The dialogue of townscape: The rocks and Sydney, 1788–1820

Abstract

This paper explores the origins of Sydney from the perspective of the convict and ex‐convict majority by examining the townscape of the early Rocks where they appropriated land and built houses from the earliest years of white settlement. Instead of the orderly outpost of empire presented by governors, artists and map‐makers, or the gaol town or ‘gulag’ portrayed in some historiography, the Sydney the Rocks represented was built and occupied largely according to the tastes, priorities and inclinations of the people, with relatively little official interference. Early Sydney emerged through a constant dialogue between people and government, one that encompassed signs and rituals of deference and obligation, pragmatic negotiations, everyday subversion and, more occasionally, outright defiance.