NEW SOUTH WALES. 



409 



since been abandoned by commerce, the neglect was not due to any lack of deep 

 waters or of sufficient shelter for shipping, but to the marvellous group of havens 

 which are collectively known as Port Jackson, and which are scarcely rivalled in 

 the whole world for extent, safety, and nautical advantages of every kind. The 

 only drawback is the entrance passage between the headlands, which is scarcely 

 quite deep enough for modern ocean vessels. The anchorage has a total area of 9 



Fig. 176.— Sydney in 1802. 

 Scale 1 : 33,000. 



. 1,100 Yards. 



or 10 square miles, and the shore-line of the inner waters with their bays and 

 secondary creeks is no less than 50 miles long. 



Sydney, founded on the south side of this magnificent harbour, is the oldest city 

 in Australia, for a cycle of a hundred years is still a long period in the history of 

 European settlements in the southern hemisphere. At first a simple convict 

 station, and afterwards the headquarters of the prisons scattered over the sur- 

 rounding territory, Sydney long remained an obscure village built in a forest 



