Grace Karskens in her book The Colony, writes, ‘In this book the narratives of town-building, rural settlements and environmental responses are encircled by histories of the Aboriginal people of Sydney. Of all the rich and gripping stories of what happened in the Sydney region after 1788, these are the most astonishing and the most poignant. It is time to shake off the idea that Sydney was a ‘white’ city, that Aboriginal people simply faded out of the picture and off the ‘stage of history’; it is simply untrue. The time has come, too, to recognise that Aboriginal people became urban people very quickly.’ … From what we can glimpse, the closest links and associations between Sydney clans and bands seemed to run north-south along the coast, rather than east-west between the coast and inland mountains. Rivers and creeks were the places of densest occupation, while high places were for ceremonial use. Rivers served as both boundaries and corridors. (Karskens, pp. 12, 42)
