Hustle and bustle

Every morning thousands of Sydneysiders head into the city to work, attend to personal matters, shop, meet friends or go to the theatre. Over the past 160 years, Sydney streetscapes, buildings and fashions may have changed but the hustle and bustle of Australia's largest city remains constantly fascinating.

Detail from Pedestrians in George Street, 1968, by Jack Hickson
Colour transparency    APA 46146

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, much of Sydney's population moved out of the city to live in the suburbs and surrounding towns. By the early 1990s, people had begun to move back into the Central Business District to live. Between 1991 and 2004, the residential population increased from 40,000 to 150,000, in addition to more than half a million people who visit the city daily.

 > View a selection of photographs depicting the hustle and bustle of Sydney