Learn about Sydney

Sydney is Australia's largest city and the capital of New South Wales, built around one of the world's great natural harbours -- a shape that has directed the city's growth, transport, and skyline since British settlers first arrived in 1788.

The Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, sitting almost directly across from each other on the harbour, have become the city's defining image, but Sydney's identity extends well beyond its two most photographed landmarks -- to ocean beaches inside the city limits, an Aboriginal history predating European arrival by tens of thousands of years, and a diversity shaped by more than two centuries of immigration.