Might be a little off topic but just wanna add that when I look at such Sydney comparisons, one thing I would say about Sydney is that very generally much of the spotlight naturally gets directed to the CBD, the inner city neighbourhoods and harbour/beachside areas. I think this often leaves much of the other parts of the city overlooked. The thing with Sydney is that comparatively it's a bit more decentralised than the other Australian cities and if you venture a bit further out, you'd find that throughout much of the metropolitan area most of the suburbs are structured around various rather interesting and urban town centres, satellite CBDs and ethnic suburbs. A few examples:
Chatswood, 10 kms north of the CBD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1K4W5Rw2Us
Hurstville 15kms to the south
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lei5qv68QGY
Parramatta 20kms west
http://vimeo.com/67388493
Lakemba 15kms south west
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko24_4gasOE
Cabramatta 30kms south west
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGdRNzQW--s
These are just a few out of the dozens of such places and to me the city is just as much about these areas as it is about the harbour, beaches and the inner city. Just my 2 cents