“And so the British Came”

Tour Details
  • Duration: 90 minutes
  • Availability: Daily
  • Meeting Location: Rocks Square
  • Fitness Level: Basic, Moderate
  • Units: Stage 5 - Movements of People (stage 5-1b)
  • Key Learning Areas: HSIE, History, Geography
  • Program: Secondary School
  • Student Outcomes: HI4-CON-01, HI4-SPE-01, HI4-CPP-01, HI4-IEP-01, HI4-APP-01, HI4-SOU-01, HI4-INQ-01, HI4-COM-01, HI5-IEP-01, HI5-SOU-01
  • Years: 7 to 10, 9,10 and 11
  • Group Size: 30 students per group
  • Stages: 4 to 5

A Significant Story of Colonisation

Let the story of British Colonisation and its impact on the Eora people unfold for students. Our resources of A3 images help bring early Sydney to life together with the narrative skills of our guides.

Topics covered within the tour include:

  • How the Industrial Revolution influenced the transportation of convicts to Australia and the migration of free settlers
  • First contact between the Eora and British
  • The impact of convicts and free settlers on the Indigenous peoples of the regions occupied
  • Significant people and events that fashioned the British penal colony
  • Changes in the way of life for the convicts and emancipists.
  • Relevant sites in the development of Sydney

Additional details about the tour

And So the British Came is a place-based history program that uses The Rocks as a real-world case study to explore the movement of peoples and the establishment of Britain’s first colony in Australia.

Through key sites in The Rocks, students investigate why the British came, who arrived in 1788, and how global forces such as empire, punishment and trade shaped early Sydney. The tour examines the experiences of convicts, marines and free settlers, comparing forced and voluntary migration and how lives changed after arrival.

Students also consider the impact of British settlement on the Cadigal people, exploring first contact, dispossession and long-term consequences of colonisation.

Aligned with the Stage 5 History syllabus, this program develops historical inquiry skills while helping students analyse cause and effect, perspectives, continuity and change using the built environment as evidence.

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