Editing Sydney (section)

=== Convict town (1788–1840) ===
[[File:The Founding of Australia. By Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, Jan. 26th 1788.jpg|thumb|''The Founding of Australia, 26 January 1788, by Captain [[Arthur Phillip]] R.N., Sydney Cove.'' Painting by [[Algernon Talmage]].]] [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]] had been sending convicts to its American colonies for most of the eighteenth century, and the loss of these colonies in 1783 was the impetus to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay. Proponents of colonisation also pointed to the strategic importance of a new base in the Asia-Pacific region and its potential to provide much-needed timber and flax for the navy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Macintyre |first=Stuart |title=A concise history of Australia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2020 |isbn=9781108728485 |edition=5th |location=Port Melbourne |pages=34–35}}</ref>

The [[First Fleet]] of 11 ships under the command of Captain [[Arthur Phillip]] arrived in Botany Bay in January 1788. It comprised more than a thousand settlers, including 736 convicts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karskens |first=Grace |title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 1, Indigenous and Colonial Australia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9781107011533 |editor-last=Bashford |editor-first=Alison |location=Cambridge |pages=91 |chapter=The early colonial presence, 1788-1822 |editor-last2=MacIntyre |editor-first2=Stuart}}</ref> The fleet soon moved to the more suitable [[Port Jackson]] where a settlement was established at [[Sydney Cove]] on 26 January 1788.<ref>Peter Hill (2008) pp.141–50</ref> The colony of New South Wales was formally proclaimed by Governor Phillip on 7 February 1788. Sydney Cove offered a fresh water supply and a safe harbour, which Philip described as "the finest Harbour in the World ... Here a Thousand Sail of the Line may ride in the most perfect Security".<ref>{{cite web |date=9 October 2009 |title=SL/nsw.gov.au |url=http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/terra_australis/letters/phillip/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130203035645/http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/terra_australis/letters/phillip/index.html |archive-date=3 February 2013 |access-date=14 July 2011 |publisher=SL/nsw.gov.au}}</ref>

The settlement was planned to be a self-sufficient penal colony based on subsistence agriculture. Trade and shipbuilding were banned in order to keep the convicts isolated. However, the soil around the settlement proved poor and the first crops failed, leading to several years of hunger and strict rationing. The food crisis was relieved with the arrival of the [[Second Fleet (Australia)|Second Fleet]] in mid-1790 and the [[Third Fleet (Australia)|Third Fleet]] in 1791.<ref>Macintyre (2020). pp.34–37</ref> Former convicts received small grants of land, and government and private farms spread to the more fertile lands around [[Parramatta]], [[Windsor, New South Wales|Windsor]] and [[Camden, New South Wales|Camden]] on the [[Cumberland Plain]]. By 1804, the colony was self-sufficient in food.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karskens |first=Grace |title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I, Indigenous and colonial Australia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9781107011533 |editor-last=Bashford |editor-first=Alison |location=Cambridge |pages=90–114 |chapter=The early colonial presence, 1788-1822 |editor-last2=MacIntyre |editor-first2=Stuart}}</ref>

A smallpox epidemic in April 1789 killed about half the region's Indigenous population.<ref name="Aboriginal people and place23"/><ref>{{cite web |last=Mear |first=Craig |date=2008 |title=The origin of the smallpox outbreak in Sydney in 1789 |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-180278188.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831054140/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-180278188.html |archive-date=31 August 2011 |access-date=5 July 2014 |publisher=Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society}}</ref> In November 1790 [[Bennelong]] led a group of survivors of the Sydney clans into the settlement, establishing a continuous presence of Aboriginal Australians in settled Sydney.<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). "The early colonial presence, 1788–1822". In ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 1.'' pp. 106, 117–19</ref>

Phillip had been given no instructions for urban development, but in July 1788 submitted a plan for the new town at [[Sydney Cove]]. It included a wide central avenue, a permanent Government House, law courts, hospital and other public buildings, but no provision for warehouses, shops, or other commercial buildings. Phillip promptly ignored his own plan, and unplanned development became a feature of Sydney's topography.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karskens |first=Grace |title=The Colony, a history of early Sydney |publisher=Allen and Unwin |year=2009 |isbn=9781741756371 |location=Crows Nest, NSW |pages=71–75}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=McGillick |first1=Paul |title=Sydney architecture |last2=Bingham-Hall |first2=Patrick |year=2005 |page=14 to 15}}</ref>[[File:View of Sydney Cove - Thomas Watling.jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Watling]]'s ''View of Sydney Cove'', {{Circa|1794}}–1796]]After Phillip's departure in December 1792, the colony's military officers began acquiring land and importing consumer goods from visiting ships. Former convicts engaged in trade and opened small businesses. Soldiers and former convicts built houses on Crown land, with or without official permission, in what was now commonly called Sydney town. Governor [[William Bligh]] (1806{{En dash}}08) imposed restrictions on commerce and ordered the demolition of buildings erected on Crown land, including some owned by past and serving military officers. The resulting conflict culminated in the [[Rum Rebellion]] of 1808, in which Bligh was deposed by the [[New South Wales Corps]].<ref>Karskens (2009). pp. 185–188</ref><ref>{{cite Q |Q5273962 |chapter=Bligh, William (1754–1817) |mode=cs1}}</ref>

Governor [[Lachlan Macquarie]] (1810{{En dash}}1821) played a leading role in the development of Sydney and New South Wales, establishing a bank, a currency and a hospital. He employed a planner to design the street layout of Sydney and commissioned the construction of roads, wharves, churches, and public buildings. [[Parramatta Road]], linking Sydney and Parramatta, was opened in 1811,<ref name="broomham3">{{Citation |author1=Broomham, Rosemary |title=Vital connections: a history of NSW roads from 1788 |date=2001 |page=25 |publisher=Hale & Iremonger in association with the [[Roads & Traffic Authority]] |isbn=978-0-86806-703-2}}</ref> and a road across the [[Blue Mountains (New South Wales)|Blue Mountains]] was completed in 1815, opening the way for large-scale farming and grazing west of the [[Great Dividing Range]].<ref name="Kingston-2006">{{Cite book |last=Kingston |first=Beverley |title=A History of New South Wales |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780521833844 |location=Cambridge |pages=118–19}}</ref><ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). pp. 115–17</ref>

Following the departure of Macquarie, official policy encouraged the emigration of free British settlers to New South Wales. Immigration to the colony increased from 900 free settlers in 1826–30 to 29,000 in 1836–40, many of whom settled in Sydney.<ref>Haines, Robin, and Ralph Shlomowitz. "Nineteenth century government-assisted and total immigration from the United Kingdom to Australia: quinquennial estimates by colony." ''Journal of the Australian Population Association'', vol. 8, no. 1, 1991, pp. 50–61. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/41110599. Accessed 20 July 2021.</ref><ref name="Fitzgerald-2011">{{Cite web |last=Fitzgerald |first=Shirley |date=2011 |title=Sydney |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/sydney#ref-uuid=77be765d-0fa6-addb-7d2d-99c79ef76ff3 |access-date=30 July 2022 |website=Dictionary of Sydney, State Library of New South Wales |archive-date=24 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924202005/https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/sydney#ref-uuid=77be765d-0fa6-addb-7d2d-99c79ef76ff3 |url-status=live }}</ref> By the 1840s Sydney exhibited a geographic divide between poor and working-class residents living west of the [[Tank Stream]] in areas such as [[The Rocks, New South Wales|The Rocks]], and the more affluent residents living to its east.<ref name="Fitzgerald-2011"/> Free settlers, free-born residents and former convicts now represented the vast majority of the population of Sydney, leading to increasing public agitation for responsible government and an end to transportation. Transportation to New South Wales ceased in 1840.<ref name="Sydney-2020b">{{Cite web |date=September 2020 |title=History of City of Sydney council |url=https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/history/history-city-sydney-council |access-date=30 July 2020 |website=City of Sydney |archive-date=18 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230718070716/https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/history/history-city-sydney-council |url-status=live }}</ref>[[File:Castle Hill Rebellion (1804).jpg|thumb|The [[Castle Hill convict rebellion]] of 1804]]

==== Conflict on the Cumberland Plain ====
In 1804, Irish convicts led around 300 rebels in the [[Castle Hill convict rebellion|Castle Hill Rebellion]], an attempt to march on Sydney, commandeer a ship, and sail to freedom.<ref>Karskens (2009). pp. 29–297</ref> Poorly armed, and with their leader Philip Cunningham captured, the main body of insurgents were routed by about 100 troops and volunteers at [[Rouse Hill, New South Wales|Rouse Hill]]. At least 39 convicts were killed in the uprising and subsequent executions.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 June 2021 |title=Castle Hill Rebellion |url=https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/castle-hill-rebellion |access-date=31 August 2021 |website=nma.gov.au |language=en-US |archive-date=10 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810081550/https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/castle-hill-rebellion |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="whitaker22">{{cite web |author=Whitaker, Anne-Maree |year=2009 |title=Castle Hill convict rebellion 1804 |url=http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/castle_hill_convict_rebellion_1804 |access-date=3 January 2017 |work=[[Dictionary of Sydney]] |archive-date=4 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304231534/https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/castle_hill_convict_rebellion_1804 |url-status=live }}</ref>

As the colony spread to the more fertile lands around the [[Hawkesbury River]], north-west of Sydney, conflict between the settlers and the [[Darug]] people intensified, reaching a peak from 1794 to 1810. Bands of Darug people, led by [[Pemulwuy]] and later by his son [[Tedbury]], burned crops, killed livestock and raided settler stores in a pattern of resistance that was to be repeated as the [[Australian frontier wars|colonial frontier expanded]]. A military garrison was established on the Hawkesbury in 1795. The death toll from 1794 to 1800 was 26 settlers and up to 200 Darug.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). p. 66</ref><ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 25–26</ref>

Conflict again erupted from 1814 to 1816 with the expansion of the colony into Dharawal country in the Nepean region south-west of Sydney. Following the deaths of several settlers, Governor Macquarie dispatched three military detachments into Dharawal lands, culminating in the [[Appin Massacre|Appin massacre]] (April 1816) in which at least 14 Aboriginal people were killed.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). p. 70</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Banivanua Mar |first1=Tracey |title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I |last2=Edmonds |first2=Penelope |year=2013 |pages=344 |chapter=Indigenous and settler relations}}</ref>