Sydney and it's Metropoletan Area

Sydney is bordered on the east by the Tasman Sea and encircled on its other sides by a nearly continuous band of bushland (areas of native vegetation).

The Nepean-Hawkesbury river system flows around Sydney’s outer edges, emptying into the sea north of Sydney.

The Blue Mountains rise to the west. Sydney is surrounded by rugged terrain known as sandstone country, where massive sedimentary rocks underlie thin soils and hardy forests of bushland.

National parks and smaller reserves protect most of the area’s remaining bushland, some of which is subtropical rain forest. This preservation creates a scenic greenbelt around Sydney.

The administrative area of Sydney proper covers a relatively small area of 6.2 sq km (2.4 sq mi) that includes mainly the central business district (CBD).

The Sydney metropolitan area covers an area of 1,580 sq km (610 sq mi), forming a rough semicircle that includes numerous suburban areas. It extends 25 km (16 mi) north to beyond Hornsby, 50 km (31 mi) west to Penrith, and 42 km (26 mi) southwest to Campbelltown.

The CBD and inner suburbs are centered on Sydney Harbour. This harbor joins with Middle Harbour and North Harbour (also known as Manly Cove) to form Port Jackson, which extends inland from the Tasman Sea to as far as Cockatoo Island.

To the west of the island, the waterway becomes narrower and is known as the Parramatta River.

The narrow coastal entrance to Port Jackson, just 2 km (1 mi) wide, is between two headlands, North Head and South Head.

To the south of Port Jackson are two smaller ocean inlets, Botany Bay and Port Hacking.

Sydney’s scenic coastal location adds to the city’s allure. Jutting sandstone cliffs alternate with intimate, sheltered bays along the Sydney Harbour foreshore.

Dozens of magnificent, expansive ocean beaches dot the coastline.

Rugged sandstone country is found to the north of Port Jackson, to the south around Port Hacking, and to the west in the Blue Mountains.

Relatively large unspoiled areas with native plants such as eucalyptus, acacia, banksia, and grevillea remain in the sandstone country.

Most of Sydney’s western suburbs are located on the generally flatter and lower terrain of the Cumberland Plain.

The CBD is located south of Sydney Cove, where the boat docks of Circular Quay line the shore.

West of Sydney Cove is the well-preserved historic district of The Rocks, which retains a sense of 19th-century Sydney.

Also to the west of Sydney Cove, Sydney Harbour Bridge spans Port Jackson, linking the CBD and North Sydney.

Completed in 1932, Sydney Harbour Bridge was for many years the longest single-span arched bridge in the world.

East of Sydney Cove and overlooking Sydney Harbour stands the Sydney Opera House, designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon and opened in 1973.

One of the world’s most recognizable landmarks with its arched-roof contours, the Sydney Opera House is a large complex of theaters and halls for the performing arts. These sites around Sydney Cove make up the city’s major tourist area.

East of the CBD, the Royal Botanic Gardens (established in 1816) cover nearly 30 hectares (74 acres) in a living museum of native and nonnative plant species.

An adjacent park to the south called the Domain provides a public gathering place and outdoor concert venue.

The smaller Hyde Park within the CBD completes this inner-city greenway.

To the west of the CBD, the former industrial wharf sites and railroad yards of Darling Harbour were transformed for Australia’s 1988 bicentennial (200th anniversary) in the largest urban redevelopment project ever undertaken in the country.

Darling Harbour is now a complex of popular attractions that includes the National Maritime Museum; the Harbourside Festival Marketplace; Sydney Aquarium, featuring transparent underwater viewing tunnels; the Convention and Exhibition Centre; the Entertainment Centre, with a state-of-the-art cinema; and the Chinese Gardens (also called the Garden of Friendship because the design was a gift from Sydney’s Chinese sister city of Guangdong).

The CBD is the site of Sydney’s most important historic buildings, many of which are well-preserved examples of the ornate architectural styles of Sydney’s 19th-century building boom.

George Street includes the Victorian architecture of the Sydney Town Hall (1869) and Queen Victoria Building (1898).

On nearby streets are St. Andrew’s Cathedral (1868), the Strand Arcade (1892), and the State Theatre (1929).

On the eastern edge of the CBD is the Macquarie Street precinct, where a Victorian-style sandstone building complex was originally completed in 1816 to house Sydney Hospital (originally Rum Hospital).

This complex now houses the hospital in its reconstructed (1894) central part, while the original north and south wings contain Parliament House (the seat of state government since the 1820s) and the Sydney Mint Museum (founded as Sydney Mint in 1854; opened as a museum in 1982).

Hyde Park Barracks (1819) and St. James’s Church (1822) are also located in this precinct.

Modern buildings in the CBD include Sydney Tower (1981), the city’s tallest structure at a height of 305 m (1,000 ft), with a narrow base ascending to a multilevel turret that has revolving restaurants and an observation deck.

The CBD is the most important commercial and employment center in Sydney.

The major transportation routes—especially for public transit services—focus above all on the CBD, helping it retain a greater role than the centers of many other Australian cities.

Major suburban centers for shopping and employment include North Sydney-St. Leonards and Chatswood to the north of Port Jackson; Castle Hill to the northwest; Strathfield, Parramatta, and Blacktown to the west; Fairfield and Liverpool to the southwest; Hurstville and Bankstown to the south; and Bondi Junction-Edgecliff to the east.

Industrial zones are spread across many suburbs, notably those that extend south of the CBD to Botany Bay and several areas to the west and southwest of the CBD.

Newer high-tech industrial areas include Macquarie Park to the northwest and Frenchs Forest to the north.

Sydney’s residential areas beyond the inner suburbs are mostly low-density suburbs, reflecting the “Australian dream” of owning a freestanding house on a small block of land.

Other housing includes one- or two-story terraced houses, which are adjoined in a row, in inner suburbs such as Paddington and Surry Hills; walk-up apartment blocks in the eastern suburbs and around railway stations elsewhere; and homes on large lots in the outer suburbs, especially those to the northwest.

For public housing, the state government built a number of high-rise apartment blocks in run-down inner suburbs after World War II (1939-1945).

These housing projects were soon deemed unsuccessful and were discontinued because they fostered crime and other social problems.

More recently, public housing has taken the form of separate or semidetached homes or two-story terraced townhouses that allow for higher densities but avoid the problems that accompany high-rise blocks.

The availability of housing has generally kept pace with demand, mostly through the outward expansion of the metropolitan area.

More housing has been created recently in inner areas, including the CBD, on redeveloped industrial sites and in converted commercial buildings.

Several outlying areas are part of the greater Sydney conurbation (a large urban area formed by urban sprawl).

To the west are areas of commercial strip development extending from Penrith through the Blue Mountains; to the north are the Central Coast area centered on the city of Gosford and, farther north, the Lake Macquarie-Newcastle urban area; and to the south is the Illawarra region centered on the city of Wollongong.

These outlying areas are functionally linked to Sydney. Large numbers of workers commute to Sydney from these areas, traveling 100 km (60 mi) or farther by road or rail.