Background - History

Australia can seem to be a long way from anywhere in particular. This isolation made it the last great landmass to be 'discovered' by Europeans. But before Sydney Harbour was the first place sailors stayed, indigenous people inhabited the continent for more than 50,000 years, the world's longest continuous cultural history. 

Aboriginal Origins

When the Bristish first sailed into Warran (the Aboriginal name for Sydney Harbour) there were an estimated 3,000 aborigines living in the area, and around one million across the continent. The Sydney region is the ancestral home of the Eora people ( the Ku-ring-gai, Birrabirragal and Cadi tribes) who possessed an intimate understanding of environmental sustainability, spoke three distinct languages and maintained sophisticated sacred and artistic cultures.

Under colonial rule, aborigines were stripped of legal rights to their land. In a typically pattern of European colonisation, they were  systematically incarcerated, killed or driven away by force; many more succumbed to European diseases. 

A legacy of 2000 Aboriginal rock engarvings exists in the Sydney area, and many Sydney suburbs have aboriginal names. 

European Settlement

Portuguese navigators first came into australia in the 16th century, followed by Dutch explorers and the enterprising Englishmean William Dampier. British hunger for new world territory landed Captain James Cook on the east coast in 1770. Cook claimed the continent for England and named it NSW (new south wales). 

Sailing home, Joseph Banks (Cook's naturalist) suggested relieving Britain's overcrowded prisons by transporting convicts to the new colony. The British government sparked at the concept as fareway convicts were good convicts.

In 1787, the First Fleet set sails from Portsmouth with 759 convicts aboard. At the helm was Captain Arthur Phillip, designed to become first governor of NSW. He flirted with the name Albion but then decided to call the city Sydney for the British Home Secretary, Baron Sydney of Chislehurst, who was responsible for the colonies at that time.

Colonial expansion

In 1800, there were only three small settlements in the colony: Sydney, Cove Parramatta and on the Norfolk island, adrift in the Pacific 1500km east of Sydney. The continent's vast interior waslargely unknown. Over the next 40 years, Sydney town grew steadily, with convict transportation continuinguntil 1840. Free settlers arrived too, but things did not boom until the 1850's gold rush, which boomed the economy. Sydney's population doubled in a decade. 

The 20th Century

On 1 January 1901, NSW becamea state of the new Australian nation. Through world war one and the great depression, Australia remained economically tied to Britain, but after the US defended Australia from the Japanese in WWII, a fraternal shift towards America occured. 

Postwar immigrants from the UK, Ireland and the Mediterranean brought spirit and prosperity to Australia in the 1950's and 1960's and Sydney urban area spread very much. 

The face of Sydney changed again during the Vienam war, when American GIs swarmed to the city on 'Rest and recreation'. Kings cross was the point of meeting. 

The bullish world economy of the 1980's was represented by skyscrapers. 

Sydney Today

Sydney is an expansive metropolis of more than four million citizens. Its streets buzz with business  conducted in dozens of accents and tongues. Hosting the 2000  Olympic games push Sydney into the global limelight, and the City was not shy about stepping onto the stage. 

But some racial tensions still remain as the violence on Sydney's southern beaches in late 2005 showed.