The City of Rockdale was a local government area in southern and St George regions of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

The city centre was located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south-west of the Sydney central business district, on the western shores of Botany Bay.

Rockdale was amalgamated with the neighbouring City of Botany Bay on 9 September 2016 to form the new municipality of Bayside Council.

[3] The proclamation followed a petition signed by 85 residents calling for incorporation that was published in the Government Gazette on 22 August 1870.

It continued in use until 11 December 1888, when a new Town Hall was opened by the mayor, William George Judd, on the corner of Rocky Point Road and Bryant Street, Rockdale.

[22] The area of the municipality was reduced when the mouth of Cooks River was moved further south of its original position in the mid-1940s, to allow for the extension of Sydney Airport at Mascot.

[18][24] During 2002, two elected officials of Rockdale City Council were at the centre of an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry.

The inquiry revealed that the deputy mayor, Adam McCormick (Labor) and Councillor Andrew Smyrnis (Liberal) engaged in corrupt conduct with two property developers Con Chartofillis and Terry Andriotakis via two intermediaries, Manuel Limberis and Tony Retsos.

It was successful in recording convictions, and the known determinations made by the Courts are as follows: A 2015 review of local government boundaries[broken anchor] by the NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that the City of Botany Bay merge with the City of Rockdale to form a new council with an area of 50 square kilometres (19 sq mi) and support a population of approximately 153,000.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeal in early September 2016, and the Minister for Local Government, Paul Toole, moved quickly to proclaim the formation of Bayside Council on 9 September 2016, with the general manager of Rockdale since 2011, Meredith Wallace, appointed as the new general manager of Bayside Council.

[159] The Rockdale Free Library was officially opened in the Town Hall by Sir Henry Parkes on 10 April 1893 with a modest collection of 200 books.

With more than 2500 borrowers registered in the first five weeks, the demand required council to increase the number of stops from five to eleven and employ two extra library staff.