Used by its traditional owners, the Gadigal people, well into the 1840s, Darlinghurst was a quarry and windmill site before it became popular for the fine villas of the colony's well-to-do, in the 1830s. Subsequent booms and busts raised and lowered the suburb's fortunes, creating the mix of poor and posh, criminal and respectable that have made Darlinghurst one of Sydney's most interesting localities.
