Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Early Colony
The colony's beginnings were rugged
and hungry, imbued with a spirit that
would give Sydney its unique character.
Convicts were put to work establishing
roads and constructing buildings out of
mud, reeds, unseasoned wood and mortar
made from a crushed shell mixture. From these simple
beginnings, a town grew. Officers of the New South
Wales Corps became farmers, encouraged to work their
land alongside convict labour. Because the soldiers paid
for work and goods in rum, they soon became known as
the Rum Corps, in 1808 overthrowing Governor Bligh
(of
Bounty
fame) when he threatened their privileges.
By the early 1800s farms were producing crops, with
supplies arriving more regularly - as
were convicts and settlers with more
appropriate skills and trades.
Hat made from
cabbage palm
GROWTH OF THE CITY
Today
1810
Boat building at
the Government
dockyard
Pitts Row
First Fleet Ship
(c.1787)
This painting by Francis Holman shows
three angles of the
Borrowdale
, one of
the fleet's three commercial storeships.
Government
House
Scrimshaw
Engraving
bone or shell
was a skilful
way to pass
time during
long months
spent at sea.
A VIEW OF SYDNEY COVE
This idyllic image, drawn by Edward Dayes and
engraved by F Jukes in 1804, shows the Aboriginal
peoples living peacefully within the infant colony
alongside the flourishing maritime and agricultural
industries. In fact, they had been entirely ostracized
from the life and prosperity of the town by this time.
TIMELINE
1788
First white child born in the
colony - and the first man hanged
1796
The Revenge
opens Sydney's first,
but short-lived,
playhouse, simply
named The Theatre
1787
The First Fleet
leaves Portsmouth,
bound for Botany Bay
Barrington, the convict and
thespian star of
The Revenge
1785
1790
1795
1789
The Aboriginal
Bennelong is held
captive and ordered
to act as an inter-
mediary between the
whites and blacks
Bennelong
pictured in
European
finery
1790
First detachment of
the New South Wales
Corps arrives in the colony.
Fears of starvation are less-
ened with the arrival of the
supply ship
Lady Juliana
1793
Arrival of the
first free settlers
1797
Merino sheep arrive
from Cape of Good Hope
