Greater Sydney

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

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

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)
LGA(s)	Several
State electorate(s)	Several
Federal division(s)	Several

• New South Wales portal

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.^[2] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Greater Sydney was defined as the city of Sydney itself as well as the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Wollongong (including both the City of Wollongong in the north and the City of Shellharbour in the south).^[2]

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 Sydney in addition to the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast, the Hawkesbury and Macarthur. However, it does not include the Illawarra.^[1]

Gallery

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  Greater Sydney Regions and Suburbs
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