Next Wednesday, 6 February 2013, is the 225th anniversary of the coming ashore of the first boatload of convict women to Sydney in 1788. The mythical Foundational Orgy that allegedly followed is, as author Grace Karskens puts it, one of Sydney's favourite urban myths. A story first told in 1963, it quickly found a place in the popular imagination, despite being completely unsubstantiated. The following is an excerpt from Professor Karsken's piece in the Dictionary about the myth:

"So what's wrong with this picture? As a nation, as a city, as a people, we need stories about our past, about who we are, don't we? Isn't a powerful and widely believed legend like this as valid as factual history? Does it matter that it probably didn't happen? I think it does matter, for at least two reasons.

First, the modern orgy story is about rape, and it's told as a kind of rough comedy about loose whores and randy drunken men. As Aveling pointed out, Robert Hughes was saying that these were the foundations of sexual and gender relationships in early Australia. Brutal, drunken rapes, sex lacking in any kind of commitment or feeling; this is how it would be. [10] But convict men and sailors did not simply root and leave, or at least not if they could help it. Most acknowledged their partners and children and supported them if they could. The lucky ones formed families and households which became the basis of the new colony. Given the severely unbalanced gender ratio, many men never got that chance. [11]

And second, the orgy story hides a real urban legend: the story of an environmental miracle which amazed everyone. For once in New South Wales, women who had never had a child, who were considered barren, suddenly became pregnant. Every letter home told and retold this tale about women's mysterious and marvellous fecundity. It was this legend which reassured settlers that they could live and thrive in this environment, that it was healthful and life-giving. [12] But we have forgotten that women's story, that true story about sex and seeding and birth."

Read the whole entry The myth of Sydney's foundational orgy on the Dictionary of Sydney.