Sydney (Australia) - geography.

Sydney (Australia) - geography. I INTRODUCTION Sydney (Australia), first permanent European settlement in Australia and today the country's largest metropolitan area, with about 4 million residents. Sydney is the seat of state government as the capital of New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous and economically important state. The city is a dynamic cultural center with a diversified economy focused on service industries, tourism, manufacturing, and international commerce. Its port is one of the leading centers of intercontinental trade in the Asia-Pacific region. Sydney is located on Australia's southeastern coast at Port Jackson, a large, sheltered, deep-water inlet of the Tasman Sea (part of the South Pacific Ocean). Sydney was founded as a British penal colony on January 26, 1788. The British government sent ships of convicts from overcrowded British jails to Sydney until the mid-1800s. Today, the stunning natural harbor forms the centerpiece of a modern, cosmopolitan city. Sydney's diverse population, a result of immigration from many other countries, is reflected in the city's vibrant cultural life. Sydney is the top Australian destination for tourists from abroad, and tourism is a leading industry in the city. Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, which boosted its image worldwide as the gateway to Australia. Sydney has a temperate humid climate with four distinct seasons. Because Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, its seasons are the opposite of those in the Northern Hemisphere. During the peak of summer in January, the city has an average daily high temperature of 26°C (79°F) and an average low of 19°C (66°F). In July, the coldest month of the year, the average daily high temperature is 16°C (61°F), and the average low is 8°C (46°F). High and low temperatures are slightly more extreme in the inland suburbs, which are farther from the moderating influence of Port Jackson. The average annual precipitation of 1,222 mm (48 in) is spread fairly evenly throughout the year, with a slightly drier period in spring. Rainfall is variable in both amount and timing, however, and severe thunderstorms with hail and torrential rain occur a few times each year. Snow is extremely rare, but frosts are common in the inland suburbs during colder months. II SYDNEY AND ITS METROPOLITAN 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 NepeanHawkesbury 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 innercity 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 19thcentury 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 SydneySt. 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 MacquarieNewcastle 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. III POPULATION The Sydney metropolitan area has a population of 3.27 million (1996) residents, who call themselves Sydneysiders. About 22,000 of these people live in the central area of the city proper. The Sydney conurbation (including the Central Coast, Newcastle, and Wollongong), designated as the Sydney Statistical Division, has an estimated population of 4.04 million (1999). The conurbation contains nearly two-thirds of the state population. Sydney's population grew steadily after the city was founded in 1788. Sydney had about 50,000 residents by the late 1840s; 100,000 by the mid-1860s; 500,000 around the turn of the century; 1 million by the early 1920s; 2 million by the late 1950s; and 3 million by about 1990. Sydney's population density is among the lowest of any major world city, in part because suburban expansion began in earnest in the late 19th century after mechanized transportation became available. Until around 1850, the population of Sydney increased by about 10 percent annually, peaking at about 3,000 additional residents per year from 1841 to 1846. The growth rate was more varied in the second half of the 19th century. The city had periods of slower growth in the 1850s, when population was lost or diverted to the Australian gold fields, and in the 1890s, when a combination of drought and economic recession prevailed. Economic and political factors continued to affect growth rates during the 20th century. Higher growth occurred in the prosperous decade of 1911 to 1921, followed by much lower growth during the Great Depression years of the late 1920s and early 1930s and again after World War II. Soon after the war, however, Australia introduced an aggressive campaign to attract migrant workers from other countries to assist economic growth and development. This brought a period of higher population growth. In the second half of the 20th century, declining birth rates and a net loss of native residents to other parts of the country meant Sydney's growth depended increasingly on immigration from other countries and movement from rural areas to the city. Ups and downs in growth rates since the 1970s thus largely reflect variations in immigration rates. The importance of immigration in Sydney's growth is reflected in the city's many ethnic groups. Immigration before World War II was mostly from the United Kingdom and Ireland. Immediately after the war, it was from the United Kingdom and northwestern Europe, followed by a wave of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Most recently, immigrants from the Middle East and Asia, including refugees from the war-torn countries of Vietnam and Lebanon, have settled in Sydney. By 1996 Sydney's residents included immigrants from the following countries, by number of Sydney residents: the United Kingdom (198,200), China, including Hong Kong (99,600), New Zealand (66,900), Vietnam (59,400), Italy (53,400), the former Yugoslavia (51,600), Lebanon (51,000), the Philippines (42,400), Greece (37,600), South Africa (26,640), India (25,400), Fiji (23,100), Germany (20,900), and South Korea (20,700). Another 25 nations each have anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 people represented in Sydney. Much larger numbers of Sydney-born residents have parents or grandparents who immigrated to the city. New ethnic groups have tended to settle in a single area for mutual support before integrating themselves more with the general community. Sydney thus has definite Vietnamese, Italian, South African, Indian, Korean, and Chinese districts, among others. None, however, has ever been an ethnic ghetto. Few obvious racial or ethnic tensions exist between groups. Schools have become more ethnically and culturally diverse, and the addition of new cuisines and cultural activities has added a richness to life in Sydney. Patterns of religious worship have generally changed along with immigration patterns, as different religious groups become part of the society. Until World War II, the Anglican Church of Australia (known as the Church of England until 1981) had the largest number of members, reflecting the city's predominantly Anglo-Saxon population. After the war, Catholicism became more prevalent than other Christian denominations in Sydney. The postwar decades saw increasing representation of non-Christian faiths, especially Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. The population of Sydney also includes about 30,000 Aboriginal Australians, the indigenous people of Australia. Many of Sydney's Aboriginal people live in the Redfern neighborhood in the heart of the city, with a second historically important concentration at La Perouse. Their standard of living is generally lower, and their unemployment rate higher, than that of other Sydney residents. To help combat these inequities, the Aboriginal people have formed a number of self-help organizations. IV EDUCATION AND CULTURE Sydney is home to numerous institutions of higher education, including five major universities: Macquarie University (founded in 1964), with about 22,000 students; University of New South Wales (1948), with about 30,000 students; University of Sydney (1850), Australia's first university, with about 35,000 students; University of Western Sydney (1989), with about 26,000 students; and the University of Technology, Sydney (1965 as NSW Institute of Technology, then given university status in 1988), with about 26,000 students. Cultural institutions in Sydney include several of the country's most important museums. The Art Gallery of New South Wales, established in 1874, houses some of the finest works of art in Australia, including Asian, European, and Australian collections. It also includes the Yiribana Gallery, which houses the world's largest exhibit of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture. The Australian Museum, founded in 1827 and the country's first museum, contains natural history and anthropology exhibits. The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (1880) comprises the Powerhouse Museum, which includes science and technology exhibits, and the Sydney Observatory astronomical museum. The turbulent history of Sydney from 1788 to 1850, including the effects of European colonization on the local Aboriginal population, is the subject of multimedia exhibits at the Museum of Sydney (1995). The State Library of New South Wales has a collection of 4 million items, including the nation's most important collection of Australian archival material in the Mitchell Library (1906). The Sydney Opera House is the centerpiece of the city's venues for live performances of ballet, opera, and classical music. The Australian Opera, Australian Ballet, and Sydney Dance companies regularly stage performances there. Moreover, the venue often hosts internationally touring performances. Sydney also has many venues for musical theater, drama, and popular music. The Sydney Theatre Company is one of many successful theater companies in the city. Sydney is also home to the internationally acclaimed Australian Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The cultural life of Sydney is vibrant and varied, reflecting the multicultural nature of the city. Many festivals, parades, and outdoor concerts enliven the city streets in the summer months. Annual events include the Sydney Festival in January and February, the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in March, the Royal Easter Show in April, and the multicultural festival Carnivale in September and October. Sydney has also become world renowned for its street parties and fireworks on New Year's Eve and on Australia Day, celebrated on Sydney's founding date, January 26. V RECREATION Sydneysiders thrive on outdoor recreation, and their city serves them well. Sydney radiates energy, vitality, and physical beauty. The city's harbors and ocean beaches offer an ideal setting for yachting, sailing, surfing, swimming, and scuba diving. Bondi Beach to the east of the CBD and Manly Beach to the north of Port Jackson are popular recreation areas. Maroubra and Narrabeen beaches are two of the best beaches for ocean surfing, a way of life for some Sydneysiders. A ring of national parks around Sydney offers spectacular settings for outdoor activities such as bushwalking (hiking). Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park to the north contains ancient Aboriginal sandstone engravings; Royal National Park to the south covers 15,000 hectares (37,100 acres) of the Sydney Basin sandstone country and a long stretch of coastline; and the Blue Mountains National Park to the west is a sanctuary for koala bears and other native wildlife. The greater Blue Mountains area was designated as a World Heritage Site in November 2000. Areas of original bushland have also been preserved in the metropolitan area in the Lane Cove and Garigal national parks, as well as in a number of smaller reserves. Sydney Harbour National Park encompasses most of the harbor islands and several headlands, including North Head. The Taronga Park Zoological Gardens have outdoor-habitat exhibits of endangered animal species and Australian wildlife, all situated on a large site along the Sydney Harbour shore. The Royal Botanic Gardens and Centennial Park are more formal areas of parkland near the CBD. Most of these areas are used extensively for picnics and barbecues as well as for more active pursuits. Major sporting facilities are centered in two areas: in and near Moore Park to the southeast of the CBD and at Homebush Bay to the west. Thousands of fans of cricket and rugby football attend weekend games at the Sydney Cricket Ground and Sydney Football Stadium, both in Moore Park. A horseracing track, Randwick Racecourse, is nearby. Homebush Bay saw massive redevelopment for the 2000 Olympics. The overall budget for the Olympics was A$8 billion, including construction costs. Facilities built for the event include Stadium Australia, the main venue of the Olympics; the Sydney International Aquatic Center; tennis, hockey, and archery complexes; the Superdome for concerts and various indoor sports, including basketball; and the new Showgrounds, which replaced the old Showgrounds in the Moore Park area, for sporting and cultural events. Other Olympic venues were also constructed in various suburban locations, notably the State Rowing Center at Penrith Lakes in the outer west. Sydney's second major horseracing venue is at Rosehill, near Homebush Bay. VI ECONOMY AND TRANSPORTATION 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. VII GOVERNMENT The Sydney metropolitan area is governed by 41 local councils. The most prominent of these is the Sydney City Council, which serves the CBD. Each council provides a range of services, including local road and sidewalk maintenance, garbage collection and recycling, public libraries, and local recreational facilities. Each council also presides over local planning and development, although the state government has a direct say in CBD planning issues and at times takes control of other major projects. The NSW Department of Urban Affairs and Planning oversees the planning process. Councilors are elected by local residents and by owners and renters of commercial property who pay taxes within the council's jurisdiction. The mayor of Sydney is elected to serve a four-year term. Many other metropolitan and state authorities also have important roles. Sydney Water has responsibility for water supply, sewerage, and storm water drainage throughout the metropolitan area. Electricity supply is regulated by the state government, with separate commercial operations for generation, transmission, and local distribution. Public transport (railways, government buses, and ferries) are operated by State Transit, while the tramway, monorail, airport railway, some buses, and a small number of tollways are privately operated. VIII CONTEMPORARY ISSUES Sydney has many of the same social welfare issues that other large cities have. Illegal drugs are a problem, in part because Sydney is an international city and the major gateway to Australia. Crime and gang activity is of concern in some communities. Water pollution in Port Jackson and along the ocean beaches is an ongoing issue. Improvements to sewage treatment facilities are in the preliminary stages. A major engineering project to help prevent sewage overflow during heavy rain is slated for completion in 2001. Additional upgrades to both coastal and inland sewage treatment plants are needed, however. A broader concern is the impact of urban expansion on the environment. Deforestation caused by urban sprawl threatens bushland, open space for recreation, and the little remaining rural land near the metropolitan area. Bushfires (wildfires) are a serious environmental hazard in bushland areas bordered by urban development. Urban expansion to the west and northwest is expected to further compromise the health of the Nepean-Hawkesbury river system. The state government has responded in part by proposing an increase in housing density in selected areas of existing suburbs, but local councils have vigorously opposed this proposal. Despite the resounding success of the Olympic Games and the generally positive financial result, uses need to be found for the newly built facilities. The costs of building these facilities were mostly recouped in the tourism dollars the events brought into the city. However, state taxpayers may be subsidizing the continued operation of these facilities for many years to come. The Olympics are also remembered for bringing contemporary Aboriginal issues into the spotlight. This helped raise appreciation of Aboriginal culture and awareness of the issues Aboriginal people face, such as their longstanding struggle to reclaim lands they lost due to European settlement. However, public attention to these issues waned somewhat after the event. IX HISTORY Before European settlement, the area of present-day metropolitan Sydney was inhabited by an estimated 3,000 Aboriginal people of the Cadigal (also known as Eora), Dharawal, Dharug, Gandangara, and Guringai tribes. These Aboriginal tribes led a much more settled life than the inland tribes and relied heavily on food from marine sources. Little more is known of these people and their lifestyle and culture because they were essentially wiped out within a few years after the first British colonists arrived in 1788. Aboriginal people were decimated by European diseases and, to a lesser extent, killed in attacks by British settlers. They also were dispossessed of their lands. The colonists introduced an epidemic of what was probably smallpox that killed about half of the area's Aboriginal population in 1789. Encounters between Aboriginal people and colonists were mostly peaceful at first, but by 1790 the two sides were engaged in a series of armed conflicts known as the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars. By the end of the century, the few remaining Aboriginal people in the area were reduced to being urban-fringe dwellers. British explorer Captain James Cook noted the entrance to Port Jackson on his voyage of discovery in 1770 but did not enter. He landed at Botany Bay and claimed possession of the southeastern part of the Australian continent for the United Kingdom, later naming the territory New South Wales. It was largely on the basis of Cook's reports and those of others on his ship, the Endeavour, that the British government decided in 1786 to establish a settlement at Botany Bay. The intention was to set up a penal colony to help relieve overcrowding in the British gaols (jails). That year British home secretary Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, appointed retired naval captain Arthur Phillip to be the first governor of New South Wales. Phillip supervised the preparation of the 11 ships of the First Fleet that set sail for Australia in May 1787, and he commanded one of the ships on the journey. The fleet arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 with more than 1,450 people, including 736 convicts, most of whom were serving time for minor offenses such as theft. The first settlers also included 20 civil officials and more than 200 marines and their dependents, while most of the 443 seamen later sailed on to other destinations. After a brief exploratory expedition north from Botany Bay, Phillip chose Port Jackson as a preferable site. On January 26 he raised the British flag there and set up camp at Sydney Cove, which he named after Viscount Sydney, and the penal colony became known as Sydney. The early years were tough for the settlers, who lacked expertise in farming and found it difficult to cultivate crops in the poor soils of the surrounding sandstone country. Food rations were reduced on a number of occasions before the colony became more or less self-sufficient for basic food supplies by the beginning of the 19th century. Despite the original purpose of the settlement and the unpromising start, Sydney was a commercial port by about 1800. The first exports were products made from the seals and whales that were hunted in the ocean waters of southeastern Australia and New Zealand. Wool and wheat became the major exports in the 1820s. Most manufactured goods were imported from the United Kingdom until the mid-1900s. Sydney enjoyed a growth spurt with much public building work under the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie, who served from 1810 to 1821. During this period, architect Francis Greenway designed many of what are now the oldest remaining public buildings in Sydney. Greenway had been banished to Sydney after being convicted of forgery. He was later pardoned by Macquarie, who gained a reputation for his progressive approach in the treatment and rehabilitation of convicts. By the end of Macquarie's term, settlement was beginning to move outward in every direction from Sydney. After the Blue Mountains were first crossed in 1813, farmers and pastoralists (shepherds) began to relocate to the range's western slopes to take advantage of the rich soils and pastures there. Meanwhile, the free population was growing in Sydney. Although convicts provided a ready and cheap labor pool for public building projects, industry, and farming, employment prospects were ample for free workers. Moreover, wages for free workers were relatively high, compelling freed convicts to stay in Sydney and new free settlers to arrive. In the 1830s and 1840s a large influx of skilled migrants from the United Kingdom arrived in Sydney, which was then still the sole port of New South Wales. The increasing numbers of free people in the colony and growing sentiment against transportation (the British system of exiling convicts as punishment) led the British government to formally end the shipment of convicts to Sydney in 1840. Some ships carrying so-called exiles arrived in Sydney in 1849, but this was vehemently protested by local activists and was the final transportation to the city. By 1840 Sydney had become a bustling commercial town with the beginnings of suburban development in what are now the innermost suburbs. Gas supplies began in 1841, and the Sydney City Council was established with the incorporation of the city in 1842. The University of Sydney was founded as the country's first university in 1850, and teaching began three years later. Wealth flowed into Sydney after gold was discovered in inland New South Wales in the 1850s, and burgeoning growth followed. The first suburban municipalities were declared between 1859 and 1861. Outward expansion depended on new, mechanized transportation systems. The first regular steam ferry service began in Sydney Harbour in 1854; the first railway started operating in 1855; and the first tramway (horsedrawn) began service in 1861. An extensive network of steam trams was introduced in 1879. The entire network was electrified from 1893 through the early 1900s and formed the backbone of the inner suburban transportation system until it was dismantled and replaced with buses in the 1950s and 1960s. Cheaper, more reliable transportation along with a greater availability of home loans for working- and middle-class people has spurred rapid suburban development from the 1870s to the present day. Sydney prospered in the 1880s, during which time many fine Victorian-era public buildings were erected. After a downturn in the 1890s, expansion resumed after the six British colonies in Australia became an independent commonwealth, or federation, in 1901. The so-called Federation architecture of this period was a locally developed style that signaled the prosperity of the emerging middle class. Large bungalow homes were built in the outer suburbs in this style, which was noted for its high-pitched roofs and wide verandas decorated with intricate timber fretwork. In the late 1880s and throughout the 1890s, meanwhile, Sydney was the focal point for a robust literary movement. The Bulletin, a literary journal that began publishing in 1880, was the starting point for many Australian writers who gained prominence during this period. Manufacturing became much more important in Australia, and in Sydney in particular, after the end of World War II in 1945. Home-produced goods began to replace many of the imports from the United Kingdom. To help supply the labor needed for industrialization, the federal government launched an initiative in the late 1940s to attract immigration from abroad. Sydney benefited more than any other Australian city from the new influx of immigrants, becoming a cosmopolitan metropolis with a multicultural population. Sydney's port continued to attract international commerce and trade and established the city as a key financial and business center for the entire Asia-Pacific region. The scenic location and vibrant cultural life of Sydney made tourism one of its leading industries. Sydney's reputation as Australia's leading financial and cultural center was firmly established even before the successful staging of the 2000 Summer Olympics and the 2000 Summer Paralympics reinforced the city's image worldwide. Contributed By: Graeme Aplin Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.