Greater Sydney

This article is about the greater metropolitan area. For the city itself, see Sydney.

Greater Sydney Region New South Wales
Population	5,231,147 (GCCSA) [1] 5,521,887 (broadest definition) (2021; 1st)
Time zone	Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) (UTC+10:00)
State electorate(s)	Several
Federal division(s)	Several

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Greater Sydney is the most populous metropolitan area in Australia and Oceania. Located in the state of New South Wales, it encompasses the state capital Sydney, including the City of Sydney local government area (LGA), as well as the surrounding built-up areas. Greater Sydney covers an area stretching from the Hawkesbury and the Northern Beaches in the north, to the Blue Mountains in the west and to Wollondilly, Campbelltown and Sutherland in the south. ^{[2] [3]}

Under the New South Wales Greater Cities Commission (formerly the Greater Sydney Commission), the Greater Sydney Region, along with Newcastle, the Central Coast and Wollongong, will constitute a Sandstone Mega-region that will make-up 70% of the New South Wales population and 25% of the national population. ^[4]

History

A Greater Sydney had been proposed several times prior to its eventual formation, usually curtailed by some form of national crisis. ^[5] There had been a Labor Party Greater Sydney Bill before the NSW legislature, defeated because of the controversy over conscription during the Boer War. ^[5] A Bill proposed by William McKell that had stalled in committee failed outright when the Lang government fell. ^[5] Labor Party proposals of the 1940s fell by the wayside because of World War 2. ^[5] An early 1960s proposal was opposed by moves to instead create a City of North Sydney, and was quashed outright by the Liberal Party government of Robert Askin in 1965. ^[5]

Definitions

In its broadest definition, Greater Sydney covers the city of Sydney in addition to four neighbouring regions: the Blue Mountains, the Hawkesbury, Macarthur and Wollondilly.

Greater Sydney Covid-19

^[2] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Greater Sydney was defined as the city of Sydney itself as well as the Central Coast and Wollongong (including both the City of Wollongong in the north and the City of Shellharbour in the south). ^[2] On 19 of August 2021, The NSW Government has informed that the Central Coast Council and the City of Shellharbour local government areas had been removed from the Greater Sydney Covid-19 Lockdown to become Regional NSW local government areas, while the City of Wollongong remained under the Greater Sydney Covid-19 regulations.

Greater Sydney Districts

The Greater Sydney Region Plan defines the five districts that form the Greater Sydney metropolitan area as follows: ^[6]

Greater Sydney Districts

Western City	Central City	Eastern City	North District	South District
Blue Mountains	Blacktown	Bayside	Hornsby	Georges River
Hawkesbury	Cumberland	Burwood	Hunters Hill	Canterbury–Bankstown
Penrith	Parramatta	Canada Bay	Ku–ring–gai	Sutherland
Camden	The Hills	Inner West	Lane Cove
Campbelltown		Randwick	Northern Beaches
Fairfield		Strathfield	Mosman
Liverpool		Woollahra	Willoughby
Wollondilly		Waverley	Ryde
		City of Sydney	North Sydney

Sydney Greater Capital City Statistical Area

The Sydney Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA) is the definition of Greater Sydney used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). It covers the following level-four statistical areas: ^[1]

• Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury
• Blacktown
• Central Coast
• City and Inner South
• Eastern Suburbs
• Inner South West
• Inner West
• Northern Beaches
• North Sydney and Hornsby
• Outer South West
• Outer West and Blue Mountains
• Parramatta
• Ryde
• South West
• Sutherland

Therefore, the Sydney GCCSA covers all of the 33 local government areas in Greater Sydney which includes the City of Blue Mountains to the west, the City of Hawkesbury and the Northern Beaches Council to the north, Botany Bay to the east and the Sutherland Shire and the Wollondilly Shire to the south. The Sydney GCCSA also includes the Central Coast, which in most cases is considered a regional area that is situated north of Greater Sydney, however the Australian Bureau of Statistics includes the Central Coast within the broader Sydney GCCSA area, which increases Greater Sydney’s population by approximately 350,000 for the Sydney GCCSA definition, but is considered its own Significant Urban Area and a stand-alone region within its own right. The Illawarra, which is south of Greater Sydney is not included in the Sydney GCCSA. ^[1]

Gallery

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  Greater Sydney Regions and Suburbs
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References

1. "Greater Capital City Statistical Area - Fact Sheet" (PDF). www.abs.gov.au. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
2. "The difference between metro and Greater Sydney explained". Nine.com.au . 24 June 2021.
3. "So what is the difference between Greater Sydney, Metropolitan Sydney and Regional NSW?". Time Out Digital Limited. 9 September 2021.
4. The Sandstone Mega-region (PDF) (Report). The Committee for Sydney. 2018. ISBN   978-0-6480890-6-3.
5. Larcombe 1978, p. 208.
6. Greater Sydney Region Plan — A Metropolis of Three Cities (PDF) (Report). Government of New South Wales. March 2018.

Bibliography

• Larcombe, Frederick A. (1978). A History of Local Government in New South Wales: The advancement of Local Government in New South Wales, 1906 to the present. Vol. 3. Sydney University Press. ISBN   9780424000374.

External links

• 
    Greater Sydney travel guide from Wikivoyage
• A Metropolis of Three Cities – State of New South Wales