The City of Sydney is a great place to visit. Find out more about the tremendous range of things to see and do around the city.The name Sydney comes from "Sydney Cove" which is where the English admiral Arthur Phillip established the first settlement, after arriving with the First Fleet. On 22 January 1788, he named it after Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, who was the home secretary at the time, and the man responsible for the plan for the convict colony in Australia.
The "City of Sydney" was established on 20 July 1842 by the Corporation Act which encompasses present-day Woolloomooloo, Surry Hills, Chippendale and Pyrmont, an area of 11.65 km². There were six wards established by boundary posts. A boundary post still exists in front of Sydney Square.
The boundaries of the City of Sydney have changed fairly regularly since 1900. The Municipality of Camperdown was merged with the city in 1909. Added in 1949 were Alexandria, Darlington, Erskineville, Newtown, Redfern, Glebe, Waterloo, and Paddington. In 1968 the boundaries were changed and many of these suburbs moved to be part of a new municipality of South Sydney. South Sydney was brought back into the city in 1982, but became separate again under the City of Sydney Act of 1988 and then became smaller than its original size at 6.19 km². It grew again in February, 2004 with the merger of the two council areas, and now has a population of approximately 170,000 people.