We spent the rest of the day walking around the area near the hotel, the Rocks and Circular Quay. The Rocks is the oldest part of Sydney, and is where the first prisoners who were dumped in Australia in 1788 eked out an existence. As Sydney slowly morphed from a jail to a proper city, the Rocks became the city's port. Like port cities all over the world, the Rocks was notorious for crime and vice, even more so given Sydney's prisoner heritage. As Sydney continued to prosper and distanced itself from its criminal past, the Rocks was further isolated and became the city's slum. In 1900 the plague broke out in the Rocks, and the city ended up buying almost the whole area and embarking on a demolition program to clean it up once and for all.



Redevelopment stopped in the 1970's, and what was left of the area was preserved as a heritage attraction. George Street, its main street, is now thronged with tourists shopping its quaint tourist shops, and locals getting very drunk in the many pubs, relics from its lively port days.