City apartment boom moves Sydney’s population centre east
Ermington homeowners Paul and Alison Henry with daughter Sidney, 2, said they love being at the centre of Sydney. Picture: Justin Lloyd. RAMPANT high- rise apartment construction in the inner city has been pulling Sydney ’s population centre east for the first time in more than 200 years of European settlement, as the housing boom pushes development up rather than out. An analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed the population centre of Sydney is now Ermington — 2km east of previous centre Rydalmere — in an area of the suburb sandwiched between Silverwater Rd and the northern bank of the Parramatta River, roughly 20km northwest of the CBD. Sydney’s centre had been south of the river in the suburb of Silverwater during the 1980s and later moved northwest to Ermington in the 1990s and west again to Rydalmere in the early 2000s before moving back to Ermington. ABS director of demography Andrew Howe said the shift east was significant considering the population centr...