17 top sights to see on the Millers Point and The Rocks self-guided historical walk

Harrington Street Murals

Millers Point and The Rocks in Sydney are crammed with colonial buildings, traditional pubs, churches, archaeological sites and homes resonant of the past. The earliest European Sydneysiders, convicts, whalers, soldiers and sailors walked this route, so follow their footsteps.

This walk commences from the Quay West Suites bounded by Gloucester, Essex, and Harrington Streets. If you are staying in the hotel take the car park lift from the lobby down to the Harrington Street exit. If you arrive by train or bus from Circular Quay walk to the corner of Essex and Harrington Streets.

Walk for a while north along Harrington Street, pause under the Cahill Expressway 

1) Harrington Street Murals

On either side of Harrington Street under the Cahill Expressway are four murals that have been painted by Geoff Williams in 2011, depicting the city as it was in the past. They offer visitors, through a trick of the eye, a look back at the area's history.

Cumberland Place

Take the old worn steps on your left up to Cumberland Place (2) and Susannah Place (3). 

2) Cumberland Place and Steps
This is one of those rare places where you can feel history. As a thoroughfare it comprises a series of flights of steps and landings. The section of steps from Harrrington Street between Nos 55 and 57 with stone stone steps that are worn and uneven date from 1807. You are now in a network of streets and laneways that form the heartland of old residential Sydney.

Susannah Place

3) Susannah Place
These little houses and the corner shop (58–64 Gloucester Street) date from the 1840s. They are now a museum where authentic interiors, including outhouses and basement kitchens, allow visitors to imagine typical mid 19th century working class life.

Directly opposite Susannah Place (3) is the site of an archaeological dig (4)

4) The Big Dig Archaeology Education Centre 

The Big Dig, located in The Rocks between Cumberland and Gloucester Streets, is the site of an archaeological dig which exposed remains and foundations from the late 18th century, the time of Australia’s first European settlement.

The Big Dig

The Big Dig Excavations began in 1994, attracting enormous media and public attention. Some 400 volunteers and a team of 20 archaeologists took part in what was popularly known as ‘The Big Dig’. They uncovered the foundations of over 30 homes and shops, the earliest built in around 1795, and some 750,000 artefacts. These have provided a rare insight into early urban life in Sydney.

The Big Dig is open to the public from dawn to dusk, when the gates to Cribbs and Carahers Lanes are open. Visitors can view the archaeology from the laneways and the entrance foyer of the Sydney Harbour youth hostel, along with three artefact display cases and a number of interpretation panels.

Make your way up the hill to the Australian Hotel (5) on the corner of Gloucester Street and Cumberland Street

5) The Australian Hotel

The Australian Hotel 

This is a typical early 20th century hotel, built in 1914. It retains its original pressed metal ceilings and etched glass fittings. The split level bar follows the rugged lie of the land. The odd shape of the land is a result of street re-alignments for the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The Australian Heritage Hotel still has many of its pre-existing features, such as the metal awnings, etched signage and saloon style bar doors.

A short distance north along Cumberland Street, take the subway under the Sydney Harbour Bridge Stairs. The hill in front of you is Observatory Hill Park (6)

6) Observatory Hill Park

The Observatory

This is the site of Sydney’s first windmill. Also known as Fort Phillip and Flagstaff Hill, it eventually became known as Observatory Hill after the building of the sandstone observatory in 1858. While the colony’s astronomers were making scientific observations from and Flagstaff Hill, local Sydneysiders knew it best for its timekeeping. Every day at 1pm the ball on top of the tower dropped to signal the correct time. The entrance to the Observatory is up the hill. It is open daily, and its gardens provide wonderful views of the harbour and Walsh Bay wharves below.

Around the hill from the Observatory is the National Trust Centre (7) 

7) The National Trust Centre

National Trust Centre

The oldest building in this complex is the two storey former 1815 military hospital, now facing the expressway. This later became the famous Fort Street School, the first school to provide for teacher training in the colony. The National Trust Centre includes the S H Ervin Gallery, cafe and shop.

Agar Steps

Backtrack down the Agar Steps (9) on your left to a little row of terrace houses and then to Kent Street. Opposite the Agar Steps along High Street are early 20th century houses built by the Sydney Harbour Trust. Turn right and head down Kent Street to Argyle Place. just before the corner, on your right, is the little St Brigid’s Church School (8)


8) St Brigid’s Church School

St Brigid’s

St Brigid’s is the oldest surviving place of Roman Catholic worship in Australia. Construction commenced in 1834, using “stone which is close at hand”. The single storey building was completed in April, 1835. The completed building was handed over in May, 1835, and was put into use immediately. A partition of folding doors divided the interior in half, providing separate class-rooms for the boys and girls. On Sundays, the school doubled as a chapel for Mass. When the school was officially inspected in 1839, 76 boys were under the charge of Mr Edward Hawkely, and Mrs Mary O’Brien was the teacher for 45 girls.

On the corner is the post office. Diagonally opposite is the Lord Nelson Hotel (9), one of the oldest pubs in Sydney

9) Lord Nelson Hotel

Lord Nelson Hotel

Built in 1836 by former plasterer William Wells as his home, the Lord Nelson obtained its liquor licence in 1841, one year before the town of Sydney was proclaimed a city. This makes it one of the oldest pubs in Sydney. The Wells family operated the pub for the next 30 years and the property stayed in family ownership for a further 18. A photograph of the hotel taken in 1852, during the
tenure of the Wells family, was used to complete a restoration of the building to its former grandeur in 1986.

Walk along Argyle Place past the village green to Garrison Church (10) 

10) Garrison Church 

Garrison Church

This was the first official military church in NSW and serviced the military garrison at Dawes Point. Imagine the spectacle of redcoats marching up Lower Fort Street from the artillery barracks to attend morning prayer. Although the church was officially called the Holy Trinity Church, it continues to be known as the Garrison Church. Military flags still continue to adorn the interior of the church.

Make your way down Lower Fort Street to the Hero of Waterloo (11) on the corner of Windmill Street

11) Hero of Waterloo Hotel 

Hero of Waterloo

The rough-cut sandstone walls and heavy timber beams of the interior of the Hero of Waterloo evoke an atmosphere of the rough mariner’s life. This hotel was built by George Paterson, a stonemason in 1843. The Hero of Waterloo is the source of many local stories of concealed trapdoors, shanghaied sailors and rum smuggling. There is an enduring legend that a secret tunnel running from the cellar of the hotel to the harbour was used for rum smuggling and the involuntary recruitment of sailors. An unknowing young man might find himself drunk at the bar, dropped through a trapdoor into the cellar and dragged through the tunnel, only to awake to the morning shanghaied aboard a clipper. Reminders of the Hero’s notorious past are everywhere. The downstairs cellars still have shackles on the walls and the entrance to the smuggler’s tunnel can still be seen.

Cross Windmill Street to Ferry Lane (12)

12) Ferry Lane and the Paddock

Ferry Lane

The North Shore ferry from Walsh Bay to Blues Point began operating in 1848 and it was around that time that this narrow laneway came into existence. Serving as the main thoroughfare from The Rocks and Millers Point to the ferry wharf at Walsh Bay, Ferry Lane was surfaced with cobblestones brought as ballast on ships out from England. The lane was soon lined with tiny cottages, some wooden, some stone, built almost on top of each other up the hillside. Ferry Lane was all but abandoned during the Bubonic Plague, its wooden houses burnt down and stone cottages left as burnt out shells as residents were evacuated and the area fumigated. In 1914, the remaining houses in the middle section of Ferry Lane were demolished including Payne’s tiny cottage at No. 10 and its neighbour, No. 8. The site was cleared and flattened to the level of Downshire Street and a grassed area created. It became known as The Paddock and the local children have played here ever since, even to the present day.

Follow Ferry Lane to Pottinger Street, looking out for the interpretive signs along the way. Either cross Pottinger Street to a walkway that takes you to the upper level of Wharves 6/7 (13) or turn right and follow Pottinger Street to Hickson Road. There are a number of restaurants, cafes and bars along this road and on the waterfront. 

13) Walsh Bay Wharves 

Walsh Bay Wharves

These huge two storey timber wharves were part of the massive reconstruction generated by the Sydney Harbour Trust (later the Maritime Services Board), set up by the government in 1901 to ‘modernise’ Sydney’s chaotic and inefficient waterfront and to clean it up after the outbreak of the plague. The wharves were intended to be built in concrete, but due to shortages of materials after World War 1 timber was used. The wharves and their associated shore sheds form a rare group of industrial buildings and were built over a number of years after 1910. They mostly stood empty from the 60s to the 80s and were threatened with demolition. They have subsequently been restored and occupied by the Wharf Theatre Company and others.

Retrace your steps to The Paddock, then take the path leading off Ferry Lane that runs along the rear of the fine Georgian houses on Lower Fort Street. At the end of the lane take the steps

up to Lower Fort Street. On the corner is the Georgian house Clyde Bank (14)

14) Clyde Bank

Clyde Bank

The Georgian styled Clyde Bank, 43 Lower Fort St, is a residence built for the Principal Clerk to the Colonial Secretary Robert Crawford in 1824.

Almost directly opposite you is the Harbour View Hotel (15)

15) Harbour View Hotel

Harbour View Hotel

This is the closest hotel to the Harbour Bridge. The original Harbour View Hotel, built around 1843 was demolished to make way for this world icon. It was originally situated where the granite pylons now stand. The new Harbour View Hotel is on land set aside around 1915 for religious purposes. The owners at the time, Brewers Tooth & Company would not move from the area and some arrangements took place between church, Brewer and State Government to obtain the site. Harbour View HotelArchitect’s drawings dated 1921 exist and construction would have started soon after. Local residents reveal that the main patrons in the early days were bridge construction workers and tunnellers working on the underground railway. The hotel has an elegant public bar, with its own grand piano and Bridge memorabilia, two function rooms, rooftop cocktail bar, formal a la carte restaurant and a gaming room. Sydney Harbour, Harbour Bridge and streetscape views of elegant Victorian terraces are seen from most parts of this stylish hotel.

Head down into George Street (North) back towards The Rocks passing the Cast Iron Urinal (16) on the right hand footpath under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

16) Cast Iron Urinal

Cast Iron Urinal

This is the last remaining cast iron urinal in the city. Public conveniences and urinals (or pissoirs) were common streetscape elements in early 20th century Sydney.

Cross over George Street North to Dawes Point Park (17)

17) Dawes Point Park

Dawes Point Park is a grassy area that sits underneath the the southern pylon of Sydney Harbour Bridge on Dawes Point. At the top of park are a number of cannons from the ships of the First Fleet. These were part of gun emplacements positioned on the site to defend Sydney from naval attack during the 18th century and were part of Dawes Point Battery The Battery was largely demolished in 1925 to make way for the Bridge. Dawes Point Park is named after Lieutenant William Dawes, an astronomer who constructed an observatory on the site in 1788.

You may end your walk here, or continue along the pathway beside the waters edge to the Circular Quay trains, ferries or buses, or walk along George Street North and explore The Rocks area, or head back to the start of the walk at Quay West Suites.