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This is not a question of which is "better" (it's a matter of personal preference) but it would be interesting to discuss how the two main cities of Australia differ. They are also remarkably close in population and it's interesting that Melbourne was bigger first, then surpassed by Sydney (I think around 1900 or so), but then Melbourne began to close the gap again in the postwar years, but then Sydney grew faster again but now it's slowed down and Melbourne may be poised to overtake it according to some estimates I've seen.
Here are some of the perceived differences I can think of:
Ethnic diversity: Melbourne has more Europeans (largest Italian, Greek and Jewish populations in Australia), Sydney has more Asians.
Economy and role in the country: Sydney I presume is a bit wealthier. Sydney is the financial and media capital. Melbourne is the intellectual capital.
Politics: Melbourne is somewhat more left-leaning I believe.
Never been to both but just want to correct you on something.
Jews who look European and speak Yiddish are called Ashkenazi.
While there are Jews who are descendants from Spain or Portugal (Sephardi) who moved to North Africa or Latin America when the Spanish monarchy kicked them out in late 15th century. And they speak Ladino (Spanish mixed with Hebrew).
While Mizrahi Jews are those who hailed from the Middle East.
This is not a question of which is "better" (it's a matter of personal preference) but it would be interesting to discuss how the two main cities of Australia differ. They are also remarkably close in population and it's interesting that Melbourne was bigger first, then surpassed by Sydney (I think around 1900 or so), but then Melbourne began to close the gap again in the postwar years, but then Sydney grew faster again but now it's slowed down and Melbourne may be poised to overtake it according to some estimates I've seen.
Here are some of the perceived differences I can think of:
Ethnic diversity: Melbourne has more Europeans (largest Italian, Greek and Jewish populations in Australia), Sydney has more Asians.
Economy and role in the country: Sydney I presume is a bit wealthier. Sydney is the financial and media capital. Melbourne is the intellectual capital.
Politics: Melbourne is somewhat more left-leaning I believe.
First point is correct although we have about 7 billion Asians too.
Second point is definitely correct. We're way more intellectual
And we're very left-leaning, Sydney seems more centrist i.e. equal amounts of Labor/Liberal voters.
Just on population, Sydney was Australia's first point of European settlement and in those early days it was Sydney that was a bit larger than Melbourne. Then by the 1850s when gold was discovered in the state of Victoria, people flocked to the state and Melbourne became the centre of the gold rush, so consequently it boomed during that period and surpassed Sydney. I've heard some claims that Melbourne was the second largest city in the Commonwealth during that time behind only London but I'm not sure how legit that is. But as the gold rush waned Melbourne's growth slowed and by the early 1900s Sydney overtook it to become the largest city again. Since then Sydney has maintained a slight lead over Melbourne (albeit not a comfortable one, the gap has always been small and sometimes Sydney grew faster while at other times Melbourne grew faster).
During more recent times Melbourne has been growing a bit faster than Sydney. What basically happened was that after the 2000 Olympics the NSW state government seemed to have thought that Sydney was perfect, everything was fine and adopted a rather anti-growth policy. The premier declared in his own words that "Sydney is full" and consequently investment in the city and population growth dwindled. At the same time Melbourne was making strides in improving their city, reinventing its image, luring events and encouraging growth.
In recent years however Sydney would seem to have picked itself back up. The attitude towards growth has noticeably changed, construction activity has risen dramatically, there's a huge backlog of infrastructure projects and it now has the strongest performing economy in the country. Population growth has picked up as well and currently it's around 10K/year behind Melbourne (85K vs 95K/year). The overall population is around 400K larger so if this maintains then Melbourne will overtake Sydney some time in the 2050s. Historically though projections have been rather inaccurate since they change constantly, and given the current situation we'll have to watch what happens in the future. At the moment probably the biggest deterrent to population growth in Sydney is housing affordability (iirc the average home price has recently passed the million dollar mark and Melbourne is comparatively a bargain). We'll have to see how Sydney tackles this issue but whatever happens and as history has shown, both cities are likely to be close in terms of population for a long time to come.
Interesting times ahead
Last edited by ciTydude123; 09-22-2015 at 07:06 AM..
Never been to both but just want to correct you on something.
Jews who look European and speak Yiddish are called Ashkenazi.
While there are Jews who are descendants from Spain or Portugal (Sephardi) who moved to North Africa or Latin America when the Spanish monarchy kicked them out in late 15th century. And they speak Ladino (Spanish mixed with Hebrew).
While Mizrahi Jews are those who hailed from the Middle East.
The vast majority of Australian Jews are Ashkenazi.
What they mean is that Sydney is basically Asian now. Most whites have moved to Queensland. Official figures don't reflect what's on the ground; many of those Asians are born there and are counted as 'Australian' . Not going to debate what is/isnt Australian; The Left can pretend a man in a turban is or a woman in a hijab is Aussie if they like.
It's obviously a typo, because we all know the total global population is a total of 7 billion.
I think its more of an exaggeration, than a typo..
Quote:
Originally Posted by tropical1987
What they mean is that Sydney is basically Asian now. Most whites have moved to Queensland. Official figures don't reflect what's on the ground; many of those Asians are born there and are counted as 'Australian' . Not going to debate what is/isnt Australian; The Left can pretend a man in a turban is or a woman in a hijab is Aussie if they like.
I'll just leave that there.
Oh, because if I put on a Hijab, I'm automatically no longer Australian.
Last edited by artemis agrotera; 10-25-2015 at 11:28 PM..
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