The Rocks and Circular Quay: Sandstone Laneways, Cadmans Cottage and Markets

Tucked onto the rocky sandstone ridge on the western side of Sydney Cove directly opposite the Sydney Opera House, The Rocks is the oldest colonial precinct in Australia. After the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove in January 1788, convicts and sailors carved stepped cottages, bond stores, and taverns out of the steep Hawkesbury sandstone ledges. In the 1970s, a coalition of resident action groups and the Builders Labourers Federation led by Jack Mundey imposed famous "Green Bans" that halted plans to demolish the historic quarter for high-rise office blocks, preserving the nineteenth-century warehouses, narrow cobbled alleys, and harbourside pubs that visitors walk through today.

A self-guided walking route from Circular Quay to Dawes Point

Allow two to three hours to explore Circular Quay and The Rocks on foot by following this loop:

1. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA): Start on the western boardwalk of Circular Quay at the Art Deco sandstone building designed for the Maritime Services Board, now home to Australia's flagship museum of contemporary art and a fourth-floor sculpture terrace cafe overlooking the Opera House.
2. Cadmans Cottage (1816): Just north of the MCA at 110 George Street stands Sydney's oldest surviving residential building, a small stone cottage built in 1816 for John Cadman, coxswain of Government Boats, when the original harbour high-water mark lapped directly against its front steps.
3. Suez Canal and Nurses Walk: Duck off George Street into Suez Canal, a shoulder-wide cobbled lane between historic brick walls that connects to Nurses Walk (named after the site of the colony's first hospital) and the pedestrian courtyard of Playfair Street, where the 1870s Argyle Stores warehouse wraps around a shaded cobblestone plaza.
4. The Argyle Cut (1843 to 1859): Walk west up Argyle Street through a deep canyon hacked directly through solid sandstone cliff by chained convict gangs using hand hammers and chisels before being completed with explosives by free labourers in 1859 to link Sydney Cove with Millers Point and Walsh Bay.
5. Observatory Hill and Dawes Point: Climb the stairs at the western end of the Argyle Cut to Observatory Hill Park and the 1858 Sydney Observatory for panoramic views over Walsh Bay and Barangaroo, then loop back via the colonial Garrison Church (Holy Trinity, begun in 1840) to Dawes Point beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Rocks Discovery Museum and weekend markets

Inside a restored 1850s sandstone warehouse on Kendall Lane, the free Rocks Discovery Museum traces the area's story across four chronological levels: Warrane (pre-1788 Gadigal culture), Colony (1788 to 1820), Port (1820 to 1900), and Transformations (1900 to the Green Bans). Every Saturday and Sunday, white canopy stalls fill George Street, Playfair Street, and Jack Mundey Place for The Rocks Markets, showcasing Australian artisans, woodwork, photography, and street food.

Historic pubs and waterfront dining

The Rocks contains several of Sydney's oldest watering holes, including the Fortune of War on George Street, the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel at Millers Point (licensed in 1841 at the top of Kent Street and brewing its own natural ales on site), and the Hero of Waterloo on Lower Fort Street. For waterfront seafood and Sydney rock oysters with direct views of the Opera House shells, follow the shoreline path north of the Overseas Passenger Terminal to the restored 1839 brick bays of Campbell's Stores at Campbell's Cove, or continue west around Dawes Point to the historic timber finger wharves and theatre companies of Walsh Bay.