Abstract: Ecosystem services include the goods and services derived from the natural environment that benefit humans and contribute to the public good. Relative to services from other forms of capital, ecosystem services are often unaccounted for or undervalued due to their non-market and indirect nature and, therefore, have commonly been highly depleted. This degradation is of particular concern within urban ecosystems, as remaining in-city natural ecosystems, typically located along creeks and rivers, or remaining in scattered pockets throughout the city, offer some of the greatest value social and economic returns per capita for the land area they occupy. In this paper we arrange ecosystem services into three categories: Life-enabling, Life-sustaining and Life-fulfilling in a modification to the categories of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. We also identify some additional uniquely citycentric services. Local ecosystem services contribute to the well-being of urban residents and positively affect quality of life, forming an essential element of urban liveability. However, tension between the built and natural environment often challenges the capacity of ecosystems to function and provide their full suite of services. Focusing on Sydney as an example, we show how improved liveability outcomes can be achieved by protecting, improving or re-introducing these services in the local urban context. At a policy level, framing systems-based management objectives that protect, improve and re-discover desirable ecosystem services (as defined by community expectations and needs) will allow for positive, socially-enabling management targets to be defined for Australia's urban centres.