Editing Circular Quay (section)

===Colonial settlement===
[[File:Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot03.jpg|thumb|upright=1.63|View east across Sydney Cove (Circular Quay) (c. 1841)]]

{{see also|History of Sydney}}
[[Sydney Cove]], on which Circular Quay is located, was the site of the initial landing of the [[First Fleet]] in [[Port Jackson]] on 26 January 1788.

The governor's temporary canvas house was erected on the east side of the cove,<ref name="DOS">{{cite web| url=http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/east_circular_quay | website=Dictionary of Sydney| title=East Circular Quay}}</ref> while the western shore became the centre of the early settlement. It was the focal point from which the city of Sydney grew. The first wharf on the shore of Sydney Cove probably dated from around 1792. In 1802 it was replaced with a timber-framed wharf called "Hospital Wharf", the first public wharf of the colony (later renamed King's Wharf and Queen's Wharf).

Late 18th-century Scottish constitutional reformer [[Thomas Muir (political reformer)|Thomas Muir]] was sentenced to transportation to Sydney for sedition, and had a cottage on what is now Circular Quay. Thomas Muir escaped from the colony in 1796 aboard an American brig, the [[Otter (1795 ship)|''Otter'']].

The eastern side of the cove remained largely uninhabited in the early years of the colony; one notable inhabitant was [[Bennelong]], after whom the adjacent [[Bennelong Point]] and [[Bennelong Apartments]] are named. In the early 19th century, the entire eastern shore of Circular Quay was part of [[The Domain, Sydney|the Governor's Domain]], though some commercial activity developed along the shoreline. The western shore, being adjacent to the original settlement now known as [[The Rocks, Sydney|The Rocks]], was busier. [[Cadman's Cottage]] is a building which survives from that era, built in 1816 for the use of the governmental coxswains and their crews, it marks approximately the location of Circular Quay's natural western shore, prior to reconstruction. The Commissariat Stores (built in 1809) and Australia's first naval dock were also located on the western shore. The naval dockyard was expanded in 1818–1822 under [[Governor Macquarie]], with four repairing docks.