The Rocks are named after the sandstone outcrops located on the hillside. Almost immediately
following Captain Arthur Phillips arrival with the First Fleet, convicts were sent ashore to clear
land for setting up tents and huts. Many of the tents and huts were built along this rocky
sandstone outcrop. The Rocks soon became the centre of the colony's maritime and commercial
activity. The area became home to convicts, officers, whalers and sailors. Slums soon emerged and
the area became notorious for gangs and thugs.

During the late 1960s, the city approved a plan to virtually "bulldoze" the entire locality and
build high rise office blocks. We largely have the union movement and one Jack Mundey (in particular)
to thank for the fact that this wonderful area remains intact to the extent that it does. Union
labour simply refused to allow large scale "urban renewal" in The Rocks. After years of protests,
picketing, sit-downs and arrests, the voting public finally got behind the movement and the Sydney
Cove Redevelopment Authority was reformed to prevent the precinct from ever being threatened again.