The main station is the Central railway station in the southern part of the CBD.

Metro

thumb|[[Sydney Metro City & Southwest|Martin Place metro station]]

The Sydney Metro is a driverless rapid transit network separate from the suburban rail network, with connections at major interchange stations. Currently, the network consists of a single line extending from Tallawong in the north-west to the city and Sydenham. This line, designated as the M1, will be extended to Bankstown in 2025 with suburbs previously on the Bankstown railway line currently closed for conversion to the metro. A new line through the inner west to Parramatta is planned to be built by 2030. It currently serves 21 stations. A line to serve the greater west is planned for 2026 and will include a station for the second international airport. Sydney metro operates with much higher frequency than the suburban rail network, with service intervals of 3-4 minutes compared to Sydney Trains' 10-15 minutes. The scheme is intended to increase Sydney's public transport capacity by 60%.

Light rail

alt=|thumb|The [[CBD and South East Light Rail connects Sydney's CBD with the Eastern Suburbs.]]

Sydney once had one of the largest tram networks in the British Empire after London. It served routes covering . The internal combustion engine made buses more flexible than trams and consequently more popular, leading to the progressive closure of the network with the final tram operating in 1961.

In 1997, the Inner West Light Rail opened between Central station and Wentworth Park. It ran on a freight line extending from the city to Darling Harbour and the Fish Markets, part of the Metropolitan Goods Lines. The line was extended to Lilyfield in 2000 and then Dulwich Hill in 2014. It links the Inner West and Darling Harbour with Central station and facilitated 9.1 million journeys in the 2016–17 financial year. A second, the CBD and South East Light Rail line serving the CBD and Eastern Suburbs opened in 2019–2020. A light rail line serving the western hub of Parramatta opened in 2024. The project is divided into two stages, with the first (the L4) replacing the Carlingford railway line that closed in 2020. The second stage of the project, the L5, servicing the Olympic park, is currently under construction.

Buses

Bus services are conducted by private operators under contract to Transport for NSW. Opal cards are used on bus routes as they are with all public transport in Sydney. In total, nearly 225 million boardings were recorded across the bus network. NightRide is a nightly bus service that operates between midnight and 5am.

Ferries

thumb|A [[Freshwater-class ferry|Freshwater-class ferry Departing Circular Quay to Manly]]

At the time the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932, the city's ferry service was the largest in the world. Patronage declined from 37 million passengers in 1945 to 11 million in 1963 but has recovered somewhat in recent years. at a cost of $2.5 billion. Notably, it will not feature a curfew, unlike Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport, which imposes a suspension of all aircraft operations between 11pm and 6am. 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 number of aircraft movements. Other airports include Camden Airport, The Oaks Airfield, and Menangle Airfield, which are mostly used for general aviation, flight training and by private operators. Seaplane terminals are located at Rose Bay and Palm Beach, and military airports at Holsworthy and Richmond. Port Botany has surpassed Port Jackson as the city's major shipping port. Cruise ship terminals are located at Sydney Cove and White Bay.

Utilities

thumb|[[Warragamba Dam is Sydney's largest water supply dam.]]

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. 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.

The state-owned corporation WaterNSW now manages eleven major dams: Warragamba, one of the largest domestic water supply dams in the world, Woronora, Cataract, Cordeaux, Nepean, Avon, Wingecarribee Reservoir, Fitzroy Falls Reservoir, Tallowa, the Blue Mountains Dams, and Prospect Reservoir. Water is collected from five catchment areas covering and total storage amounts to . Their combined networks include over 815,000 poles and of cables. Submarine communications cable systems in Sydney include the Australia–Japan Cable, Telstra Endeavour and the Southern Cross Cable, which link Australia and countries in the Pacific.

Environmental issues and pollution reduction

Air quality

thumb|[[George Street, Sydney|George Street and bushfire smoke in December 2019]]

As climate change, greenhouse gas emissions and pollution have become a major issue for Australia, Sydney has in the past been criticised for its lack of focus on reducing pollution and emissions and maintaining water quality. The release of the Metropolitan Air Quality Scheme (MAQS) led to a broader understanding of the causation of pollution in Sydney, allowing the government to form appropriate responses.

The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season significantly impacted outer Sydney and dramatically reduced air quality, leading to a smoky haze that lingered for days. The air quality was 11 times the hazardous level in some days, worse than New Delhi's; it was compared to "smoking 32 cigarettes" by Brian Oliver, a respiratory diseases scientist at the University of Technology Sydney. Since Sydney is surrounded by bushland and forest, bushfires can ring the region in a natural phenomena that is labelled "ring of fire".

The City of Sydney became the first council in Australia to achieve formal certification as carbon-neutral in 2008. The city has reduced its 2007 carbon emissions by 6% and since 2006 has reduced carbon emissions from city buildings by up to 20%. The Sustainable Sydney 2030 program presented a guide to reducing energy in homes and offices by 30%. Reductions in energy consumption have slashed energy bills by $30 million a year. Solar panels have been established on many CBD buildings to minimise carbon pollution by around 3,000 tonnes a year.

The city also has an "urban forest growth strategy", in which it aims to regularly 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. 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.

Car-dependency

thumb|[[Traffic congestion on the Warringah Freeway, Milsons Point]]

Australian cities are some of the most car-dependent cities in the world, especially by world city standards, although Sydney's is the lowest of Australia's major cities at 66%. Sydney also has the highest usage of public transport in an Australian city, at 27%–comparable with New York City, Shanghai and Berlin. Despite its high ranking for an Australian city, Sydney has a low level of public transport services, with a historically low-density layout and significant urban sprawl, thus increasing the likelihood of car dependency.

Strategies have been implemented to reduce private vehicle pollution by encouraging public transport, initiating the development of high density housing and introducing a fleet of 10 new electric cars, the largest order of the pollution-free vehicle in Australia. Electric cars do not produce carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide, which contribute to climate change. Cycling trips increased by 113% across Sydney's inner-city from 2010 to 2015, at which point about 2,000 bikes were passing through top peak-hour intersections on an average weekday.:

San Francisco, United States of America
Wellington, New Zealand
Florence, Italy
Nagoya, Japan
Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Guangzhou, China

Notes

References

External links

Official Sydney, NSW government site
Official Sydney tourism site
Historical film clips of Sydney on the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's australianscreen online
Dictionary of Sydney – the history of Sydney ()
Sydney Official History Archives
State Records New South Wales