The Ultimate Guide to Packaging Solutions in Sydney
food contact materials
Checking out the Variety of Product Packaging Solutions in Sydney
Sydney, the dynamic resources of New South Wales, Australia, is not simply a hub for tourist and service, but likewise a growing facility for a range of product packaging services. Best Packaging Sydney . The city is home to numerous firms that specialize in product packaging, offering a diverse range of options to fulfill the one-of-a-kind requirements of businesses throughout various fields. As we explore the realm of product packaging remedies in Sydney, we locate a vast selection of alternatives, each with its own distinct benefits.
Firstly, there are traditional product packaging remedies. These include cardboard boxes, paper bags, and bubble wrap, which are commonly made use of across numerous industries. They are cost-efficient, very easy to utilize, and conveniently available, making them a preferred option for lots of organizations.
The Ultimate Guide to Packaging Solutions in Sydney - Packaging waste
food contact materials
Packaging waste
Package tracking
Sydney boasts a host of distributors who offer these traditional product packaging products in bulk, making sure that companies never run except supply.
Second of all, we find eco-friendly packaging services. With the globe slowly moving towards lasting methods, Sydney has actually stood at the leading edge, with numerous firms supplying eco-friendly product packaging options. These include eco-friendly and compostable product packaging products, such as cornstarch bags, bamboo containers, and recycled cardboard. By selecting these environmentally friendly choices, organizations in Sydney not just accomplish their packaging requires however additionally add in the direction of a greener world.
Next, there are customized packaging services. These are perfect for organizations looking to improve their brand presence and make an enduring impact on their customers. Lots of product packaging companies in Sydney use bespoke remedies, permitting companies to develop their packaging materials as per their branding standards. From tailored boxes and bags to personalized labels and tags, the options are endless.
Sydney also houses companies of modern packaging services. These are made for sectors that call for specific packaging, such as the pharmaceutical, electronics, and food industries. These services include temperature-controlled product packaging, tamper-evident product packaging, and anti-static product packaging. With these innovative services, companies can make sure the safety and stability of their products during transit.
Finally, Sydney is a hub for cutting-edge product packaging remedies. Several firms are constantly looking into and establishing new product packaging materials and strategies to fulfill the advancing needs of companies. These advancements vary from wise product packaging that includes technology to improve client experience, to adaptable product packaging that can conveniently adapt to the shape of the product.
Finally, the product packaging options in Sydney provide a perfect blend of practice and technology. They accommodate a variety of requirements, from cost-efficient and environment-friendly remedies to tailored and modern options. As a service, discovering the selection of product packaging solutions in Sydney not only assists
Importance of Lasting Product Packaging Choices in Sydney
In the bustling city of Sydney, the subject of sustainable packaging options is greater than just a pattern-- it's a requirement. The significance of sustainable product packaging options can not be overemphasized as the city continues to face the challenges of waste administration, ecological preservation, and the raising consumer need for eco-friendly practices. This utmost guide to product packaging options in Sydney discovers why lasting product packaging is critical in todays market.
First of all, lasting packaging has a dramatically reduced impact on the atmosphere contrasted to traditional product packaging techniques. It makes use of products that are eco-friendly, recyclable, or reusable, decreasing the quantity of waste that ends up in Sydneys landfills. According to the Australian Packaging Agreement Organization, Australia generates over 5.5 million tons of packaging waste annually. Carrying out lasting product packaging alternatives can considerably stop this number, adding to a cleaner, much healthier setting for Sydneys residents.
Second of all, lasting packaging options align with the increasing consumer recognition and demand for eco-friendly products. Increasingly more Sydney customers are making aware investing in decisions, opting for brand names that demonstrate liable environmental techniques. Services that stop working to adapt to these altering customer habits run the risk of shedding a significant part of their market share. Thus, the adoption of lasting product packaging is not just an ecologically accountable action-- its a smart organization choice.
Additionally, the Sydney federal government is actively advertising the use of lasting product packaging. Via initiatives such as the National Packaging Targets, services are encouraged to make their packaging 100% multiple-use, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. Taking on lasting packaging remedies now will certainly assist Sydney services remain in advance of the contour and follow future regulations, conserving them potential penalties and reputational damages.
Additionally, the switch to lasting product packaging can cause cost financial savings in the long run. While the preliminary financial investment may be higher, making use of recyclable and recyclable materials can decrease product packaging expenses gradually. In addition, sustainable product packaging often involves structured styles and efficient use of materials, resulting in reduced shipping expenses.
Finally, the significance of sustainable packaging choices in Sydney can not be underrated. It plays an important function in environmental preservation, meeting consumer demands, adhering to government policies, and accomplishing long-lasting expense savings. As we continue to pursue a much more lasting future, welcoming environmentally friendly packaging options is an action in the right instructions for organizations and consumers alike in Sydney.
Exactly how to Choose the Right Packaging Supplier in Sydney
Picking the appropriate product packaging supplier in Sydney is a critical choice that can significantly impact your company operations, customer complete satisfaction, and bottom line. This job might appear overwhelming, particularly given the plethora of packaging suppliers available on the market. However, by adhering to a couple of critical steps, you can find the optimal companion to satisfy your packaging requires.
First of all, its necessary to identify and plainly specify your product packaging needs. This includes recognizing the kind of packaging materials you require, the amount, and the regularity of supply. You need to also take into consideration the nature of your products. For example, delicate things may require even more robust packaging, while food might require packaging that follows certain food safety and security guidelines.
When you have a clear understanding of your needs, you can begin looking into possible vendors. A great beginning factor would certainly be to seek references from organization calls and market associations. Online directories and online search engine can also give a riches of information concerning packaging vendors in Sydney.
As you shortlist possible suppliers, dive deeper right into their capabilities and offerings. Inspect if they supply the type of packaging products you require and whether they can manage the amounts you need. Furthermore, ask about their delivery capabilities, specifically if you need regular materials.
It is likewise essential to examine the quality of the product packaging products. A small cost might be alluring, however inferior top quality packaging can harm your products throughout transit and adversely influence your brands credibility. As a result, it could be beneficial to request examples or check out the suppliers center to determine their top quality criteria.
Customer care is another essential element to take into consideration. The best vendor ought to be receptive, attentive, and aggressive in resolving your questions and concerns. They should additionally be flexible in fitting your changing needs and collaborating with you to locate ideal product packaging remedies.
Pricing, certainly, is a crucial element. However, it must not be the single component in your choice. Instead, consider the overall value the supplier can provide, consisting of the top quality of their products, their reliability, and the level of customer support.
Lastly, its a good idea to inspect the vendors reputation. This can be done by checking out testimonials and endorsements, checking their scores on service testimonial sites, and requesting for referrals.
In conclusion, picking the ideal packaging supplier in Sydney requires mindful factor to consider of different aspects, including your particular needs, the suppliers capacities and offerings, the quality of their products, their client service, rates, and track record. By conducting detailed research and making a knowledgeable choice, you can discover a trusted partner to give effective packaging solutions that
Case Researches: Success Stories of Product Packaging Solutions in Sydney
Product packaging services have actually evolved over the years, and companies are consistently looking for ingenious, effective, and sustainable ways to package their products. In Sydney, numerous firms have actually broken the mold with their innovative and effective product packaging solutions. The success tales of these companies offer important understandings into the opportunities of packaging services. Right here are some instances that highlight the capacity of ingenious packaging.
Among the success tales is of a local organic food company that intended to straighten its product packaging options with its sustainable farming methods. The company chose biodegradable product packaging materials that not only minimized their carbon impact yet also reverberated with their target audience eco-conscious values. This packaging remedy not only preserved the freshness of their items however additionally permitted them to connect their brand name ethos efficiently.
An additional study entails a Sydney-based fashion seller that was battling with packaging inconsistencies, leading to consumer discontentment. They carried out a brand-new, standardized packaging option that not just made sure the high quality and uniformity of packaging but likewise improved the overall client experience.
The Ultimate Guide to Packaging Solutions in Sydney - Package tracking
Package delivery
Self-heating food packaging
International Classification for Standards
This action considerably reduced their return prices and boosted their client fulfillment ratings.
Theres likewise the situation of a tech startup that released a new digital gadget in the market. They recognized that the typical bubble wrap wasnt offering the necessary protection during transportation. As a result, they switched to a product packaging solution with molded pulp trays and corrugated boxes. This brand-new product packaging remedy not just provided exceptional defense but likewise decreased product packaging waste, proving to be economical over time.
Another intriguing case study originates from a drink firm that made a decision to revamp its product packaging to stand apart in the competitive market. They presented a brand-new bottle style with a distinct shape and vibrant colors, which quickly ended up being a hit amongst their consumers. This imaginative product packaging service not only boosted their brand exposure but likewise enhanced their sales.
These success stories from Sydney highlight the importance of reliable and cutting-edge product packaging options. They show that product packaging is more than just a container for an item. It plays a vital role in brand communication, consumer experience, and even environmental sustainability. As a result, its vital for organizations to continually explore and adopt new packaging options that align with their brand name worths and market assumptions.
The Ultimate Guide to Packaging Solutions in Sydney - food contact materials
Recycling in the Republic of Ireland
Plastic bottle
Bubble wrap
So, whether youre a local business owner, an item developer, or a product packaging expert, these success stories offer valuable lessons. They illustrate the power of product packaging remedies and their prospective to drive service success. And who understands? The next huge success tale in packaging options might be yours.
Sydney is the capital city of the state of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about 80 km (50 mi) from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Blue Mountains in the west, and about 80 km (50 mi) from Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the Hawkesbury River in the north and north-west, to the Royal National Park and Macarthur in the south and south-west.[5] Greater Sydney consists of 658 suburbs, spread across 33 local government areas. Residents of the city are colloquially known as "Sydneysiders".[6] The estimated population in June 2024 was 5,557,233,[1] which is about 66% of the state's population.[7] The city's nicknames include the Emerald City and the Harbour City.[8]
There is evidence that Aboriginal Australians inhabited the Greater Sydney region at least 30,000 years ago, and their engravings and cultural sites are common. The traditional custodians of the land on which modern Sydney stands are the clans of the Darug, Dharawal and Eora.[9] During his first Pacific voyage in 1770, James Cook charted the eastern coast of Australia, making landfall at Botany Bay. In 1788, the First Fleet of convicts, led by Arthur Phillip, founded Sydney as a British penal colony, the first European settlement in Australia.[10] After World War II, Sydney experienced mass migration and by 2021 over 40 per cent of the population was born overseas. Foreign countries of birth with the greatest representation are mainland China, India, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and the Philippines.[11]
In 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales, named the cove where the first British settlement was established Sydney Cove after Home Secretary Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney.[27] The cove was called Warrane by the Aboriginal inhabitants.[28] Phillip considered naming the settlement Albion, but this name was never officially used.[27] By 1790 Phillip and other officials were regularly calling the township Sydney.[29] Sydney was declared a city in 1842.[30]
The Gadigal (Cadigal) clan, whose territory stretches along the southern shore of Port Jackson from South Head to Darling Harbour, are the traditional owners of the land on which the British settlement was initially established, and call their territory Gadi (Cadi). Aboriginal clan names within the Sydney region were often formed by adding the suffix "-gal" to a word denoting the name for their territory, a specific place in their territory, a food source, or totem. Greater Sydney covers the traditional lands of 28 known Aboriginal clans.[31]
The first people to inhabit the area now known as Sydney were Aboriginal Australians who had migrated from southeast Asia via northern Australia.[32] Flaked pebbles found in Western Sydney's gravel sediments might indicate human occupation from 45,000 to 50,000 years ago,[33] while radiocarbon dating has shown evidence of human activity in the region from around 30,000 years ago.[34] Prior to the arrival of the British, there were 4,000 to 8,000 Aboriginal people in the greater Sydney region.[35][9]
The inhabitants subsisted on fishing, hunting, and gathering plants and shellfish. The diet of the coastal clans was more reliant on seafood whereas hinterland clans ate more forest animals and plants. The clans had distinctive equipment and weapons mostly made of stone, wood, plant materials, bone and shell. They also differed in their body decorations, hairstyles, songs and dances. Aboriginal clans had a rich ceremonial life, part of a belief system centring on ancestral, totemic and supernatural beings. People from different clans and language groups came together to participate in initiation and other ceremonies. These occasions fostered trade, marriages and clan alliances.[36]
The earliest British settlers recorded the word 'Eora' as an Aboriginal term meaning either 'people' or 'from this place'.[37][9] The clans of the Sydney area occupied land with traditional boundaries. There is debate, however, about which group or nation these clans belonged to, and the extent of differences in language and rites. The major groups were the coastal Eora people, the Dharug (Darug) occupying the inland area from Parramatta to the Blue Mountains, and the Dharawal people south of Botany Bay.[9] Darginung and Gundungurra languages were spoken on the fringes of the Sydney area.[38]
Aboriginal clans of Sydney area, as recorded by early British settlers
South side of Port Jackson, from Darling Harbour to Rose Hill
Clans of the Sydney region whose territory wasn't reliably recorded are: the Domaragal, Doogagal, Gannalgal,
Gomerigal, Gooneeowlgal, Goorunggurregal, Gorualgal, Murrooredial, Noronggerragal, Oryangsoora and Wandeandegal.
Note: The names and territory boundaries do not always correspond with those used by contemporary Aboriginal groups of the greater Sydney area.[38][39][40]
The first meeting between Aboriginals and British explorers occurred on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay (Kamay[41]) and encountered the Gweagal clan.[42] Two Gweagal men opposed the landing party and one was shot and wounded.[43][44] Cook and his crew stayed at Botany Bay for a week, collecting water, timber, fodder and botanical specimens and exploring the surrounding area. Cook sought to establish relations with the Aboriginal population without success.[45]
Britain had been sending convicts to its American colonies for most of the eighteenth century, and the loss of these colonies in 1783 was the impetus to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay. Proponents of colonisation also pointed to the strategic importance of a new base in the Asia-Pacific region and its potential to provide much-needed timber and flax for the navy.[46]
The First Fleet of 11 ships under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Botany Bay in January 1788. It comprised more than a thousand settlers, including 736 convicts.[47] The fleet soon moved to the more suitable Port Jackson where a settlement was established at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.[48] The colony of New South Wales was formally proclaimed by Governor Phillip on 7 February 1788. Sydney Cove offered a fresh water supply and a safe harbour, which Philip described as "the finest Harbour in the World ... Here a Thousand Sail of the Line may ride in the most perfect Security".[49]
The settlement was planned to be a self-sufficient penal colony based on subsistence agriculture. Trade and shipbuilding were banned in order to keep the convicts isolated. However, the soil around the settlement proved poor and the first crops failed, leading to several years of hunger and strict rationing. The food crisis was relieved with the arrival of the Second Fleet in mid-1790 and the Third Fleet in 1791.[50] Former convicts received small grants of land, and government and private farms spread to the more fertile lands around Parramatta, Windsor and Camden on the Cumberland Plain. By 1804, the colony was self-sufficient in food.[51]
A smallpox epidemic in April 1789 killed about half the region's Indigenous population.[9][52] In November 1790 Bennelong led a group of survivors of the Sydney clans into the settlement, establishing a continuous presence of Aboriginal Australians in settled Sydney.[53]
Phillip had been given no instructions for urban development, but in July 1788 submitted a plan for the new town at Sydney Cove. It included a wide central avenue, a permanent Government House, law courts, hospital and other public buildings, but no provision for warehouses, shops, or other commercial buildings. Phillip promptly ignored his own plan, and unplanned development became a feature of Sydney's topography.[54][55]
After Phillip's departure in December 1792, the colony's military officers began acquiring land and importing consumer goods from visiting ships. Former convicts engaged in trade and opened small businesses. Soldiers and former convicts built houses on Crown land, with or without official permission, in what was now commonly called Sydney town. Governor William Bligh (1806–08) imposed restrictions on commerce and ordered the demolition of buildings erected on Crown land, including some owned by past and serving military officers. The resulting conflict culminated in the Rum Rebellion of 1808, in which Bligh was deposed by the New South Wales Corps.[56][57]
Governor Lachlan Macquarie (1810–1821) played a leading role in the development of Sydney and New South Wales, establishing a bank, a currency and a hospital. He employed a planner to design the street layout of Sydney and commissioned the construction of roads, wharves, churches, and public buildings. Parramatta Road, linking Sydney and Parramatta, was opened in 1811,[58] and a road across the Blue Mountains was completed in 1815, opening the way for large-scale farming and grazing west of the Great Dividing Range.[59][60]
Following the departure of Macquarie, official policy encouraged the emigration of free British settlers to New South Wales. Immigration to the colony increased from 900 free settlers in 1826–30 to 29,000 in 1836–40, many of whom settled in Sydney.[61][62] By the 1840s Sydney exhibited a geographic divide between poor and working-class residents living west of the Tank Stream in areas such as The Rocks, and the more affluent residents living to its east.[62] Free settlers, free-born residents and former convicts now represented the vast majority of the population of Sydney, leading to increasing public agitation for responsible government and an end to transportation. Transportation to New South Wales ceased in 1840.[63]
In 1804, Irish convicts led around 300 rebels in the Castle Hill Rebellion, an attempt to march on Sydney, commandeer a ship, and sail to freedom.[64] Poorly armed, and with their leader Philip Cunningham captured, the main body of insurgents were routed by about 100 troops and volunteers at Rouse Hill. At least 39 convicts were killed in the uprising and subsequent executions.[65][66]
As the colony spread to the more fertile lands around the Hawkesbury River, north-west of Sydney, conflict between the settlers and the Darug people intensified, reaching a peak from 1794 to 1810. Bands of Darug people, led by Pemulwuy and later by his son Tedbury, burned crops, killed livestock and raided settler stores in a pattern of resistance that was to be repeated as the colonial frontier expanded. A military garrison was established on the Hawkesbury in 1795. The death toll from 1794 to 1800 was 26 settlers and up to 200 Darug.[67][68]
Conflict again erupted from 1814 to 1816 with the expansion of the colony into Dharawal country in the Nepean region south-west of Sydney. Following the deaths of several settlers, Governor Macquarie dispatched three military detachments into Dharawal lands, culminating in the Appin massacre (April 1816) in which at least 14 Aboriginal people were killed.[69][70]
The New South Wales Legislative Council became a semi-elected body in 1842. Sydney was declared a city the same year, and a governing council established, elected on a restrictive property franchise.[63]
Aerial illustration of Sydney, 1888
The discovery of gold in New South Wales and Victoria in 1851 initially caused economic disruption as men moved to the goldfields. Melbourne soon overtook Sydney as Australia's largest city, leading to an enduring rivalry between the two. However, increased immigration from overseas and wealth from gold exports increased demand for housing, consumer goods, services and urban amenities.[71] The New South Wales government also stimulated growth by investing heavily in railways, trams, roads, ports, telegraph, schools and urban services.[72] The population of Sydney and its suburbs grew from 95,600 in 1861 to 386,900 in 1891.[73] The city developed many of its characteristic features. The growing population packed into rows of terrace houses in narrow streets. New public buildings of sandstone abounded, including at the University of Sydney (1854–61),[74] the Australian Museum (1858–66),[75] the Town Hall (1868–88),[76] and the General Post Office (1866–92).[77] Elaborate coffee palaces and hotels were erected.[78] Daylight bathing at Sydney's beaches was banned, but segregated bathing at designated ocean baths was popular.[79]
Drought, the winding down of public works and a financial crisis led to economic depression in Sydney throughout most of the 1890s. Meanwhile, the Sydney-based premier of New South Wales, George Reid, became a key figure in the process of federation.[80]
A tramcar on George Street in 1920. Sydney once had one of the largest tram networks in the British Empire.
When the six colonies federated on 1 January 1901, Sydney became the capital of the State of New South Wales. The spread of bubonic plague in 1900 prompted the state government to modernise the wharves and demolish inner-city slums. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 saw more Sydney males volunteer for the armed forces than the Commonwealth authorities could process, and helped reduce unemployment. Those returning from the war in 1918 were promised "homes fit for heroes" in new suburbs such as Daceyville and Matraville. "Garden suburbs" and mixed industrial and residential developments also grew along the rail and tram corridors.[62] The population reached one million in 1926, after Sydney had regained its position as the most populous city in Australia.[81] The government created jobs with massive public projects such as the electrification of the Sydney rail network and building the Sydney Harbour Bridge.[82]
Sydney Harbour Bridge opening day, 19 March 1932The Sydney skyline at night in 1938.
Sydney was more severely affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s than regional New South Wales or Melbourne.[83] New building almost came to a standstill, and by 1933 the unemployment rate for male workers was 28 per cent, but over 40 per cent in working class areas such as Alexandria and Redfern. Many families were evicted from their homes and shanty towns grew along coastal Sydney and Botany Bay, the largest being "Happy Valley" at La Perouse.[84] The Depression also exacerbated political divisions. In March 1932, when populist Labor premier Jack Lang attempted to open the Sydney Harbour Bridge he was upstaged by Francis de Groot of the far-right New Guard, who slashed the ribbon with a sabre.[85]
In January 1938, Sydney celebrated the Empire Games and the sesquicentenary of European settlement in Australia. One journalist wrote, "Golden beaches. Sun tanned men and maidens...Red-roofed villas terraced above the blue waters of the harbour...Even Melbourne seems like some grey and stately city of Northern Europe compared with Sydney's sub-tropical splendours." A congress of the "Aborigines of Australia" declared 26 January "A Day of Mourning" for "the whiteman's seizure of our country."[86]
A post-war immigration and baby boom saw a rapid increase in Sydney's population and the spread of low-density housing in suburbs throughout the Cumberland Plain. Immigrants—mostly from Britain and continental Europe—and their children accounted for over three-quarters of Sydney's population growth between 1947 and 1971.[89] The newly created Cumberland County Council oversaw low-density residential developments, the largest at Green Valley and Mount Druitt. Older residential centres such as Parramatta, Bankstown and Liverpool became suburbs of the metropolis.[90] Manufacturing, protected by high tariffs, employed over a third of the workforce from 1945 to the 1960s. However, as the long post-war economic boom progressed, retail and other service industries became the main source of new jobs.[91]
An estimated one million onlookers, most of the city's population, watched Queen Elizabeth II land in 1954 at Farm Cove where Captain Phillip had raised the Union Jack 165 years earlier, commencing her Australian Royal Tour. It was the first time a reigning monarch stepped onto Australian soil.[92]
Increasing high-rise development in Sydney and the expansion of suburbs beyond the "green belt" envisaged by the planners of the 1950s resulted in community protests. In the early 1970s, trade unions and resident action groups imposed green bans on development projects in historic areas such as The Rocks. Federal, State and local governments introduced heritage and environmental legislation.[62] The Sydney Opera House was also controversial for its cost and disputes between architect Jørn Utzon and government officials. However, soon after it opened in 1973 it became a major tourist attraction and symbol of the city.[93] The progressive reduction in tariff protection from 1974 began the transformation of Sydney from a manufacturing centre to a "world city".[94] From the 1980s, overseas immigration grew rapidly, with Asia, the Middle East and Africa becoming major sources. By 2021, the population of Sydney was over 5.2 million, with 40% of the population born overseas. China and India overtook England as the largest source countries for overseas-born residents.[95]
Sydney is a coastal basin with the Tasman Sea to the east, the Blue Mountains to the west, the Hawkesbury River to the north, and the Woronora Plateau to the south.
Sydney spans two geographic regions. The Cumberland Plain lies to the south and west of the Harbour and is relatively flat. The Hornsby Plateau is located to the north and is dissected by steep valleys. The flat areas of the south were the first to be developed; it was not until the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge that the northern reaches became more heavily populated. Seventy surf beaches can be found along its coastline, with Bondi Beach being the most famous.
The Nepean River wraps around the western edge of the city and becomes the Hawkesbury River before reaching Broken Bay. Most of Sydney's water storages can be found on tributaries of the Nepean River. The Parramatta River is mostly industrial and drains a large area of Sydney's western suburbs into Port Jackson. The southern parts of the city are drained by the Georges River and the Cooks River into Botany Bay.
There is no single definition of the boundaries of Sydney. The Australian Statistical Geography Standard definition of Greater Sydney covers 12,369 km2 (4,776 sq mi) and includes the local government areas of Central Coast in the north, Hawkesbury in the north-west, Blue Mountains in the west, Sutherland Shire in the south, and Wollondilly in the south-west.[96] The local government area of the City of Sydney covers about 26 square kilometres from Garden island in the east to Bicentennial Park in the west, and south to the suburbs of Alexandria and Rosebery.[97]
The Sydney Basin bioregion includes coastal features of cliffs, beaches, and estuaries. Deep river valleys known as rias were carved during the Triassic period in the Hawkesbury sandstone of the coastal region. The rising sea level between 18,000 and 6,000 years ago flooded the rias to form estuaries and deep harbours.[99] Port Jackson, better known as Sydney Harbour, is one such ria.[102] Sydney features two major soil types: sandy soils (which originate from the Hawkesbury sandstone) and clay (which are from shales and volcanic rocks), though some soils may be a mixture of the two.[103]
At Sydney's primary weather station at Observatory Hill, extreme temperatures have ranged from 45.8 °C (114.4 °F) on 18 January 2013 to 2.1 °C (35.8 °F) on 22 June 1932.[131][132][133] An average of 14.9 days a year have temperatures at or above 30 °C (86 °F) in the central business district (CBD).[130] In contrast, the metropolitan area averages between 35 and 65 days, depending on the suburb.[134] The hottest day in the metropolitan area occurred in Penrith on 4 January 2020, where a high of 48.9 °C (120.0 °F) was recorded.[135] The average annual temperature of the sea ranges from 18.5 °C (65.3 °F) in September to 23.7 °C (74.7 °F) in February.[136] Sydney has an average of 7.2 hours of sunshine per day[137] and 109.5 clear days annually.[4] Due to the inland location, frost is recorded early in the morning in Western Sydney a few times in winter. Autumn and spring are the transitional seasons, with spring showing a larger temperature variation than autumn.[138]
Rainfall has a moderate to low variability and has historically been fairly uniform throughout the year, although in recent years it has been more summer-dominant and erratic.[150][151][152][153] Precipitation is usually higher in summer through to autumn,[124] and lower in late winter to early spring.[127][154][130][155] In late autumn and winter, east coast lows may bring large amounts of rainfall, especially in the CBD.[156] In the warm season black nor'easters are usually the cause of heavy rain events, though other forms of low-pressure areas, including remnants of ex-cyclones, may also bring heavy deluge and afternoon thunderstorms.[157][158] 'Snow' was last alleged in 1836, more than likely a fall of graupel, or soft hail; and in July 2008 the Upper North Shore saw a fall of graupel that was mistaken by many for 'snow'.[159] In 2009, dry conditions brought a severe dust storm towards the city.[160][161]
Sydney area at night, facing west. Wollongong is bottom left, and the Central Coast is at the far right.
The Greater Sydney Commission divides Sydney into three "cities" and five "districts" based on the 33 LGAs in the metropolitan area. The "metropolis of three cities" comprises Eastern Harbour City, Central River City and Western Parkland City.[167] The Australian Bureau of Statistics also includes City of Central Coast (the former Gosford City and Wyong Shire) as part of Greater Sydney for population counts,[168] adding 330,000 people.[169]
Several localities, distinct from suburbs, exist throughout Sydney's inner reaches. Central and Circular Quay are transport hubs with ferry, rail, and bus interchanges. Chinatown, Darling Harbour, and Kings Cross are important locations for culture, tourism, and recreation. The Strand Arcade, located between Pitt Street Mall and George Street, is a historical Victorian-style shopping arcade. Opened on 1 April 1892, its shop fronts are an exact replica of the original internal shopping facades.[171]Westfield Sydney, located beneath the Sydney Tower, is the largest shopping centre by area in Sydney.[172]
Since the late 20th century, there has been a trend of gentrification amongst Sydney's inner suburbs. Pyrmont, located on the harbour, was redeveloped from a centre of shipping and international trade to an area of high density housing, tourist accommodation, and gambling.[173] Originally located well outside of the city, Darlinghurst is the location of the historic Darlinghurst Gaol, manufacturing, and mixed housing. For a period it was known as an area of prostitution. The terrace-style housing has largely been retained and Darlinghurst has undergone significant gentrification since the 1980s.[174][175][176]
Green Square is a former industrial area of Waterloo which is undergoing urban renewal worth $8 billion. On the city harbour edge, the historic suburb and wharves of Millers Point are being built up as the new area of Barangaroo.[177][178] The suburb of Paddington is known for its restored terrace houses, Victoria Barracks, and shopping including the weekly Oxford Street markets.[179]
Newtown, one of the inner-most parts of the Inner West, is one of the most complete Victorian and Edwardian era commercial precincts in Australia.
The Inner West generally includes the Inner West Council, Municipality of Burwood, Municipality of Strathfield, and City of Canada Bay. These span up to about 11 km west of the CBD. Historically, especially prior to the building of the Harbour Bridge,[180] the outer suburbs of the Inner West such as Strathfield were the location of "country" estates for the colony's elites. By contrast, the inner suburbs in the Inner West, being close to transport and industry, have historically housed working-class industrial workers. These areas have undergone gentrification in the late 20th century, and many parts are now highly valued residential suburbs.[181] As of 2021, an Inner West suburb (Strathfield) remained one of the 20 most expensive postcodes in Australia by median house price (the others were all in metropolitan Sydney, all in Northern Sydney or the Eastern Suburbs).[182] The University of Sydney is located in this area, as well as the University of Technology, Sydney and a campus of the Australian Catholic University. The Anzac Bridge spans Johnstons Bay and connects Rozelle to Pyrmont and the city, forming part of the Western Distributor.
The Inner West is today well known as the location of village commercial centres with cosmopolitan flavours, such as the "Little Italy" commercial centres of Leichardt, Five Dock and Haberfield,[183] "Little Portugal" in Petersham,[184] "Little Korea" in Strathfield[185] or "Little Shanghai" in Ashfield.[186] Large-scale shopping centres in the area include Westfield Burwood, DFO Homebush and Birkenhead Point Outlet Centre. There is a large cosmopolitan community and nightlife hub on King Street, Newtown.
Residences in Bellevue Hill. Sydney's eastern suburbs are made up of some of the most expensive real estate in the country[190]
The Eastern Suburbs encompass the Municipality of Woollahra, the City of Randwick, the Waverley Municipal Council, and parts of the Bayside Council. They include some of the most affluent and advantaged areas in the country, with some streets being amongst the most expensive in the world. As at 2014, Wolseley Road, Point Piper, had a top price of $20,900 per square metre, making it the ninth-most expensive street in the world.[191] More than 75% of neighbourhoods in the Electoral District of Wentworth fall under the top decile of SEIFA advantage, making it the least disadvantaged area in the country.[192] As of 2021, of the 20 most expensive postcodes in Australia by median house price, nine were in the Eastern Suburbs.[182]
Construction of the CBD and South East Light Rail was completed in April 2020.[196] The project aims to provide reliable and high-capacity tram services to residents in the City and South-East.
The suburb of Cronulla in southern Sydney is close to Royal National Park, Australia's oldest national park. Hurstville, a large suburb with commercial and high-rise residential buildings dominating the skyline, has become a CBD for the southern suburbs.[197]
The North Shore includes the commercial centres of North Sydney and Chatswood. North Sydney itself consists of a large commercial centre, which contains the second largest concentration of high-rise buildings in Sydney after the CBD. North Sydney is dominated by advertising, marketing and associated trades, with many large corporations holding offices.
The Northern Beaches area includes Manly, one of Sydney's most popular holiday destinations. The region also features Sydney Heads, a series of headlands which form the entrance to Sydney Harbour. The Northern Beaches area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the entrance of Broken Bay.[198] The 2021 Australian census found the Northern Beaches to have, in comparison with the rest of Sydney, a large British diaspora and high concentration of people with European ancestry.[199]
As of the end of 2021, half of the 20 most expensive postcodes in Australia (by median house price) were in Northern Sydney, including four on the Northern Beaches, two on the Lower North Shore, three on the Upper North Shore, and one straddling Hunters Hill and Woolwich.[182]
The Hills district generally refers to the suburbs in north-western Sydney including the local government areas of The Hills Shire, parts of the City of Parramatta Council and Hornsby Shire. Actual suburbs and localities that are considered to be in the Hills District can be somewhat amorphous. For example, the Hills District Historical Society restricts its definition to the Hills Shire local government area, yet its study area extends from Parramatta to the Hawkesbury. The region is so named for its characteristically comparatively hilly topography as the Cumberland Plain lifts up, joining the Hornsby Plateau. Windsor and Old Windsor Roads are the second and third roads, respectively, laid in Australia.[200]
On 26 May 2019, The Sydney Metro Northwest, which went from Chatswood to Tallawong, opened, with a large portion running through the Hills District, which meant the Hills District, for the first time, started having heavy rail.[201] Before this, The Hills was served by Bus Rapid Transit.
The greater western suburbs encompasses the areas of Parramatta, the sixth largest business district in Australia, settled the same year as the harbour-side colony,[202]Bankstown, Liverpool, Penrith, and Fairfield. Covering 5,800 km2 (2,200 sq mi) and having an estimated population as at 2017 of 2,288,554, western Sydney has the most multicultural suburbs in the country – Cabramatta has earned the nickname "Little Saigon" due to its Vietnamese population, Fairfield has been named "Little Assyria" for its predominant Assyrian population and Harris Park is known as "Little India" with its plurality of Indian and Hindu population.[203][204][205][206] The population is predominantly of a working class background, with major employment in the heavy industries and vocational trade.[207] Toongabbie is noted for being the third mainland settlement (after Sydney and Parramatta) set up after British colonisation began in 1788, although the site of the settlement is actually in the separate suburb of Old Toongabbie.[208]
Further to the southwest is the region of Macarthur and the city of Campbelltown, a significant population centre until the 1990s considered a region separate to Sydney proper. Macarthur Square, a shopping complex in Campbelltown, has become one of the largest shopping complexes in Sydney.[218] The southwest also features Bankstown Reservoir, the oldest elevated reservoir constructed in reinforced concrete that is still in use and is listed on the State Heritage Register.[219] The southwest is home to one of Sydney's oldest trees, the Bland Oak, which was planted in the 1840s by William Bland in Carramar.[220]
The earliest structures in the colony were built to the bare minimum of standards. Governor Macquarie set ambitious targets for the design of new construction projects. The city now has a world heritage listed building, several national heritage listed buildings, and dozens of Commonwealth heritage listed buildings as evidence of the survival of Macquarie's ideals.[222][223][224]
York Street is an example of a city street in Sydney with an array of intact Victorian heritage architecture.
As the wealth of the settlement increased and Sydney developed into a metropolis after Federation in 1901, its buildings became taller. Sydney's first tower was Culwulla Chambers which topped out at 50 m (160 ft) making 12 floors. The Commercial Traveller's Club, built in 1908, was of similar height at 10 floors. It was built in a brick stone veneer and demolished in 1972.[241] This heralded a change in Sydney's cityscape and with the lifting of height restrictions in the 1960s there came a surge of high-rise construction.[242]
The Great Depression had a tangible influence on Sydney's architecture. New structures became more restrained with far less ornamentation. The most notable architectural feat of this period is the Harbour Bridge. Its steel arch was designed by John Bradfield and completed in 1932. A total of 39,000 tonnes of structural steel span the 503 m (1,650 ft) between Milsons Point and Dawes Point.[243][244]
Modern and International architecture came to Sydney from the 1940s. Since its completion in 1973 the city's Opera House has become a World Heritage Site and one of the world's most renowned pieces of Modern design. Jørn Utzon was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2003 for his work on the Opera House.[245] Sydney is home to Australia's first building by renowned Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building (2015). An entrance from The Goods Line–a pedestrian pathway and former railway line–is located on the eastern border of the site.
Sydney surpasses both New York City and Paris real estate prices, having some of the most expensive in the world.[257][258] The city remains Australia's most expensive housing market, with the median house price at $1,595,310 as of December 2023.[259]
There were 1.83 million dwellings in Sydney in 2021 including 900,000 (54%) detached houses, 218,000 (13%) semi-detached terrace houses and 550,000 (33%) units and apartments.[260] Whilst terrace houses are common in the inner city areas, detached houses dominate the landscape in the outer suburbs. Due to environmental and economic pressures, there has been a noted trend towards denser housing, with a 30% increase in the number of apartments between 1996 and 2006.[261] Public housing in Sydney is managed by the Government of New South Wales.[262] Suburbs with large concentrations of public housing include Claymore, Macquarie Fields, Waterloo, and Mount Druitt.
A range of heritage housing styles can be found throughout Sydney. Terrace houses are found in the inner suburbs such as Paddington, The Rocks, Potts Point and Balmain, many of which have been the subject of gentrification.[263][264] These terraces, particularly those in suburbs such as The Rocks, were historically home to Sydney's miners and labourers. In the present day, terrace houses now make up some of the most valuable real estate in the city.[265] Surviving large mansions from the Victorian era are mostly found in the oldest suburbs, such as Double Bay, Darling Point, Rose Bay and Strathfield.[266]
The Royal Botanic Garden is the most iconic green space in the region, hosting both scientific and leisure activities.[268] There are 15 separate parks under the City administration.[269] Parks within the city centre include Hyde Park, The Domain and Prince Alfred Park.
The Centennial Parklands is the largest park in the City of Sydney, comprising 189 ha (470 acres).[270]
The Centennial Parklands is the largest park in the City of Sydney, comprising 189 ha (470 acres).
Hyde Park is the oldest parkland in the country.[273] The largest park in the Sydney metropolitan area is Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, established in 1894 with an area of 15,400 ha (59 sq mi).[274] It is regarded for its well-preserved records of indigenous habitation – more than 800 rock engravings, cave drawings and middens.[275]
The area now known as The Domain was set aside by Governor Arthur Phillip in 1788 as his private reserve.[276] Under the orders of Macquarie the land to the immediate north of The Domain became the Royal Botanic Garden in 1816. This makes them the oldest botanic garden in Australia.[276] The Gardens host scientific research with herbarium collections, a library and laboratories.[277] The two parks have a total area of 64 ha (0.2 sq mi) with 8,900 individual plant species and receive over 3.5 million annual visits.[278]
To the south of The Domain is Hyde Park, the oldest public parkland in Australia which measures 16.2 ha (0.1 sq mi).[279] Its location was used for both relaxation and grazing of animals from the earliest days of the colony.[280] Macquarie dedicated it in 1810 for the "recreation and amusement of the inhabitants of the town" and named it in honour of Hyde Park in London.
The central business district. Sydney is the financial and economic centre of Australia, having the largest economy and contributing a quarter of Australia's total GDP.[281]
Researchers from Loughborough University have ranked Sydney amongst the top ten world cities that are highly integrated into the global economy.[282] The Global Economic Power Index ranks Sydney eleventh in the world.[283] The Global Cities Index recognises it as fourteenth in the world based on global engagement.[284] There is a significant concentration of foreign banks and multinational corporations in Sydney and the city is promoted as Australia's financial capital and one of Asia Pacific's leading financial hubs.[285][286]
The prevailing economic theory during early colonial days was mercantilism, as it was throughout most of Western Europe.[287] The economy struggled at first due to difficulties in cultivating the land and the lack of a stable monetary system. Governor Macquarie created two coins from every Spanish silver dollar in circulation.[287] The economy was capitalist in nature by the 1840s as the proportion of free settlers increased, the maritime and wool industries flourished, and the powers of the East India Company were curtailed.[287]
Wheat, gold, and other minerals became export industries towards the end of the 1800s.[287] Significant capital began to flow into the city from the 1870s to finance roads, railways, bridges, docks, courthouses, schools and hospitals. Protectionist policies after federation allowed for the creation of a manufacturing industry which became the city's largest employer by the 1920s.[287] These same policies helped to relieve the effects of the Great Depression during which the unemployment rate in New South Wales reached as high as 32%.[287] From the 1960s onwards Parramatta gained recognition as the city's second CBD and finance and tourism became major industries and sources of employment.[287]
Sydney's nominal gross domestic product was AU$400.9 billion and AU$80,000 per capita[288] in 2015.[289][286] Its gross domestic product was AU$337 billion in 2013, the largest in Australia.[289] The financial and insurance services industry accounts for 18.1% of gross product, ahead of professional services with 9% and manufacturing with 7.2%. The creative and technology sectors are also focus industries for the City of Sydney and represented 9% and 11% of its economic output in 2012.[290][291]
There were 451,000 businesses based in Sydney in 2011, including 48% of the top 500 companies in Australia and two-thirds of the regional headquarters of multinational corporations.[292] Global companies are attracted to the city in part because its time zone spans the closing of business in North America and the opening of business in Europe. Most foreign companies in Sydney maintain significant sales and service functions but comparably less production, research, and development capabilities.[293] There are 283 multinational companies with regional offices in Sydney.[294]
Sydney has been ranked between the fifteenth and the fifth most expensive city in the world and is the most expensive city in Australia.[296] Of the 15 categories only measured by UBS in 2012, workers receive the seventh highest wage levels of 77 cities in the world.[296] Working residents of Sydney work an average of 1,846 hours per annum with 15 days of leave.[296]
The labour force of Greater Sydney Region in 2016 was 2,272,722 with a participation rate of 61.6%.[297] It comprised 61.2% full-time workers, 30.9% part-time workers, and 6.0% unemployed individuals.[260][298] The largest reported occupations are professionals, clerical and administrative workers, managers, technicians and trades workers, and community and personal service workers.[260] The largest industries by employment across Greater Sydney are Health Care and Social Assistance (11.6%), Professional Services (9.8%), Retail Trade (9.3%), Construction (8.2%), Education and Training (8.0%), Accommodation and Food Services (6.7%), and Financial and Insurance Services (6.6%).[2] The Professional Services and Financial and Insurance Services industries account for 25.4% of employment within the City of Sydney.[299]
In 2016, 57.6% of working-age residents had a weekly income of less than $1,000 and 14.4% had a weekly income of $1,750 or more.[300] The median weekly income for the same period was $719 for individuals, $1,988 for families, and $1,750 for households.[301]
Unemployment in the City of Sydney averaged 4.6% for the decade to 2013, much lower than the current rate of unemployment in Western Sydney of 7.3%.[286][302] Western Sydney continues to struggle to create jobs to meet its population growth despite the development of commercial centres like Parramatta. Each day about 200,000 commuters travel from Western Sydney to the CBD and suburbs in the east and north of the city.[302]
Home ownership in Sydney was less common than renting prior to the Second World War but this trend has since reversed.[261] Median house prices have increased by an average of 8.6% per annum since 1970.[303][304] The median house price in March 2014 was $630,000.[305] The primary cause of rising prices is the increasing cost of land and scarcity.[306] 31.6% of dwellings in Sydney are rented, 30.4% are owned outright and 34.8% are owned with a mortgage.[260] 11.8% of mortgagees in 2011 had monthly loan repayments of less than $1,000 and 82.9% had monthly repayments of $1,000 or more.[2] 44.9% of renters for the same period had weekly rent of less than $350 whilst 51.7% had weekly rent of $350 or more. The median weekly rent in Sydney in 2011 was $450.[2]
Macquarie gave a charter in 1817 to form the first bank in Australia, the Bank of New South Wales.[307] New private banks opened throughout the 1800s but the financial system was unstable. Bank collapses were frequent and a crisis point was reached in 1893 when 12 banks failed.[307]
The Bank of New South Wales exists to this day as Westpac.[308] The Commonwealth Bank of Australia was formed in Sydney in 1911 and began to issue notes backed by the resources of the nation. It was replaced in this role in 1959 by the Reserve Bank of Australia, also based in Sydney.[307] The Australian Securities Exchange began operating in 1987 and with a market capitalisation of $1.6 trillion is now one of the ten largest exchanges in the world.[309]
The Financial and Insurance Services industry now constitutes 43% of the economic product of the City of Sydney.[285] Sydney makes up half of Australia's finance sector and has been promoted by consecutive Commonwealth Governments as Asia Pacific's leading financial centre.[20][21][310] In the 2017 Global Financial Centres Index, Sydney was ranked as having the eighth most competitive financial centre in the world.[311]
Sydney has been a manufacturing city since the 1920s. By 1961 the industry accounted for 39% of all employment and by 1970 over 30% of all Australian manufacturing jobs were in Sydney.[314] Its status has declined in recent decades, making up 12.6% of employment in 2001 and 8.5% in 2011.[2][314] Between 1970 and 1985 there was a loss of 180,000 manufacturing jobs.[314] Despite this, Sydney still overtook Melbourne as the largest manufacturing centre in Australia in the 2010s,[315] with a manufacturing output of $21.7 billion in 2013.[316] Observers have credited Sydney's focus on the domestic market and high-tech manufacturing for its resilience against the high Australian dollar of the early 2010s.[316] The Smithfield-Wetherill Park Industrial Estate in Western Sydney is the largest industrial estate in the Southern Hemisphere and is the centre of manufacturing and distribution in the region.[317]
Darling Harbour is a major entertainment and tourism precinct.
Sydney is a gateway to Australia for many international visitors and ranks among the top sixty most visited cities in the world.[318] It has hosted over 2.8 million international visitors in 2013, or nearly half of all international visits to Australia. These visitors spent 59 million nights in the city and a total of $5.9 billion.[24] The countries of origin in descending order were China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong, and India.[319]
The city also received 8.3 million domestic overnight visitors in 2013 who spent a total of $6 billion.[319] 26,700 workers in the City of Sydney were directly employed by tourism in 2011.[320] There were 480,000 visitors and 27,500 people staying overnight each day in 2012.[320] On average, the tourism industry contributes $36 million to the city's economy per day.[320]
Sydney is the highest-ranking city in the world for international students. More than 50,000 international students study at the city's universities and a further 50,000 study at its vocational and English language schools.[284][325] International education contributes $1.6 billion to the local economy and creates demand for 4,000 local jobs each year.[326]
In 2023, Sydney was ranked the least affordable city to buy a house in Australia and the second least affordable city in the world, after Hong Kong,[327] with the average Sydney house price in late 2023 costing A$1.59 million, and the average unit price costing A$795,000.[328] As of early 2024, Sydney is often described in the media as having a housing shortage, or suffering a housing crisis.[329][330]
The population of Sydney in 1788 was less than 1,000.[332] With convict transportation it almost tripled in ten years to 2,953.[333] For each decade since 1961 the population has increased by more than 250,000.[334] The 2021 census recorded the population of Greater Sydney as 5,231,150.[1] The Australian Treasury expects the population will grow to 6.5 million in 2033–34.[335] The four most densely populated suburbs in Australia are located in Sydney with each having more than 13,000 residents per square kilometre (33,700 residents per square mile).[336] Between 1971 and 2018, Sydney experienced a net loss of 716,832 people to the rest of Australia, but its population grew due to overseas arrivals and a healthy birth rate.[337]
The median age of Sydney residents is 37 and 14.8% of people are 65 or older.[260] 48.6% of Sydney's population is married whilst 36.7% have never been married.[260] 49.0% of families are couples with children, 34.4% are couples without children, and 14.8% are single-parent families.[260]
At the 2021 census, 40.5% of Sydney's population was born overseas. Foreign countries of birth with the greatest representation are mainland China, India, England, Vietnam, Philippines and New Zealand.[11]
42% of households in Sydney use a language other than English, with the most common being Mandarin (5%), Arabic (4.2%), Cantonese (2.8%), Vietnamese (2.2%) and Hindi (1.5%).[340]
In 2021, Christianity was the largest religious affiliation at 46%, the largest denominations of which were Catholicism at 23.1% and Anglicanism at 9.2%. 30.3% of Sydney residents identified as having no religion. The most common non-Christian religious affiliations were Islam (6.3%), Hinduism (4.8%), Buddhism (3.8%), Sikhism (0.7%), and Judaism (0.7%). About 500 people identified with traditional Aboriginal religions.[11]
The Church of England was the only recognised church before Governor Macquarie appointed official Catholic chaplains in 1820.[341] Macquarie also ordered the construction of churches such as St Matthew's, St Luke's, St James's, and St Andrew's. Religious groups, alongside secular institutions, have played a significant role in education, health and charitable services throughout Sydney's history.[342]
Crime in Sydney is low, with The Independent ranking Sydney as the fifth safest city in the world in 2019.[343] However, drug use is a significant problem. Methamphetamine is heavily consumed compared to other countries, while heroin is less common.[344] One of the biggest crime-related issues in recent times was the introduction of lockout laws in February 2014,[345] in an attempt to curb alcohol-fuelled violence. Patrons could not enter clubs or bars in the inner-city after 1:30am, and last drinks were called at 3am. The lockout laws were removed in January 2020.[346]
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is rich in Indigenous Australian heritage, containing around 1,500 pieces of Aboriginal rock art – the largest cluster of Indigenous sites in Australia. The park's indigenous sites include petroglyphs, art sites, burial sites, caves, marriage areas, birthing areas, midden sites, and tool manufacturing locations, which are dated to be around 5,000 years old. The inhabitants of the area were the Garigal people.[347][348] Other rock art sites exist in the Sydney region, such as in Terrey Hills and Bondi, although the locations of most are not publicised to prevent damage by vandalism, and to retain their quality, as they are still regarded as sacred sites by Indigenous Australians.[349]
Sydney's first commercial theatre opened in 1832 and nine more had commenced performances by the late 1920s. The live medium lost much of its popularity to the cinema during the Great Depression before experiencing a revival after World War II.[360] Prominent theatres in the city today include State Theatre, Theatre Royal, Sydney Theatre, The Wharf Theatre, and Capitol Theatre. Sydney Theatre Company maintains a roster of local, classical, and international plays. It occasionally features Australian theatre icons such as David Williamson, Hugo Weaving, and Geoffrey Rush. The city's other prominent theatre companies are New Theatre, Belvoir, and Griffin Theatre Company. Sydney is also home to Event Cinemas' first theatre, which opened on George St in 1913, under its former Greater Union brand; the theatre currently operates, and is regarded as one of Australia's busiest cinema locations.
Many writers have originated in and set their work in Sydney. Others have visited the city and commented on it. Some of them are commemorated in the Sydney Writers Walk at Circular Quay. The city was the headquarters for Australia's first published newspaper, the Sydney Gazette.[362] Watkin Tench's A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay (1789) and A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson in New South Wales (1793) have remained the best-known accounts of life in early Sydney.[363] Since the infancy of the establishment, much of the literature set in Sydney were concerned with life in the city's slums and working-class communities, notably William Lane's The Working Man's Paradise (1892), Christina Stead's Seven Poor Men of Sydney (1934) and Ruth Park's The Harp in the South (1948).[364] The first Australian-born female novelist, Louisa Atkinson, set several novels in Sydney.[365] Contemporary writers, such as Elizabeth Harrower, were born in the city and set most of their work there–Harrower's debut novel Down in the City (1957) was mostly set in a King's Cross apartment.[366][367][368] Well known contemporary novels set in the city include Melina Marchetta's Looking for Alibrandi (1992), Peter Carey's 30 Days in Sydney: A Wildly Distorted Account (1999), J. M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year (2007) and Kate Grenville's The Secret River (2010). The Sydney Writers' Festival is held annually between April and May.[369]
Sydney hosts several festivals throughout the year. The city's New Year's Eve celebrations are the largest in Australia.[373] The Royal Easter Show is held every year at Sydney Olympic Park. Sydney Festival is Australia's largest arts festival.[374] The travelling rock music festival Big Day Out originated in Sydney. The city's two largest film festivals are Sydney Film Festival and Tropfest. Vivid Sydney is an annual outdoor exhibition of art installations, light projections, and music. In 2015, Sydney was ranked the 13th top fashion capital in the world.[375] It hosts the Australian Fashion Week in autumn. Sydney Mardi Gras has commenced each February since 1979.
Sydney's Chinatown has had numerous locations since the 1850s. It moved from George Street to Campbell Street to its current setting in Dixon Street in 1980.[376] Little Italy is located in Stanley Street.[287]
Australia's national broadcaster, the ABC, is headquartered in Ultimo.
The Sydney Morning Herald is Australia's oldest newspaper still in print; it has been published continuously since 1831.[380] Its competitor is The Daily Telegraph, in print since 1879.[381] Both papers have Sunday tabloid editions called The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Telegraph respectively. The Bulletin was founded in Sydney in 1880 and became Australia's longest running magazine. It closed after 128 years of continuous publication.[382] Sydney heralded Australia's first newspaper, the Sydney Gazette, published until 1842.
Sydney's earliest migrants brought with them a passion for sport but were restricted by the lack of facilities and equipment. The first organised sports were boxing, wrestling, and horse racing from 1810 in Hyde Park.[392] Horse racing remains popular and events such as the Golden Slipper Stakes attract widespread attention. The first cricket club was formed in 1826 and matches were played within Hyde Park throughout the 1830s and 1840s.[392] Cricket is a favoured sport in summer and big matches have been held at the Sydney Cricket Ground since 1878. The New South Wales Blues compete in the Sheffield Shield league and the Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder contest the national Big Bash Twenty20 competition.
Women were first allowed to participate in recreational swimming when separate baths were opened at Woolloomooloo Bay in the 1830s. From being illegal at the beginning of the century, sea bathing gained immense popularity during the early 1900s and the first surf lifesaving club was established at Bondi Beach.[392][393]Disputes about appropriate clothing for surf bathing surfaced occasionally and concerned men as well as women. The City2Surf is an annual 14 km (8.7 mi) running race from the CBD to Bondi Beach and has been held since 1971. In 2010, 80,000 runners participated which made it the largest run of its kind in the world.[394]
Sailing races have been held on Sydney Harbour since 1827.[395] Yachting has been popular amongst wealthier residents since the 1840s and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron was founded in 1862. The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is a 1,170 km (727 mi) event that starts from Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day.[396] Since its inception in 1945 it has been recognised as one of the most difficult yacht races in the world.[397] Six sailors died and 71 vessels of 115 failed to finish in the 1998 edition.[398]
Sydney benefitted from the construction of significant sporting infrastructure in preparation for its hosting of the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Sydney Olympic Park accommodates athletics, aquatics, tennis, hockey, archery, baseball, cycling, equestrian, and rowing facilities. It also includes the high capacity Stadium Australia used for rugby, soccer, and Australian rules football. The Sydney Football Stadium was completed in 1988 and was used for rugby and soccer matches. Sydney Cricket Ground was opened in 1878 and is used for both cricket and Australian rules football fixtures.[392]
Sydney was one of the host cities during the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. Sydney Football Stadium and Stadium Australia were selected as venues, with the later hosting the final.[400]
The first five governors had near autocratic power in the colony of New South Wales, subject only to the laws of England and the supervision of the Colonial Office in London. Sydney was the seat of government for the colony which encompassed over half the Australian continent.[401] The first Legislative Council met in 1826,[402] and in 1842, the imperial parliament expanded and reformed the council, making it partly elected.[403] In the same year, the town of Sydney officially became a city and an elected municipal council was established.[404][405] The council had limited powers, mostly relating to services such as street lighting and drainage.[406] Its boundaries were restricted to an area of 11.6 square kilometres, taking in the city centre and the modern suburbs of Woolloomooloo, Surry Hills, Chippendale, and Pyrmont.[63] As Sydney grew, other municipal councils were formed to provide local administration.[407]
In 1856, New South Wales achieved responsible government with the introduction of a bicameral parliament, based in Sydney, comprising a directly elected Legislative Assembly and a nominated Legislative Council.[408] With the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901, Sydney became the capital of the state of New South Wales and its administration was divided between the Commonwealth, State and constituent local governments.[408]
In common with other Australian capital cities, Sydney has no single local government covering its whole area. Local government areas have responsibilities such as local roads, libraries, child care, community services and waste collection, whereas the state government retains responsibility for main roads, traffic control, public transport, policing, education, and major infrastructure project.[409] There are 33 local government areas which are wholly or mostly within Greater Sydney as defined by the Australian Statistical Geography Standard.[96][410]
In the past, the state has tended to resist amalgamating Sydney's more populated local government areas as merged councils could pose a threat to its governmental power.[417] Established in 1842, the City of Sydney is one such local government area and includes the CBD and some adjoining inner suburbs.[418] It is responsible for fostering development in the local area, providing local services (waste collection and recycling, libraries, parks, sporting facilities), promoting the interests of residents, supporting organisations that target the local community, and attracting and providing infrastructure for commerce, tourism, and industry.[419] The City of Sydney is led by an elected Council and Lord Mayor.[420]
Education became a focus for the colony from the 1870s when public schools began to form and schooling became compulsory.[422] By 2011, 90% of working age residents had completed some schooling and 57% had completed the highest level of school.[2] 1,390,703 people were enrolled in an educational institution in 2011 with 45.1% of these attending school and 16.5% studying at a university.[260] Undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications are held by 22.5% of working age Sydney residents and 40.2% of working age residents of the City of Sydney.[2][423] The most common fields of tertiary qualification are commerce (22.8%), engineering (13.4%), society and culture (10.8%), health (7.8%), and education (6.6%).[2]
The first hospital in the new colony was a collection of tents at The Rocks. Many of the convicts that survived the trip suffered from dysentery, smallpox, scurvy, and typhoid. Healthcare facilities remained inadequate despite the arrival of a prefabricated hospital with the Second Fleet and the construction of new hospitals at Parramatta, Windsor, and Liverpool in the 1790s.[429]
Governor Macquarie arranged for the construction of Sydney Hospital, completed in 1816.[429] Parts of the facility have been repurposed for use as Parliament House but the hospital itself still operates. The city's first emergency department was established at Sydney Hospital in 1870. Demand for emergency medical care increased from 1895 with the introduction of an ambulance service.[429] The Sydney Hospital also housed Australia's first teaching facility for nurses, the Nightingale Wing, established with the input of Florence Nightingale in 1868.[430]
The motor vehicle, more than any other factor, has determined the pattern of Sydney's urban development since World War II.[440] The growth of low-density housing in the city's outer suburbs has made car ownership necessary for hundreds of thousands of households. The percentage of trips taken by car has increased from 13% in 1947 to 50% in 1960 and 70% in 1971.[440] The most important roads in Sydney were the nine Metroads, including the 110 km (68 mi) Sydney Orbital Network. Sydney's reliance on motor vehicles and its sprawling road network has been criticised by proponents of mass public transport and high-density housing.[441][442][443] The Light Horse Interchange in western Sydney is the largest in the southern hemisphere.[444]
There can be up to 350,000 cars using Sydney's roads simultaneously during peak hour, leading to significant traffic congestion.[440] 84.9% of Sydney households own a motor vehicle and 46.5% own two or more.[260] With a rate of 26.3% in 2014, Sydney has the highest utilisation of public transport for travel to work of any Australian capital.[445] In contrast, in 2014 only 25.2% of working residents in the City of Sydney use a car, whilst 15.8% take a train, 13.3% use a bus, and 25.3% walk.[446] Several significant infrastructure projects have been completed since. The CBD features a series of alleyways and lanes that provide off-street vehicular access to city buildings and as well as pedestrian routes through city buildings.[447]
Central station is the busiest railway station in Australia, and the city's main public transport hub.
Established in 1906, Central station is the largest and busiest railway station in the state and is the main hub of the city's rail network.[448]Sydney Trains is the suburban rail service. Its tracks form part of the New South Wales railway network. It serves 168 stations across the city and had an annual ridership of 302 million passenger journeys in 2023–24.[449] Sydney's railway was first constructed in 1854 with progressive extension to the network to serve both freight and passengers. The main station is the Central railway station in the southern part of the CBD. In the 1850s and 1860s, the railway reached areas that are now outer suburbs of Sydney.[440]
Sydney Metro, a driverless rapid transit system separate from the suburban commuter network, commenced operation in May 2019 and was extended through the city to Sydenham on 19 August 2024. This line will be extended to Bankstown in 2025 and a new line through the inner west to Parramatta is planned to be built by 2030.[450][451] It currently serves 21 stations. A line to serve the greater west is planned for 2026 and will include a station for the second international airport.
Sydney once had one of the largest tram networks in the British Empire after London.[452] It served routes covering 291 km (181 mi). The internal combustion engine made buses more flexible than trams and consequently more popular, leading to the progressive closure of the network with the final tram operating in 1961.[440] From 1930 there were 612 buses across Sydney carrying 90 million passengers per annum.[453]
Bus services are conducted by private operators under contract to Transport for NSW. Integrated tickets called Opal cards operate on bus routes. In total, nearly 225 million boardings were recorded across the bus network.[456]NightRide is a nightly bus service that operate between midnight and 5am.
At the time the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932, the city's ferry service was the largest in the world.[457] Patronage declined from 37 million passengers in 1945 to 11 million in 1963 but has recovered somewhat in recent years.[440] From its hub at Circular Quay, the ferry network extends from Manly to Parramatta.[457] Ferries in sydney are operated by Transdev Sydney Ferries and operates 10 routes.
Sydney Airport, officially "Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport", is located in Mascot. It services 46 international and 23 domestic destinations.[26] As the busiest airport in Australia, it handled 37.9 million passengers in 2013 and 530,000 tonnes of freight in 2011.[26] A second airport, Western Sydney Airport, is under construction at Badgerys Creek and will open in late 2026,[458] at a cost of $2.5 billion.[459] Notably, it will not feature a curfew, unlike Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport, which imposes a suspension of all aircraft operations between 11pm and 6am. Bankstown Airport is Sydney's second busiest airport, and serves general aviation, charter and some scheduled cargo flights. Bankstown is also the fourth busiest airport in Australia by number of aircraft movements.[460]Port Botany has surpassed Port Jackson as the city's major shipping port. Cruise ship terminals are located at Sydney Cove and White Bay.
Obtaining sufficient fresh water was difficult during early colonial times. A catchment called the Tank Stream sourced water from what is now the CBD but was little more than an open sewer by the end of the 1700s.[461] The Botany Swamps Scheme was one of several ventures during the mid-1800s that saw the construction of wells, tunnels, steam pumping stations, and small dams to service Sydney's growing population.[461]
The Upper Nepean Scheme came into operation in 1886. It transports water 100 km (62 mi) from the Nepean, Cataract, and Cordeaux rivers and continues to service about 15% of Sydney's water needs.[461] Dams were built on these three rivers between 1907 and 1935.[461] In 1977 the Shoalhaven Scheme brought several more dams into service.[462]
As climate change, greenhouse gas emissions and pollution have become a major issue for Australia, Sydney has in the past been criticised for its lack of focus on reducing pollution and emissions and maintaining water quality.[470] The release of the Metropolitan Air Quality Scheme (MAQS) led to a broader understanding of the causation of pollution in Sydney, allowing the government to form appropriate responses.[471]
The City of Sydney became the first council in Australia to achieve formal certification as carbon-neutral in 2008.[482][483] The city has reduced its 2007 carbon emissions by 6% and since 2006 has reduced carbon emissions from city buildings by up to 20%.[484][485] The Sustainable Sydney 2030 program presented a guide to reducing energy in homes and offices by 30%.[484][486] Reductions in energy consumption have slashed energy bills by $30 million a year.[487]Solar panels have been established on many CBD buildings to minimise carbon pollution by around 3,000 tonnes a year.[488]
The city also has an "urban forest growth strategy", in which it aims to regularly increase the tree coverage in the city by frequently planting trees with strong leaf density and vegetation to provide cleaner air and create moisture during hot weather, thus lowering city temperatures.[489] Sydney has also become a leader in the development of green office buildings and enforcing the requirement of all building proposals to be energy-efficient. The One Central Park development, completed in 2013, is an example of this implementation.[490][491][492][493]
Australian cities are some of the most car-dependent cities in the world,[494] especially by world city standards, although Sydney's is the lowest of Australia's major cities at 66%.[495] Sydney also has the highest usage of public transport in an Australian city, at 27%–comparable with New York City, Shanghai and Berlin. Despite its high ranking for an Australian city, Sydney has a low level of public transport services, with a historically low-density layout and significant urban sprawl, thus increasing the likelihood of car dependency.[496][497]
Strategies have been implemented to reduce private vehicle pollution by encouraging public transport,[498] initiating the development of high density housing and introducing a fleet of 10 new electric cars, the largest order of the pollution-free vehicle in Australia.[499] Electric cars do not produce carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide, which contribute to climate change.[500][501]Cycling trips increased by 113% across Sydney's inner-city from 2010 to 2015, at which point about 2,000 bikes were passing through top peak-hour intersections on an average weekday.[484] Transport developments in the north-west and east of the city have been designed to encourage use of the expanding public transportation system.
^In accordance with the Australian Bureau of Statistics source, England, Scotland, Mainland China and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau are listed separately.
^The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most who nominate "Australian" as their ancestry are part of the Anglo-Celtic group.[338]
^Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry.
^Global Power City Index 2010(PDF) (Report). Tokyo, Japan: Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation. October 2010. Archived(PDF) from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
^Dennis, Anthony (2013). ""Too expensive" Sydney slips from top 10 tourism list". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2016. In this year's World's Best Awards, announced in New York this week, Sydney came in as the world's number 12 ranked best city.
^ ab"Our global city". City of Sydney. 2014. Archived from the original on 22 June 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
^Benson, D. H. and Howell J. (1990) Taken for Granted: the Bushland of Sydney and Its Suburbs, Sydney
^ abc"Overview". Sydney Airport. 2014. Archived from the original on 5 September 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
^ abEgan, Jack (1999). Buried Alive, Sydney 1788–92. Allen and Unwin. p. 10. ISBN1865081388.
^Birch, Alan; Macmillan, David S. (1982). The Sydney Scene, 1788–1960 (2nd ed.). Sydney: Hale and Iremonger. pp. 105–06. ISBN0868060178.
^Attenbrow, Val (2010). Sydney's Aboriginal Past, investigating the archaeological and historical records (2nd ed.). Sydney: UNSW Press. pp. 22–26. ISBN9781742231167.
^Macintyre, Stuart (2020). A concise history of Australia (5th ed.). Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN9781108728485.
^Karskens, Grace (2013). "The early colonial presence, 1788-1822". In Bashford, Alison; MacIntyre, Stuart (eds.). The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 1, Indigenous and Colonial Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 91. ISBN9781107011533.
^Karskens, Grace (2013). "The early colonial presence, 1788-1822". In Bashford, Alison; MacIntyre, Stuart (eds.). The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I, Indigenous and colonial Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 90–114. ISBN9781107011533.
^Haines, Robin, and Ralph Shlomowitz. "Nineteenth century government-assisted and total immigration from the United Kingdom to Australia: quinquennial estimates by colony." Journal of the Australian Population Association, vol. 8, no. 1, 1991, pp. 50–61. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41110599. Accessed 20 July 2021.
^ abcdFitzgerald, Shirley (2011). "Sydney". Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
^Radford, Neil (2016). "The University of Sydney". Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
^Ellmoos, Leila. "Australian Museum". The Dictionary of Sydney, State Library oif New South Wales. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
^"Town Hall". Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
^Ellmoos, Laila (2008). "General Post Office". Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
^McDermott, Marie-Louise, Marie-Louise (2011). "Ocean baths". Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
^Earth Resource Analysis PL (1998). Cumberland Plains Woodland: Trial Aerial Photographic interpretation of remnant woodlands, Sydney (Unpublished report for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife, Hurstville).
^Recovering bushland on the Cumberland PlainArchived 12 September 2022 at the Wayback Machine Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW). (2005). Recovering Bushland on the Cumberland Plain: Best practice guidelines for the management and restoration of bushland. Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW), Sydney. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
^"Sydney Blue Gum High Forest"(PDF). Nationally Threatened Species and Ecological Communities. Environment.gov.au. Archived from the original(PDF) on 18 June 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
^"Modelling and simulation of seasonal rainfall"(PDF). Centre for Computer Assisted Research Mathematics and its Applications (CARMA). 20 May 2014. Archived from the original(PDF) on 13 March 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2016. Brisbane and Sydney each have a humid sub-tropical or temperate climate with no pronounced dry season...the classification is Cfa
^Sharples, J.J. Mills, G.A., McRae, R.H.D., Weber, R.O. (2010) Elevated fire danger conditions associated with foehn-like winds in southeastern Australia. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.
^Sharples, J.J., McRae, R.H.D., Weber, R.O., Mills, G.A. (2009) Foehn-like winds and fire danger anomalies in southeastern Australia. Proceedings of the 18th IMACS World Congress and MODSIM09. 13–17 July, Cairns.
^Power, S., Tseitkin, F., Torok, S., Lavery, B., Dahni, R. and McAvaney, B. 1998. Australian temperature, Australian rainfall and the Southern Oscillation, 1910–1992: coherent variability and recent changes. Aust. Met. Mag., 47, 85–101
^"Sydney winter not snow, just hail". Sydney Morning Herald. 27 July 2008. Archived from the original on 23 July 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2013. Mr Zmijewski doubted the 1836 snow report, saying weather observers of the era lacked the expertise of today. "We are almost in the sub-tropics in Sydney", he said.
^"Sydney in 2009". Bom.gov.au. 4 January 2010. Archived from the original on 20 March 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
^"Sydney in 2010". Bom.gov.au. 4 January 2011. Archived from the original on 12 January 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
^"The Strand". Sydney Morning Herald. No. 16, 858. New South Wales, Australia. 2 April 1892. p. 5. Retrieved 27 October 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
^McClymont, John; Kass, Terry (2010). "Old Toongabbie and Toongabbie". Dictionary of Sydney. Dictionary of Sydney Trust. Archived from the original on 30 July 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
^Jones, I., and Verdel, C. (2015). Basalt distribution and volume estimates of Cenozoic volcanism in the Bowen Basin region of eastern Australia: Implications for a waning mantle plume. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 62(2), 255–263.
^Degotardi, Peter (1 February 2004). The Month in Review(PDF) (Report). Herron Todd White Property Advisors. Archived from the original(PDF) on 20 August 2006.
^Boulous, Chris (20 April 2018). "Nothing Bland about our Oak tree". Fairfield City Champion. FAIRFAX REGIONAL MEDIA. Archived from the original on 29 August 2018. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
^"Major parks". City of Sydney. 2014. Archived from the original on 23 June 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
^"Centennial Park". Centennial Parklands. Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust. Archived from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
^"Royal National Park". Office of Environment and Heritage. 2014. Archived from the original on 14 April 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
^Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry.
^"About us". Art Gallery of New South Wales. 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
^NSW Department of Customer Service, Transport for NSW (28 April 2023). "Artspace Sydney | NSW Government". www.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
^McPherson, Ailsa (2008). "Theatre". Dictionary of Sydney. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
^"History". Sydney Conservatorium of Music. 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
^Maguire, M., 'Atkinson, (Caroline) Louisa Waring', in R. Aitken and M. Looker (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens, South Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 35.
^Davison, Graeme; Hirst, John; Macintyre, Stuart, eds. (1998). The Oxford Companion to Australian History. Oxford University Press. pp. 464–465, 662–663. ISBN9780195535976.
^Campbell, Craig; Sherington, Geoffrey (2008). "Education". Dictionary of Sydney. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
Packaging which results in improved sustainability
Molded pulp uses recycled newsprint to form package components. Here, researchers are molding packaging from straw[1]
Sustainable packaging is packaging materials and methods that result in improved sustainability.[2] This involves increased use of life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle assessment (LCA)[3][4] to help guide the use of packaging which reduces the environmental impact and ecological footprint. It includes a look at the whole of the supply chain: from basic function, to marketing, and then through to end of life (LCA) and rebirth.[5] Additionally, an eco-cost to value ratio can be useful[6] The goals are to improve the long term viability and quality of life for humans and the longevity of natural ecosystems. Sustainable packaging must meet the functional and economic needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.[7] Sustainability is not necessarily an end state but is a continuing process of improvement.[8]
Sustainable packaging is a relatively new addition to the environmental considerations for packaging (see Packaging and labeling). It requires more analysis and documentation to look at the package design, choice of materials, processing, and life-cycle. This is not just the vague "green movement" that many businesses and companies have been trying to include over the past years. Companies implementing eco-friendly actions are reducing their carbon footprint, using more recycled materials and reusing more package components.[9] They often encourage suppliers, contract packagers, and distributors to do likewise.
Environmental marketing claims on packages need to be made (and read) with caution. Ambiguous greenwashing titles such as green packaging and environmentally friendly can be confusing without specific definition. Some regulators, such as the US Federal Trade Commission, are providing guidance to packagers[10]
Companies have long been reusing and recycling packaging when economically viable. Using minimal packaging has also been a common goal to help reduce costs. Recent years have accelerated these efforts based on social movements, consumer pressure, and regulation. All phases of packaging, distribution, and logistics are included.[11]
Sustainable packaging encompasses more than just recycling, addressing a broader range of environmental impacts across the product lifecycle. Just as packaging is not the only eco target, although it is still top of mind for many. Right or wrong, the packaging is frequently scrutinized and used as the measure of a company's overall sustainability, even though it may contribute only a small percentage to the total eco-impact compared to other things, such as transportation, and water and energy use.
Impacts of packaging originate from three main stages including feedstock sourcing, production of polymers and packaging, and the end of life treatment of the packaging. Emissions from each stage contribute to climate change, air pollution, acidification, and other environmental issues. Food waste is another prominent issue as one third of food meant for human consumption is lost. Sustainable packaging aims to address properties of food, for example chemical and microbiological properties, in order to limit packaging and food waste.[citation needed]
The criteria for ranking and comparing packaging based on their sustainability are an active area of development. General guidance, metrics, checklists, and scorecards are being published by several groups.
Use of minimal materials – reduced packaging, reduced layers of packaging, lower mass (product to packaging ratio), lower volume, etc.[19]
Energy efficiency, total energy content and usage, use of renewable energy, use of clean energy, etc.
Recycled content – as available and functional. For food contact materials, there are special safety considerations, particularly for use of recycled plastics and paper. Regulations are published by each country or region.[20][21]
Recyclability – recovery value, use of materials which are frequently and easily recycled, reduction of materials which hinder recyclability of major components, etc.
Worker impact: occupational health, safety, clean technology, etc.
The chosen criteria are often used best as a basis of comparison for two or more similar packaging designs; not as an absolute success or failure.[25] Such a multi-variable comparison is often presented as a radar chart (spider chart, star chart, etc.).[26]
Some aspects of environmentally sound packaging are required by regulators while others are decisions made by individual packagers. Investors, employees, management, and customers can influence corporate decisions and help set policies. When investors seek to purchase stock, companies known for their positive environmental policy can be attractive.[27] Potential stockholders and investors see this as a solid decision: lower environmental risks lead to more capital at cheaper rates. Companies that highlight their environmental status to consumers can boost sales as well as product reputation. Going green is often a sound investment that can pay off.[28]
Alongside the environmental benefits of adopting sustainable packaging, eco-friendly packaging can increase sales, reduce packaging cost, and increase the image of a company's brand alongside the rising awareness spread regarding environmental impact. There has also been found a direct correlation between a company's implementation of sustainable packaging and a more sustainable supply chain management.[29] Alternatives such as bio-based plastics that are abundant, low cost, and biodegradable, offer a possibility of reducing use of petroleum resources and carbon dioxide emissions.[30]
Bio-based materials have been developed or used for packaging without plastics, especially for use-cases in which packaging can't be phased-out, such as for food preservation.[31]
A plant proteins-based biodegradable packaging alternative to plastic was developed based on research about spider silk which is known for its high strength and similar on the molecular level.[32][33]
Researchers at the Agricultural Research Service are looking into using dairy-based films as an alternative to petroleum-based packaging. Instead of being made of synthetic polymers, these dairy-based films would be composed of proteins such as casein and whey, which are found in milk. The films would be biodegradable and offer better oxygen barriers than synthetic, chemical-based films. More research must be done to improve the water barrier quality of the dairy-based film, but advances in sustainable packaging are actively being pursued.[34]
Sustainable packaging policy cannot be individualized by a specific product. Effective legislation would need to include alternatives to many products, not just a select few; otherwise, the positive impacts of sustainable packing will not be as effective as they need in order to propel a significant reduction of plastic packaging. Finding alternatives can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from unsustainable packaging production and reduce dangerous chemical by-products of unsustainable packaging practices.[35]
The process of engineering more environmentally acceptable packages can include consideration of the costs.[36] Some companies claim that their environmental packaging program is cost effective.[37] Some alternative materials that are recycled/recyclable and/or less damaging to the environment can lead to companies incurring increased costs. Though this is common when any product begins to carry the true cost of its production (producer pays, producer responsibility laws, take-back laws). There may be an expensive and lengthy process before the new forms of packaging are deemed safe to the public, and approval may take up to two years.[38] It is important to note here, that for most of the developed world, tightening legislation, and changes in major retailer demand (Walmart's Sustainable Packaging Scorecard for example) the question is no longer "if" products and packaging should become more sustainable, but how-to and how-soon to do it.[5]
Efforts toward “greener” packaging are supported in the sustainability community; however, these are often viewed only as incremental steps and not as an end. Some people foresee a true sustainable steady state economy that may be very different from today's: greatly reduced energy usage, minimal ecological footprint, fewer consumer packaged goods, local purchasing with short food supply chains, little processed foods, etc.[40][41][42] Less packaging would be needed in a sustainable carbon neutral economy, which means that fewer packaging options would exist and simpler packaging forms may be necessary.[43]
^Fecourt, Adrien; Li, F. (2013), "Report No. E2013:015"(PDF), Improving transport packaging sustainability – a case study in a production logistics company, Gothenburg, Sweden: CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, Department of Technology Management and Economics, retrieved 28 February 2014
^Kunstler, James Howard (2012). Too Much Magic; Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN978-0-8021-9438-1.
^McKibben, D, ed. (2010). The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century Sustainability Crisis. Watershed Media. ISBN978-0-9709500-6-2.
^Brown, L. R. (2012). World on the Edge. Earth Policy Institute. Norton. ISBN9781136540752.
^Speigleman, H, and Sheehan, B. (2010). "Climate Change, Peak Oil, and the End of Waste". In McKibben, D (ed.). The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century Sustainability Crisis. Watershed Media. ISBN978-0-9709500-6-2.cite book: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Packaging waste, the part of the waste that consists of packaging and packaging material, is a major part of the total global waste, and the major part of the packaging waste consists of single-useplasticfood packaging, a hallmark of throwaway culture.[1][2] Notable examples for which the need for regulation was recognized early, are "containers of liquids for human consumption", i.e. plastic bottles and the like.[3] In Europe, the Germans top the list of packaging waste producers with more than 220 kilos of packaging per capita.[2]
Plastic production by industrial sector in 2015.[4]
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), defined containers and packaging as products that are assumed to be discarded the same year the products they contain are purchased.[5] The majority of the solid waste are packaging products, estimating to be about 77.9 million tons of generation in 2015 (29.7 percent of total generation).[5] Packaging can come in all shapes and forms ranging from Amazon boxes to soda cans and are used to store, transport, contain, and protect goods to keep customer satisfaction. The type of packaging materials including glass, aluminum, steel, paper, cardboard, plastic, wood, and other miscellaneous packaging.[5] Packaging waste is a dominant contributor in today's world and responsible for half of the waste in the globe.[4]
The recycling rate in 2015 for containers and packaging was 53 percent. Furthermore, the process of burning of containers and packaging was 7.2 million tons (21.4 percent of total combustion with energy recovery). Following the landfills that received 29.4 million tons (21.4 percent of total land filling) within the same year.[5]
As packaging waste pollutes the Earth, all life on Earth experiences negative impacts that affect their lifestyle. Marine or land-living animals are suffocating due to the pollution of packaging waste.[4] This is a major issue for low income countries who do not have an efficient waste management system to clean up their environments and being the main sources for the global ocean pollution.[4] But 'litter louts', individuals who lack the motivation to recycle and instead leave their waste anywhere they want are also major contributors, especially in high income nations where such facilities are available. The current location with the greatest amount of solid waste that includes most of packaging products is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located at West Coast of North America to Japan.[4][6] Most packaging waste that eventually goes into the ocean often comes from places such as lakes, streams, and sewage.
Possible solutions to reducing packaging waste are very simple and easy and could start with minimisation of packaging material ranging up to a zero waste strategy (package-free products[7]). The problem is mainly in a lack of motivation to start making a change. But examples of effective ways to help reduce packaging pollution include banning the use of single-use plastics, more social awareness and education, promotion of eco-friendly alternatives, public pressure, voluntary cleaning up, and adopting reusable or biodegradable bags.[8]
Overpackaging. Delivery of a small item in a much larger corrugated box, requiring air pillows for void-fill. A simple padded mailer would have been adequate.
The Institute of Packaging Professionals defines overpackaging as "a condition where the methods and materials used to package an item exceed the requirements for adequate containment, protection, transport, and sale."[9] Overpackaging is an opportunity for source reduction, reducing waste by proper package design and practice.
A classic example of a wasteful package design is a breakfast cereal box. This is typically a folding carton enclosing a plastic bag of cereal. Cartons are typically tall and wide but very thin. This has an inefficient material-to-volume ratio; it is wasteful. Structural packaging engineers are aware of the opportunity to save packaging costs, materials, and waste but marketers find benefit in a "billboard" style package for advertising and graphics. An optimized folding box would use much less paperboard for the same volume of cereal, but with reduced surface area for graphics. The use of a plastic bag without an enclosing box would use less material per unit of cereal.[10]
Slackfill packaging is that which is intentionally under-filled, resulting in non-functional headspace. Packagers doing this not only risk charges of deceptive packaging but are using excessive packaging: packaging waste.[11]
With fragile items such as consumer electronics, engineers try to match the fragility of the product with the expected stresses of distribution handling. Package cushioning is used to help ensure safe delivery of the product. With overpackaging, excessive cushion and a larger corrugated box are used: wasteful packaging. Conversely, underpackaging would be the use of insufficient cushioning. Excessive product waste caused by underpackaging may be worse for the environment than the waste of the package.
Sometimes packaging is designed to protect its product for controlled distribution to a retail store. With online shopping or E-commerce, however, items packed for retail sale may be shipped individually by Fulfillment houses by package delivery or small parcel carriers. Retail packages are frequently packed into a larger corrugated box for shipment. Often these secondary boxes are much larger than needed, thus use void-fill to immobilize the contents. The rapid growth of e-commerce has increased packaging challenges, as items often require additional protective materials and oversized boxes to ensure safe transportation, which further exacerbates packaging waste.[12] This can have the appearance of gross overpackaging but is sometimes necessary. If the product packager designed all packaging to meet the requirements of individual shipment, then the portion delivered to a retail store would have excessive packaging. Sometimes two levels of packaging are needed for separate distribution, resulting in production inefficiencies.[13]
Bottles and jars for drinks and storing foods or juices are examples of glass containers. It has been estimated by the EPA that 9.1 million tons of glass containers were generated in 2015, or 3.5 percent of municipal solid waste (MSW).[5] About 70 percent of glass consumption is used for containers and packaging purposes.[14] At least 13.2 percent of the production of glass and containers are burned with energy recovery.[5] The amount of glass containers and packaging going into the land fill is about 53 percent.[5]
From 1960 to 2015, this graph represents the total number of tons of glass containers generated, recycled, composted, combusted with energy recovery and landfilled.[5]
Aluminum container and packaging waste usually comes from cans from any kind of beverages, but foil can also be another that contributes it as well. It has been given that about 25 percent of aluminum is used for packaging purposes.[14] Using the Aluminum Association Data, it has been calculated that at least 1.8 million tons of aluminum packaging were generated in 2015 or 0.8 percent MSW produced.[5] Of those that are produced, only about 670,000 tons of aluminum containers and packaging were recycled, about 54.9 percent.[5] And, the ones that ends up in the land fill is 50.6 percent.[5]
From 1960 to 2015, this graph represents the total number of tons of aluminum containers generated, recycled, composted, combusted with energy recovery and landfilled[5]
The production of steel containers and packaging mostly comes in cans and other things like steel barrels. Only about 5 percent of steel use for packaging purposes of the total world of steel consumption which makes it the least amount wasted and the most recycled.[14] It has totaled that 2.2 million tons or 0.9 percent of MSW generated in 2015.[14] While according to the Steel Recycling Institute, an estimate of 1.6 million tons (73 percent) of steel packaging were recycled.[14] Adding on, the steel packaging that were combusted with energy recover was about 5.4 percent and 21.6 percent were land filled.[5]
From 1960 to 2015, this graph represents the total number of tons of steel containers generated, recycled, composted, combusted with energy recovery and landfilled[5]
The most of it being generated, and within the MSW in 2015, was corrugated boxes coming with at least 31.3 million tons (11.3 percent total) produced.[5] However, it also the top most recycled at 28.9 million tons (92.3 percent) boxes being recycled in 2015.[5]
Later on, they are then combusted which makes 0.5 million tons and landfills received 1.9 million tons.[5] Other than corrugated boxes, cartons, bags, sacks, wrapping papers, and other boxes used for shoes or cosmetics are other examples of paper and paperboard containers and packaging. The total amount of MSW generated for paper and paperboard containers and packaging was 39.9 million tons or 15.1 percent in 2015. Although, the recycled rate is about 78.2 percent and 4.3 percent of small proportions were combusted with energy recovery and 17.6 percent in landfill.
From 1960 to 2015, this graph represents the total number of tons of paper and paperboard containers generated, recycled, composted, combusted with energy recovery and landfilled[5]
Wood packaging is anything that is made out of wood used for packaging purposes (e.g., wood crates, wood chips, boards, and planks). Wood packaging is still highly used in today's world for transporting goods. According to EPA's data that were borrowed from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the United States Department of Agriculture's Forest ServiceSouthern Research Station, 9.8 million tons (3.7 percent of total MSW) of wood packaging were made in production in 2015.[5] Also, in 2015, the amount that was recycled 2.7 million tons.[5] Moreover, its estimated that 14.3 percent of the wood containers and packaging waste generated was combusted with energy recovery, while the 58.6 percent went to the land filled.
From 1960 to 2015, this graph represents the total number of tons of wood containers generated, recycled, composted, combusted with energy recovery and landfilled[5]
From 1960 to 2015, this graph represents the total number of tons of plastic containers generated, recycled, composted, combusted with energy recovery and landfilled[5]
Litter mostly consists of packaging waste. Besides the disfigurement of the landscape, it also poses a health hazard for various life forms.[14] Packaging materials such as glass and plastic bottles are the main constituents of litter.[14] It has a huge impact on the marine environment as well, when animals are caught in or accidentally consume plastic packaging.
The production of packaging material is the main source of the air pollution that is being spread globally. Some emissions comes from accidental fires or activities that includes incineration of packaging waste that releases vinyl chloride, CFC, and hexane.[14] For a more direct course, emissions can originate in land fill sites which could release CO2 and methane.[14] Most CO2 comes from steel and glass packaging manufacturing.[14]
Packaging waste can come from land based or marine sources. The current location that makes up the large of amount of water pollution is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located at West Coast of North America to Japan.[4][6] Marine sources such as rivers that caught packaging materials eventually lead to the oceans. In global standards, about 80 percent of packaging waste in ocean comes from land based sources and 20 percent comes from marine sources.[4] The 20 percent of packaging waste that comes from marine sources comes from the rivers of China starting from least to greatest contributors, the Hanjiang, Zhujiang, Dong, Huangpu, Xi, and Yangtze river.[4] All other marine sources comes from rivers of Africa and Southeast Asia.[4]
Plastic ocean input from top 20 rivers in 2015.[4]
Most marine species and wildlife species suffer from the following:
Entanglement: At least 344 species are entangled by packaging waste, specifically the ones that are plastics.[4] Most of the victims are marine species like whales, seabirds, turtles, and fish.[4][6]
Ingestion: 233 marine species are recorded that had consumed plastic packaging waste of either unintentionally, intentionally, or indirectly.[4] Again, the following victims would be whales, fish, mammals, seabirds, and turtles.[4][6] The effects of eating plastic packaging waste could lead to greatly reduced stomach capacity, leading to poor appetite and false sense of satiation.[4] Whats worse is that the size of the ingested material is ultimately limited by the size of the organism.[4] For example, microplastics consumed by planktons and fishes can consume cigarettes boxes.[4][6] Plastic can also obstruct or perforate the gut, cause ulcerative lesions, or gastric rupture.[4][6] This can ultimately lead to death.
Interaction: Animals contacting with packaging waste includes collisions, obstructions, abrasions or use as substrate.[4]
Bisphenol A (BPA), styrene and benzene can be found in certain packaging waste.[6][8] BPA can affect the hearts of women, permanently damage the DNA of mice, and appear to be entering the human body from a variety of unknown sources.[6] Studies from Journal of American Association shows that higher bisphenol A levels were significantly associated with heart diseases, diabetes, and abnormally high levels of certain liver enzymes.[6] Toxins such as these are found within our food chains. When fish or plankton consume microplastics, it can also enter our food chain.[4][8] Microplastics was also found in common table salt and in both tap and bottled water.[8] Microplastics are dangerous as the toxins can affect the human body's nervous, respiratory, and reproductive system.[4][6][14]
Governments working with industries could support the development and promotion of sustainable alternatives in order to phase out single-use plastics progressively.[8] If governments were to introduce economic incentives, supporting projects which upscale or recycle single-use items and stimulating the creation of micro-enterprises, they could contribute to the uptake of eco-friendly alternatives to single-use plastics.[8]
Social awareness and education are also ways to help contribute to issues similar to helping reduce packaging waste. Using the media gives individuals or groups quick access to spread information and awareness concerning letting the public know what is happening in the world and how others can contribute to fixing packaging waste problems. Schools are also good for spreading education with factual knowledge and possible outcomes for the increase of packaging waste and provide ways to get individuals to give a helping hand in keeping our planet clean. Public awareness strategies can include various activities designed to persuade and educate.[8] These strategies may focus on the reuse and recycling of resources and encouraging responsible use and minimization of waste generation and litter.[8]
I have been doing business with Boxes For Business for over 10 years, their supply for second hand boxes (good quality) at the right price is great. Phone sales are very helpful and never a problem to find an alternative product if needed. Never a delay with deliveries as well. I can highly recommend Boxes for Business for all your second hand or new boxes.
This was the first supplier I visited and interacted with after starting work in Australia. And it was a very good experience. Simon was very helpful towards a South African (;-)) and supplied the boxes I required, even though it was a very small order to begin with. A relationship was found and I will be using this company going forward, as well as recommending them to others.
Boxes for Business have been a very good supplier of virgin and recycled pallet boards to our company, IVE Print Web offset - Silverwater for over a decade. They have always been on time and have responded to all the challenges that we have faced and helped in keeping the supplies flow according to our requirements. They are easy and simple to deal with, it has always been a pleasure doing business with their staff and the owners.
I do not bother to look anywhere else as they are just that good. This is my go to company I use for all our heavy duty new and used packing cartons.
Only last month I was in desperate need of packing cartons and they went far beyond what was required and had pallets delivered to me by COB the next day, that's what I call an exceptional service.
I know the owner of another carton company and still he is a mate and still can't compete with these prices.
I have used Boxes For Business for a couple of years now and will continue for many years to come.
Thanks for your unbelievable service you provide.
After many years of excellent service we've stayed with Boxes For Business because they can always give us what we need in terms of box sizes and quality. Orders are processed easily and fast, and the prices are very reasonable compared to other companies. Give Simon a call and you will be very happy with the friendly vibe at Boxes For Business and the great customer service.