A Trip to Australia and New Zealand
Sydney
- The Rocks
The bluff that rises above Sydney Cove on one side sits on a foundation of limestone. The year is 1789 and you are a convicted felon that has been transported out of a London prison to serve out your sentence in Sydney, New South Wales. You wear chains on your legs and your clothing is not much although you probably do have a straw hat to help ward off sun stroke. The man has a cat o'nine tails and a bad disposition. You have a pick and an equally bad disposition. The man's superior wants him to convince you and your mates to cut a road up through the sandstone so that supplies off loaded at the pier in the cove below can be hauled up to the folks who live up where there are pretty views of the Harbor. You don't eat very well (there is not a lot of food in the colony),your bed is a sagging hammock, your hours are long, and they don't care much whether you live or die. It is hard to keep a good attitude, particularly if you are one of the majority of men that understand that they are going to do this until they expire.
This is the stone that the convicts shaped by hand over two hundred years ago. The steps that they built show two centuries of wear. Today, The Rocks is a playground for the well-to-do. Yesterday, it was a living hell for murderers, thieves, debtors, and folks that just got on the wrong side of important people back home in England.
