City Overview Sydney
Sydney is considered the “Pearl of the Pacific Coast” and embodies the Australian dream of sun, sand and sea like no other city.
The port is one of the most beautiful in the world and is crowned by the imposing Opera House, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Together they form the impressive center of the city.
Sydney is also the capital of the state of New South Wales and a thriving economic and cultural center surrounded by a landscape that, like everything else in Sydney, is very impressive.
The lively, extensive city has all the amenities of an international metropolis – excellent shopping, excellent restaurants and hotels as well as a lively nightlife. Since the city lies between the mountains and the sea, there are countless sports and leisure options. The Pacific with its strong surf on golden beaches is ideal for surfing.
A little further inland, the Blue Mountains impress, which take on countless shades of color during the different seasons. In addition to the port, there are numerous inland waterways and various national parks.
The Sydney Opera House – an avant-garde masterpiece of architecture – embodies the city’s vision of leading the “New World” into the 21st century. Sydney’s architecture is a delightful mix of styles, old and new, and so it happens that small Victorian buildings stand in the shadow of the concrete, steel and glass skyscrapers.
Sydney has the most aboriginal people of any Australian city. However, there is little evidence of this when walking through the city. In the rest of Australia , too , one encounters the white, colonial past much more frequently than the traces of the indigenous people. Museums, galleries, theaters and dance troops pay tribute to the archaeological and cultural heritage of the Aborigines, but the indigenous people in the city are still an invisible minority.
Important facts
Area code: (0) 2
Population: 5,230,330 (2018)
Latitude: -33.867139
Longitude: 151.207114
Weather in Sydney
Sydney is an excellent destination in every season thanks to the subtropical summers and mild winters. The city shows its best side on 340 days of sunshine a year. It can get very hot in summer, but the many beaches offer enough cooling. Larger events during the summer months like the Sydney Festival and Mardi Gras attract large crowds from all over the world. As a result, the prices for flights and hotels are higher than in the winter months.
City History of Sydney
Founded in 1788 as a British penal colony, Sydney quickly developed from this inglorious beginnings to a thriving commercial center and saw enormous growth during the 19th and 20th centuries.
But the real history of the city goes back to prehistoric times. The area around the harbor was home to many Aboriginal tribes for over 40,000 years. Although urbanization has destroyed most of the evidence from these settlements, hundreds of petroglyphs (some of the best in the world) have been preserved.
Shortly after the first British fleets arrived in Australia, the abrupt conflicts with the Aborigines began. The Europeans succeeded in expropriating the natives with their superior weapons. But the British’s greatest ally was disease, and smallpox wiped out the indigenous population.
In the early years, droughts and diseases caused many problems for the early settlers, but the situation soon improved. In the 1840s, Sydney had a local government and a mayor. The university was founded soon after. As the city grew, many new buildings were built – especially during the 50-year boom in the mid-1800s – including the Sydney Observatory, St. Marys Cathedral, Customs House, the Australian Museum, and City Hall and the Queen Victoria Building.
A railroad line was built from Sydney to Parramatta, and soon horse-drawn trams ran through the streets of Sydney (which were later replaced by steam-powered and then electric trains). Sydney grew rapidly with industrialization. At the beginning of the 20th century, the population was well over 1 million.
When the Australian Federation was founded in 1901, Canberra was made Australia’s new capital to settle the longstanding disagreements between Sydney and arch-rival Melbourne. Sydney residents, however, insist that their city is the ‘true’ capital of Australia – and not only since the hosting of the 2000 Summer Olympics. However, the rivalry with Melbourne is based more on the different way of life than on the need for official recognition. While Sydney is very British, Melbourne has been culturally influenced by the rest of Europe.
The Olympics have only confirmed Sydney’s reputation as one of the greatest cities in the world. The smooth running of the games was primarily attributed to the positive, helpful attitude of the many thousands of volunteers. Much to the astonishment of the Sydney residents themselves, it became clear that behind the sometimes arrogant facade, the traditional Australian virtues are still alive.
But the Olympic Games not only influenced the mentality of the residents, but also the cityscape. Streets and public spaces have been redesigned or redesigned and long-neglected blotches have been removed, making the city center more appealing and easier to pass than ever before.
