Economist.com Cities Guide: Sydney Briefing - March 2006

News this month

House in order

March 13th was a day of reconciliation at the Sydney Opera House, when Queen Elizabeth, Australia's head of state, opened a long-awaited new colonnade on the building's western side. The extension—which introduces a line of large windows and a walkway, linking three of the House’s theatres with the eastern shore of Circular Quay—was designed by Jørn Utzon, the Opera House's original architect. Mr Utzon, from Denmark, had left Sydney in 1966, seven years before the building first opened, after being sacked by the New South Wales state government because of soaring costs and construction problems.

Since then the architect, who turns 88 in April, has never returned to Australia. But over the years Sydney has acknowledged the strength of his original vision. So when the Sydney Opera House Trust asked him to design the colonnade, the first change to the House's external structure, he obliged, in collaboration with Jan Utzon, his son, who represented him in Sydney on March 13th. Sydney's culture buffs have high hopes the colonnade may be a forerunner for a more ambitious upgrade of the main opera and concert halls, whose original designs suffered under the “committee of architects” who took over from Mr Utzon 40 years ago.

Heading south

As Australia’s largest and most prominent city, Sydney has long felt superior to Melbourne, its southern neighbour and historical rival. But in early March, a new report showed that Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria, has overtaken Sydney as Australia’s most prosperous city. “The Sydney and Melbourne Prosperity Indices”, prepared by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper and Commonwealth Securities, a stock-trading service, compared benchmarks such as house prices, consumer spending, economic growth and the affordability of petrol and home-loan payments. The conclusion: average Melburnians are 6.5 times better off in 2006 than six years ago, compared with 1.6 times for average Sydneysiders.

Sydney’s skittish property market played a big part in the result. A doubling of Sydney house prices between 1999 and 2004 produced record asset wealth for property buyers, even after house prices fell an average 8% in 2005. Those same high prices made Sydney the hardest city for buyers to afford repayments. Overall, the state economy of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, grew by 2% in 2005 compared with 3.3% for Victoria’s.

Down to earth

Hopes of cheaper air travel for Sydneysiders received a blow on March 12th when Ozjet, a new airline, announced it was ceasing flights after only four months of service. The airline was founded by Paul Stoddart, a businessman and former owner of a Formula One racing team, to serve the “budget business class” route between Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's busiest. But with its four Boeing 737 aircraft, Ozjet was no match for the major players—Qantas and Virgin Blue run flights every half-hour between the cities. Even with Melbourne's hosting of the Commonwealth games and the Australian Grand Prix in March driving up demand, Mr Stoddart said numbers had been “lousy”. After making what he said was an “eight-figure” loss, Ozjet will lose up to 60 staff.

Better news for travellers was a report in the Sydney Morning Herald on March 11th that the underground rail line between Sydney's central business district and airport may go up for sale soon. The privately owned line, which opened to coincide with Sydney’s hosting of the 2000 Olympic games, has been plagued by low passenger numbers, thanks in part to its A$12 ($8.80) one-way fare—about the same amount two people would each pay for a taxi on the same route.

No end in sight

Early March saw John Howard, Australia's prime minister, celebrating a notable anniversary—ten years in the top job. A thousand supporters attended a dinner on March 2nd in Sydney, Mr Howard’s home city, to honour the prime minister for leading his conservative Liberal party to four consecutive election victories since 1996. Public opinion is more mixed, however. A recent opinion poll showed 83% approval for the economic management of Mr Howard's government, but half of respondents thought Australia had become a “meaner” country on his watch, and 58% believed Mr Howard's hawkish insistence on sending troops to Iraq was not in Australia's best interests.

Yet, at the age of 66, Mr Howard seems to be sending signals that he will stay on to fight a fifth election, due at the end of 2007, rather than hand over the Liberal leadership to Peter Costello, a younger deputy who sees himself as Mr Howard’s successor. At another celebration event in Canberra, Australia's capital, on March 1st, Mr Howard spoke of an “ever-receding finishing line” for his time in politics. With the main Labor opposition in a state of disarray, he may be tempted to continue his run.

Leaving his mark

Few architects have had as big an impact on a modern city as Sydney's Harry Seidler, who died on March 8th, aged 82. He is credited with introducing modernism to the city when he arrived from America in 1948, after studying at Harvard University under Marcel Breuer, a founder of the “Modern Movement”. His controversial legacy is visible all over Sydney. A house in Turramurra which he designed for his mother, who fled to Australia from Europe during the second world war, and Australia Square, a 1960s office tower, have both been widely praised. By contrast, the MLC Centre, a tower which replaced the art-deco Australia Hotel in the 1970s, has been decried for its brutalism; and Blues Point Tower, a 1960s apartment building, still raises hackles over its visual intrusion on Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Such criticism got a prickly response from Mr Seidler—he regarded it as symptomatic of a city that never understood him. Still, he won plaudits for his tireless battles against the rules and regulations of government and local authority, which he argued hemmed him in. These feisty trials could not help but inspire his compatriots.

Catch if you can

March 2006

Archibald Prize 2006

March 25th-May 28th 2006

This annual exhibition of the finalists for Australia’s most prestigious prize for portraiture draws huge crowds. The prize was first awarded in 1921 under a bequest from Jules Francois Archibald, a Sydney publisher, and has grown steadily in importance ever since.

This year’s award has attracted 787 entries. The 35 finalists include a sombre portrait of Cate Blanchett, an actress, and her family by McLean Edwards, and a study of Clover Moore, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, posing with her dogs (pictured), by Peter Smeeth. The winner will be announced on March 24th, along with that of two smaller awards, the Wynne Prize for landscape painting and the Sulman Prize for subject and genre painting.

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Rd, the Domain. Sydney. Tel: +61 (0)2 9225 1744. Open: daily 10am-5pm. Admission: A$8. See the gallery's exhibition information and the official Archibald Prize site.

More from the Sydney cultural calendar