The Rocks is a suburb of Sydney settled within weeks of the arrival of The First Fleet. It was named from the high sandstone escarpment that ran along the 'spine' of the western shore of Sydney Cove. Building was tough and rough, and therefore, the suburb was populated by the convicts, thieves and whores who were part of our first settlement. The soldiers and administrators lived along the eastern and southern shore of the cove.
In the late 1920s the geography of The Rocks was decimated (north-south) by bull-dozing required to swathe the approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In the mid 1950s The Rocks was once again sliced (east-west this time) by the construction of the Cahill Expressway extending the railway to the east of the city, and increasing the flow of vehicular traffic onto the bridge.
These murals are on stanchions of the Cahill Expressway as it crosses Harrington Street. They show scenes of The Rocks in its hey-day, prior to the general widening of roads and attempted gentrification of the area at the very beginning of the 20th century.
