Circular Quay

This guide to Circular Quay traces its transformation from Warrane, a muddy tidal cove where the Eora people fished, into the site where the First Fleet landed in January 1788. It follows the decades-long convict labour project that walled and reclaimed the shoreline starting in 1837, and the disputes among colonial officials that dragged the work out for years. Listen from the water's edge, where the same curve of stone convict hands laid still frames the harbour.