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Driven out of the center by soaring property prices, Sydneysiders are headed west.

Driven out of the center by soaring property prices, Sydneysiders are headed west.

Photographer: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images 

Green
Climate Adaptation

Sydney’s New Suburbs Are Too Hot for People to Live In

Climate change is making things worse as Australia’s biggest city expands.

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Out west of Sydney it gets hot. Really hot. Like 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) hot. Stand in a car park and the radiant heat from the tarmac can push the mercury to 80C—approaching the temperature of a slow cooker.

It’s these new suburbs that the government is banking on to accommodate almost half of the 1.8 million people who are expected to swell the city’s population over the next 20 years.