Editing Circular Quay (section)

===Indigenous history===
{{see also|Sydney rock engravings}}
The Aboriginal name for Circular Quay is ''Warrung'', meaning "Little Child".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Andrews |first1=Graeme |title=A Pictorial History of Ferries: Sydney and Surrounding Waterways |date=1982 |publisher=AH & AW Reed |location=Sydney |isbn=0589503863 |page=9}}</ref>

The first people to occupy the area now known as Sydney were [[Aboriginal Australians]]. [[Radiocarbon dating]] suggests that they lived in and around Sydney for at least 30,000 years.<ref name="Settlers' history rewritten">{{cite news|last=Macey|first=Richard|date=2007|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/settlers-history-rewritten/2007/09/14/1189276983698.html|title=Settlers' history rewritten: go back 30,000 years|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=5 July 2014}}</ref> In an archaeological dig in [[Parramatta]], [[Western Sydney]], it was found that the Aboriginals used [[charcoal]], stone tools and possibly ancient campfires.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Geoffrey Blainey|author=Blainey, Geoffrey|title=A Very Short History of the World|publisher=Penguin Books|year=2004|isbn=978-0-14-300559-9}}</ref> Near [[Penrith, New South Wales|Penrith]], a [[Greater Western Sydney|far western]] suburb of Sydney, numerous Aboriginal stone tools were found in Cranebrook Terraces gravel sediments having dates of 45,000 to 50,000 years BP.<ref name=Stockton-Nanson-2004>{{Cite journal | last1= Stockton | first1= Eugene D. | last2= Nanson | first2= Gerald C. |date=April 2004 | title= Cranebrook Terrace Revisited | journal= Archaeology in Oceania | volume= 39 | issue= 1 | pages= 59–60 | doi= 10.1002/j.1834-4453.2004.tb00560.x | jstor=40387277 }}</ref>

Prior to the arrival of the British there were 4,000 to 8,000 native people in the Sydney area from as many as 29 different clans.<ref name="Aboriginal people and place">{{cite web|publisher=Sydney Barani|date=2013|url=http://www.sydneybarani.com.au/sites/aboriginal-people-and-place/|title=Aboriginal people and place|access-date=5 July 2014}}</ref> Sydney Cove from [[Port Jackson]] to [[Petersham, New South Wales|Petersham]] was inhabited by the [[Cadigal]] clan.<ref name="Aboriginal people and place" /> The principal language groups were [[Darug]], [[Kuringgai|Guringai]], and [[Tharawal|Dharawal]]. The earliest Europeans to visit the area noted that the indigenous people were conducting activities such as camping and fishing, using trees for bark and food, collecting shells, and cooking fish.<ref name="Cook's landing site">{{cite web|publisher=Department of the Environment|date=2014|url=http://www.environment.gov.au/node/19670|title=Cook's landing site|access-date=5 July 2014}}</ref> The [[Eora]] are the coastal Aboriginals of the Sydney district. The name ''Eora'' simply means "here" or "from this place", and was used by local Aboriginals to describe to the British where they came from. The [[Cadigal]] band are the traditional inhabitants of the Sydney CBD area, and their territory south of Port Jackson stretched from South Head to Petersham.