Editing Sydney (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Sydney}}
{{For timeline|Timeline of Sydney}}

===First inhabitants of the region===
[[File:AboriginalSite0008.jpg|thumb|[[Charcoal (art)|Charcoal drawing]] of kangaroos in [[Heathcote National Park]]]]The first people to inhabit the area now known as Sydney were [[Aboriginal Australians]] who had migrated from southeast Asia via northern Australia.<ref>Attenbrow (2010). p. 152</ref> Flaked pebbles found in Western Sydney's gravel sediments might indicate human occupation from 45,000 to 50,000 years ago,<ref name="Attenbrow-2010c">{{Cite book |last1=Attenbrow |first1=Val |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TDxldj_SLcYC&q=inauthor%3A%22Val%20Attenbrow%22&pg=PA152 |title=Sydney's Aboriginal Past: Investigating the Archaeological and Historical Records |publisher=UNSW Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-74223-116-7 |location=Sydney |pages=152–153 |access-date=11 November 2013 |archive-date=23 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923094622/https://books.google.com/books?id=TDxldj_SLcYC&q=inauthor%3A%22Val%20Attenbrow%22&pg=PA152 |url-status=live }}</ref> while [[radiocarbon dating]] has shown evidence of human activity in the region from around 30,000 years ago.<ref name="Settlers' history rewritten2">{{cite news |last=Macey |first=Richard |date=2007 |title=Settlers' history rewritten: go back 30,000 years |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/settlers-history-rewritten/2007/09/14/1189276983698.html |access-date=5 July 2014 |archive-date=2 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702180036/https://www.smh.com.au/news/national/settlers-history-rewritten/2007/09/14/1189276983698.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Prior to the arrival of the British, there were 4,000 to 8,000 Aboriginal people in the greater Sydney region.<ref>Attenbrow (2010). p.17</ref><ref name="Aboriginal people and place23"/>

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.<ref name="Attenbrow-2010a">Attenbrow (2010). pp. 28, 158</ref>

The earliest British settlers recorded the word '[[Eora]]' as an Aboriginal term meaning either 'people' or 'from this place'.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Keith Vincent |title=Eora People |url=https://www.eorapeople.com.au/uncategorized/eora-people/ |access-date=13 July 2022 |website=Eora People |date=June 2020 |archive-date=28 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328102026/https://www.eorapeople.com.au/uncategorized/eora-people/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Aboriginal people and place23"/> 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.<ref name="Aboriginal people and place23"/> Darginung and Gundungurra languages were spoken on the fringes of the Sydney area.<ref name="Attenbrow-2010b">Attenbrow (2010). pp. 22–29</ref>
{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|+ class="nowrap" |Aboriginal clans of Sydney area, as recorded by early British settlers
!Clan
!Territory name
!Location
|-
|Bediagal
|Not recorded
|Probably north-west of [[Parramatta]]
|-
|Birrabirragal
|Birrabirra
|Lower Sydney Harbour around Sow and Pigs reef
|-
|Boolbainora
|Boolbainmatta
|Parramatta area
|-
|Borogegal
|Booragy
|Probably [[Bradleys Head]] and surrounding area
|-
|Boromedegal
|Not recorded
|Parramatta
|-
|Buruberongal
|Not recorded
|North-west of Parramatta
|-
|Darramurragal
|Not recorded
|[[Turramurra|Turramarra]] area
|-
|Gadigal
|Cadi (Gadi)
|South side of Port Jackson, from [[Sydney Heads|South Head]] to [[Darling Harbour]]
|-
|Gahbrogal
|Not recorded
|[[Liverpool, New South Wales|Liverpool]] and [[Cabramatta, New South Wales|Cabramatta]] area
|-
|Gamaragal
|Cammeray
|North shore of Port Jackson
|-
|Gameygal
|Kamay
|[[Botany Bay]]
|-
|Gannemegal
|Warmul
|Parramatta area
|-
|Garigal
|Not recorded
|[[Broken Bay]] area
|-
|Gayamaygal
|Kayeemy
|[[Manly, New South Wales|Manly]] Cove
|-
|Gweagal
|Gwea
|Southern shore of Botany Bay
|-
|Wallumedegal
|Wallumede
|North shore of Port Jackson, opposite Sydney Cove
|-
|Wangal
|Wann
|South side of Port Jackson, from Darling Harbour to Rose Hill
|-
| colspan="3" |Clans of the Sydney region whose territory wasn't reliably recorded are: the Domaragal, Doogagal, Gannalgal, {{Break}}Gomerigal, Gooneeowlgal, Goorunggurregal, Gorualgal, Murrooredial, Noronggerragal, Oryangsoora and Wandeandegal.
|-
| colspan="3" |<small>Note:</small> <small>The names and territory boundaries do not always correspond with those used</small> <small>by contemporary Aboriginal groups of the greater Sydney area.<ref name="Attenbrow-2010b" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Troy |first=Jakelin |title=The Sydney Language |publisher=Aboriginal Studies Press |year=2019 |isbn=9781925302868 |edition=2nd |location=Canberra |pages=19–25}}</ref>{{Refn|British settlers each used different spellings for Indigenous words. The clan names in this list use Troy's (2019) orthography.}}</small>
|}

The first meeting between Aboriginals and British explorers occurred on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at [[Botany Bay]] (Kamay<ref>Attenbrow (2010). p. 13</ref>) and encountered the [[Gweagal]] clan.<ref>{{cite news |date=2002 |title=Once were warriors |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/10/1036308574533.html |access-date=5 July 2014 |archive-date=22 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822083939/http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/10/1036308574533.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Two Gweagal men opposed the landing party and one was shot and wounded.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blainey |first=Geoffrey |title=Captain Cook's epic voyage |publisher=Viking |year=2020 |isbn=9781760895099 |location=Australia |pages=141–43}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=22 April 2020 |title=Eight days in Kamay |url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/eight-days-in-kamay |access-date=29 May 2022 |website=[[State Library of New South Wales]] |archive-date=3 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603002706/https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/eight-days-in-kamay/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref>Blainey (2020). pp. 146–57</ref>

=== Convict town (1788–1840) ===
[[File:The Founding of Australia. By Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, Jan. 26th 1788.jpg|thumb|''The Founding of Australia, 26 January 1788, by Captain [[Arthur Phillip]] R.N., Sydney Cove.'' Painting by [[Algernon Talmage]].]] [[Kingdom of Great Britain|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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Macintyre |first=Stuart |title=A concise history of Australia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2020 |isbn=9781108728485 |edition=5th |location=Port Melbourne |pages=34–35}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karskens |first=Grace |title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 1, Indigenous and Colonial Australia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9781107011533 |editor-last=Bashford |editor-first=Alison |location=Cambridge |pages=91 |chapter=The early colonial presence, 1788-1822 |editor-last2=MacIntyre |editor-first2=Stuart}}</ref> The fleet soon moved to the more suitable [[Port Jackson]] where a settlement was established at [[Sydney Cove]] on 26 January 1788.<ref>Peter Hill (2008) pp.141–50</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite web |date=9 October 2009 |title=SL/nsw.gov.au |url=http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/terra_australis/letters/phillip/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130203035645/http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/terra_australis/letters/phillip/index.html |archive-date=3 February 2013 |access-date=14 July 2011 |publisher=SL/nsw.gov.au}}</ref>

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 (Australia)|Second Fleet]] in mid-1790 and the [[Third Fleet (Australia)|Third Fleet]] in 1791.<ref>Macintyre (2020). pp.34–37</ref> Former convicts received small grants of land, and government and private farms spread to the more fertile lands around [[Parramatta]], [[Windsor, New South Wales|Windsor]] and [[Camden, New South Wales|Camden]] on the [[Cumberland Plain]]. By 1804, the colony was self-sufficient in food.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karskens |first=Grace |title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I, Indigenous and colonial Australia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9781107011533 |editor-last=Bashford |editor-first=Alison |location=Cambridge |pages=90–114 |chapter=The early colonial presence, 1788-1822 |editor-last2=MacIntyre |editor-first2=Stuart}}</ref>

A smallpox epidemic in April 1789 killed about half the region's Indigenous population.<ref name="Aboriginal people and place23"/><ref>{{cite web |last=Mear |first=Craig |date=2008 |title=The origin of the smallpox outbreak in Sydney in 1789 |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-180278188.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831054140/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-180278188.html |archive-date=31 August 2011 |access-date=5 July 2014 |publisher=Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society}}</ref> 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.<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). "The early colonial presence, 1788–1822". In ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 1.'' pp. 106, 117–19</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karskens |first=Grace |title=The Colony, a history of early Sydney |publisher=Allen and Unwin |year=2009 |isbn=9781741756371 |location=Crows Nest, NSW |pages=71–75}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=McGillick |first1=Paul |title=Sydney architecture |last2=Bingham-Hall |first2=Patrick |year=2005 |page=14 to 15}}</ref>[[File:View of Sydney Cove - Thomas Watling.jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Watling]]'s ''View of Sydney Cove'', {{Circa|1794}}–1796]]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{{En dash}}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]].<ref>Karskens (2009). pp. 185–188</ref><ref>{{cite Q |Q5273962 |chapter=Bligh, William (1754–1817) |mode=cs1}}</ref>

Governor [[Lachlan Macquarie]] (1810{{En dash}}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,<ref name="broomham3">{{Citation |author1=Broomham, Rosemary |title=Vital connections: a history of NSW roads from 1788 |date=2001 |page=25 |publisher=Hale & Iremonger in association with the [[Roads & Traffic Authority]] |isbn=978-0-86806-703-2}}</ref> and a road across the [[Blue Mountains (New South Wales)|Blue Mountains]] was completed in 1815, opening the way for large-scale farming and grazing west of the [[Great Dividing Range]].<ref name="Kingston-2006">{{Cite book |last=Kingston |first=Beverley |title=A History of New South Wales |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780521833844 |location=Cambridge |pages=118–19}}</ref><ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). pp. 115–17</ref>

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.<ref>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.</ref><ref name="Fitzgerald-2011">{{Cite web |last=Fitzgerald |first=Shirley |date=2011 |title=Sydney |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/sydney#ref-uuid=77be765d-0fa6-addb-7d2d-99c79ef76ff3 |access-date=30 July 2022 |website=Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales |archive-date=24 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924202005/https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/sydney#ref-uuid=77be765d-0fa6-addb-7d2d-99c79ef76ff3 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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, New South Wales|The Rocks]], and the more affluent residents living to its east.<ref name="Fitzgerald-2011"/> 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.<ref name="Sydney-2020b">{{Cite web |date=September 2020 |title=History of City of Sydney council |url=https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/history/history-city-sydney-council |access-date=30 July 2020 |website=City of Sydney |archive-date=18 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230718070716/https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/history/history-city-sydney-council |url-status=live }}</ref>[[File:Castle Hill Rebellion (1804).jpg|thumb|The [[Castle Hill convict rebellion]] of 1804]]

==== Conflict on the Cumberland Plain ====
In 1804, Irish convicts led around 300 rebels in the [[Castle Hill convict rebellion|Castle Hill Rebellion]], an attempt to march on Sydney, commandeer a ship, and sail to freedom.<ref>Karskens (2009). pp. 29–297</ref> 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, New South Wales|Rouse Hill]]. At least 39 convicts were killed in the uprising and subsequent executions.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 June 2021 |title=Castle Hill Rebellion |url=https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/castle-hill-rebellion |access-date=31 August 2021 |website=nma.gov.au |language=en-US |archive-date=10 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810081550/https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/castle-hill-rebellion |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="whitaker22">{{cite web |author=Whitaker, Anne-Maree |year=2009 |title=Castle Hill convict rebellion 1804 |url=http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/castle_hill_convict_rebellion_1804 |access-date=3 January 2017 |work=[[Dictionary of Sydney]] |archive-date=4 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304231534/https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/castle_hill_convict_rebellion_1804 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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 [[Australian frontier wars|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.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). p. 66</ref><ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 25–26</ref>

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|Appin massacre]] (April 1816) in which at least 14 Aboriginal people were killed.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). p. 70</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Banivanua Mar |first1=Tracey |title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I |last2=Edmonds |first2=Penelope |year=2013 |pages=344 |chapter=Indigenous and settler relations}}</ref>

=== Colonial city (1841–1900) ===
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.<ref name="Sydney-2020b"/>[[File:Sydney 1888.jpg|thumb|left|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.<ref name="Goodman-2013">Goodman, David (2013). "The gold rushes of the 1850s". ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I''. pp.&nbsp;180–81.</ref> The New South Wales government also stimulated growth by investing heavily in railways, trams, roads, ports, telegraph, schools and urban services.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kingston |first=Beverley |title=A History of New South Wales |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780521833844 |pages=74–80}}</ref> The population of Sydney and its suburbs grew from 95,600 in 1861 to 386,900 in 1891.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coghlan |first=T. A |url=https://archive.org/details/wealth-and-progress-1893/page/310/mode/2up |title=The Wealth and progress of New South Wales |publisher=E. A. Petherick & Co., Sydney |year=1893 |edition=7th |location=Sydney |pages=311–15}}</ref> 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),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Radford |first=Neil |date=2016 |title=The University of Sydney |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/university_of_sydney#ref-uuid=6e6dfb0b-dbd1-a0d2-591c-32e5959e0578 |access-date=2 August 2022 |website=Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales |archive-date=17 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817072226/https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/university_of_sydney#ref-uuid=6e6dfb0b-dbd1-a0d2-591c-32e5959e0578 |url-status=live }}</ref> the [[Australian Museum]] (1858–66),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ellmoos |first=Leila |date= |title=Australian Museum |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/australian_museum |access-date=2 August 2022 |website=The Dictionary of Sydney, State Library oif New South Wales |archive-date=17 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817071732/https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/australian_museum |url-status=live }}</ref> the Town Hall (1868–88),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Town Hall |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/sydney_town_hall |access-date=2 August 2022 |website=Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales |archive-date=17 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817071732/https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/sydney_town_hall |url-status=live }}</ref> and the [[General Post Office, Sydney|General Post Office]] (1866–92).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ellmoos |first=Laila |date=2008 |title=General Post Office |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/general_post_office#ref-uuid=3941c435-8616-274a-c243-6eacf67fae05 |access-date=2 August 2022 |website=Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales |archive-date=17 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817072224/https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/general_post_office#ref-uuid=3941c435-8616-274a-c243-6eacf67fae05 |url-status=live }}</ref> Elaborate [[coffee palace]]s and hotels were erected.<ref name="Noyce-2012">{{cite journal |last1=Noyce |first1=Diana Christine |date=2012 |title=Coffee Palaces in Australia: A Pub with No Beer |journal=M/C Journal |volume=15 |issue=2 |doi=10.5204/mcj.464 |doi-access=free | issn=1441-2616}}</ref> Daylight bathing at Sydney's beaches was banned, but segregated bathing at designated ocean baths was popular.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McDermott, Marie-Louise |first=Marie-Louise |date=2011 |title=Ocean baths |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/ocean_baths#ref-uuid=a5211cd8-d260-5ed4-3c70-fa82884cc849 |access-date=2 August 2022 |website=Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales |archive-date=17 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817072225/https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/ocean_baths#ref-uuid=a5211cd8-d260-5ed4-3c70-fa82884cc849 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref>KIngston (2006). pp. 88–89, 95–97</ref>

=== State capital (1901–present) ===
[[File:(Looking north along George Street (with tram, T-model Ford and hansom cab) from Union Line Building (incorporating the Bjelke-Petersen School of Physical culture), corner Jamieson Street), n.d. by (5955844045).jpg|thumb|A [[tramcar]] on George Street in 1920. Sydney once had one of the largest [[Trams in Sydney|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.<ref name="Fitzgerald-2011"/> The population reached one million in 1926, after Sydney had regained its position as the most populous city in Australia.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2019 |title=Australian Historical Population Statistics, 3105.0.65.001, Population distribution |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/historical-population/latest-release |access-date=2 August 2022 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics |archive-date=1 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220801140830/https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/historical-population/latest-release |url-status=live }}</ref> The government created jobs with massive public projects such as the electrification of the [[Railways in Sydney|Sydney rail network]] and building the Sydney Harbour Bridge.<ref>Kingston (2006). p. 132</ref>
[[File:Sydney 1932.jpg|thumb|right|Sydney Harbour Bridge opening day, 19 March 1932]][[File:Sydney's Circular Quay at night in 1938.jpg|thumb|right|The 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spearritt |first=Peter |title=Sydney's century, a history |publisher=UNSW Press |year=2000 |isbn=0868405213 |location=Sydney |pages=57–58}}</ref> 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, New South Wales|La Perouse]].<ref>Spearritt (2000). pp. 58–59</ref> The Depression also exacerbated political divisions. In March 1932, when populist Labor premier [[Jack Lang (Australian politician)|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.<ref>Spearritt (2000). p. 62</ref>

In January 1938, Sydney celebrated the [[Commonwealth Games|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 (Australia)|Day of Mourning]]" for "the whiteman's seizure of our country."<ref>Spearritt (2000). p. 72</ref>

With the outbreak of [[Second World War]] in 1939, Sydney experienced a surge in industrial development. Unemployment virtually disappeared and women moved into jobs previously typically reserved for males. Sydney was attacked by [[Attack on Sydney Harbour|Japanese submarines]] in May and June 1942 with 21 killed. Households built [[airstrike|air raid]] shelters and performed drills.<ref>Kingston (2006). pp. 157–59</ref> [[Military engineering|Military establishments]] in response to [[Military history of Australia during World War II|World War II in Australia]] included the [[Garden Island Tunnel System]], the only [[tunnel warfare]] complex in Sydney, and the heritage-listed military [[fortification]] systems [[Bradleys Head Fortification Complex]] and [[Middle Head Fortifications]], which were part of a total [[Sydney Harbour defences|defence system for Sydney Harbour]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aussieheritage.com.au/listings/nsw/Mosman/BradleysHeadFortificationComplex/3069 |title=Bradleys Head Fortification Complex, Mosman, NSW Profile |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518073741/http://www.aussieheritage.com.au/listings/nsw/Mosman/BradleysHeadFortificationComplex/3069 |archive-date=18 May 2007 }}</ref>

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{{Em dash}}mostly from Britain and continental Europe{{Em dash}}and their children accounted for over three-quarters of Sydney's population growth between 1947 and 1971.<ref>Spearritt (2000). p. 91</ref> The newly created Cumberland County Council oversaw low-density residential developments, the largest at [[Green Valley, New South Wales|Green Valley]] and [[Mount Druitt]]. Older residential centres such as Parramatta, [[Bankstown]] and [[Liverpool, New South Wales|Liverpool]] became suburbs of the metropolis.<ref>Spearritt (2000). pp. 93–94, 115–16</ref> 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.<ref>Spearritt (2000). pp. 109–11</ref>

An estimated one million onlookers, most of the city's population, watched [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] land in 1954 at Farm Cove where Captain Phillip had raised the Union Jack 165 years earlier, commencing her [[Royal visits to Australia|Australian Royal Tour]]. It was the first time a reigning monarch stepped onto Australian soil.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=10 January 2018 |title=The 1954 Royal Tour of Queen Elizabeth II |url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/1954-royal-tour-queen-elizabeth-ii |access-date=18 August 2022 |website=[[State Library of New South Wales]] |archive-date=8 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220908092035/https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/1954-royal-tour-queen-elizabeth-ii |url-status=live }}</ref>

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 ban]]s on development projects in historic areas such as The Rocks. Federal, State and local governments introduced heritage and environmental legislation.<ref name="Fitzgerald-2011" /> 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.<ref>Kingston (2006). pp. 184–86</ref> The progressive reduction in tariff protection from 1974 began the transformation of Sydney from a manufacturing centre to a "world city".<ref>Spearritt (2000). pp. 109–12, 259–62</ref> From the 1980s, [[Immigration to Australia|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.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2021 |title=2021 Census of Population and Housing, General community profile, Greater Sydney, Table GO9(c) |url=https://abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/1GSYD |access-date=4 August 2020 |website=Australian Bureau of Statistics |archive-date=28 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628053554/https://abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/1GSYD |url-status=live }}</ref>