As the first urban park in Australia, Macquarie Place was a fitting place for our tour group to learn some early Australian history. Scotsman Governor Lachlan Macquarie, although a deeply flawed character, is widely credited with making sense of the chaos that was early Sydney. A city plan, street names and numbers, civic buildings, hospitals, barracks and currency all emerged in his tenure from 1810-1821. The colony expanded as Macquarie awarded free settlers land and welcomed emancipated convicts into wider Sydney society. Home to the oldest surviving milestone built to mark the place from which all public roads in the Colony were to be measured, the park also contains a statue of Thomas Mort. It is often said Australia was built off the sheep's back and Mort was thus recognised for his influence in building the flourishing industry.
Controversial Topic - The inscription celebrating the date January 26 on the plinth of the anchor and cannon of the original convict ship the Sirius led us into the current controversy surrounding Australia day. Celebrated as a unified national public holiday only since 1994 Australia day has become an increasing point of tension between those that see the date as celebrating invasion of an already occupied land and those that see it as a celebration of the birth of a nation. Sydney, like many cities, now hosts major protest marches of people from both sides of the debate each January. read more