Risks that manifest themselves as sudden events are generally within the institutional coping ability of modern cities.  They are also fodder for media and politicians as disasters are typically high profile political events.  Sydney has its professional career emergency services, and large volunteer organizations, connected to the sort of facilities expected in a major city in the industrialised world.  There is vulnerability, but there is also immense resilience through crisis and recovery management. 

However, not all risks are like this; and it is doubtful that the institutional capacity or political will exists to manage the more slowly evolving threats like environmental degradation and crime - or the psycho-social and media crises that emerge occasionally and whose impact is out of all proportion to their direct economic or health affects.  Less visible risks such as the threats to security now purportedly posed by terrorism dramatise these difficulties.  They may also signal a change in risk governance away from shared responsibility and power.  Whatever the rhetoric, responsibility for most risks has been shared between government and the people.  Government agencies have helped with risk identification, disaster management and recovery.  The broader Australian community and commerce have helped as well.  Those at risk have nevertheless borne most of the risk - although they have often been compensated financially especially when it is seen as politically advantageous to do so.  To a large extent these risks are the outcome of the tension between the interests of economic development and those trying to manage development for environmental and community reasons.  The security paradigm may introduce new tensions. 

 This paper examines the evolution of risk and its governance in Australian cities - with the focus on Sydney.  It considers the construction of risk and security and the roles played by different groups in defining these concepts, in constraining the choice of mitigation strategies and allocating responsibility and power.