Sydney

The biggest system in the country, and the hardest sums

A guide to living, working and settling in Australia’s largest city — written for healthcare professionals, by the team who help them move.

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15 chapters Updated August 2026 Free

Welcome

The city that needs a clear guide.

Sydney needs no introduction and no selling. New South Wales runs the largest public health system in Australia, and Sydney holds the deepest concentration of it — major teaching hospitals across several districts, quaternary units taking national referrals, and research institutes beside them.

Around that sits a city of five and a half million built around a drowned river valley: a hundred beaches, free ocean pools, national parks pressing in from three sides, and a ferry commute that never quite becomes ordinary.

The cost is money. This is the least affordable housing market in the country, and the gap between an inner-suburb life and an outer-suburb one is wider here than anywhere else in Australia. This guide is written with that fact in the room.

Welcome to the harbour city.

Warm regards — the Ethicare team

Swimmers in the ocean pool at Bondi Beach with waves breaking over the edge — Ocean pools · free, tidal, and used year-round

Sydney, in short

The five-second version

~5.5M

In Greater Sydney

~100

Beaches in the metro area

Largest

Health system in Australia

1 hr

To World Heritage wilderness

Where

Around a drowned river valley — no single centre, national parks on three sides

Climate

Temperate — humid summers with real heat, and mild winters

The system

Several local health districts, each hiring in its own right, plus statewide networks

Getting home

Australia’s busiest international gateway, twenty minutes from the centre by train

Contents

What’s inside

Fifteen chapters in five parts. Nine are written for Sydney; the rest are national and live once in Moving to Australia, so you only read them once.

Part one · Deciding

01 Welcome to SydneyThe harbour city in nine numbers — and six things you only learn once you’re here Read now → 02 Why SydneyWhat the biggest system gives you, and where we’d point you instead Read now → 03 Sydney at a glanceThe four Sydneys — east, north, inner west and the greater west Read now →

Part two · The city

04 Healthcare in SydneyLocal health districts, quaternary depth, the growing west, and what to ask at interview Read now → 05 Where clinicians liveWhat each part of the city costs, what it buys, and the full case for the west Read now → 06 Getting aroundTrains, ferries, metro and the traffic that makes them worth using Read now →

Part three · Money & home

07 Cost of livingThe least affordable city in the country, priced plainly — and the strategies that work Read now → 08 Living in AustraliaRenting, utilities, banking and the practical first months — the national playbook Shared · national 09 Pay & conditionsHow awards, allowances and salary packaging work — and what to verify before signing Shared · national

Part four · Everyday life

10 Food, coffee & the everydayWhere the city eats — and the ocean-pool routine Read now → 11 Harbour, beaches & the mountainsA hundred beaches, three national parks and World Heritage wilderness an hour away Read now → 12 Schools & educationHow Australian schooling works — and the visa fee question every family must read Shared · national

Part five · Belonging

13 Finding your feet & your peopleCommunities, faith, sport and how friendship works here Shared · national 14 Eligibility & registrationAhpra, English evidence and assessment — the national process, once Shared · national 15 Visas & the moveWhich visa, in what order, and how the timeline runs Shared · national

The Sea Cliff Bridge curving around a cliff face above the ocean south of Sydney — The Sea Cliff Bridge — the coast road south, an hour from the city

Sophie’s insight

Sydney is the city everyone names first, and the one where I most often ask people to do the arithmetic before they commit. If your career needs the biggest system in the country, it is worth it. But if what you want is a tertiary job, a house and a short commute, Brisbane or Adelaide will give you all three, and Sydney will give you two at most.

Sophie Careem

Founder, Ethicare Resourcing

When you’re ready

Ready to explore opportunities?

Read the guide, save it to your pack, and plan the move at your own pace — even if that’s a year from now.

Explore current opportunities Ask Ethicare The wider New South Wales guide Other Australian guides