Sydney was the site of the first permanent settlement by Europeans in Australia following the arrival of a fleet of ships at Botany Bay in 1788, some 18 years after Captain James Cook had landed at the point and claimed the land for Britain as New South Wales.
On board these ships in 1788 were more than 700 convicts whose transportation was approved to ease the overcrowding of British prisons.
Captain Arthur Phillip decided that the first settlement would be best suited to the region which is now known as Sydney Harbour. He called the spot Sydney Cove after Viscount Sydney, the then Secretary of State in Great Britain.
The first 15 years or so were very difficult with the threat of starvation and disease threatening the settlement’s future, but the transportation of convicts to there continued for more than half a century.
During this time Sydney started to prosper and develop, something which was aided by the discovery of a passage through the Blue Mountains in 1813 and gold to the west of the city in 1851.
Sydney’s Centennial Park was the venue for the ceremony at which the Commonwealth of Australia was declared in 1901, an occasion that saw New South Wales become one of six Australian states and Sydney appointed its capital city.
Some of Australia’s most famous landmarks are found in Sydney with the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932, at which time it was the world’s largest arch bridge. The Sydney Opera House was built 41 years later at a cost of some $102 million.
Sydney is now Australia’s largest city with a population of some four million people, and its staging of the 2000 Olympic Games played a big part in its ongoing development and rejuvenation.