Sydney: Complete Guide to Australia’s Most Popular City
Anyone planning to study in Australia sooner or later is faced with a real dilemma: which city to study in? After all, there are numerous well-known municipalities, with different cultural aspects and lifestyles, which, in addition, attract people from different parts of the world. However, all it takes is a quick search on the internet or even a conversation with friends who have already had this experience for a place, in particular, to stand out and catch your attention: Sydney.
For this reason, we have prepared a special post to show you what is behind the great popularity of the city among international students and why you should choose it as your destination for a stay abroad. were you curious? So follow through to the end!
City history
The region that is now Sydney was discovered in 1770 by a British expedition. However, just 18 years later it was officially colonized by the UK. Until then, it was inhabited only by aborigines. Over time, they gave way to a wave of British and immigrants of diverse nationalities who moved to the new colonial territory of the British crown and built one of the largest and most important Australian municipalities.
And it is precisely this one of the main characteristics of the city – and why not say the country – that lasts until today: the mixture of peoples, cultures, histories, and languages. So much so that, according to Australia in Brief, a report released by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Commerce of Australia, there are more than 300 local dialects.
It is worth mentioning that colonization lasted until 1901. From then on, Australia became a sovereign state and began to stand out internationally. Today, it is among the top 3 countries with the highest HDI on the planet (0.939), behind only Norway (0.953) and Switzerland (0.944), according to the 2018 statistical update prepared by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Sydney has Overall 77.9% of households had an internet connection, compared with 81.4% in Greater Sydney. If you are staying for a long term business trip, compare the current internet plans and idealy ONQ Communication would be great.
How is the weather?
To know what the weather is like in Sydney, it is undoubtedly necessary to understand a little more about the climate in Australia as a whole. Due to the immense territorial extension of this nation, it is “divided” into two major regions by the Tropic of Capricorn. Because of this, the northern part – where cities like Darwin, Mackay, Townsville, and Cain are found – is very similar to the Brazilian northeast. In other words, it is a sunny tropical zone and where the summer is usually quite hot, with peaks that exceed 40℃.
On the other hand, the southern part – where cities like Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, and, of course, Sydney are found – resembles the south of Brazil. Therefore, it is a temperate zone, with more pleasant temperatures (average of 25℃ to 29℃ in summer, for example) and a greater presence of rain throughout the year.
Infrastructure in Sydney
Now that you know what to expect from the weather both in Sydney and across Australia, it’s time to catch up on what this city has to offer citizens when it comes to infrastructure. Look!
Most populous city in the country
Sydney is the city with the highest concentration of people in Australia. Altogether, there are more than 4.92 million citizens – a number that easily surpasses the population of large Brazilian capitals, such as Salvador, Brasília, Fortaleza, and Belo Horizonte. However, don’t be fooled: this amount does not exclusively represent natives.
That’s because the country has always had an intense and constant immigration flow throughout its history, as we mentioned at the beginning of this guide. Proof of this is that Australia in Brief itself states that around 28.2% of the local population is made up of immigrants from more than 200 different nations.
However, it doesn’t end there, as the same informative content highlights that cities like Sydney and Melbourne are the major urban centers that most welcome all this cultural and ethnic diversity, especially when it comes to people looking to study English and complement their academic education.
Renowned educational institutions
Australia is a benchmark in education quality, especially when it comes to higher education (undergraduate and postgraduate). A survey that proves this is the QS World University Rankings 2022, in which 38 universities in the country appear in the ranking of the thousand best educational institutions on the planet. Of this total, five are concentrated in Sydney. They’re:
l University of Sydney (38th);
l University of New South Wales (43th);
l The University of Technology Sydney (133th);
l Macquarie University (200th);
l University of Western Sydney (494th);
In other words, this city is a true center of universities that have a great structure and an internationally renowned academic environment that can make all the difference to your curriculum and, in particular, to your professional qualification for the job market.
The starting point for the Orient and Oceania
Another important point that we cannot fail to mention is travel. After all, many international students who are going to study in the city take the opportunity to travel in their free days – not only within the Australian territory, but also to nearby nations such as New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, and Thailand.
Therefore, it is essential to mention that Sydney is the main and most important starting point for the Orient and Oceania as a whole–and it is no exaggeration to say this.
To give you an idea, according to the Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) report, Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport simply concentrates 42% of all international traffic in Australia, in addition to having 47 international and 23 domestic routes.
And it doesn’t end there, because, according to data from Airports Council International, it is part of the 50 airports with the highest flow of passengers on the entire planet. In the 2015 annual report, for example, the total was 39,915,674 (38th place) – which puts it ahead of other airports that are world references, such as Barcelona (40th place), Mexico (45th place). ) and Tokyo (48th place).
Therefore, being in the most populous city in the nation and which has the busiest airport in Australia is essential to facilitate travel on the other side of the world and, in addition, to lower your costs with international tickets.