The Lost World of Aboriginal Sydney Harbour
When the First Fleet of a British convicts and sailors landed in Sydney Cove in 1788 they had in fact discovered what many would later agree was the world’s most spectacular harbour.
The leader of this expedition, Arthur Phillip, described it thus:
We got into Port Jackson early in the Afternoon, and had the satisfaction of finding the finest Harbour in the World, in which a thousand Sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security…I fixed on the one [cove] that had the best spring of Water, and in which the Ships can Anchor so close to the Shore”
— Governor Arthur Phillip, 15 May 1788.
At the time of the European arrival and colonisation, the land around Port Jackson was inhabited by the Eora clans, including the Gadigal, Cammeraygal, and Wangal. The Gadigal inhabited the land stretching along the south side of Port Jackson from what is now South Head, in an arc west to the present Darling Harbour. The Cammeraygal lived on the northern side of the harbour. The area along the southern banks of the Parramatta River to Rose Hill belonged to the Wangal. The Eora inhabited Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) south to the Georges River and west to Parramatta.
Little trace of Sydney Harbour’s Aboriginal tribes remains today although the natural environment on which they survived – its plant and sea life – still lines the fore shores of this harbour, particularly in the areas where national parks or reserves have been subsequently established.
A painting by convict artist , Joseph Lycett , created in 1817- nearly 30 years after the arrival of the First Fleet shows Aborigines fishing on the rocks where the Sydney Opera House now stands . The Aborigines farmed the sea in a highly sustainable and ingenious way rotating the harvesting of seatood according to the seasons and the most recent catch Much of the spectacular cliff face seen in Joseph Lycett’s painting was subsequently demolished and used for building materials.
The trunks of mighty Moreton Bay fig trees which dot the harbour foreshore were used by the Aborigines to create dug out canoes and cliff faces underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge used to mine ocre for body paint used as identification marks and in special ceremonies and rituals.
Aboriginal women would go to nearby Hyde Park to give birth and young boys would go Walkabout across vast tracks of land from the seashore all the way to the Blue Mountains honing their bushcraft and hunting skills required for survival. They would also visit and stay with their many mothers in neighbouring clans who were all part of the tribe . Their ancestral lands were determined by natural borders such as rivers and mountains.
Destination: Australia
