Mine's been showing Ottawa since the beginning, according to the GCMS notes.
Apologies, I am never quite able to understand these things. Isn't CIO-Sydney supposed to first receive and handle the R10, MEP, Criminality stage of all applications? Which would mean that at some point, applications are then moved to a CPC or VO. For some lucky people, the application seems to stay in CIO-S throughout or at least have the Eligibility stage assessed there before it moves elsewhere (these are the fastest applications, I think).
And from this link here, it seems that CPC-Ottawa
should be considered the default "local visa office" for ALL inland applications as no other CPC seems to process inlanders as per this description. Further, according to the link, CPC-O should not be processing ANY outland applications. Clearly, neither of my assumptions are true. As well, the link does not even mention the existence of other VOs like Montreal, Etobicoke, Vancouver, etc.
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/contact-ircc/offices.html
Sigh. I really don't get the basis on which they choose to move applications around.