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 26^th, 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 5^th, 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.