Before the First Fleet. Before Sydney. Before Australia even had a name.
Guide Hazel on the trail of Australia before Australia: outside the Royal Exchange with Rowland Hill, tracing the City stories, people and institutions that helped shape a nation half a world away.
Hazel’s new walk follows the hidden London threads that helped shape a nation. Continent, some would say. Convicts, colonists, merchants, musicians, campaigners, dreamers.
This is London as counting house, departure gate and gigantic attic. A place of forgotten stories, buried lives and ghosts with forwarding addresses.
Deep-history London. London with Australia in its bones.
Follow the tracks of the young convict woman who sailed on the First Fleet and went on to become one of the colony’s great success stories. The merchants and visionaries who helped build a nation from half a world away. The reformers and radicals who changed it.
Yes, London. But also Australia. Australia before Australia.
Fair dinkum.
Phillip –
Walking with Hazel last week brought a new dimension to the part that London and England played in the initial colonisation of Australia. Tales of convicts, normal life and surprise visits to Apothecary Hall, some churches with relevance to the walk were of interest. Nice walk with a small group of 10 that day and I came out with more knowledge than before we started.