Zoo debate highlights that Sydneysiders are not all the same species

They probably do care actually, quite a bit. But the ethics of keeping animals in zoos isn’t featuring in this nomenclatural fracas. This is about who gets to say they’re Sydney.

If your idea of Sydney is one where a house to live in sets you back, on average, $3.85 million, then it’s Mosman for you. Yet for about 80 per cent less, you can sit on your Blacktown verandah and still claim the title of Sydneysider.

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Need a job done? You’re five times more likely to find a labourer in Blacktown than Mosman.And if you love cosmopolitan chatter, you’re nearly two-and-a-half times more likely to hear a language other than English spoken in Blacktown, where over 56 per cent of residents’ parents were born overseas.

But if being connected is more important to you, you'll fit in better in Mosman, where rates of home internet access are nearly 7 per cent higher. Let’s not even talk about download speeds.

If you like the feeling of a pay packet roughly 46 per cent larger in your back pocket, then hello lower north shore. That bigger salary may be the consequence of your education - 48 per cent of locals have a university degree compared to 22 per cent in Blacktown. No sign of that changing soon with a freeze on funding for university enrolments.

That’s two pretty different Sydneys. Forget about different zoos, we’re talking about different species.

The Greater Sydney Commission, the Committee for Sydney and, yes, Sydney Trains too have led the charge of late to promote Sydney as a connected metropolis, not just a CBD. The commission have even defined Parramatta and Olympic Park as Sydney’s new centre. That’s fine. It’s a better reflection of the spatial and demographic reality. But let’s not think for a moment that a particular portrayal of Sydneysiders, or of Sydney for that matter, is relatable to all within the enclosure.

Andy Marks is assistant vice-chancellor at Western Sydney University.