Sydney

Sydney ( or ) is a city on the east coast of Australia which is the capital city of New South Wales. About five and a half million people live in Sydney which makes it the biggest city in both Australia and Oceania. 

Sydney started in 1788, when the Captain Arthur Phillip brought the First Fleet to settle in Australia. The settlers were mostly convicts from crowded prisons in England and Ireland, with a group of soldiers to guard them. The country is home to more than 200 spoken languages with a large population of overseas-born residents. The first people to occupy the area were Australian Aboriginals.

Attractions
In Sydney, there are many famous buildings: the Sydney Opera House, the Queen Victoria Building and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Sydney has a large harbour and many beaches. The most famous beach is Bondi Beach, some other famous beaches are Coogee Beach and Manly Beach. A popular coastal walk to do is the Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk. Famous parts of the harbour are Darling Harbour and Circular Quay. The Royal National Park is a popular and famous park in southern Sydney.

Sydney has many things to see and do. These include visiting Taronga Zoo (a park for animals) on the northern side of the harbour, eating food, looking at art or watching sports (like cricket or rugby) or walking down George Street which has many nice shops. Sydney has some of Australia's best shopping, and the Blue Mountains are about two hours' drive away to the west. Many people go to Sydney City to watch the great fireworks display over the harbour on New Year's Eve. Sydney holds events throughout the year that attract tourists from around the world, some namely events are Vivid Sydney, Royal Easter Show, and more.

Events 
Sydney is home to a range of events that happen throughout the year, drawing many tourists and visitors to the city. One of Sydney's biggest event holding convention centre is the newly rebuilt International Convention Centre located by Darling Harbour, Sydney.

High-profile global events held in Sydney were: 2007 APEC Leaders Conference, 2008 World Youth Day and the 2014 G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting.

Vivid Sydney 
Vivid Sydney is held every year in June in the winter and is a display of light shows, art installations and music from local and international artists. In 2016, Vivid Sydney ran for 23 nights from May 27 to June 18.

Royal Easter Show 
The Royal Easter Show is held in Sydney Olympic Park throughout the Easter public holiday period in April. It is a family attraction with rides, carnival games, showbags and food tents. There are also agriculture shows where children can learn more about farm animals as well as animal feeding areas. Shows such as woodcutting and animal competitions are popular every year.

Mercedes Benz Fashion Weekend 
Mercedes Benz Fashion weekend runs for two days every year and features runway shows by leading Australian designers. The event is attended by fashion journalists, magazine editors, bloggers and fashion buyers. There are also Styling Sessions and VIP parties at the home of fashion week in Carriageworks in the inner city suburb of Redfern.

Geography 
Sydney is a city located on the East Coast of Australia. It is currently the largest city in Australia, and the continent of Oceania. Sydney is known for having been the original landing spot for the British. It is situated next to the Blue Mountains. Sydney has more than 650 suburbs, and 38 local government areas. 

Sydney lies on a drowned coastline on the east coast of New South Wales, where the ocean level has risen up to flood deep river valleys carved in the Sydney Triassic sandstone, which was laid down about about 200 million years ago. Sydney has over two major regions: the Cumberland Plain, a mostly flat region lying to the west of Sydney Harbour, and the Hornsby Plateau, a tableland north of the Harbour. Sydney's native plant species are mostly eucalyptus trees,  and its soils are red and yellow in colour. Sydney has nine rivers and just over a hundred creeks. 

Sydney's main vegetation communities are grassy woodlands or savannas, which are open woodlands that feature hard-leaved shrubs, trees like eucalyptuses and acacias, and grass in the understory. Dry and wet forests are common as well, and as well as very small rainforest communities.

Climate
Sydney has a humid subtropical climate with warm to hot summers and cool winters, and rainfall spread throughout the year. Hotter temperatures are recorded inland in the western suburbs, because the coast is moderated by the ocean. Rainfall is higher in the first half of the year when easterly winds are common, and lower in late winter/early spring when winds are more westerly, but rain has been very changeable in recent years.

East coast lows bring heavy rainfall to the Sydney area, typically in autumn to early winter. In the warm months, rain comes in short heavy falls in the afternoons, usually with a thunderstorm. Snow is unheard of, but major snowfall was last reported in Sydney on 28 June 1836. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation are an important feature in Sydney's weather patterns: drought and bushfire on the one hand, and storms and flooding on the other.

The highest recorded temperature in the city was , which was experienced on 18 January 2013. The highest recorded temperature in the west was , observed on 4 January 2020 in the suburb of Penrith. Hot days are usually ended by a southerly buster, a windy sea breeze that comes from the southeast. While Sydney CBD (Observatory Hill) has never recorded frost, the far western suburbs usually get frost in winter. The ultraviolet index rating in the summer averages at 12, but can reach as high as 13. Windspeed recorded in Sydney Airport averages at 24.3 km/h (15.0 mph), making Sydney the windiest capital city in Australia.

Related pages 
 First Fleet
 Australia
 Koala

References

Other websites 

 
Olympic cities
1788 establishments in Australia