Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021C01223:front:0:p87
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Character Range: 258097–260859

Perouse.  Despite the hardships, Gadigal culture survived.

From the 1930s, Aboriginal people from across NSW were attracted back to Sydney suburbs such as Pyrmont, Balmain, Glebe and Redfern, and 1960s changes in government legislation has enabled more Aboriginal people to choose to live in Sydney. Research into the history of Sydney's Aboriginal people continues to be carried out today and to provide new insights into their life and culture.

11.3.2        Early European Settlement in Sydney
Port Jackson (Sydney) was established by the English Government in 1788 as the first penal settlement in the colony of New South Wales.  The early town plan was laid out by the first Governor, Arthur Phillip, with a Government Domain occupying the high eastern ridge and a military establishment on the western ridge.  Convicts were allocated the lower lying valley between the two ridges where the town's water supply ran in an open stream discharging to the harbour, and the rough land to the west of Sydney Cove known as The Rocks.

Urban development in the town was haphazard for the first 20 years, but in 1809 Lachlan Macquarie took up the Governorship and set about making major civic improvements to the town.

Prior to 1810 the whole of the Macquarie Street area was a wasteland known as Farm Cove Ridge with a rough track extending along the ridge linking the Government Domain to Hyde Park and Oxford Street.  The track was given the name 'Macquarie Street' in 1810 although the section of road between Bent and King Streets was not officially proclaimed a street until 31st Dec 1840.

Governor Macquarie reserved the eastern side of Macquarie Street for official Government buildings, the first being Sydney Hospital which opened in 1816.  In 1819 the Hyde Park Convicts Barracks, designed by architect Francis Greenway, was opened.

In the early nineteenth century the western side of Macquarie Street, between King Street and what was to become Martin Place, was occupied by offices of the Attorney and Solicitor Generals, the original Wesleyan Chapel built in 1821, a schoolhouse, and a number of small Georgian cottages.  St James' Anglican Church, which was originally designed as a court house, conducted its first service in 1822.

By 1850 the western side of Macquarie Street had transformed into a fashionable residential area, including Burdekin House, which at the time was referred to as Sydney's most splendid private residence.

By the 1880s, Macquarie Street was lined with 3 and 4 storey terrace houses and in the area from Hunter to King Street the Sands Sydney and Suburban Directory indicated that the majority of properties were being used as boarding houses or as offices for the medical profession.  In the 1882 Gibbs Shallard &