Early in the afternoon of the second day of their exploration, Phillip and his party discovered a large sheltered bay with a freshwater stream flowing into it. As Phillip later relayed to England, they “had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in the world”. It was decided that their new home would be here, not Botany Bay. It was named Sydney Cove after Lord Sydney, the home secretary of England at that time. John White was even more blown away by Port Jackson, gushing that it was “without exception, the finest and most extensive harbour in the universe”.

On 23 January 1788, Phillip and his party returned to Botany Bay and gave orders for the entire fleet to immediately set sail for Port Jackson. But the next morning, strong headwinds blew, preventing the ships from leaving the harbour. On 25 January, King wrote: “The wind blowing strong from the NNE prevented … our [the Supply] going out,” adding that they were obliged “to wait for the ebb tide and at noon we weighed and turned out of the harbour”. In the meantime, the rest of the fleet was still trying to sail out of Botany Bay.

According to Lieutenant Ralph Clark:

If it had not been by the greatest good luck, we should have been both on the shore [and] on the rocks, and the ships must have been all lost, and the greater part, if not the whole on board drowned, for we should have gone to pieces in less than half of an hour.

Finally... by 3 p.m. on January 26, 1788, all 11 ships of the First Fleet had safely arrived in Port Jackson.

Meanwhile, while waiting for the others to arrive, Phillip and a small party from the Supply had rowed ashore and planted a Union Jack, marking the beginning of European settlement in Australia.

• The cottage is believed to have been built on the site of a former Aboriginal camp.

• The cottage is Sydney's third-oldest building and it may be where Arthur Phillip stepped ashore on January 26 to plant the British flag.

However, too soon the gaol became overcrowded and dilapidated and in 1833 Governor Bourke recommended the erection of a new gaol at the Colony's expense because of the 'ruinous state' of the existing premises: 'The gaol in its present crowded state, without classification or labour, is a moral pestilence, and from its confined and low situation in the most populous part of the Town, appears likely at any moment to generate a physical one.'

Sydney Gaol closed in 1841 and the prisoners were transferred to the new Gaol in Darlinghurst.

Based on the source above, how did the Eora people view the arrival of the British?

As a young woman in Devon, England, Ann’s life changed dramatically in early 1789, when she was convicted for stealing a bushel of wheat, and was transported to New South Wales for seven years.

She left from Plymouth on the Lady Juliana, a convict ship that formed part of the Second Fleet and contained 229 female convicts and six of their children. This vessel was nicknamed ‘the floating brothel’ and formed part of a move to address the gender imbalance in the penal colony. As a result of this, a number of women who might otherwise have received lighter sentences, were transported instead.

On board the Lady Juliana, Ann became pregnant to ship’s surgeon Richard Alley, who abandoned her after arrival in Sydney. Ann then met convict apothecary John Irvine, and was pregnant with his child when he died. With her later husband William Chapman, Ann had eight children and ran a bakery, a butchery and general store, as a sideline to the ferry businesses which she established in about 1798.

Ann also seems to have got involved in the illegal sale of grog. In 1802, she was:

Convicted of selling spirits without a license on the Sabbath, and bribing a Constable to say she had only half-a-gallon in her house when she had eight gallons. Exclusive of the forfeiture of the spirits and the bribe of five pounds, she incurred the different Penalties amounting to twenty pounds sterling, which has been levied on her effects. This example, it is hoped, will deter others from incurring similar losses. It is the Governor's express Orders that no Spirits are even to be given by any person, or sold by any licensed person, upon the Sabbath.

But by 1811, she had become a legal operator, holding a wine and spirit licence for the King’s Head Tavern (pin dropped here).

A substantial stone bond store, built from 1826 in Argyle Street, served as the first Customs House, and still stands as part of the Argyle Stores. The buildings on the surrounding slopes ranged from substantial two-storey residences, shops and hotels to small rental tenements of one or two rooms. Nearby, massive quarries around Observatory Hill supplied stone for building and left behind sheer cliff faces.

After the end of transportation in 1840 and with the discovery of gold in 1851, immigration to the colony rose dramatically, resulting in an intense demand for housing. The Rocks became a place where immigrant people found their first foothold, squeezed into existing houses and even converted stables.