Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Port Jackson

Drowned river valley that forms Sydney Harbour and includes North Harbour and Middle Harbour. Long inhabited by the Gadigal, Cammeraygal, Wangal and Eora people, Port Jackson was renamed by Captain Cook in 1770, although his ship did not enter the Heads.

-33.85039103262, 151.25499559727

Name
Commemorated by
Type

Aboriginal life around Port Jackson after 1822

CC BY-SA 2.0
,
2011

Aboriginal people continued to live around Sydney's harbour for more than a century after Europeans arrived, adapting their traditional life to their new conditions of dispossession and displacement, and maintaining, in scattered campsites, some of their skills and culture.

Early Hydrographers of Sydney

CC BY-SA 2.0
,
2014

Surveying the depths of Sydney Harbour was essential for safe navigation and effective transport. From 1788 until the formation of the Sydney Harbour Trust in 1901, the depths of the Harbour were charted by officers of the Royal Navy, with some help from French explorers.