Pleasures of the Past

Sydney was first settled by Europeans over 220 years ago, and hides a wealth of historic buildings, cobbled streets and statues to remind you of its turbulent past. Follow the colonial trail and you’re in for a treat: not just a history lesson, but lots of fun.

The oldest part of Sydney – and the oldest urban settlement in Australia – lies under the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Convicts from the First Fleet carrying British settlers to the new continent first landed at The Rocks in 1799, so named because of an outcrop of sandstone that later provided building material for the new town. In the earliest days, The Rocks was the heart of commerce, trade and shipping and known for its rough working-class taverns. Later, the middle classes began building imposing townhouses on higher land above The Rocks, many of which can still be seen around Cumberland Street and Argyle Place. 

From here, residents could descend the still-useful Argyle Steps to catch the public ferry across the harbour. On Sundays they attended the Garrison Church, the place of worship for the Fiftieth Queen’s Own Regiment, whose regimental insignias and flags can still be admired in the interior. Convict labour was used to build much of this area: you can see some of their marks on the granite of Argyle Cut.

From the 1980s onwards, many of the dilapidated Georgian and Victorian houses of The Rocks were renovated and converted into restaurants, pubs, galleries and shops, making this area one of the liveliest in Sydney to visit, especially at weekends when street entertainment and other performances amuse the crowds. The weekend street market specialises in handicrafts, historic photographs, Aboriginal art, homewares and souvenirs. After work or in the evenings locals head here to some of Australia’s oldest pubs whose fanciful names – Lord Nelson, Fortune of War, Phillip’s Foote – harken back to the city’s colonial beginnings.

You can learn more about colonial Sydney at the Visitor’s Centre in The Rocks, where exhibitions explain its history. Nearby is Cadman’s Cottage, Sydney’s oldest remaining dwelling, dating from 1815. The tiny, whitewashed building was once right on the edge of the water, but is now a little back from it thanks to land reclamation. Outside the cottage stands a statue of Captain Bligh with folded arms, scowling as if about to string up the Bounty mutineers.

Follow the shoreline and you’ll find yourself at busy Circular Quay, the departure point for harbour ferries. Behind the quay stands lofty Customs House, begun in the 1840s and now housing Customs House Library and a fashionable restaurant and bar. Above the entrance is a sculpted coat-of-arms sporting the British lion and unicorn.

On the other side of Circular Quay stands the Sydney Opera House. The road leading into the city centre from here, Macquarie Street, was developed in 1810 under Governor Macquarie who was determined to create an elegant thoroughfare suitable to the burgeoning new city. Today, Macquarie Street is still lined with some of the city’s most historic buildings. The imposing State Library – presided over by a monument to Shakespeare – stands beside the State Parliament, a homely-looking affair with verandas that is the world’s oldest continuously used parliament building. 

Not quite as attractive is the Conservatory of Music, formerly the governor’s stables, a bizarre Gothic-style fortress painted an ugly salmon pink. Further in the direction of the city, The Mint is a simple building with a wide veranda in the colonial style picked out in mustard yellow; it was built in 1816 and housed the first branch of the Royal Mint to be opened outside London. 

Next door, Hyde Park Barracks have a classic Georgian facade topped by an early colonial clock that still requires winding by hand. The barracks were built to house convicts assigned to government duties and now contain a very interesting convict museum: you can even still see the dormitory, hung with hammocks, where the convicts slept.

Buildings apart, Macquarie Street is noted for its many colonial statues. At the edge of the Royal Botanic Gardens stands a regal monument to Governor Phillip, who arrived with the First Fleet in 1788. Phillip stands in bronze clutching a royal parchment and flag and presiding over allegorical figures representing the virtues of colonial Britain, such as Commerce, Education, Patriotism and Justice. The street is dotted with other figures ranging from Queen Victoria and husband Prince Albert to the explorer Matthew Flinders, first to circumnavigate Australia.

A final corner of downtown colonial Sydney lies at the corners of Park Street and George Street, although the historic ambience has been completely lost in the forest of looming skyscrapers and cacophony of traffic. Here you’ll find the Anglican cathedral of St Andrew’s and the adjacent Town Hall, an ornate Victorian building covered in elegant cornices, statues and flourishes. 

But the grande dame of Sydney’s colonial scene is the nearby Queen Victoria Building, a huge Victorian-era pleasure palace featuring stained-glass windows, mosaic floors and wood panelling. Still a shopping mall, it must be one of the most beautiful places to shop anywhere in the world. No wonder the seated statue of the British monarch herself at the entrance to the building seems so pleased. Queen Victoria would be delighted, no doubt, not just at her building, but at the progress of Sydney, started so inauspiciously on a harbour-side rock all those years ago.