Sydney also has a wide amount of references to films that have been set in the city, the most famous being Finding Nemo, which was set in the famous Sydney Harbor.
Sydney hosts many different festivals and some of Australia's largest social and cultural events.
The largest economic sectors in Sydney, measured by numbers of people employed, include property and business services, retail, manufacturing, and health and community services.
Sydney Ferries, another State government-owned organization, runs numerous commuter and tourist ferry services on Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River.
Most Sydneysiders are native speakers of English; many have a second language, the most common being , including the Lebanese dialect; Chinese languages, (Mandarin, Cantonese), and Greek.
In 2007, New Theater (Newtown) celebrates 75 years of continuous production in Sydney.
Most Sydney residents travel by car through the system of roads, freeways, and tollways (known as motorways).
The Sydney CBD is bordered on the east side by a chain of parkland that extends from Hyde Park through the Domain and Royal Botanic Gardens to Farm Cove on the harbor.
Some of the most well-known architectural sites in Sydney include Sydney Opera House, Queen Victoria Building, Martin Place, and Sydney Town Hall.
Sydney has one privately operated light-rail line, the Metro Light Rail, running from Central Station to Lilyfield along a former goods train line.
One of the highlights of the Depression era, however, was the completion of the Sydney Harbor Bridge in 1932.
Sydney is well endowed with open spaces, and has many natural areas even within the city center.
Sydney was once served by an extensive tram network, which was progressively closed in the 1950s and 1960s.
The City of Sydney itself covers a fairly small area comprising the central business district and its neighboring inner-city suburbs.
Other important theater companies in Sydney include Company B and Griffin Theater Company.
Sydney has been classified as a "Beta" global city by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network.
Sydney is home to some of Australia's most prominent universities, and is the site of Australia's first university, the University of Sydney, established in 1850.
Sydney trains are run by CityRail, a corporation of the New South Wales State Government.
Many of the landmarks in Sydney have been referenced, shown, and the setting for countless films and television programs.
Within the Sydney central business district are the Chinese Garden of Friendship, Hyde Park, The Domain, and the Royal Botanical Gardens.
Sydney's iconic Opera House has five theaters capable of hosting a range of performance styles; it is the home of Opera Australia—the third busiest opera company in the world, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
The most important trunk routes in the urban area form the nine Metroad systems, which includes the 110-kilometer Sydney Orbital Network.
Apart from the limited role of the Cumberland County Council from 1945–1964, there has never been an overall governing body for the Sydney metropolitan area.
The site of the first European colony in Australia, Sydney was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip, leader of the First Fleet from Britain.
Sydney has an oceanic climate with warm summers and mild winters, with rainfall spread throughout the year.
Other venues include the Sydney Town Hall, City Recital Hall, the State Theatre, and the Wharf Theatre.
The five free-to-air networks have provided Digital Free-to-air TV transmissions in Sydney since January 2001.
The question of whether Sydney needs a second international airport has raised much controversy.
Throughout the twentieth century, Sydney continued to expand with various new waves of European and (later) Asian immigration, resulting in its highly cosmopolitan atmosphere.
According to the Mercer cost of living survey, Sydney is Australia’s most expensive city, and the twenty-first most expensive in the world.
The Sydney Theater Company has a regular roster of local plays, such as noted playwright David Williamson, classics, and international playwrights.
Sydney's most popular nightspots include Kings Cross, Oxford Street, Darling Harbour, Circular Quay, and The Rocks, which all contain various bars, nightclubs, and restaurants.
Sydney is a major international tourist destination notable for its beaches and twin landmarks: the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge.
Densely concentrated skyscrapers and other buildings, including historic sandstone buildings such as the Sydney Town Hall and Queen Victoria Building, are interspersed by several parks such as Wynyard and Hyde Park.
Tourism plays an important role in Sydney's economy, with 7.8 million domestic visitors and 2.5 million international visitors in 2004.
The Sydney Dance Company, under the leadership of Graeme Murphy during the late-twentieth century, has also gained acclaim.
The City of Sydney includes the central business area and some adjoining inner suburbs, and has in recent years been expanded through amalgamation with adjoining local government areas, such as South Sydney.
Sydney lies on a submergent coastline, where the ocean level has risen to flood deep-river valleys (rias) carved in the hawkesbury sandstone.
Sydney's role in the film industry has increased since the opening of Fox Studios Australia in 1998.
The first of several gold rushes started in 1851, and the port of Sydney has since seen many waves of people arriving from around the world.
In April 1789, a disease, thought to be smallpox, decimated the indigenous population of Sydney; a conservative estimate says that 500 to 1,000 Aboriginal people died in the area between Broken and Botany Bays.
The three commercial television networks (Seven, Nine, and Ten), as well as the government national-broadcast services (ABC and SBS), each having a presence in Sydney.
The Sydney Morning Herald (which is the oldest Australian newspaper) is a broadsheet, and is Sydney's newspaper of record with extensive coverage of domestic and international news, culture, and business.
Macquarie's tenure as Governor of New South Wales was a period when Sydney was improved from its basic beginnings.
Sydney is also served by extensive train, taxi, bus, and ferry networks.
The city is built around Port Jackson, which includes Sydney Harbor, leading to the city's nickname, "the Harbor City."
Sydney is one of the most multicultural cities in the world which reflects its role as a major destination for immigrants to Australia.
Other universities which operate secondary campuses in Sydney include the University of Notre Dame Australia, and the University of Wollongong.
Inner Sydney is the most densely populated place in Australia with 4,023 persons per square kilometer.
Sydney is the largest corporate and financial center in Australia and is also an important financial center in the Asia Pacific region.
Kingsford Smith International Airport, located in the suburb of Mascot, is Sydney's main airport, and the oldest continuously operating commercial airport in the world.
George Street serves as the Sydney CBD's main north-south thoroughfare.
Final maturation of sperm cells occurs in the epididymus (hollow duct) over a 12-day period.
Sydney's central business district (CBD) extends southwards for about 1.25 miles from Sydney Cove, the point of the first European settlement.
Star City Casino, is Sydney's only casino and is situated around Darling Harbour.
The Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE) is one of the Asia Pacific's largest financial futures and options exchanges, with 64.3 million contracts traded during 2005.
On July 20, 1842, the municipal council of Sydney was incorporated and the town was declared the first city in Australia, Charles H. Chambers was the first mayor.
The census also recorded that one percent of Sydney's population identified as being of indigenous origin and 31.7 percent were born overseas.
One of these drowned valleys, Port Jackson, better known as Sydney Harbor, is the largest natural harbor in the world.
Sydney is in a coastal basin bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Blue Mountains to the west, the Hawkesbury River to the north, and the Woronora Plateau to the south.
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.28 million.
The median age of a Sydney resident is 34, with 12 percent of the population over 65 years.