[8] Based on industry mix and relative occupational wage levels it is estimated that economic activity (GDP) generated in the city in 2015/16 was approximately $118 billion.

[13] The modern history of the city began with the arrival of a First Fleet of British ships in 1788 and the foundation of a penal colony by Great Britain.

[14] After arriving to Botany Bay, Captain Arthur Phillip decided that the area was not suitable since it had poor soil, no secure anchorage and no reliable water source.

[15] Thus, the fleet moved to the more suitable Port Jackson where a settlement was established at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.

[17] With the expansion of European settlement large amounts of land was cleared for farming, which resulted in the destruction of Aboriginal food sources.

This, combined with the introduction of new diseases such as smallpox, caused resentment within the Aboriginal clans against the British and resulted in violent confrontations.

The northern wing of Macquarie Street's's Rum Hospital was requisitioned and converted to accommodate the first Parliament House in 1829, as it was the largest building available in Sydney at the time.

St Andrew's Anglican Cathedral, though more modest in size than Macquarie's original vision, later began construction and, after fire and setbacks, the present St Mary's Catholic Cathedral foundation stone was laid in 1868, from which rose a towering gothic-revival landmark.

[24] The Romanesque landmark Queen Victoria Building (QVB), designed by George McRae, was completed in 1898 on the site of the old Sydney markets.

[27] The early 1960s onwards saw the construction of new modern high-rise skyscrapers in the Sydney CBD, in styles of concrete and glass structures.

It extends north to Circular Quay, Bennelong Point and Mrs Macquarie's Chair, east to Woolloomooloo Bay and the eastern boundary of the Domain and Hyde Park, south to Goulburn Street just north of Sydney's Chinatown (Haymarket), and west to cover the Darling Harbour area on the western shore of Cockle Bay.

[35] In the New South Wales state parliament, the seat of "Sydney" covers the city centre together with inner western, southern and eastern suburbs.

[38] There is a large concentration of cultural institutions within the CBD including: the Museum of Sydney, the State Library of New South Wales, the Customs House branch of the City of Sydney Library, the Theatre Royal, the City Recital Hall and the Japan Foundation.

The Sydney Film Festival is an international event organised every year in June at various venues across the CBD.

[41] Sydney boasts a lively café culture, as well as a club and bar scene distributed throughout the CBD and concentrated in a couple of locations such as Darling Harbour.

[42] Although Kings Cross is not technically located within the Sydney CBD, it is accessible via William Street, which runs through Hyde Park and is part of the inner-city region.

Sydney's main commuter rail hub is Central railway station, which is located to the south of the CBD in Haymarket: it connects services for almost all of the lines in the Sydney Trains network, as well as being the terminus for NSW TrainLink country and inter-urban rail services.

There are several wharves (directly beneath the elevated Circular Quay commuter rail station), with Wharf 3 operating exclusively to Manly.

Additionally, the Sydney Metro rapid transit line services the CBD area with four stations (Barangaroo, Martin Place, Gadigal and Central).

The inner-city stations were constructed as part of the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project that opened on 19 August 2024[53] and extended the existing line from Chatswood to Sydenham via the CBD.

As of December 2024 construction is underway on a separate rapid transit line to connect the CBD with the secondary centre of Parramatta with a targeted opening date of 2032.

[55] Heritage conservation has been an ongoing issue for Sydney's city centre since the introduction of green bans in the 1970s and the increasing need for office or living space.

[56] Since then, a number of prominent buildings in the CBD have been lost: Anthony Hordern & Sons on George Street, the Regent Theatre also on George Street, Commercial Travelers' Club and Hotel Australia at Martin Place all attracted the ire of Sydneysiders–Sydney Mayor Clover Moore, then the MP for Bligh, even addressed a crowd in Martin Place in 1988 in a futile attempt to save the Regent Theatre from its imminent fate.

[57] Culturally, residents in the CBD have diverse ancestries, with Chinese, Thai, English, Indonesian, and Korean being the most common.