HOST OF THE 2000
SUMMER
OLYMPIC
GAMES

NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC
SOCIETY

Home today to four million people, Sydney was founded as a far-flung penal colony for the British Empire in 1788, when the first fleet of convict ships landed at what is now Circular Quay. A rough-and-tumble port for much of its history, Sydney has been transformed in the past few decades into one of the world's most alluring cities, where a multitude of nationalities have made a home for themselves and become, in the process, Australian.

Copyright © 2000 National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.