The following eight storylines help us understand the special character of The Rocks as a distinctive precinct, not just a collection of buildings. ONE | TALLAWOLADAH AND TAR-RA TWO | IMAGINING THE ROCKS THREE | A TOWNSCAPE OF COMPEXITY FOUR | BY THE HARBOURSIDE FIVE | SYDNEY’S OLD TOWN SIX | UNDER THE ROCKY GROUND SEVEN | LOVING THE ROCKS EIGHT | WHAT ARE SOME SIMILAR PLACES? ONE | TALLAWOLADAH AND TAR-RA Tallawoladah and Tar-ra, those old but new again Cadigal names, invite us to open our eyes to the precinct as it was in 1787, to the day before the First Fleet anchored in the Cove. The rocky peninsula was lightly clothed with eucalypt and angophora woodlands, banksia thickets around little fens and marshes among the ledges, and low heath along the shoreline. Fish, oysters and mussels were harvested from the rocky shores and taken to campsites for cooking. One of these was high on the ridge, at a spot in the southern end of the precinct now called Lilyvale, near where a rill ran down to what became known as Frog Hollow and then to the Tank Stream before flowing into the cove. Evidence of that campsite was uncovered in 1989, and dated to about the time Constantinople fell to the Ottomans. The faintest outline of the little rill can still be seen nearby in the archaeological dig at 188 Cumberland Street. This glimpse into the domestic life of the Cadigal is balanced by a more esoteric glimpse, that of an engraved whale in the shoreline rocks near Tar-ra, at the northern end. The original ancient whale stone has been lost, but today a re-creation of the engraving on a stone bench has reinstated a spiritual memory to that site. Tracks crossed the peninsula, perhaps in some places now overlaid by modern George Street that may have linked, through Tallawoladah, that old Lilyvale camping ground in the south and the Tar-ra whale rock in the north. The whale seat at Tar-ra, sculpted in 2014 by Joe Hurst
The following eight storylines help us understand the special character of The Rocks as a distinctive precinct, not just a collection of buildings. ONE | TALLAWOLADAH AND TAR-RA TWO | IMAGINING THE ROCKS THREE | A TOWNSCAPE OF COMPEXITY FOUR | BY THE HARBOURSIDE FIVE | SYDNEY’S OLD TOWN SIX | UNDER THE ROCKY GROUND SEVEN | LOVING THE ROCKS EIGHT | WHAT ARE SOME SIMILAR PLACES? ONE | TALLAWOLADAH AND TAR-RA Tallawoladah and Tar-ra, those old but new again Cadigal names, invite us to open our eyes to the precinct as it was in 1787, to the day before the First Fleet anchored in the Cove. The rocky peninsula was lightly clothed with eucalypt and angophora woodlands, banksia thickets around little fens and marshes among the ledges, and low heath along the shoreline. Fish, oysters and mussels were harvested from the rocky shores and taken to campsites for cooking. One of these was high on the ridge, at a spot in the southern end of the precinct now called Lilyvale, near where a rill ran down to what became known as Frog Hollow and then to the Tank Stream before flowing into the cove. Evidence of that campsite was uncovered in 1989, and dated to about the time Constantinople fell to the Ottomans. The faintest outline of the little rill can still be seen nearby in the archaeological dig at 188 Cumberland Street. This glimpse into the domestic life of the Cadigal is balanced by a more esoteric glimpse, that of an engraved whale in the shoreline rocks near Tar-ra, at the northern end. The original ancient whale stone has been lost, but today a re-creation of the engraving on a stone bench has reinstated a spiritual memory to that site. Tracks crossed the peninsula, perhaps in some places now overlaid by modern George Street that may have linked, through Tallawoladah, that old Lilyvale camping ground in the south and the Tar-ra whale rock in the north. The whale seat at Tar-ra, sculpted in 2014 by Joe Hurst