On 26 January 1788, a group of 11 ships sailed into the sheltered waters of Sydney Cove, and the destiny of Australia was changed forever. This was the (in)famous First Fleet, and its aim was to establish a new penal colony for Great Britain after the recent American War of Independence had cut off their previously preferred destination for transported convicts. As well as sailors, marines, officers, and their families, the vessels were carrying more than 700 prisoners: men and women who had originally been condemned to hang for their crimes, but whose sentences had instead been commuted to years of labour on the other side of the world.
Once ashore, the convicts were set to (literally) carving out their new home from a sandstone headland located away from where the new government buildings and military settlement were to be established. Lines of flimsy huts and tents soon clustered along narrow tracks (called ‘laneways’) that snaked up and over the steep ground. As more waves of convicts arrived, the settlement swiftly expanded, and within a decade it had wider roads and more established houses, as well as shops, pubs, and other businesses. By the 1830s, Sydney had developed into a bustling port town, whose population was swelled further by the arrival of merchants and free settlers from such diverse embarcation points as Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Scandinavia, North America, Māori New Zealand, and China.
Above & below: Today, The Rocks is a popular tourist area full of artisan shops and boutique restaurants, but the district began as a late 18th-century settlement for transported convicts. Images: Kay Adams CC BY 2.0/Emma Thomas
The new colony had not been founded on empty land, however. When Captain Cook had claimed New South Wales for the Crown in 1770, he argued that the territory did not legally belong to anyone (a concept later called terra nullius), despite having encountered many First Nations people during his travels. Sydney Cove, too, had been the home of an established community for thousands of years. These were the traditional lands of the Gadigal (also spelled Cadigal) people, one of 29 coastal clans belonging to the Eora Nation, and to them the bay (which they called Warrane) was the location of many culturally significant hunting, fishing, and camping sites. The headland where the convicts had settled was known as Tallawoladah; to the newcomers, however, the exposed outcrop was simply ‘The Rocks’, a name that the district has retained to this day.
Revisiting research and challenging conclusions