Sydney (Australia) - geography.

« 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, onredeveloped 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 ofworkers 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 ofthe city proper.

The Sydney conurbation (including the Central Coast, Newcastle, and Wollongong), designated as the Sydney Statistical Division, has an estimatedpopulation 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 aroundthe 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 anymajor 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 growthrate 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 goldfields, 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 muchlower 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 anaggressive campaign to attract migrant workers from other countries to assist economic growth and development.

This brought a period of higher population growth.

In thesecond 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 onimmigration 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 immigrationrates. 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 andIreland.

Immediately after the war, it was from the United Kingdom and northwestern Europe, followed by a wave of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.

Mostrecently, 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’sresidents included immigrants from the following countries, by number of Sydney residents: the United Kingdom (198,200), China, including Hong Kong (99,600), NewZealand (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 definiteVietnamese, Italian, South African, Indian, Korean, and Chinese districts, among others.

None, however, has ever been an ethnic ghetto.

Few obvious racial or ethnictensions exist between groups.

Schools have become more ethnically and culturally diverse, and the addition of new cuisines and cultural activities has added a richness tolife 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, theAnglican 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-Christianfaiths, 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 Redfernneighborhood in the heart of the city, with a second historically important concentration at La Perouse.

Their standard of living is generally lower, and their unemploymentrate 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 ofWestern Sydney (1989), with about 26,000 students; and the University of Technology, Sydney (1965 as NSW Institute of Technology, then given university status in1988), 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 thefinest works of art in Australia, including Asian, European, and Australian collections.

It also includes the Yiribana Gallery, which houses the world’s largest exhibit ofAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture.

The Australian Museum, founded in 1827 and the country’s first museum, contains natural history and anthropologyexhibits.

The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (1880) comprises the Powerhouse Museum, which includes science and technology exhibits, and the Sydney Observatoryastronomical museum.

The turbulent history of Sydney from 1788 to 1850, including the effects of European colonization on the local Aboriginal population, is the subject ofmultimedia 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 importantcollection 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, andSydney Dance companies regularly stage performances there.

Moreover, the venue often hosts internationally touring performances.

Sydney also has many venues formusical theater, drama, and popular music.

The Sydney Theatre Company is one of many successful theater companies in the city.

Sydney is also home to theinternationally 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 thesummer 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 themulticultural 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 AustraliaDay, 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 offeran 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. »