Let's hear it for Sydney

A survey [1]released today by recruiter Talent2 has found that Brisbane and the Gold Coast top the list of cities that Australians would like to work in. Fairly close behind was Melbourne. Sydney....well it was a whole 8% lower than the "place to be".

Sadly, in the current climate of rising housing prices, troubled public transport systems and the like, it's not surprising that people are thinking of relocating. I have thought about living in Canberra from time to time, but embarrassingly for me (and any resident who might care in Canberra perhaps) the place wasn't even mentioned in the survey. Darwin had the lowest number of votes at 2%, so I suppose you could just fill in the blanks as to where the ACT landed.

One doesn't want to put too much emphasis on surveys such as these, because there is a whole range of other factors to consider amongst the applicants: age, marital status, income and so on. Being a born and bred Sydney girl, however, I must admit I was a little saddened by the statistic that if they were given the opportunity, 63.5% of respondents from Sydney would move elsewhere.

It's a confusing result, given only last year Sydney was voted Australia's best city in terms of quality of life in the 2007 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey [2] and has achieved similar results in years previous.

The Talent2 survey [3] suggests a couple of major reasons as to why so many might want to bail out - one, advances in technology and two, Sydney's ever-growing bad reputation for things like an unreliable public transport system, to name just one area of concern.

I would argue that reason one is more likely the case than reason two, however even this sort of statement is problematic. No matter where you live, there are positive and negative factors, which are always left to individual assessment. Though we have a multitude of technological gadgets and software at our fingertips, that doesn't necessarily mean we all want to pack up and head for the hills. They might offer us greater flexibility and choice, but it doesn't mean we would automatically be happier some place else.

Though Melbourne does offer a great social experience and hosts some of the most popular sporting events in the world, the scenery doesn't come close to the beauty of our Harbour and heritage listed Sydney Opera House. Sure, it's expensive to live in Sydney, but it's not exactly cheap to live in places like Perth either. And - OK, while I have a soft spot for the National Capital and its rugby league team - us Sydney folk have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world on our doorstep.

So cheers to Sydney - a fine place to live!