Sydney - Australia
General | History | Eating Out | Resort Facts | Travel Planning | Photo Gallery
Captain James Cook is credited with claiming Australia for the British in a four month cruise along the uncharted east coast of what he called New Wales.
The place was almost forgotten for eighteen years, until a growing concern about overcrowded English gaols following American independence led to the founding of a colony in New South Wales.
Captain Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet landed at Port Jackson on 26 January 1788, describing it as, "a noble and capacious harbour, equal if not superior to any known in the world." The date is now celebrated annually as Australia Day. On board were 1500 people; half of them convicts, the remainder soldiers and free settlers - only about 400 of them women, which caused no end of problems for the new colony.
The British flag was unfurled at Sydney Cove (now Circular Quay), the birthplace of the nation. It was named after Viscount Sydney, British Secretary of State, who commissioned the voyage.
Much of the work of establishing the colony fell to the First Fleet convicts. The Rocks is where the young colony took root and ensuing waves of convicts, whalers, sailors, traders and developers have left their mark.
By the early 1800s Sydney had become a busy trading post and an established, prosperous farming sector. A second settlement was established on the river west of Sydney and the new township of Parramatta attracted increasing numbers of settlers.
Of course, Aboriginal people had inhabited Australia for tens of thousands of years. When the British arrived there were many tribal groups throughout New South Wales and five tribes in the Sydney metropolitan area alone. For indigenous Australians the founding of the modern Australian nation led to disruption of their traditional way of life, to death, disease and dispossession.
In 1814, cartographer Matthew Flinders, who had circumnavigated the continent, proposed the name Australia. Exploration of Australia continued apace, and development was boosted in the 1850s by a series of gold rushes.
When Europeans arrived in 1788, what is now the Olympic site at Homebush Bay consisted of extensive tidal wetlands. First known as ‘The Flats’, the area was recorded within 10 days of the arrival of the First Fleet. Its history includes use for salt making, horse and cattle production, the Home Bush Racecourse, an armaments depot, the State abattoir and the State brick-works. Much of the wetlands were reclaimed through use as a garbage dump for much of Sydney’s household and industrial waste in the 1960s and 70s.
Museum of Sydney:
37 Phillip Street
Sydney
Telephone: 61 2 9251 5988
E-mail: info@mos.nsw.gov.au
General | History | Eating Out | Resort Facts | Travel Planning | Photo Gallery
Call us on 0845 299 4450 for further details
|
