Celebrated as the ‘Queen of the Pacific Rim', vast, vibrant Sydney is home to one of the world's most beautiful harbours, with the imposing Opera House as the jewel in its crown.
The State capital of New South Wales, Sydney is a thriving centre for both business and the arts. The city has all the cosmopolitan amenities – top shopping, excellent restaurants and buzzing nightlife. Carved between the mountains and the sea, it also offers the ultimate in the great outdoors. The Pacific Ocean swells onto golden beaches, while a seasonally shifting palette of colours unfolds further inland over the Blue Mountains. In addition to the harbour, famously adorned with sailing boats that mirror the distinctive curves of the Opera House, there are numerous inland waterways and national parks.
From its sordid beginnings as a British penal colony in 1788, Sydney rapidly flourished, establishing booming trade links and witnessing large-scale development throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The Sydney Opera House (a feat of avant-garde architectural vision) epitomises the city's desire to lead the New World in the 21st century. Sydney's architecture is a stunning melange, with little Victorian structures nestling below towering concrete, steel and glass skyscrapers.
All the exuberance and plate-glass sophistication nonetheless fail to compensate for a certain competitive edginess in the city's psyche. After the Australian Federation was created in 1901, the traditional bickering between Sydney and its arch rival, Melbourne, was settled in 1908, by making Canberra the new national capital. However, until 1927, when the city of Canberra was completed, Melbourne remained the seat of national government. Nevertheless, Sydneysiders insist that their city remains the ‘true' capital of Australia and indeed, with a triumphant hosting of the 2000 Olympic Games, the world might even agree with this. But the rivalry with Melbourne persists – a rivalry based more on style than on stature for, while Sydney is decidedly Anglo in its ethnic orientation, Melbourne is more continental, with a much more tangibly imported culture. To Melbourne, Sydney will always be hedonistic and shallow, just as to Sydney, Melbourne will always be grey and intellectual.
