The Sydney Opera House
Location of Sydney Opera House in NSW
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Arts complex
Architectural style	Expressionist
Location	Bennelong Point, Sydney
Country	Australia
Coordinates	33°51′31.2″S 151°12′50.5″E / 33.858667°S 151.214028°E / -33.858667; 151.214028Coordinates: 33°51′31.2″S 151°12′50.5″E / 33.858667°S 151.214028°E / -33.858667; 151.214028
Elevation	4 m (13 ft)
Current tenants	Opera Australia The Australian Ballet Sydney Theatre Company Sydney Symphony Orchestra (+ others)
Construction started	2 March 1959
Completed	1973
Opening	20 October 1973; 38 years ago  (20 October 1973)
Cost	A$102 million, equivalent to ~A$922 million in 2011[1]
Height	65 m (213 ft)
Technical details
Structural system	Concrete frame & precast concrete ribbed roof
Other dimensions	length 183 m (600 ft) width 120 m (394 ft) area 1.8 ha (4.4 acres)
Design and construction
Client	NSW Government
Owner	NSW Government
Main contractor	Civil & Civic (level 1), M.R. Hornibrook (level 2 and 3 and interior)
Architect	Jørn Utzon
Structural engineer	Ove Arup & Partners
Other information
Seating capacity	Concert Hall 2,679 Opera Theatre 1,507 Drama Theatre 544 Playhouse 398 The Studio 400 Utzon Room 210 Total 5,738
Website
www.sydneyoperahouse.com
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Type:	Cultural
Criteria:	i
Designated:	2007 (31st session)
Reference #:	166rev
State Party:	Australia
Region:	Asia-Pacific

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, opening in 1973 after a long gestation that had begun with his competition-winning design in 1957.

Utzon received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour, in 2003.^[2] The Pritzker Prize citation stated:

There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent.

The Sydney Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007.^[3] It is one of the 20th century's most distinctive buildings and one of the most famous performing arts centres in the world.^{[citation needed]}

The Sydney Opera House is on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, close to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It sits at the northeastern tip of the Sydney central business district (the CBD), surrounded on three sides by the harbour (Sydney Cove and Farm Cove) and inland by the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Contrary to its name, the building houses multiple performance venues. The Sydney Opera House is among the busiest performing arts centres in the world, hosting over 1,500 performances each year attended by some 1.2 million people. It provides a venue for many performing-arts companies, including the four key resident companies Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and presents a wide range of productions on its own account. It is also one of the most popular visitor attractions in Australia, with more than seven million people visiting the site each year, 300,000 of whom take a guided tour.^[4]

The Sydney Opera House is administered by the Sydney Opera House Trust, under the New South Wales Ministry of the Arts.

Description[link]

The Sydney Opera House is a modern expressionist design, with a series of large precast concrete "shells",^[5] each composed of sections of a sphere of 75.2 metres (246 ft 8.6 in) radius,^[6] forming the roofs of the structure, set on a monumental podium. The building covers 1.8 hectares (4.4 acres) of land and is 183 m (600 ft) long and 120 m (394 ft) wide at its widest point. It is supported on 588 concrete piers sunk as much as 25 m (82 ft) below sea level.

Although the roof structures of the Sydney Opera House are commonly referred to as "shells" (as they are in this article), they are in fact not shells in a strictly structural sense, but are instead precast concrete panels supported by precast concrete ribs.^[7] The shells are covered in a subtle chevron pattern with 1,056,006 glossy white- and matte-cream-coloured Swedish-made tiles from Höganäs AB,^[8] though, from a distance, the shells appear a uniform white.

Apart from the tile of the shells and the glass curtain walls of the foyer spaces, the building's exterior is largely clad with aggregate panels composed of pink granite quarried at Tarana. Significant interior surface treatments also include off-form concrete, Australian white birch plywood supplied from Wauchope in northern New South Wales, and brush box glulam.^[9]

Of the two larger spaces, the Concert Hall is located within the western group of shells, and the Opera Theatre within the eastern group. The scale of the shells was chosen to reflect the internal height requirements, with low entrance spaces, rising over the seating areas and up to the high stage towers. The smaller venues (the Drama Theatre, the Playhouse, and The Studio) are located within the podium, beneath the Concert Hall. A smaller group of shells set to the western side of the Monumental Steps houses the Bennelong Restaurant. The podium is surrounded by substantial open public spaces, of which the large stone-paved forecourt area with the adjacent monumental steps is also regularly used as a performance space.

Performance venues and facilities[link]

The Opera House houses the following performance venues:

• The Concert Hall, with 2,679 seats, is the home of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and used by a large number of other concert presenters. It contains the Sydney Opera House Grand Organ, the largest mechanical tracker action organ in the world, with over 10,000 pipes.^{[citation needed]}
• The Opera Theatre, a proscenium theatre with 1,507 seats, is the Sydney home of Opera Australia and The Australian Ballet.
• The Drama Theatre, a proscenium theatre with 544 seats, is used by the Sydney Theatre Company and other dance and theatrical presenters.
• The Playhouse, an end-stage theatre with 398 seats.
• The Studio, a flexible space with a maximum capacity of 400 people, depending on configuration.
• The Utzon Room, a small multi-purpose venue, seating up to 210.
• The Forecourt, a flexible open-air venue with a wide range of configuration options, including the possibility of utilising the Monumental Steps as audience seating, used for a range of community events and major outdoor performances. The Forecourt will be closed to visitors and performances 2011–2014 to construct a new entrance tunnel to a rebuilt loading dock for the Opera Theatre.

Other areas (for example the northern and western foyers) are also used for performances on an occasional basis. Venues at the Sydney Opera House are also used for conferences, ceremonies and social functions.

Interior of the Concert Hall

Other facilities[link]

The building also houses a recording studio, cafes, restaurants and bars and retail outlets. Guided tours are available to the public, including a frequent tour of the front-of-house spaces, and a daily backstage tour which takes visitors backstage to see areas normally reserved for performers and crew members.

Construction history[link]

Origins[link]

Construction progress in 1966

Planning for the Sydney Opera House began in the late 1940s, when Eugene Goossens, the Director of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, lobbied for a suitable venue for large theatrical productions. The normal venue for such productions, the Sydney Town Hall, was not considered large enough. By 1954, Goossens succeeded in gaining the support of NSW Premier Joseph Cahill, who called for designs for a dedicated opera house. It was also Goossens who insisted that Bennelong Point be the site for the Opera House. Cahill had wanted it to be on or near Wynyard Railway Station in the northwest of the CBD.^[10]

A design competition was launched by Cahill on 13 September 1955 and received 233 entries, representing architects from 32 countries. The criteria specified a large hall seating 3,000 and a small hall for 1,200 people, each to be designed for different uses, including full-scale operas, orchestral and choral concerts, mass meetings, lectures, ballet performances and other presentations.^[11] The winner, announced in 1957, was Jørn Utzon, a Danish architect. According to legend the Utzon design was rescued from a final cut of 30 "rejects" by the noted Finnish architect Eero Saarinen. The prize was £5,000.^[12] Utzon visited Sydney in 1957 to help supervise the project.^[13] His office moved to Sydney in February 1963.

Design and construction[link]

The Fort Macquarie Tram Depot, occupying the site at the time of these plans, was demolished in 1958 and formal construction of the Opera House began in March 1959. The project was built in three stages. Stage I (1959–1963) consisted of building the upper podium. Stage II (1963–1967) saw the construction of the outer shells. Stage III (1967–1973) consisted of the interior design and construction.

Stage I: Podium[link]

Stage I commenced on 2 March 1959 by the construction firm Civil & Civic, monitored by the engineers Ove Arup and Partners.^[14] The government had pushed for work to begin early, fearing that funding, or public opinion, might turn against them. However, Utzon had still not completed the final designs. Major structural issues still remained unresolved. By 23 January 1961, work was running 47 weeks behind,^[14] mainly because of unexpected difficulties (inclement weather, unexpected difficulty diverting stormwater, construction beginning before proper construction drawings had been prepared, changes of original contract documents). Work on the podium was finally completed in February 1963. The forced early start led to significant later problems, not least of which was the fact that the podium columns were not strong enough to support the roof structure, and had to be re-built.^[15]

Stage II: Roof[link]

Construction progress in 1968

Sydney Opera House shell ribs

The glazed ceramic tiles of the Sydney Opera House

The shells of the competition entry were originally of undefined geometry,^[16] but, early in the design process, the "shells" were perceived as a series of parabolas supported by precast concrete ribs. However, engineers Ove Arup and Partners were unable to find an acceptable solution to constructing them. The formwork for using in-situ concrete would have been prohibitively expensive, but, because there was no repetition in any of the roof forms, the construction of precast concrete for each individual section would possibly have been even more expensive.

From 1957 to 1963, the design team went through at least twelve iterations of the form of the shells trying to find an economically acceptable form (including schemes with parabolas, circular ribs and ellipsoids) before a workable solution was completed. The design work on the shells involved one of the earliest uses of computers in structural analysis, in order to understand the complex forces to which the shells would be subjected.^[17] In mid-1961, the design team found a solution to the problem: the shells all being created as sections from a sphere. This solution allows arches of varying length to be cast in a common mould, and a number of arch segments of common length to be placed adjacent to one another, to form a spherical section. With whom exactly this solution originated has been the subject of some controversy. It was originally credited to Utzon. Ove Arup's letter to Ashworth, a member of the Sydney Opera House Executive Committee, states: "Utzon came up with an idea of making all the shells of uniform curvature throughout in both directions."^[17] Peter Jones, the author of Ove Arup's biography, states that "the architect and his supporters alike claimed to recall the precise eureka moment ... ; the engineers and some of their associates, with equal conviction, recall discussion in both central London and at Ove's house."

He goes on to claim that "the existing evidence shows that Arup's canvassed several possibilities for the geometry of the shells, from parabolas to ellipsoids and spheres."^[17] Yuzo Mikami, a member of the design team, presents an opposite view in his book on the project, Utzon's Sphere.^[18][19] It is unlikely that the truth will ever be categorically known, but there is a clear consensus that the design team worked very well indeed for the first part of the project and that Utzon, Arup, and Ronald Jenkins (partner of Ove Arup and Partners responsible for the Opera House project) all played a very significant part in the design development.^[20]

As Peter Murray states in The Saga of the Sydney Opera House:^[15]

... the two men—and their teams—enjoyed a collaboration that was remarkable in its fruitfulness and, despite many traumas, was seen by most of those involved in the project as a high point of architect/engineer collaboration.

The shells were constructed by Hornibrook Group Pty Ltd,^[21] who were also responsible for construction in Stage III. Hornibrook manufactured the 2400 precast ribs and 4000 roof panels in an on-site factory and also developed the construction processes.^[15] The achievement of this solution avoided the need for expensive formwork construction by allowing the use of precast units (it also allowed the roof tiles to be prefabricated in sheets on the ground, instead of being stuck on individually at height). Ove Arup and Partners' site engineer supervised the construction of the shells, which used an innovative adjustable steel-trussed "erection arch" to support the different roofs before completion. On 6 April 1962, it was estimated that the Opera House would be completed between August 1964 and March 1965.

Stage III: Interiors[link]

The Concert Hall and organ

Stage III, the interiors, started with Utzon moving his entire office to Sydney in February 1963. However, there was a change of government in 1965, and the new Robert Askin government declared the project under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Works. This ultimately led to Utzon's resignation in 1966 (see below).

The cost of the project so far, even in October 1966, was still only $22.9 million,^[22] less than a quarter of the final $102 million cost. However, the projected costs for the design were at this stage much more significant.

The second stage of construction was progressing toward completion when Utzon resigned. His position was principally taken over by Peter Hall, who became largely responsible for the interior design. Other persons appointed that same year to replace Utzon were E. H. Farmer as government architect, D. S. Littlemore and Lionel Todd.

Following Utzon's resignation, the acoustic advisor, Lothar Cremer, confirmed to the Sydney Opera House Executive Committee (SOHEC) that Utzon's original acoustic design only allowed for 2000 seats in the main hall and further stated that increasing the number of seats to 3000 as specified in the brief would be disastrous for the acoustics. According to Peter Jones, the stage designer, Martin Carr, criticised the "shape, height and width of the stage, the physical facilities for artists, the location of the dressing rooms, the widths of doors and lifts, and the location of lighting switchboards."^[17]

Significant changes to Utzon's design[link]

The foyer of the Opera Theatre, showing the internal structure and steel framing of the glass curtain walls; the final constructions were modified from Utzon's original designs

• The major hall, which was originally to be a multipurpose opera/concert hall, became solely a concert hall, called the Concert Hall. The minor hall, originally for stage productions only, had the added function of opera and ballet to deal with and is called the Opera Theatre. As a result, the Opera Theatre is inadequate to stage large-scale opera and ballet. A theatre, a cinema and a library were also added. These were later changed to two live drama theatres and a smaller theatre "in the round". These now comprise the Drama Theatre, the Playhouse, and the Studio, respectively. These changes were primarily because of inadequacies in the original competition brief, which did not make it adequately clear how the Opera House was to be used. The layout of the interiors was changed, and the stage machinery, already designed and fitted inside the major hall, was pulled out and largely thrown away.^{[citation needed]}
• Externally, the cladding to the podium and the paving (the podium was originally not to be clad down to the water, but to be left open).^{[citation needed]}
• The construction of the glass walls (Utzon was planning to use a system of prefabricated plywood mullions, but a different system was designed to deal with the glass).^{[citation needed]}
• Utzon's plywood corridor designs, and his acoustic and seating designs for the interior of both major halls, were scrapped completely. His design for the Concert Hall was rejected as it only seated 2000, which was considered insufficient.^[17] Utzon employed the acoustic consultant Lothar Cremer, and his designs for the major halls were later modelled and found to be very good.^{[citation needed]} The subsequent Todd, Hall and Littlemore versions of both major halls have some problems with acoustics, particularly for the performing musicians. The orchestra pit in the Opera Theatre is cramped and dangerous to musicians' hearing.^[23] The Concert Hall has a very high roof, leading to a lack of early reflections onstage—perspex rings (the "acoustic clouds") hanging over the stage were added shortly before opening in an (unsuccessful) attempt to address this problem.^{[citation needed]}

Completion and cost[link]

The Opera House was formally completed in 1973, having cost $102 million.^[24] H.R. "Sam" Hoare, the Hornibrook director in charge of the project, provided the following approximations in 1973: Stage I: podium Civil & Civic Pty Ltd approximately $5.5m. Stage II: roof shells M.R. Hornibrook (NSW) Pty Ltd approximately $12.5m. Stage III: completion The Hornibrook Group $56.5m. Separate contracts: stage equipment, stage lighting and organ $9.0m. Fees and other costs $16.5m.

The original cost estimate in 1957 was £3,500,000 ($7 million). The original completion date set by the government was 26 January 1963 (Australia Day).^[17] Thus, the project was completed ten years late and over-budget by more than fourteen times.

Jørn Utzon and his resignation[link]

The Opera House seen from the north

The Opera House, backed by the Sydney Harbour Bridge, from the eastern Botanic Gardens approach

At night

Before the Sydney Opera House competition, Jørn Utzon had won seven of the eighteen competitions he had entered but had never seen any of his designs built.^[17] Utzon's submitted concept for the Sydney Opera House was almost universally admired and considered groundbreaking. The Assessors Report of January 1957, stated:

For the first stage of the project, Utzon worked very successfully with the rest of the design team and the client, but, as the project progressed, the Cahill government insisted on progressive revisions. They also did not fully appreciate the costs or work involved in design and construction. Tensions between the client and the design team grew further when an early start to construction was demanded despite an incomplete design. This resulted in a continuing series of delays and setbacks while various technical engineering issues were being refined. The building was unique, and the problems with the design issues and cost increases were exacerbated by commencement of work before the completion of the final plans.

After the election of Robert Askin as Premier of New South Wales in 1965, the relationship of client, architect, engineers and contractors became increasingly tense. Askin had been a "vocal critic of the project prior to gaining office."^[25] His new Minister for Public Works, Davis Hughes, was even less sympathetic. Elizabeth Farrelly, Australian architecture critic, has written that:

Differences ensued. One of the first was that Utzon believed the clients should receive information on all aspects of the design and construction through his practice, while the clients wanted a system (notably drawn in sketch form by Davis Hughes) where architect, contractors, and engineers each reported to the client directly and separately. This had great implications for procurement methods and cost control, with Utzon wishing to negotiate contracts with chosen suppliers (such as Ralph Symonds for the plywood interiors) and the New South Wales government insisting contracts be put out to tender.^[15]

Utzon was highly reluctant to respond to questions or criticism from the client's Sydney Opera House Executive Committee (SOHEC).^[17] However, he was greatly supported throughout by a member of the committee and one of the original competition judges, Professor Harry Ingham Ashworth. Utzon was unwilling to compromise on some aspects of his designs that the clients wanted to change.

Utzon's ability was never in doubt, despite questions raised by Davis Hughes, who attempted to portray Utzon as an impractical dreamer. Ove Arup actually stated that Utzon was "probably the best of any I have come across in my long experience of working with architects"^[17] and:

In October 1965, Utzon gave Hughes a schedule setting out the completion dates of parts of his work for stage III.^{[citation needed]} Utzon was at this time working closely with Ralph Symonds, a manufacturer of plywood based in Sydney and highly regarded by many, despite an Arup engineer warning that Ralph Symonds's "knowledge of the design stresses of plywood, was extremely sketchy" and that the technical advice was "elementary to say the least and completely useless for our purposes." Australian architecture critic Elizabeth Farrelly has referred to Ove Arup's project engineer Michael Lewis as having "other agendas".^[25] In any case, Hughes shortly after withheld permission for the construction of plywood prototypes for the interiors^{[citation needed]}, and the relationship between Utzon and the client never recovered. By February 1966, Utzon was owed more than $100,000 in fees.^[26] Hughes then withheld funding so that Utzon could not even pay his own staff. The government minutes record that following several threats of resignation, Utzon finally stated to Davis Hughes: "If you don't do it, I resign." Hughes replied: "I accept your resignation. Thank you very much. Goodbye."^[17]

Utzon left the project on 28 February 1966. He said that Hughes's refusal to pay him any fees and the lack of collaboration caused his resignation and later famously described the situation as "Malice in Blunderland". In March 1966, Hughes offered him a subordinate role as "design architect" under a panel of executive architects, without any supervisory powers over the House's construction, but Utzon rejected this. Utzon left the country never to return.

Following the resignation, there was great controversy about who was in the right and who was in the wrong. The Sydney Morning Herald initially reported: "No architect in the world has enjoyed greater freedom than Mr Utzon. Few clients have been more patient or more generous than the people and the Government of NSW. One would not like history to record that this partnership was brought to an end by a fit of temper on the one side or by a fit of meanness on the other." On 17 March 1966, it reported:^[17] "It was not his fault that a succession of Governments and the Opera House Trust should so signally have failed to impose any control or order on the project .... his concept was so daring that he himself could solve its problems only step by step .... his insistence on perfection led him to alter his design as he went along."

Yet, in an article in Harvard Design Magazine in 2005,^[27] Oxford University professor Bent Flyvbjerg notes that Utzon fell victim to a politically lowballed construction budget, which eventually resulted in a cost overrun of 1,400 per cent. The overrun and the ensuing scandal that it created kept Utzon from building more masterpieces. This, according to Flyvbjerg, is the real cost of the Sydney Opera House:

The Sydney Opera House opened the way for the immensely complex geometries of some modern architecture. The design was one of the first examples of the use of computer-aided design to design complex shapes. The design techniques developed by Utzon and Arup for the Sydney Opera House have been further developed and are now used for architecture, such as works of Gehry and blobitecture, as well as most reinforced concrete structures. The design is also one of the first in the world to use araldite to glue the precast structural elements together and proved the concept for future use.

The Opera House was also a first in mechanical engineering. Another Danish firm, Steensen Varming, was responsible for designing the new air-conditioning plant, the largest in Australia at the time, supplying over 600,000 cubic feet (17,000 m³) of air per minute,^[28] using the innovative idea of harnessing the harbour water to create a water-cooled heat pump system that is still in operation today.^[29]

Opening[link]

The Opera House was formally opened by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on 20 October 1973. A large crowd attended. The architect, Jørn Utzon, was not invited to the ceremony, nor was his name mentioned. The opening was televised and included fireworks and a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.^[30]

Performance firsts[link]

During the construction of the Opera House, a number of lunchtime performances was arranged for the workers, with Paul Robeson the first artist to perform at the (unfinished) Opera House in 1960.

Various performances were presented in the finished building prior to the official opening:

• The first solo piano recital was in the Concert Hall on 10 April 1973, played by Romola Costantino to an invited audience.^[31]
• The first opera performed was Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace, in the Opera Theatre on 28 September 1973, conducted by the Australian Opera's Music Director, Edward Downes. (It had been intended that Peter Sculthorpe's work Rites of Passage would have this honour, but it was not ready on time. Rites of Passage was premiered almost exactly a year later, on 27 September 1974)
• The first public concert in the Concert Hall took place on 29 September 1973. It was an all-Wagner concert performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Mackerras and with Birgit Nilsson as the soprano soloist. The first music played was the Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The concert closed with the Immolation Scene.
• The first lieder recital was given by Birgit Nilsson on 6 October 1973, accompanied by Geoffrey Parsons.^[32]

After the opening:

• The first violin and piano recital was given by Wanda Wiłkomirska, also with Geoffrey Parsons.^[33]
• The first vocalist to perform at the Opera House was American singer Dick Roman.^{[citation needed]}

Reconciliation with Utzon[link]

The Utzon Room: rebuilt and redecorated to a design by Utzon

Beginning in the late 1990s, the Sydney Opera House Trust began to communicate with Jørn Utzon in an attempt to effect a reconciliation and to secure his involvement in future changes to the building. In 1999, he was appointed by the Trust as a design consultant for future work.^[34] In 2004, the first interior space rebuilt to an Utzon design was opened, and renamed "The Utzon Room" in his honour.^[35] In April 2007, he proposed a major reconstruction of the Opera Theatre.^[36] Utzon died on 29 November 2008.^[37]

A state memorial service, attended by Utzon's son Jan and daughter Lin, celebrating the creative genius of Jørn Utzon was held in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on 25 March 2009 featuring performances, readings and recollections from prominent figures in the Australian performing arts scene.

On 17 November 2009, Sydney Opera House officially opened the refurbished Western Foyers and Accessibility improvements, the largest building project completed since Jørn Utzon was re-engaged in 1999. Designed by Utzon and his son Jan, in collaboration with Richard Johnson of Johnson Pilton Walker, the project has transformed the Western Foyers into a stylish and functional space providing patrons with additional amenities including new ticketing, toilet and cloaking facilities. Importantly, new escalators and a public lift have vastly improved access for less mobile visitors, people with a disability and families with prams.

On the same day, Louise Sauvage was announced as Sydney Opera House's inaugural accessibility ambassador. In this role Louise Sauvage will provide advice on the implementation of Sydney Opera House's Access Strategic Plan with a view to further improving access for people with disabilities.

Sport[link]

For the 2000 Summer Olympics, the venue served as the focal point for the triathlon events. The event had a 1.5 km (0.93 mi) swimming loop at Farm Cove, along with competitions in the neighbouring Royal Botanical Gardens for the cycling and running portions of the event.^[38]

See also[link]

• Australian landmarks
• List of official openings by Elizabeth II in Australia
• Wonders of the World

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Hubble, Ava, The Strange Case of Eugene Goossens and Other Tales from The Opera House, Collins Publishers, Australia, 1988. (Ava Hubble was Press Officer for the Sydney Opera House for 15 years.)
• Duek-Cohen, Elias, Utzon and the Sydney Opera House, Morgan Publications, Sydney, 1967–1998. (A small publication intended to gather public opinion to bring Utzon back to the project.)
• Stübe, Katarina and Utzon, Jan, Sydney Opera House: A Tribute to Jørn Utzon. Reveal Books, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9806123-0-1
• Stuber, Fritz, "Sydney's Opera House—Not a World Heritage Item? – Open letter to the Hon. John W. Howard, Prime Minister", in: Australian Planner (Sydney), Vol. 35, No. 3, 1998 (p. 116); Architecture + Design (New Delhi), Vol. XV, No. 5, 1998 (pp. 12–14); Collage (Berne), No. 3, 1998, (pp. 33–34, 1 ill.).
• Opera House an architectural "tragedy", ABC News Online, 28 April 2005.
• Flyvbjerg, Bent, "Design by Deception: The Politics of Megaproject Approval", Harvard Design Magazine, Volume 22, 2005.
• Watson, Anne (editor), "Building a Masterpiece: The Sydney Opera House", Lund Humphries, 2006, ISBN 0-85331-941-3, ISBN 978-0-85331-941-2.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sydney Opera House

• Official website
• World heritage listing for Sydney Opera House
• Photographs of the construction
• Competition drawings submitted by Jørn Utzon to the Opera House Committee
• Wolanski Foundation's annotated list of sources on Sydney Opera House
• Interview with Utzon, October 1992
• Sydney Opera House
• Listen to an excerpt from the 'Sydney Opera House Opening Concert' and read more about it on australianscreen online
• The 'Sydney Opera House Opening Concert' has been added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia Registry

v t e Sydney New Year's Eve Events 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 Venues Main venues Sydney Harbour Harbour Bridge Opera House Dawes Point Royal Botanic Gardens Circular Quay Other vantage points Clark Island Cockatoo Island Darling Harbour Fort Denison Goat Island Shark Island The Rocks Waverton Related Bridge Effect 9pm Family Fireworks Midnight Fireworks

v t e Olympic venues in triathlon 2000: Sydney Opera House 2004: Vouliagmeni Olympic Centre 2008: Triathlon Venue 2012: Hyde Park 2016: Fort Copacabana

Sydney New South Wales
The Sydney Opera House and Sydney CBD at dusk from Jeffrey Street, Kirribilli
Sydney
Population:	4,627,345[1] (1st)
• Density:	2058/km² (5,330.2/sq mi) (2006)[2]
Established:	26 January 1788
Coordinates:	33°51′35.9″S 151°12′40″E / 33.859972°S 151.21111°E / -33.859972; 151.21111Coordinates: 33°51′35.9″S 151°12′40″E / 33.859972°S 151.21111°E / -33.859972; 151.21111
Area:	12144.6 km² (4,689.1 sq mi)
Time zone:  • Summer (DST)	AEST (UTC+10) AEDT (UTC+11)
Location:	881 km (547 mi) NE of Melbourne 938 km (583 mi) S of Brisbane 286 km (178 mi) NE of Canberra 3970 km (2,467 mi) E of Perth 1406 km (874 mi) E of Adelaide
LGA:	various (38)
County:	Cumberland
State electorate:	various (49)
Federal Division:	various (24)
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 21.7 °C 71 °F 13.8 °C 57 °F 1,212.8 mm 47.7 in

Sydney ( /sɪdni/)^[3] is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is classified as an Alpha+ World City indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world.^[4]

Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people.^[1] Inhabitants of Sydney are called Sydneysiders, comprising a cosmopolitan and international population.^[5]

The site of the first British colony in Australia, Sydney was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip, commodore of the First Fleet as a penal colony.^[6] The city is built on hills surrounding Port Jackson which is commonly known as Sydney Harbour, where the iconic Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge feature prominently. The hinterland of the metropolitan area is surrounded by national parks, and the coastal regions feature many bays, rivers, inlets and beaches including the famous Bondi Beach and Manly Beach. Within the city are many notable parks, including Hyde Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Sydney ranks among the top global cities in the world.^{[7][8][9][10]} In 2010, Sydney was ranked 7th in Asia and 28th globally for economic innovation in the Innovation Cities Top 100 Index by innovation agency 2thinknow.^[11] Sydney also ranks among the top 10 most liveable cities in the world according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting, The Economist and Monocle^[12][13][14] and is considered among the top fashion capitals in the world.^[15] It was also ranked in the top 10 global university cities according to RMIT University^[16]—which limited its selection to cities already ranked in the "top 100 most liveable cities".

It has hosted major international sporting events, including the 1938 British Empire Games and the 2000 Summer Olympics. The main airport serving Sydney is Sydney Airport^[17] and the main port in the city is Sydney Harbour.

History[link]

Radio carbon dating suggests that the Sydney region has been inhabited by indigenous Australians for at least 30,000 years.^[18]

The traditional indigenous inhabitants of Sydney Cove are the Cadigal people, whose land once stretched from south of Port Jackson to Petersham.^[19] While estimates of the population numbers prior to the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 remains contentious, approximately 4,000–8,000 Aboriginal people lived in the Sydney region prior to contact with British settlers. The British called the indigenous people the "Eora",^[20] because being asked where they came from, these people would answer: "Eora", meaning "here", or "from this place" in their language.^[19] There were three language groups in the Sydney region, which were divided into dialects spoken by smaller clans. The principal languages were Darug (the Cadigal, original inhabitants of the City of Sydney, spoke a coastal dialect of Darug), Dharawal and Guringai. Each clan had a territory, the location of each territory determined the resources available. Although urbanisation has destroyed much evidence of these settlements (such as shell middens), a number of Sydney rock engravings, carvings and rock art remain visible in the Hawkesbury sandstone of the Sydney basin.^[21]

A Direct North General View of Sydney Cove, painted by convict and artist Thomas Watling in 1794

In 1770, British sea captain Lieutenant James Cook landed in Botany Bay on the Kurnell Peninsula. It is here that Cook made first contact with an Aboriginal community known as the Gweagal.^[22] Under instruction from the British government, a convict settlement was founded by Arthur Phillip, who arrived at Botany Bay with a fleet of 11 ships on 18 January 1788. This site was soon determined to be unsuitable for habitation, owing to poor soil and a lack of reliable fresh water. Phillip subsequently founded the colony one inlet further up the coast, at Sydney Cove on Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. However the official proclamation of the founding and naming of Sydney took place only on 7 February 1788 when he named it after the British Home Secretary, Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, in recognition of Sydney's role in issuing the charter authorising Phillip to establish a colony. The original name was intended to be Albion until Phillip decided upon Sydney.^[23]

In April 1789, shortly after the arrival in Botany Bay of the French expedition led by La Perouse, a catastrophic epidemic disease—thought to be smallpox—spread through the Eora people and surrounding groups, with the result that local Aborigines died in their thousands, and bodies could often be seen bobbing in the water in Sydney Harbour.^[24] The cause of the epidemic has always been a matter of speculation and controversy, introduction by the British being among the most likely explanations. In any event, the results were catastrophic for the Eora people and their kin and by the early 1800s the Aboriginal population of the Sydney basin "had been reduced to only 10 percent of the 1788 estimate",^[25] or an estimated 500 to 1000 Aboriginal people between Broken Bay and Botany Bay.^[20]

Sydney harbour in 1932

There was violent resistance to British settlement, notably by the warrior Pemulwuy in the area around Botany Bay, and conflicts were common in the area surrounding the Hawkesbury River. By 1820 there were only a few hundred Aborigines and Governor Macquarie had begun initiatives to 'civilise, Christianise and educate' the Aborigines by removing them from their clans.^[20] Macquarie's tenure as Governor of New South Wales was a period when Sydney was improved from its basic beginnings. Roads, bridges, wharves and public buildings were constructed by British and Irish convicts, and by 1822 the town had banks, markets, well-established thoroughfares and an organised constabulary.

The 1830s and 1840s were periods of urban development including the development of the first suburbs, as the town grew rapidly when ships began arriving from Britain and Ireland with immigrants looking to start a new life in a new country. On 20 July 1842 the municipal council of Sydney was incorporated and the town was declared the first city in Australia, with John Hosking the first elected mayor.^[26] The first of several Australian gold rushes started in 1851, and the port of Sydney has since seen many waves of people arriving from around the world.

Rapid suburban development began in the last quarter of the 19th century with the advent of steam-powered tramways and railways. With industrialisation Sydney expanded rapidly and, by the early 20th century, it had a population of more than a million. In 1929, the novelist Arthur Henry Adams called it the "Siren City of the South" and the "Athens of Australia".^[27] The Great Depression hit Sydney badly. One of the highlights of the Depression era, however, was the completion of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932.^[28] There has traditionally been a rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne since the gold rushes of the 1850s made the capital of Victoria Australia's largest and richest city.^[29] Sydney overtook Melbourne in population in the early years of the 20th century,^[30] and continues to be the largest city in Australia. During the 1970s and 1980s, Sydney's CBD, with a great number of financial institutions including the headquarters of the Reserve Bank, surpassed Melbourne as the nation's financial capital.^[31] Throughout the 20th century, especially in the decades immediately following World War II, Sydney continued to expand as large numbers of European and later Asian immigrants took up residence in the metropolitan area.

Geography[link]

Topography[link]

Aerial view of Sydney (May 2012) looking east.

Sydney's urban area is in a coastal basin, which is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Blue Mountains to the west, the Hawkesbury River to the north and the Royal National Park to the south. It lies on a submergent coastline, where the ocean level has risen to flood deep river valleys (ria) carved in the Hawkesbury sandstone. Port Jackson, better known as Sydney Harbour, is one such ria.^[32] The Sydney area is not affected by significant earthquakes.

The urban area has around 70 harbour and ocean beaches, including the famous Bondi Beach. Sydney's urban area covers 1,687 km² (651 sq mi) as of 2001.^[33] The Sydney Statistical Division, used for census data, is the unofficial metropolitan area^[34] and covers 12,145 km² (4,689 sq mi).^[35] This area includes the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains, and national parks and other unurbanised land.

Geographically, Sydney lies over two regions: the Cumberland Plain, a relatively flat region lying to the south and west of the harbour, and the Hornsby Plateau, a sandstone plateau lying mainly to the north of the harbour and dissected by steep valleys. The parts of the city with the oldest European development are located in the flat areas south of the harbour. The North Shore was slower to develop because of its hilly topography and lack of access across the harbour. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened in 1932 and linked the North Shore to the rest of the city.^[36]

Geology[link]

Sydney is mostly Triassic rock, with a some recent igneous dykes and the volcanic neck. The Hawkesbury sandstone is some 200 metres (660 ft) thick, with shale lenses and fossil riverbeds dotted throughout it. Almost all of the rocks exposed around Sydney will be sandstone. The sand that was to become this sandstone was washed from Broken Hill and laid down in the Triassic period, about two hundred million years ago, a time when plants were ferns, reptiles were becoming dinosaurs, and mammals did not exist yet. The Sydney Basin sits on the east coast of Australia, which is made up of a basin filled with near horizontal sandstones and shales of Permian to Triassic age that overlie older basement rocks of the Lachlan Fold Belt. The sedimentary rocks have been subject to uplift with gentle folding and minor faulting during the formation of the Great Dividing Range. Erosion by coastal streams have created a landscape of deep-cliffed gorges and remains of plateaus across. The Sydney Basin bioregion includes coastal landscapes of cliffs, beaches and estuaries.^[37]

Sydney is situated on low, rolling hills with wide valleys, situated in a rain-shadow zone below the Blue Mountains.^[38]

Climate[link]

Avalon beach during spring

Sydney has a temperate climate with warm summers and mild winters. Rainfall is spread throughout the year.^[39] The weather is moderated by proximity to the ocean, and more extreme temperatures are recorded in the inland western suburbs. The warmest month is January, with an average air temperature range at Observatory Hill of 18.6–25.8 °C (65–78 °F). An average of 14.6 days a year have temperatures of more than 30 °C (86.0 °F).

In winter, temperatures rarely drop below 5 °C (41 °F) in coastal areas. The coldest month is July, with an average range of 8.0–16.2 °C (46–61 °F). Rainfall is fairly evenly spread through the year, but is slightly higher during the first half of the year, when easterly winds dominate.^{[citation needed]} The average annual rainfall, with moderate to low variability, is 1,217 mm (48 in), falling on an average 138 days a year.^[40] Snowfall was last reported in the Sydney City area in 1836.^[41] However, a July 2008 fall of graupel, or soft hail, mistaken by many for snow, has raised the possibility that the 1836 event was not snow, either.^[42] Extreme temperatures have ranged from 45.3 °C (113.5 °F) on 14 January 1939 at the end of a four-day heatwave across Australia and 2.1 °C (35.8 °F), the lowest recorded minimum at Observatory Hill.^[43]

The city is not affected by cyclones. The El Niño Southern Oscillation plays an important role in determining Sydney's weather patterns: drought and bushfire on the one hand, and storms and flooding on the other, associated with the opposite phases of the oscillation. Many areas of the city bordering bushland have experienced bushfires, these tend to occur during the spring and summer. The city is also prone to severe hail storms and wind storms. One such storm was the 1999 hailstorm, which severely damaged Sydney's eastern and city suburbs. The storm produced massive hailstones of at least 9 cm (3.5 in) in diameter and resulting in insurance losses of around A$1.7 billion in less than five hours.^[44] The next notable event was in the first weeks of February 2010 when Sydney received some of the highest rainfalls in 25 years, which caused flash flooding and traffic chaos.^[44]

The Bureau of Meteorology has reported that 2002 through 2005 were the warmest summers in Sydney since records began in 1859.^[45] The summer of 2007–08, however, proved to be one of the coolest summers on record.^[46] Warmer and drier conditions came back in 2009 and 2010 that recorded above average temperatures. 2011 recorded above average rainfall.^[47] In 2009 the dry conditions brought a severe dust storm towards eastern Australia.^[48][49]

Average annual temperature of the sea is above 21 °C (70 °F), from 19 °C (66 °F) in July to 24 °C (75 °F) in January.^[50]

Urban structure[link]

Sydney's Northern Beaches. The metropolitan area is characterised by large areas of urban sprawl, and, on the eastern side, beaches along the Tasman Sea

Sydney's Central Business District (CBD) extends southwards for about 3 kilometres (2 mi) from Sydney Cove to the area around Central station. The Sydney CBD is bounded on the east side by a chain of parkland, and the west by Darling Harbour, a tourist and nightlife precinct. Although the CBD dominated the city's business and cultural life in the early days, other business/cultural districts have developed in a radial pattern since World War II. As a result, the proportion of white-collar jobs located in the CBD declined from more than 60 per cent at the end of World War II to less than 30 per cent in 2004.^{[citation needed]}

Together with the commercial district of North Sydney, joined to the CBD by the Harbour Bridge, the most significant outer business districts are Parramatta^[52] in the central-west, Penrith^[53] in the west, Bondi Junction in the east, Liverpool^[54] in the southwest, Chatswood to the north, and Hurstville to the south.

The extensive area covered by urban Sydney is formally divided into 649^[55] suburbs (for addressing and postal purposes), and administered as 40^[56] local government areas. There is no metropolitan-wide government, but the government of New South Wales and its agencies have extensive responsibilities in providing metropolitan services.^[57] The City of Sydney itself covers a fairly small area comprising the central business district and its neighbouring inner-city suburbs. In addition, regional descriptions are used informally to conveniently describe larger sections of the urban area. These include Eastern Suburbs, Hills District, Inner West, Canterbury-Bankstown, Greater Western Sydney, Northern Beaches, Northern Suburbs, North Shore, St George, Southern Sydney, South-western Sydney, Sutherland Shire and Western Sydney.

View of Sydney from Sydney Tower.

Parks and open spaces[link]

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney

Sydney is well-endowed with open spaces and access to waterways, and has many natural areas, even in the city centre. Within the CBD are the Chinese Garden of Friendship, Sydney Park, Hyde Park, The Domain and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The metropolitan area contains several national parks, including the Royal National Park, the second oldest national park in the world, and several parks in Sydney's far west which are part of the World Heritage listed Greater Blue Mountains Area.^[58]

The Domain was established by Governor Arthur Phillip, just six months after the arrival of the first fleet. Originally established as being exclusive to Governors, it was opened to the public in the 1830s. Hyde Park was dedicated on 13 October 1810 by Governor Macquarie for the "recreation and amusement of the inhabitants of the town and a field of exercises for the troops". To celebrate the first 100 years of European settlement, Centennial Park was dedicated by Sir Henry Parkes in January 1888. Similarly, Bicentennial Park was opened on 1 January 1988 to commemorate 200 years since European settlement.^[59] 1988's Bicentennial celebrations also saw the opening of the Chinese Garden of Friendship, designed by the City of Sydney's Chinese sister city Guangzhou.

Architecture[link]

Martin Place in Sydney's CBD with the General Post Office (1866–1891), an example of the city's colonial architecture.

Sydney has various heritage listed buildings, including Sydney Town Hall, The Queen Victoria Building, Parliament House, and the Australian Museum. There is no architecture style that entirely characterises the whole of Sydney. Prominent styles include Gothic Revival, Georgian, Classical, Romanesque, Italianate, Federation, Edwardian, Second Empire, Queen Anne, as well as more contemporary styles. The first substantial buildings designed for Sydney were by transported convict Francis Greenway, who designed such buildings and structures as the Macquarie Lighthouse, Hyde Park Barracks, St James' King Street and Government House.^[60]

The atrium of 1 Bligh Street, a contemporary example of Sydney's architecture.

Other prominent architects were James Barnet, who designed the General Post Office, The Customs House, and various court houses; and Edmund Blacket, who designed St. Andrew's Cathedral and St Philip's Church.

More contemporary architecture includes the Sydney Opera House, designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon.^[61] Described as an "artistic monument", it is one of the most recognisable landmarks in both Sydney and Australia and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[62]

Harry Seidler built modernist homes and skyscrapers in Sydney, and designed prominent buildings such as the MLC Centre, the Capita Centre, and Australia Square. Seidler's designs contrasted with the Sydney school of the 1950s and 1960s, who favoured more natural and organic designs, often hidden from view in bushland. This style of architecture often utilised natural local materials as structural elements.^[63] These views were shared by Glen Murcutt, who believed that a building should blend in with its environment. Sydney has the largest skyline in Australia.^[64] Current height restrictions limit future buildings to the height of 235 metres, in part due to the close proximity of Sydney Airport.

Economy[link]

Sydney's central business district, the financial and economic hub of Australia, seen from the Balmain wharf at dusk

As the financial and economic hub of Australia, Sydney has grown to become a wealthy and prosperous city. The largest economic sectors in Sydney, as measured by the number of people employed, include property and business services, retail, manufacturing, and health and community services.^[65] Since the 1980s, jobs have moved from manufacturing to the services and information sectors. Sydney provides approximately 25 percent of the country's total GDP.^[66] The Australian Securities Exchange and the Reserve Bank of Australia are located in Sydney, as are the headquarters of 90 banks and more than half of Australia's top companies, and the regional headquarters for around 500 multinational corporations.^[66] Of the ten largest corporations in Australia by revenue,^[67] four have headquarters in Sydney: Caltex Australia, the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and Woolworths. Of the 54 authorised deposit-taking banks in Australia, 44 are based in Sydney including nine of the 11 foreign subsidiary banks in Australia and all of the 29 local branches of foreign banks. Major authorised foreign banks in Sydney include Citigroup, UBS Australia, Mizuho Corporate Bank, HSBC Bank Australia and Deutsche Bank. Shopping locations in Sydney include Pitt Street, George Street, King Street, Market Street, and Castlereagh Street, shopping complexes such as the Queen Victoria Building and Westfield Sydney, arcades such as The Strand Arcade and Mid City Centre, and department stores such as Myer and David Jones, all of which are in the shopping district in the city centre, a place to find major international brand name labels. Also in the city centre is Chinatown, which includes Paddys Markets, which is Sydney's city markets, a place for bargain hunting.

Outside the city centre there are number of other shopping destinations of interest. Inner eastern suburbs such as Potts Point, Darlinghurst and Surry Hills provide a diverse range of shops for the culturally creative and alternative lifestyle groups that live there, whilst other inner eastern areas like Paddington and Woollahra are home to boutiques selling more niche products. Inner western suburbs like Newtown and Glebe cater more towards students and alternative lifestyles. Double Bay in Sydney's harbourside eastern suburbs is un upmarket area known for its expensive boutiques. Seaside areas, including Bondi Beach in the eastern beaches area and Manly in the northern beaches area, have a retail scene based upon their beach locations, with many surfing and surfer style clothing shops. Sydney received 7.8 million domestic visitors and 2.5 million international visitors in 2004.^[68] In 2007, the (then) Premier of New South Wales, Morris Iemma established Events New South Wales to "market Sydney and NSW as a leading global events destination". Fox Studios Australia has large film studios in the city.

As of 2004, the unemployment rate in Sydney was 4.9 percent.^[69] According to The Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide cost of living survey, Sydney is the sixteenth most expensive city in the world, while a UBS survey ranks Sydney as 15th in the world in terms of net earnings.^[70] As of September 2009, Sydney has the highest median house price of any Australian capital city at $636,822,^[71] and a median unit price of $500,000.^[72] Sydney also has the highest median rent prices of any Australian city at $450 a week. The Sydney Region accounts for 12 percent (approximately $1 billion per annum) of the total agricultural production, by value, of NSW.^[73] Sydney provides 55% of NSW's flower production and 58% of its turf production, as well as 44% of state's nurseries.^[74] In 1994–1995 Sydney produced 44% of New South Wales' poultry meat and 48% of the state's eggs.^[75]

Demographics[link]

Friendship Arch in Cabramatta, a suburb home to a large proportion of Sydney's Vietnamese population

The 2006 census reported 4,119,190 residents in the Sydney Statistical Division,^[80] of which 3,641,422 lived in Sydney's Urban Centre.^[81] Inner Sydney was the most densely populated place in Australia with 4,023 inhabitants per square kilometre (10,420 /sq mi).^[82] In the 2006 census, the most common self-described ancestries identified for Sydney residents were Australian, English, Irish, Scottish, and Chinese.^[83] The Census also recorded that 1.1% of Sydney's population identified as being of indigenous origin, and 31.7% were born overseas.^[80] Asian Australians made up 18.8% of the population in Sydney's Urban Centre and 16.9% of the wider Statistical Division.^[84] The three major sources of immigrants are the United Kingdom, China and New Zealand, followed by Vietnam, Lebanon, India, Italy, and the Philippines.^[80] Many residents are native speakers of English; many have a second language, the most common being Arabic (predominantly Lebanese Arabic), Cantonese, Mandarin, Greek and Vietnamese.^[80] Sydney has the seventh-largest percentage of foreign-born individuals in the world.^[85] Immigrants account for 75% of Sydney's annual population growth.^[86]

The median age of Sydney residents is 34; 12% of the population is over 65 years old.^[69] 15.2% of residents have educational attainment equal to at least a bachelor's degree,^[87] In the 2006 census, 64% of the residents identified themselves as Christians, 14.1% had no religion, 10.4% left the question blank, 4.4% were Muslims, 3.7% were Buddhists, 1.7% were Hindus, 0.9% were Jewish and 0.4 were Bahai.^[88]

Culture[link]

Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi Beach

As a dynamic cultural hub, Sydney has many fine and internationally known museums and galleries, such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the White Rabbit Gallery, Brett Whiteley Studio, Museum of Sydney and the Powerhouse Museum, in addition to a thriving commercial gallery scene of contemporary art, mainly in the inner-city areas of Waterloo, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Chippendale, Newtown and Woollahra.

Sydney hosts many different festivals and some of Australia's largest social and cultural events. These include the Sydney Festival, Australia's largest arts festival which is a celebration involving both indoor and free outdoor performances throughout January; the Biennale of Sydney dedicated to international and Australian contemporary art; the Big Day Out, a travelling rock-music festival which originated in Sydney; the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras along Oxford Street; the Sydney Film Festival and many other smaller film festivals such as the short film Tropfest and Flickerfest. Sculpture by the Sea, Australia's largest outdoor sculpture exhibit, began at Bondi Beach in 1996.

Australia's premier prize for portraiture, the Archibald Prize is organised by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Sydney Royal Easter Show is held every year at Sydney Olympic Park, the final of Australian Idol takes place on the steps of the Opera House, and Australian Fashion Week takes place in April/May and September. Sydney's New Year's Eve and Australia Day celebrations are the largest in Australia.

A survey based on tracking the frequency of words and phrases in the media, cited Sydney as number 9 on a list of the world's top fashion cities in 2009.^[89] The city is the site of the world renowned Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, which occurs biannually, and is home to many of Australia's premier fashion houses. Most international designers have a major presence in Sydney and Australia's Next Top Model is one of the most watched shows on national television.

Entertainment and performing arts[link]

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia

Sydney's cultural institutions include the Sydney's famous Opera House. It has five halls, including a large concert hall and opera and drama theatres; it is the home of Opera Australia—the third-busiest opera company in the world, and the Sydney Symphony under the leadership of Vladimir Ashkenazy.^[90] Other venues include the Sydney Town Hall, City Recital Hall, the State Theatre, the Theatre Royal, Sydney, the Sydney Theatre and the Wharf Theatre, the Capitol Theatre and the Lyric and Star Theatres at The Star. The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is located adjacent to the Royal Botanic Gardens and serves the Australian music community through music education and biannual Australian Music Examination Board exams. The Sydney Dance Company was under the leadership of Graeme Murphy during the late 20th century. The Sydney Theatre Company has a regular roster of local plays, such as noted playwright David Williamson, classics and international playwrights. In 2007, The New Theatre celebrated 75 years of continuous production in Sydney. Other important theatre companies in Sydney include Company B and Griffin Theatre Company. From the 1940s through to the 1970s the Sydney Push, a group of authors and political activists whose members included Germaine Greer, influenced the city's cultural life. The National Institute of Dramatic Art, based in Kensington, boasts internationally famous alumni such as Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, Baz Luhrmann and Cate Blanchett. Sydney's role in the film industry has increased since the opening of Fox Studios Australia in 1998.

Prominent films that have been filmed in the city include Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, Moulin Rouge!, Mission: Impossible II, Star Wars episodes II and III, Superman Returns, Dark City, Son of the Mask, Stealth, Dil Chahta Hai, Happy Feet, Australia and The Matrix. Films using Sydney as a setting include Finding Nemo, Strictly Ballroom, Muriel's Wedding, Our Lips Are Sealed, and Dirty Deeds. Many Bollywood movies have also been filmed in Sydney including Singh Is Kinng, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Chak De India, Heyy Babyy. As of 2006, over 229 films have been set in, or featured Sydney.^[91] Sydney's most popular nightspots include Kings Cross, Oxford Street, Darling Harbour, Circular Quay and The Rocks, which all contain various bars, nightclubs and restaurants. The Star is Sydney's only casino and is situated around Darling Harbour. There are many traditional pubs, cafes and restaurants in inner-city areas such as Newtown, Balmain, Leichhardt and Surry Hills. Sydney's main live music hubs include areas such as Newtown and Annandale, which nurtured acts such as AC/DC, Bliss n Eso, Sparkadia, Midnight Oil and INXS. Other popular nightspots tend to be spread throughout the city in areas such as Bondi, Manly, Cronulla and Parramatta.

Tourism[link]

In the year ending March 2008, Sydney received 2.7 million international visitors.^[92] The most well-known attractions include the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Other attractions include Royal Botanical Gardens, Luna Park, some 40 beaches and Sydney Tower.^[93]

Sydney also has several popular museums, such as the Australian Museum (natural history and anthropology), the Powerhouse Museum (science, technology and design), the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Australian National Maritime Museum.^[94]

Sport and outdoor activities[link]

Sydney Cricket Ground

Sport is an important part of Sydney's culture. The most popular sport in Sydney is rugby league. The NSWRFL (today known as the NRL) began in Sydney in the 1908 season and is the largest and most prestigious domestic rugby league competition in the Southern Hemisphere.^[95] The city is home to nine of the sixteen teams currently in the National Rugby League competition: the Canterbury Bulldogs, Cronulla Sharks, Manly Sea Eagles, Penrith Panthers, Parramatta Eels, South Sydney Rabbitohs, St George Illawarra Dragons, Sydney Roosters and Wests Tigers.

Cricket is the most popular summer sport in Sydney. The Ashes Series between Australia and England is widely popular among the people. As the state capital, Sydney is also the home of the NSW Blues cricket team in the Sheffield Shield cricket competition. Sydney Cricket Ground and ANZ Stadium host cricket matches. This city has also hosted 1992 Cricket World Cup and will also host the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Sydney Cricket Ground is at present the only test venue in the city. Plans are going on to accommodate ANZ Stadium as an international cricket venue for Australia.

Sydney is the only city other than Brisbane and Melbourne to have an elite presence in the 4 major football codes of Australia – rugby league, soccer, rugby union and Australian rules football. Soccer is represented by Sydney FC in the A-League, whilst the second tier competitions NSWPL and NSW Super League provide many players to the A-League. Sydney also hosts major soccer events of the national team, the Socceroos, most notably the World Cup Qualifier against Uruguay in 2005. Rugby Union is represented by the NSW Waratahs in the elite Southern Hemisphere Super Rugby competition. The Suburban rugby competition is the Shute Shield which provides many Super 15 players. High profile Wallabies games are held in Sydney such as the Bledisloe Cup, Tri Nations matches, British and Irish Lions games, and most notably the final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup against England.

Sydney also has an Australian Football League (AFL) team called the Sydney Swans, with a second team Greater Western Sydney forming to enter the AFL in 2012, a woman's netball team (Swifts),a ABL baseball team (Sydney Blue Sox), a field hockey team (Waratahs), two ice hockey teams (Penrith Bears & Sydney Ice Dogs) a WNBL team (Sydney Uni Flames) and the Sydney Kings competing in the NBL.

The New South Wales rugby league team contests the annual State of Origin series against the Queensland Maroons. Large sporting events such as the NRL Grand Final and Bledisloe Cup games are regularly held at the ANZ Stadium, the main stadium for the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Other events in Sydney include the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, the Golden Slipper horse race, and the City to Surf race. Prominent sporting venues in Sydney include the Sydney Cricket Ground or SCG, ANZ Stadium, The Sydney Football Stadium, Eastern Creek Raceway, Royal Randwick and Rosehill Gardens Racecourse.

Media[link]

The ABC building in Ultimo

Sydney has two main daily newspapers. The Sydney Morning Herald is the oldest extant newspaper in Australia, having been published regularly since 1831. The Herald's competitor, The Daily Telegraph, is a News Corporation-owned tabloid. Both papers have tabloid counterparts published on Sunday, The Sun-Herald and the Sunday Telegraph, respectively.

The three commercial television networks (Seven, Nine, Ten), as well as the government national broadcast services (ABC and SBS) are headquartered in Sydney. Also a community television station, TVS, broadcasts in the Sydney area. Historically, the networks have been based in the northern suburbs, but the last decade has seen several move to the inner city. Nine has kept its headquarters north of the harbour, in Willoughby. Ten has its studios in a redeveloped section of the inner-city suburb of Pyrmont, and Seven also has headquarters in Pyrmont, production studios at Epping as well as a purpose-built news studio in Martin Place in the CBD.

The ABC has a large headquarters and production facility in the inner-city suburb of Ultimo and SBS has its studios at Artarmon. Foxtel and Optus both supply pay-TV over their cable services to most parts of the urban area, and both have their national headquarters in the Northern suburb of North Ryde.^[96][97]

The five free-to-air networks have provided digital television transmissions in Sydney since January 2000. There are also nine additional Freeview Digital Services. These include ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBS Two, 7TWO, 7mate, GO!, GEM HD, ONE HD and Eleven.

Many AM and FM government, commercial and community radio services broadcast in the Sydney area. The local ABC radio station is 702 ABC Sydney (formerly 2BL).^[98] The talkback radio genre is dominated by the perennial rivals 2GB and 2UE. Popular Music radio stations include Triple M, 2Day FM and Nova 96.9, which generally target people under 40. In the older end of the music radio market, Classic Rock 95.3 and Mix 106.5 target the 25–54 age group, while WS-FM targets the 40–54 age group with their Classic Hits format mostly focusing on the 70s and 80s. Triple J (ABC), 2SER and FBi Radio provide a more independent, local and alternative sound. There are also a number of community stations broadcasting to a particular language group or local area.^[99]

On 1 July 2009, DAB+ Digital Radio officially started. ABC and commercial radios provide full programming.^[100]

Government[link]

Sydney's Local Government Areas

Apart from the limited role of the Cumberland County Council from 1945–1964, there has never been an overall governing body for the Sydney metropolitan area; instead, the metropolitan area is divided into local government areas (LGAs) which are comparable to boroughs in cities such as London. These areas have elected councils which are responsible for functions delegated to them by the New South Wales State Government, such as planning and garbage collection.

NSW Parliament House. The State Government controls most citywide activities.

The City of Sydney includes the central business area and some adjoining inner suburbs, and has in recent years been expanded through amalgamation with adjoining local government areas, such as South Sydney. It is led by the elected Lord Mayor of Sydney and a council. The Lord Mayor, however, is sometimes treated as a representative of the whole city, for example during the Olympics.^[101]

Most citywide government activities are controlled by the state government. These include public transport, main roads, traffic control, policing, education above preschool level, and planning of major infrastructure projects.^[102] Because a large proportion of the New South Wales population lives in Sydney, state governments have traditionally been reluctant to allow the development of citywide governmental bodies, which would tend to rival the state government. For this reason, Sydney has always been a focus for the politics of both state and federal parliaments. For example, the boundaries of the City of Sydney LGA have been significantly altered by state governments on at least four occasions since 1945, with expected advantageous effect to the governing party in the New South Wales Parliament at the time.^[103]

The 38 LGAs commonly described as making up Sydney are: