Economy and Transportation in Sydney

Sydney is a financial and business center for New South Wales (NSW), and the broader Asia-Pacific region.

In recent decades, it has replaced Melbourne as the nation’s most important center for corporate headquarters and financial institutions.

It also has attracted the Asia-Pacific headquarters of a number of major international companies.

Service activities—including retail and wholesale trade, health, education, the hospitality industry, and financial services—are of paramount importance to Sydney’s economy.

Tourism is also of major importance, especially since the boost it received during the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.

In 1999, before the Olympics, about 2 million international and more than 8 million domestic tourists visited Sydney, injecting A$6.6 million into the local economy.

Service industries as a whole employ more than 80 percent of the workforce, compared to the nearly 13 percent of the workforce that the manufacturing industry employs (1996-1997).

Although the manufacturing industry has declined overall, Sydney continues to be one of Australia’s largest manufacturing centers.

In fact, three-quarters of NSW’s industrial activity happens in Sydney, easily exceeding the output of industrial towns such as Newcastle and Wollongong.

Metals, machinery, clothing, processed food, electronic equipment, motor vehicles, ships, and refined petroleum represent the wide range of Sydney’s manufactured products.

Sydney is also the nation’s most active shipping port for international freight.

Products such as wheat, wool, and meat are exported through Port Jackson and through the large port complex on neighboring Botany Bay.

Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport, located at Botany Bay, is Australia’s busiest airport for both international and domestic flights.

Transportation from the airport to the CBD was augmented in 2000 with the opening of the Eastern Distributor tollway as well as a privately financed rail line.

The state’s road and rail networks focus primarily on Sydney. Rail is the key transit link between the city and its suburbs.

The extensive suburban rail system is centered on the CBD, carrying a large number of commuters to and from their workplaces.

Public transportation also includes buses, which replaced an electric tramway system in the mid-1900s.

A privately operated light rail, or tramway, system was constructed in the 1990s from the CBD to Wentworth Park and was extended in 2000 to the inner-west suburbs; more extensions are planned.

The city center also has a privately operated monorail, used mainly for short trips between the CBD and Darling Harbour.

State-operated ferry services are a popular and efficient way to traverse Port Jackson.

Ferries are used extensively for travel between the CBD and harbor suburbs, especially Manly, the North Shore, and inner suburban locations both east and west of Circular Quay, the main ferry terminal.

A special river ferry goes as far west as the suburb of Parramatta.

A number of freeways lead into, or at least toward, the city center, although Sydney does not have an extensive freeway system.

For many years, Sydney’s urban planning did not emphasize the use of private vehicles, and the city was relatively late in developing motorways.

The first limited urban freeway, Warringah Expressway, opened in 1968 north of Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Reliance on private vehicles is more pronounced in the outer suburbs, which are farther from the rail lines and are typically serviced by privately operated buses.

Any proposal to augment existing motorways to help relieve traffic congestion raises protests over the environmental impact of such an undertaking and brings counterproposals for investment in public transport.

In one exception, Sydney Harbour Tunnel opened in 1992 to relieve traffic buildup on Sydney Harbour Bridge, which reached peak-hour capacity in the late 1980s.