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A hard life Conditions in the penal colony were harsh. Convicts toiled under the hot sun to build huts, first from wood and mud, then from brick. They also planted crops, but these did not grow well. The newcomers almost starved before the Second Fleet arrived with food in 1790. Meanwhile, relations between Europeans and Aborigines grew more hostile.

A small group of Aborigines (bottom left) looks on as the Sydney settlement grows. This picture dates from 1802. ⌂

The making of a city The settlement slowly grew. It soon contained not

A new era By 1840 about 83,000 convicts had been shipped to Sydney. About 70,000 free settlers had also made their way to the city. In that year the British stopped sending criminals to New South Wales, and a new era in the city’s life began. only convicts but also free settlers, who began to arrive in 1793. Then, in 1810, a dynamic Scot called Lachlan Macquarie became Governor of New South Wales. He worked with the convict architect Francis Greenway (see page 40) to construct roads and public buildings. By the end of his 11-year rule, Sydney was a true city. In 1813 explorers crossed the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and discovered vast grasslands. Soon thousands more free settlers arrived to set up sheep farms there, and wool became a major export.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie was an army officer who had worked in both India and the Middle East before setting out for Sydney with his wife.

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SYDNEY

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