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Biggest Cities in Australia on a Map

Can you name the 23 most populous urban areas in Australia with the help of a map?
2019 estimates. Source.
Urban area population, not city proper population
Quiz by NINJAQKk
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Last updated: November 1, 2020
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First submittedAugust 12, 2019
Times taken30,513
Average score52.2%
Rating4.61
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Population
City
4,914,343
Sydney
4,893,870
Melbourne
2,430,180
Brisbane
2,045,479
Perth
1,340,794
Adelaide
693,671
Gold Coast
491,474
Newcastle
462,136
Canberra
Population
City
341,069
Sunshine Coast
335,470
Central Coast
306,034
Wollongong
275,794
Geelong
216,682
Hobart
181,668
Townsville
153,951
Cairns
138,223
Toowoomba
Population
City
133,331
Darwin
107,652
Ballarat
100,991
Bendigo
94,837
Albury
88,178
Launceston
80,264
Mackay
79,081
Rockhampton
74,591
Bunbury
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63 Comments
WillA25
+3
Level 35
Oct 12, 2019
Well done!
blizzrd33
+6
Level 80
Nov 10, 2019
It wouldn't accept Gosford for Central Coast (which isn't a place).
Jeremy
+7
Level 75
Nov 30, 2019

Not a place? Wikipedia disagrees. Gosford also has less than 5,000 people, versus Central Coast's 300,000+.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Coast_(New_South_Wales)
blizzrd33
+17
Level 80
Dec 15, 2019
Central Coast is a region not a place. A collection of towns (of which Gosford is the largest) separated by large tracts of rural land in one region doesn't make a city. It is something that local government officials invented to meet their definition of a "rural city".
NINJAQKk
+10
Level 69
Dec 15, 2019
I am using this citypopulation.de page. The cities it uses are agglomerations A.K.A urban areas. Central Coast is an urban agglomeration, making it one city in this case.
blizzrd33
+11
Level 80
Jul 31, 2020
The agglomeration of Central Coast is a collection of adjacent local government areas with a certain number of people in them, not contiguous urban areas. It is an important distinction. Large tracts of rural land between the individual urban areas is why this agglomeration should not have been made - the source website has invented a "city" which is really a bunch of discrete towns that are separated from each other by farmland.
doctors
+8
Level 82
Oct 13, 2020
If we're using Wikipedia, their list is based on ABS data and doesn't have Central Coast on its list of biggest cities. This makes sense because nobody has ever referred to this large area of bushland broken up by the occasional small town as a city or an "urban agglomeration".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Australia_by_population#Greater_Capital_City_Statistical_Areas/Significant_Urban_Areas_by_population

vomitingdiamonds
+3
Level 82
Oct 13, 2020
Bloody oath blizzrd33. Can the same things be said about Sunshine Coast, and maybe even the Gold Coast? Isn't Sunshine coast made up of lots of towns like Maroochydore, Noosa etc?
blizzrd33
+7
Level 80
Oct 18, 2020
The Gold Coast doesn't have rural areas of farmland separating urban areas from each other. Central Coast does, and because it isn't a contiguous urban area there is no way it should meet any sensible definition of a "city".
blizzrd33
+11
Level 80
Oct 18, 2020
@CringeDragon - I love it when people who've never been to Australia can tell an Australian that they know more about the country than the Australian does.
Findlay
+6
Level 82
Nov 1, 2020
Looking at Google Maps (and checking on Street View) there is a definitely a continuous built up area from the mouth of the Hawkesbury River to Lake Macquarie. As an Australian, I'm aware it isn't traditional to think of the Central Coast as a single city (same arguably goes for the Sunshine Coast), but it certainly looks like one on a map. I'd say it's analogous (on a much smaller scale) to Germany's Ruhr where there is not clearly any central city, but adjacent cities and towns have merged into a continuous urban area.
commonwombat
+2
Level 83
Nov 3, 2020
The Central Coast has been Sydney commuter belt for probably 40 yrs plus and is now generally included in official calculations of Sydney's metropolitan population.

With the decline in the steel industry, as well as the reality that they have for many years themselves became commuter belt, both Newcastle and especially Wollongong are effectively "satellites" of Sydney just like the Central Coast & Blue Mountains. For Sydney's population, it should really be the whole "Sydney Basin" region

Similarly, you should probably include Geelong into the Melbourne total. Likewise, both Gold Coast & Sunshine Coast are effectively conjoined onto Brisbane metro although arguably they are slightly more economically "independent of the major city than those in the southern states

kalbahamut
+4
Level 81
Nov 4, 2020
I sometimes know more about certain countries than inhabitants of said countries know... or at least about certain subjects... but not this one.
JohnK
+2
Level 69
May 24, 2021
The Australian Bureau of Statistics includes the Central Coast in Sydney (probably just to make sure Melbourne doesn't overtake Sydney for population ;-)
NightShadow
+2
Level 45
Oct 11, 2021
Geelong should not be considered in Melbourne's population. There's a vast gap of emptiness between them with significantly different cultures as well
mazeen
+1
Level 37
May 27, 2022
true. I lived in Geelong for 5 years. I now live in Melbourne.
Quizmaster
+6
Level ∞
Oct 12, 2020
Australia is weird. Most municipalities have very small populations. You really, really wouldn't like this quiz if it was based on municipality population. For example, the city of Melbourne has fewer than 200,000 people and ranks 37th. Adelaide has a population of 24,000 or so.
Findlay
+6
Level 82
Oct 14, 2020
Is Australia that different to the US? I've seen various quizzes that insist that San Francisco has less than a million while adding vast tracts of suburbia to the lists of the biggest "cities" in the the country.
Jeremy
+2
Level 75
Nov 2, 2020
Not to that extent. Sure, San Francisco has a population just under a million and has a small city proper, but this applies to just about every other city in the country - in fact it still is in the top 15 by population. The U.S. (as I've observed at least) is much more uniform than most other places.
carrow
+8
Level 51
Nov 3, 2020
Nobody in Australia considers local government boundaries to be representative of their "city;" many wouldn't even know what their LGA is. My passport says I was born in Stirling, but I'm from Perth really.
JohnK
+6
Level 69
May 24, 2021
Yeah "city proper" just isn't a thing in Australia. Different cities have different sized city governments - from entire city (Brisbane) to just downtown (Melbourne), to somewhere in between (Sydney, although it's changed through splits and amalgamations multiple times in my lifetime). Nobody cares. Very few services are provided at local government level in Australia. Rubbish collection, libraries, parks and planning approval, mainly, but they're provided at a similar level in all local government areas, so it doesn't matter which one you're in (mostly).
Mike9103
+2
Level 17
Feb 24, 2022
Those local government area populations are never listed in any official list of largest cities. We don't care about 'city proper' populations in Australia, only metro area populations.
EytanMelech
+8
Level 67
Apr 5, 2020
Alice Springs?
NINJAQKk
+10
Level 69
Apr 5, 2020
Not big enough, unfortunately.
Jeremy
+5
Level 75
Jun 8, 2020
Alice Springs is actually very small - less than 25,000 people in the urban area. It does make my quiz of the 100 biggest cities in Australia, though.
gerobach
+4
Level 76
Jul 7, 2020
Fair Dinkum
cpgatbyu
+2
Level 86
Oct 12, 2020
I failed miserably but would have failed even more miserably without Doctor Blake.
Jerry928
+3
Level 76
Oct 12, 2020
Nice quiz. One small point - ACT (Australian Capital Territory) is coloured blue as if it is a lake!
NINJAQKk
+5
Level 69
Oct 12, 2020
Whoops, didn't notice that. Should be fixed!
Xenobiologista
+4
Level 59
Oct 13, 2020
I'll never get over Australian city names. Ah, yes, I'm from Useless Loop.
prosteven
+6
Level 74
Nov 3, 2020
US and Canada have equally weird locations.

"I'm from Whynot" or "I'm from Dildo"

Also Apple's Headquarters address is - 1 Infinite loop,

Hugh2000
+3
Level 68
Oct 14, 2020
As an Australian who lives in Wollongong, I know Central Coast is not a city. Its a region.
RealDad12
+2
Level 67
Nov 3, 2020
I answered Gosford. It was accepted.
Findlay
+4
Level 82
Oct 14, 2020
As an Australian I've been to 11 of these, but not all 8 in my home state of Queensland. Cairns is just too far away - in the US it'd be a few states away and in Europe a few countries.
plattitude
+6
Level 94
Oct 15, 2020
I had in my head that Brisbane-Cairns was about as far as San Diego-Redding, so it could be done in California. Turns out it's closer to the distance between San Diego and Portland OR.
carrow
+4
Level 51
Nov 3, 2020
A widespread notion a lot of Australians in Melbourne and Sydney have is that Brisbane is far up north. It's actually about bang on the middle point.
mf3
+3
Level 88
Nov 2, 2020
It's worth heading up there to get to the Daintree.
Findlay
+4
Level 82
Oct 6, 2021
Queensland is pretty massive - larger than Alaska (though still only Australia's second largest state). To put it in perspective in terms similar to those plattitude mentioned, Tijuana, Mexico to Vancouver, Canada as the crow flies, is about 1930 km. Brisbane, Queensland to Mapoon, Queensland is 2,060 km. And if you want to go from the southernmost point to the northermost point of the state (again, as the crow flies), you'll be going over 2,400 km.

At any rate, my prospects of getting to Cairns anytime soon have decreased as I am now living in Hobart, Tasmania, considerably farther away (something like 3,000 km now).

mf3
+3
Level 88
Nov 1, 2020
I was confused by your map which shows Albury being in Victoria. It isn't. It's entirely in NSW, north of the Murray.
NINJAQKk
+3
Level 69
Nov 1, 2020
I slightly adjusted most of the dots (including Albury), so hopefully, they are now at more accurate locations.
cornflakesfu
+6
Level 87
Nov 1, 2020
"Townsville" sounds like it should be the name of the setting in a children's cartoon show.
mf3
+2
Level 88
Nov 2, 2020
And you'd think, a bit further north, that "Cooktown" would be a place to find great restaurants. But no.
vermiciousknid
+5
Level 89
Nov 3, 2020
"The city of Townsville" is the setting for the Powerpuff Girls cartoon.
ECon211
+5
Level 89
Nov 2, 2020
Albury should be listed as Albury-Wodonga. I know the source lists Albury as the main settlement, but they are 'twin cities' and that population of 94,837 is about a 60/40 split.
mf3
+4
Level 88
Jan 18, 2021
Actually -- and this is hilarious -- since the coronavirus has practically stopped interstate travel, there's a viral ad on YouTube pretending to show Australia in 2031 with walls between all the states. There's a shot of the town sign for Albury with Wodonga (Vic) sawed off. (In YouTube, search for "Make Lamb Not Walls")
Geopro
+2
Level 60
May 20, 2021
That add is hilarious along with ones for the other years!
UG332
+3
Level 69
Nov 3, 2020
It's simple, I see a Ninja quiz and I take it
MaxStickies
+1
Level 79
May 15, 2022
Was it a twelve foot ninja?
Akula
+5
Level 78
Nov 3, 2020
Bonnie Doon doesn't make the list?
NINJAQKk
+3
Level 69
Nov 3, 2020
It appears that Bonnie Doon has less than 1,000 residents. Doesn't even make it in the source I used!
blizzrd33
+4
Level 80
Aug 15, 2021
I assume the comment was light-hearted and a popular culture reference from an Australian film called The Castle. It kind of put Bonnie Doon on the map, so to speak.
RealDad12
+2
Level 67
Nov 3, 2020
100%. Woohoo! Being Australian helps, I guess.
dogmeat
+3
Level 68
Nov 4, 2020
22/23. Not an Aussie. Never even heard of Bunbury. Sounds like it was named by Beatrix Potter
EcceHomo
+2
Level 82
Nov 6, 2020
It is in fact a made-up character in The Importance of Being Earnest by a certain Irish playwright.
JonOfKent
+3
Level 57
Nov 5, 2020
I always think, if you can't get them all, getting the least-guessed one is a nice consolation prize. But in this case I didn't. Not even close.
TheGeographyMan
+2
Level 35
Dec 13, 2020
Come on guys Bunbury isn't that hard to remember. Suppose I am an Aussie.
Stopperman
+2
Level 61
Dec 14, 2020
im australian and i still forgot toowoomba
JohnK
+4
Level 69
May 24, 2021
Spare a thought for those of us who live in the 25th largest city, and get a "Top 24" quiz ;-)

We're coming for you, Bunbury!

MaxStickies
+1
Level 79
May 15, 2022
What's the grey dot represent?
JetNerd
+1
Level 35
Apr 29, 2024
Central Coast. It is relatively disputed as a city and a region but the source tends to list it as a group of cities that are close together. It is not a type in but still on the test so that people know that it is recognized.
hasanabdi
+1
Level 69
Jun 3, 2022
lol newcastle in new south wales both taken from uk. not complaining
Andrewtr
+2
Level 45
Oct 13, 2023
Moreton Bay is a city now, so you should update that!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Moreton_Bay

Noivern
+2
Level 61
Oct 15, 2024
bunbury on the list 🥳
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