The metropolis of Greater Sydney in New South Wales, Australia, is informally subdivided into a number of geographic regions. The geographical definition of Greater Sydney spans across 33 local government areas and includes the Blue Mountains in the west, the Northern Beaches and the Hawkesbury in the north, the Royal National Park, the Wollondilly and Macarthur in the south, and Botany Bay in the east. These areas sometimes, but not always, roughly coincide with official boundaries of suburbs, local government authorities, or cadastral units (used for land title purposes), and some of the customary regions do not have well defined boundaries at all. Some commonly referred to regions overlap: for example, Canterbury-Bankstown is often referred to as a region, but it is also part of the South Western Sydney region. The regions themselves are not used as a formal jurisdiction, and generally do not have administrative or legislative bodies, although some regions are coterminous with a local government area, and in a number of regions that include multiple local government areas, Regional Organisations of Councils have been established that represent the councils in the region.
For government planning purposes, the metropolis of Sydney is divided in other ways, including into "districts" or "cities".Greater Sydney Commission, Greater Sydney Region Plan, March 2018, p.25
History
Described as the City of Suburbs, the "regions" of Sydney acquired their distinct social-geographical characteristics as a result of successive waves of development and suburbanisation, as well as geography.
Prior to European arrival, Sydney was inhabited by a number of clans of Aboriginal people. The country inhabited by each clan is often defined by natural geographical features. As a result, there is often a degree of correlation between the traditional country of the Aboriginal custodians and the geographical regions. These include the Gadi of the Cadigal people, encompassing the City and the Eastern Suburbs; the Wanne of the Wangal people, encompassing Inner West; the Wallumetta of the Wallumettagal people, encompassing the Ryde and Hunters Hill areas of Northern Sydney; the Cammeray of the Cammeraygal people and the Gorual of the Gorualgal people, both in the Lower North Shore; and the Burramatta of the Burramattagal people, in Western Sydney.
The "City" region is the site of the earliest urban settlement after European arrival in 1788. Until the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, development north of Sydney Harbour was constrained by geography, and most suburban development occurred in the areas immediately to the east and west of the City - the "Eastern Suburbs" and "Inner West" regions respectively. In the late 19th century, certain parts of those two regions were recognised as the premier residential areas of the emerging metropolis. Improved transport links across the Parramatta River began changing this by the end of the 19th century. The 1895 book How to Know Sydney named Strathfield (Inner West), Gladesville (Northern Suburbs), Double Bay, Darling Point, Rose Bay, Elizabeth Bay, Potts Point, Rushcutters Bay and Point Piper (all Eastern Suburbs) as the most fashionable residential suburbs, featuring large houses on extensive grounds.P. Mar, Accommodating Places (2002), Chapter 7, quoting How to Know Sydney 1895 The only suburb in this list which lay north of the river was Gladesville, which was serviced by a bridge across the Parramatta River built in 1881. The building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge led to rapid development of the Lower North Shore region, and soon after, the Upper North Shore and Northern Beaches, as new developments with large houses on generous lots appealed to residents seeking the "picturesque suburb" lifestyle. Together with the oldest suburbs in the East and Inner West, these regions still contain the most desirable residential areas of Sydney: as of the end of 2021, the 20 most expensive postcode areas in Australia (measured by median house price) were all in metropolitan Sydney, and included nine in the Eastern Suburbs, four on the Northern Beaches, two on the Lower North Shore, three on the Upper North Shore, one (straddling Hunters Hill and Woolwich) in Northern Sydney and one (Strathfield) in the Inner West.
At the same time, the arrival of the suburban railway around the end of the 19th century led to development of existing towns and villages into new urban centres outside the traditional metropolis, such as Parramatta, Bankstown and Liverpool. Increased urbanisation in the interwar years, and infill development after World War II, including projects built as part of the soldier settlement scheme, eventually led to these centres becoming part of the metropolitan conurbation of Sydney. By the 1950s, previously rural areas such as the Sutherland Shire were becoming rapidly suburbanised.
The 1951 County of Cumberland planning scheme attempted to rein in urban sprawl by designating an expansive "green belt", which would have limited further urbanisation beyond the already-urbanised parts of Western Sydney. The planned green belt stretched in a curve around Pennant Hills, Baulkham Hills, Blacktown, Seven Hills and Liverpool before ending on the banks of the Georges River opposite East Hills. A non-contiguous section would then have covered the western Sutherland Shire, roughly bordered by the Georges River in the north and the Woronora River in the east, connecting up existing national parks in the north and south. The plan would have constrained suburbanised "Western Sydney" to a much smaller area than it is now, stretching from Lidcombe in the east to Westmead in the west, centred on the urban centre of Parramatta. However, the need to house an "explosion" in population after the war, together with continued demand for suburban housing, led to the "green belt" being whittled away starting from the 1960s. Although a version of the green belt survives, for example, in the form of the Western Sydney Parklands, today's Greater Western Sydney region is far larger than envisaged in the County of Cumberland plan, stretching contiguously west to Penrith and south beyond Campbelltown.
City The City is composed of the inner parts of the local government area of the City of Sydney. The core of the region known as City is the Sydney CBD, and this is the City region in the narrow sense. However, City is often also used in a wider sense to include other inner suburbs within the City of Sydney local government area, such as Haymarket, The Rocks and Pyrmont. In this wider sense, the City region roughly corresponds with the four cadastral parishes of St Andrews, St Philip, St James and St Lawrence.
The City of Sydney participates in the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) along with 11 other councils in the Inner West, Eastern Suburbs, St George and Canterbury-Bankstown regions.
Eastern suburbs
The suburbs to the east and southeast of the city, bounded by Sydney Harbour to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Eastern Distributor to the west, and Botany Bay to the south, are often referred to as the Eastern Suburbs in the greater sense. This includes the entirety of the local government areas of Waverley, Woollahra and Randwick as well as the eastern parts of the City of Sydney and Bayside Council.
These five councils participate in the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) along with seven other councils in the Inner West, St George and Canterbury-Bankstown regions.
Eastern Suburbs - North The northern end of the Eastern Suburbs is centred on Waverley Council and Woollahra Council districts as well as The Centennial Parklands which are directly east of the CBD. This area roughly corresponds with the cadastral Parish of Alexandria as well as the Federal Division of Wentworth.
Eastern Suburbs - South The southern end of the Eastern Suburbs are the suburbs south-east of The CBD including the entirety of City of Randwick and sometimes the suburbs of Bayside Council which are to the east of the Eastern Distributor, as well as the University of New South Wales. The region roughly corresponds with the cadastral Parish of Botany as well as the Federal Division of Kingsford Smith.
Inner East The inner east refers to the suburbs directly surrounding the eastern and south-eastern borders of Sydney CBD within the City of Sydney. This is because they can be considered both inner city and Eastern Suburbs.
Western suburbs The Western suburbs of Sydney is a large region, starting from the western boundary of the city centre and stretching some 60 kilometres to the west to the foothills of the Blue Mountains. This large area is conventionally divided into a number of regions (some of which overlap).
Inner West
The Inner West is primarily composed of the Inner West Council, Burwood Council, Municipality of Strathfield, and the City of Canada Bay local government areas. It may also be regarded as including small parts of nearby local government areas such as the northeastern part of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown (such as the suburb of Ashbury) and the western part of the City of Sydney (such as the suburb of Glebe). The region is approximately bounded by the Parramatta River in the north, Cooks River in the south, and in the west by the A3 arterial road (Centenary Drive / Homebush Bay Drive) and parklands adjacent to that road.
These six councils participate in the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) along with six other councils in the Eastern Suburbs and St George regions.
Suburbs usually regarded as being in the Inner West region include Abbotsford, Ashbury, Ashfield, Balmain, Burwood, Concord, Dulwich Hill, Five Dock, Glebe, Homebush, Hurlstone Park, Leichhardt, Lilyfield, Marrickville, Newtown, Rozelle, Strathfield and Summer Hill. The Inner West roughly corresponds to the two cadastral parishes of Petersham (in the east) and Concord (in the west).
(Greater) Western Sydney Western Sydney is generally regarded as the local government areas within metropolitan Sydney west of the Inner West. The region of Canterbury-Bankstown may or may not be regarded as part of Western Sydney, depending on context. Some councils of these local government areas participate in the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, whose members are: the City of Blacktown, City of Blue Mountains, Cumberland Council, City of Hawkesbury, City of Lithgow and City of Liverpool. Fairfield, Parramatta, Canterbury-Bankstown, City of Hawkesbury, the Hills Shire and Penrith are no longer WSROC members, although these local government areas are still regarded as part of Greater Western Sydney.
The primary regional centre of Western Sydney is Parramatta. Some suburbs across different local government areas in this region include Granville, Doonside, Cabramatta, Windsor, Wentworthville, Glenorie, Westmead, St Marys, Kellyville and Edmondson Park.
Canterbury-Bankstown The Canterbury-Bankstown region is centered on the City of Canterbury-Bankstown local government area but is not coextensive with it. It is generally regarded as the area bounded approximately by the Cooks River to the north and east, Wolli Creek to the south, and Salt Pan Creek and Duck River to the west. It covers the suburbs extending north-west from southern Canterbury, to the south of Lidcombe and north-east from Bankstown. The part of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown that lies north of the Cooks River is generally regarded as part of the Inner West region. The Canterbury-Bankstown region is a subset of South Western Sydney and Greater Western Sydney, and sometimes with some overlap with the Inner West region.
The primary centre of Canterbury-Bankstown is .