The Excitement City - Sydney [antikvár]

Top: This attractive shopping level in the MLC Centre is a study in subdued Jghting. The 68-storey building in Castlereagh Street reaches a height of 244 metres above Street level. Above: The llower stalls in Martin Place add a touch of colour to this popular pedestrian plaza. fii The City In 1770 when the English navigator James Cook discovered the eastern coast of Australia, named it New South Wales and annexed it for his monarch George III, the colonists in America were still swearmg allegiance to the British crown. It was their secession in 1776 which was the prime factor in the decision to establish a new British colony on the shores of New South Wales in the distant Antipodes. It was to be no ordinary settlement however, no Utópia or dreamy South Pacific paradise, but a penal outpost in which would be housed the inmates of British gaols. These had become embarrassingly overcrowded since the loss of the American colonies, which had served for many years as a convenient dumping ground. On 13 May 1787 the First Fleet sailed from Portsmouth, England. It was a motley convey of eleven tiny ships under the command of a thin, sharp-nosed captain of the Royal Navy, Arthur Phillip, and carried a complement of 1030 people of whom more than 700 were convins. The First Fleet's departure was unremarkable and its destination of little consequence to any but those aboard, but this ill-assorted group of convicts and their keepers were destined to be the founders of the first European settlement on Australian soil. After a tedious eight-month voyage the First Fleet dropped anchor in Botany Bay, which had been discovered by Cook in 1770. Before the departure from England this had seemed to be the most promising site to found the settlement, but Phillip was not impressed. The Bay was wind-swept, the foreshores were sandy and sterile, and there was insufficient fresh water. Phillip hastily set out to explore the coast further to the north. His aim was to examine Port Jackson which Cook had noted and named but, in his haste to proceed, had not explored. Phillip was relieved and delighted by the wide expanse of calm water he found hidden beyond the grim headlands flanking the Harbour's entrance. He selected a small cove on the southern shore with a fresh-water stream and deep anchorage as the place most suited to his purpose. This he named after Lord Sydney, who was at that time the Secretary of State for the Home Department and Phillip's superior. The Fleet arrivcd on 26 January 1788 and the settlement founded that day was the ancestor of the proud and beautiful city now resting along the Harbour foreshores. In spite of its grim nativity and the privations of its early years Sydney was a sturdy infant and refused to die but instead survived, grew and flourished. Today it is the capital of New South Wales and the largest city in Australia.