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Early Contact

Early Contact
Local Aboriginal people in bark canoes on Sydney Harbour, depicted by the Port Jackoson painter c1790 (image courtesy Thomas Watling Collection, Natural History Museum, London – 012643)

mubaya – speak an unknown language

yuridyuwa – sit near (to sit near anyone)

berewalgal – people from a distant place

Aboriginal people have always lived in Sydney. Following the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the British encountered Aboriginal people around the coves and bays of Port Jackson. The Aboriginal communities here were both generous and combative towards the colonisers. Many places around the harbour remained important hunting, fishing and camping grounds long after Europeans settlement, and continue to be culturally significant today.

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Archaeology, Essays, People, Places, War
  • Ricketty Dick

    Ricketty Dick

    Author: Laila Ellmoos Ricketty Dick (c1795-1863) was an Aboriginal man who lived in Sydney in the early to mid-19th century. He was also known as Warrah Warrah or William (Bill)…

  • Pemulwuy

    Pemulwuy

    Pemulwuy was a courageous resistance fighter who led a guerrilla war against the British settlement at Sydney Cove from 1788 through to 1802. Because of his resistance to the invaders,…

  • Cora Gooseberry

    Cora Gooseberry

    Cora Gooseberry was wife to King Bungaree and was an identity in Sydney for 20 years after his death. Her Aboriginal name was recorded as ‘Carra or Kaaroo’. She was known…

  • Bennelong

    Bennelong

    Bennelong (who also went by the names Wolarwaree, Ogultroyee and Vogeltroya) was from the Wangal people and is regarded as one of the most significant and notable Aboriginal people in…

  • Bungaree

    Bungaree

    Known for being able to straddle both black and white societies, Bungaree was from the Garigal clan at Broken Bay and moved to the Sydney area. He was a diplomat, mediating between…

  • Colebee

    Colebee

    Colebee (also known as Coleby) was a warrior of the Gadigal clan at Port Jackson when the British First Fleet arrived in 1788. The customs and lifestyle of the local Aboriginal…

  • Arabanoo

    Arabanoo

    Arabanoo (c1760-89) was the first of Governor Arthur Phillip’s protégés. Phillip’s plan was to learn the language and customs of the local people. He believed that if some of them…

  • Western science and Aboriginal people

    Western science and Aboriginal people

    Author: Steven Ross Imperialism has devastating effects on Indigenous peoples the world over, and science is often used to ‘prove’ western superiority over so-called ‘primitive’ Aboriginal groups. This justified the…

  • First Contact

    First Contact

    Author: Anita Heiss In 1770 Captain James Cook met few Aboriginal people on the Eastern Australian shoreline. Because they did not grow crops and because he assumed there were no…

  • Dawes Point / Tar-Ra

    Dawes Point / Tar-Ra

    Author: Paul Irish and Tamika Goward The Aboriginal name for the peninsula on the western side of Sydney Cove is Tar-Ra. It is also known as Dawes Point because it…

  • Sydney Cove / Warrane

    Sydney Cove / Warrane

    The Aboriginal name for Sydney Cove as recorded in a number of First Fleet journals, maps and vocabularies, was Warrane, also spelt as War-ran, Warrang and Wee-rong. This place is…

  • The Domain and Royal Botanic Gardens

    The Domain and Royal Botanic Gardens

    Author: Paul Irish The Governor’s Domain has been a public space since the earliest days of the Sydney colony, and continued to be used for many years by Aboriginal people.…

  • The site of First Government House

    The site of First Government House

    Author: Paul Irish and Tamika Goward Sydney’s first Government House overlooking Sydney Cove was built for Governor Arthur Phillip in 1789. The building and its grounds were an important place…

  • Hyde Park South

    Hyde Park South

    Until the mid-1820s, Aboriginal people travelled from all over Sydney, and as far away as the Hunter and the Illawarra, to gather at a ceremonial contest ground to the south…

  • Australian Museum

    Australian Museum

    The Australian Museum is Australia’s oldest natural history museum. It was established in 1827 when the British Colonial Office authorised a museum in NSW for the collection of ‘rare and…

  • Prince Alfred Park (Cleveland Paddocks)

    Prince Alfred Park (Cleveland Paddocks)

    Prince Alfred Park, earlier known as Cleveland Paddocks, was an Aboriginal camp site until the mid-19th century. Sydney’s Aboriginal people lived here, west of the city centre, until the coming…

  • Lake Northam

    Lake Northam

    Blackwattle Creek was once a tidal watercourse that extended from its marshy headwaters at Glebe towards the suburbs of Redfern and Waterloo to the south. Lake Northam within Victoria Park…

  • Bennelong Point / Dubbagullee

    Bennelong Point / Dubbagullee

    Bennelong Point / Dubbagullee, the peninsula on the eastern side of Sydney Cove, was the site of a brick hut built for Bennelong by Governor Arthur Phillip in 1790. Within…

  • Lilyvale Campsite

    Lilyvale Campsite

    Author: Paul Irish and Tamika Goward The Rocks area is mainly known as a place of early European history, but it was also used by Aboriginal people for many years…

  • Sheas Creek (Alexandra Canal) Alexandria

    Sheas Creek (Alexandra Canal) Alexandria

    Author: Paul Irish and Tamika Goward At Beaconsfield in the 1890s, workers on the Alexandra Canal began cutting through the sediments of Shea’s Creek and made some remarkable discoveries. The…

  • Tank Stream Sydney

    Tank Stream Sydney

    Author: Paul Irish and Tamika Goward Central Sydney is built in the Tank Stream valley. The Tank Stream now runs underneath the city, but its fresh water was one of…