1839.] SYDNEY. 271 



thirty thousand, in 1841, including over two thousand con- 

 victs, and has increased with considerable rapidity since that- 

 time. It occupies two hilly necks of land, bounding, on the 

 east and west, a cove on the south side of Port Jackson, and 

 a broad extent of interval ground lying between them. In 

 the old town, called ' The Rocks,' occupying the eastern 

 peninsula, the streets are narrow and irregular, lined with 

 grog shops and brothels, and everywhere presenting scenes 

 of vice and depravity, painful to the sight, and that sicken 

 the heart. The new town, separated from the former by 

 George street, the principal thoroughfare, and lying on the 

 left side of the cove, and towards the south part of the in- 

 terval, is laid out more uniformly, and contains many hand- 

 some dwellings, rising in successive terraces, and agreeably 

 adorned with the rich foliage of the Australian forest trees. 

 The old town, though the best adapted for the erection of 

 wharfs and warehouses, is occupied, in great part, by the 

 government domain. The government house is a new build- 

 ing, standing near the road leading to the south head of Port 

 Jackson, and having in its front a fine range of English oaks 

 and Cape pines, where the inhabitants usually go for a drive 

 or promenade. The other public buildings are the barracks, 

 occupying one side of the principal square ; the convict ho? 

 pital, a spacious stone building, with open verandas ; th< 

 military hospital; the convict barracks; the court-house, jaii 

 and custom-house. There are some fine church edifices ; 

 among them, two Episcopal churches, a Roman Catholic 

 cathedral, built in the Gothic style, and several chapels be- 

 longing to various dissenting denominations. 



Most of the houses are built of a light drab colored sand- 

 stone, or of red brick ; and many of the private residences 

 are only one story in height, and almost concealed by the 

 masses of dark foliage in the surrounding gardens. House 

 rent is high. Building land on George street has been sold 

 for twenty thousand pounds per acre. There are extensive 

 auction rooms and commercial establishments in the town ; 

 hotels and inns in abundance ; a number of steam mills ; and 



