Page 78 - A History of the World in 25 Cities
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1836
For tens of thousands of years, the Eora people lived on the shores of a beautiful natural harbour in Australia. Their lives changed forever when people arrived from the other side of the world to start a prison colony in 1788. Within 100 years, the colony had become Australia’s first city – Sydney.
There were thousands of people living around the harbour when the British ships arrived in 1788. Those original inhabitants were part of the Eora Nation, which had 29 different clans, such as the Gadigal people, who lived on the south side of the harbour. Many of their descendants still live there today.
In the sandstone rock around Sydney are hundreds of pictures of fish, whales, animals and
people. These were made by members of the Eora Nation for thousands of years to record
their stories and beliefs, and to document the new arrivals.
Ships packed with goods for trade came to Sydney from China, India, America and Britain.
Despite the name, not all of the children sent to orphan schools were orphans. Here, boys were taught basic maths, reading and writing, and left when they were about 15 to become farm labourers or apprentices to tradesmen.
Many of Sydney’s roads were built on the walking tracks of the Eora people.
