History
of Sydney
A
The Sydney,
Australia that the world knows today was born out of a time preceding British
colonisation and the eventual formation of an independently governed
commonwealth. The area of Sydney was first settled by Australian Aborigines who
arrived from Indonesia by boat some 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. Since then the
region has been home to several Aboriginal tribes, most notably the Eora people
who inhabited Sydney’s coastal
area. The lands in and around Sydney were also
inhabited by the the Dharung, Keringgai, and Dharawal
peoples
B
British interest in
Australia didn’t begin until 1770, when Lieutenant James Cook sailed the HMS Endeavour along the east
coast of Australia, landing in what is now known as southern Sydney. He named it the inlet Botany Bay, so
impressed as he was with the abundance and variety of flora and fauna in the
new land. He continued north
along the east coast, claiming it in the name of King George III of Britain on
August 22 and calling it New South Wales.
C
It wasn’t until
some years later in 1788 that the first settlers arrived. The eleven vessels of the First Fleet, under the
command of Captain Arthur Phillip, brought over a thousand settlers to
establish a new
British colony in January of that year. Because the primary purpose of setting
up the colony was to relieve Britain’s overcrowded prisons. 788 of the newly arrived
settlers were convicts. This unique penal colony was established at Sydney Cove
on January 26th, the date
subsequently celebrated as Australia Day. But it wasn’t formally proclaimed by
Captain Phillip until February 7, 1788. The colony was originally named New
Albion, but eventually acquired the name Sydney, thought to be inspired by the
then British Home Secretary Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, who had authorised the
establishment of the colony.
D
Unlike the European explorers that clashed with indigenous peoples in
America, the British colonisers in Australia enjoyed a relatively peaceful and
civil relationship with the Aboriginal population thanks
to Captain Phillip’s remarkably enlightened policies regarding interaction
between settlers and the native people. That’s not to say, however, that
British colonisation didn’t negatively impact the Aboriginal people. Food shortages and disease brought from overseas
decimated the locals; a smallpox epidemic in 1789 wiped out 70 percent of the
Aboriginal population.
E
Life was also not
so easy for the colonists.
Diaries left behind by Captain Phillip and his officers tell of great hardships
during the first years of settlement. Early efforts at agriculture were not
productive, and supplies coming from overseas were few and far between. The
3,546 male and 766 female convicts that came to Sydney between 1788 and 1792 were
not much help in this regard, as their professional criminal backgrounds did
not translate into skills necessary for settling in a new land. In addition,
many of the new arrivals were sick or unfit for work, and even those who
arrived healthy soon became ill due to hard labour and poor diet. But from
1791, the more frequent arrival of ships and increases in trade improved
conditions for the colony, and a new settlement west of central Sydney in the
fertile Parramatta region became the main centre of the colony’s economic life.
F
Nonetheless,
conditions for the convicts that made up the majority of the colony’s
population continued to be harsh, and this led to the Castle Hill
Rebellion of 1804, the only major convict rebellion in Australia’s history. Around
233 convicts of mostly Irish descent—some of who had been involved in a 1798
rebellion in Ireland—escaped from a farm intending to capture ships and sail
back home. In response, the colonial authorities imposed martial law and
clashed with the convicts on a small
hillock nicknamed Vinegar Hill on March 5th,
1804. The rebellion was defeated and the rebel leaders executed.
G
The next major
conflict in the Australian colony occurred between the colonial government and
the New South Wales Corps, the local army popularly referred to as the “Rum
Corps.” The conflict broke out on January 26, 1808, 20 years exactly from the
date that Captain Arthur Phillip founded Sydney. The then Governor of New South
Wales, William Bligh, was deposed by the Rum Corps under the command of Major
George Johnston. Following the removal of Bligh, the colony was ruled by the
military until the arrival of Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1810.
H
Under Macquarie’s
governance, New South Wales
was transformed from a penal colony to a budding free
society. Public services, a bank, churches, and charitable institutions were
formed, and the economy flourished. Key to this growth was Macquarie’s inclusion of
emancipists—convicts sent to Australia from England who had been given partial
or absolute pardons—in all walks of public and civil life. Despite his
controversial policy of inclusion, Macquarie remained in control of the colony
until 1821. Soon after demands for democratic governance surfaced, and in 1843
the first parliamentary elections were held.
I
Another boost for Sydney resulted from a number of gold rushes in the
mid-19th century from a number of gold rushes,
beginning with the discovery of gold 150 kilometres west of Sydney.
Immigrants flocked to the region in the hopes of striking it rich, and this
increased population created demands for better infrastructure. The government
invested heavily in railways and port systems, as well as in buildings and
public services such as hospitals, government buildings, and educational
institutions. At the same time, gold discovered in Victoria drew some of
Sydney’s population away to Melbourne, creating a rivalry between the two
cities that lasts still to this day. But the real winner of the feud was
arguably Sydney, which became the capital of the Commonwealth of Australia on
January 1, 1901.