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Pre European Arrival
There were more than 19 Aboriginal clans in the Sydney basin area prior to European settlement. The Rocks is part of the country of the traditional owners, the Cadigal, who in turn are part of the Darug Nation or language group. Their country stretches from Sydney to South Head and to Petersham in Sydney's inner west.
Local Aboriginal people used the harbour for food and also for transport up the Parramatta River. Campsites were located along the shore, particularly during warmer months when fish and shellfish were the primary part of the local diet.
Archaeological excavations on Cumberland Street in The Rocks and near the Harbour Bridge revealed a campfire dated to the 1400s with evidence of a meal of snapper and rock oysters. It's believed that large flat stones found at Dawes Point on the harbour foreshore in The Rocks were used for roasting whole fish.
Fish, mussels, oysters and cockles were plentiful and the Cadigal people supplemented their diet with native vegetables and animals such as wombat, kangaroo and possum. Native plants and trees such as the Kurrajong and local hibiscus varieties were used to make fishing line and spears (tipped with bone).
A fresh water creek running from swamplands, where Hyde Park in Sydney's central business district stands today, entered the harbour at Sydney Cove. It was a primary source of fresh water for local people and became known as the Tank Stream by European settlers. The swamplands were an area for hunting waterfowl and large marsupials such as kangaroos and wallabies.
England's King George III had farewelled the First Fleet with firm instructions to learn about the Indigenous people. He wrote: "You are to endeavour by every possible means to open an intercourse with the Natives, and to conciliate their affections... [you are also to] maintain friendly relations with the natives if possible and transmit to England such information of scientific interest as [you] might be able to gather." However, their ownership of land was not acknowledged or recognised.
Whist the Governor tried to bring about good relations, the arrival of the First Fleet and ailments such as smallpox, measles, colds and flu that came with it, were devastating to the local Aboriginal population. Within three years of settlement, half of the Cadigal population had died in what is believed to have been a smallpox epidemic.
An English officer, William Bradley, wrote in his diary: "From the great number of dead Natives found in every part of the Harbour, it appears that the smallpox had made dreadful havock among them." Another wrote: "It was truly shocking to go around the coves of this harbour...where in the caves of rocks were to be seen men, women and children, lying dead."
The Cadigal people survived the arrival of Europeans and their diseases. Archaeological evidence has shown that they were still continuing a semi-traditional lifestyle at least until the 1840s on the peninsula at Millers Point. Today, the descendants of the first Indigenous clan to live in close contact with the Europeans still reside in Sydney.
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