In the year 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip landed in Sydney Cove along with the First Fleet to create a penal colony. The harbor was to naturally become the busiest section of the town indefinitely, therefore a neighborhood near the harbor was desirable. The Harbor was so important for the new city because it is where the money came in and went out; the business center of the town. Being close to work was very important, thus The Rocks, located in very close proximity to Circular Quay, became the first settlement of the British people. The Rocks housed everyone, from the captain, to common people, to the penal colony, but the land was historical before they had arrived, as it had belonged to the Gadigal people.
Completely disregarding the Aboriginal people, the off-shoot town had become the hustling and bustling city center. The suburb is full of windy roads, small buildings built closely together, and history. Once the settlement had been around for a while, apartment buildings were constructed to conserve space, but fit more people into the city. In 1844, the Susannah Place was built in a central location on Gloucester Street. The building complex was made from a series of three story buildings, housing over 100 families from 1844 to the mid 1970s. When the buildings were first constructed, they lacked hot water, a sewerage system, and electricity. As the city grew more and more, a sewerage system was soon implemented, with running water, electricity and gas soon following. But until that time, the waste littered the streets, creating hazardous living conditions.
Once the town was so populated with waste floating around the street, the bubonic plaque started to ravage throughout the town. Being the most inhabited has many implications to it, unfortunately. This was disastrous for the neighborhood because living there became too much of a safety issue; buildings were being condemned and people were moving out a little further away. Many of the buildings on Gloucester Street and the other streets in The Rocks were condemned and torn down by the government. Many buildings were torn without a second thought, especially because when the plague struck, people started moving a little further away from the harbor, inhabiting fertile land for farming, or moving and settling close to the harbor on either other side. Throughout this historical time of development, discovery, and disease, the Susannah Place had managed to survive and stay standing through all the tribals and tribulations faced throughout the the century and a half it was used as an apartment. The apartments survived through the period of Sydney’s history that was full of contagion which led many buildings to be torn down and many families to be displaced because of hazardous living standards. Luckily, for the sake of history, the Susannah House was neither condemned nor torn down, allowing tenants to remain in the city for a decent price (£26).
Throughout the tour, and even just walking through The Rocks, it is obvious that the area was very historical just by the surroundings. Walking up the narrow and rock-laid stairs, the street was reminiscent of cobblestone, and looking down either way, the road curved and the immediate buildings were low to the ground, or had recent additions added on. Getting to the Susannah House, my first impression was that this was an actual museum, with artifacts on display inside, but nonetheless I was wrong. Walking into the back room, we as a class were warned not to lean on the walls, and to be careful on the furniture. Also, no photography, food, or drink was allowed inside. After watching the informative video, we split into groups and went our separate ways approaching the museum from opposite ends. We learned that the buildings were being restored to their original conditions and the rooms were preserved in time. What I had learned from the first room tour was that he apartments are preserved in the conditions in which they were found as far as paint, structuring, and much of the furniture, and some were restored showing the different time periods, and therefore depicting the history of life in The Rocks. By keeping apartments as they were through time, we as an audience get a glimpse at the every day life, living conditions, and a visual story of life before modern luxuries.
On the tour, we walked through the time periods of Australia that exemplified the newest, latest or most modern technology. Even more in depth than that we got to get a glimpse into the life of a frozen-in-time family. For example, the first room we went in told the story of the Youngein family, who owned a grocer in the early 1900s. It was obvious that the business had been booming during the time; in their living room they had both a piano and an icebox, which truly are indicators of higher status in the early 1900s. Many of the other tenants also tried to show their wealth, whether it be with their parlor, their radio, china, or very notably, the coral. Compared to modern luxuries, these all seem so simplistic, but to these early Australians, they were identifiers of class or status. The Susannah House not only has a rich history itself, but also of the tenants that lived there.
Every resident had a very interesting story to them, though. There was the family of Greek-Australians who broke the traditional style of cooking and brought their own style, feeding the neighbors samples of each dish. This family was particularly interesting, because they had their kitchen downstairs and a larger living space upstairs. In their upper floor, there were two bedrooms, one with a complete (for the time) en suite. The other room was to be used by the son who eventually died from a lung disease. One thing I found very peculiar was that there were no unnecessary objects in the bedroom, only what was needed for every day life: a bed, a dresser, a chair or stool, a bed pan, and possibly a vanity and tea chest. Whereas the parlor would have a fireplace and couch, chaise lounge and radio, table and chairs, decorations and artwork, much more built up for accommodating guests. In the kitchen, it depended on how wealth one was to determine if you could have an ice box, or if you had to pay a penny for your gas to stay on for 3 hours. The other very peculiar thing was the outhouses and washrooms. Even throughout the 1900s, the bathrooms remained outside. Luckily when the sewerage system was created in the late 1800s, the apartments were hooked up immediately.
Coming from a modern time where we don’t have to worry about the problems of the past, coming to a historical place preserved in history it really is a culture shock. The history behind the Susannah House represents the history for the the early settlement of Sydney. The tour of the Susannah House took us through time, one period at a time. This museum is a living museum, not a place where everything is out on display, but rather where everything is preserved though each time period. Everything is original, the paint and furniture, artwork and china, and because of this, the history is deepened because it really gives us an idea of the struggles and the hardships that families faced. Each step through the Susannah House was a further glimpse in to the past – a rich history of settlement and trials and tribulations that soon grew to be one of the largest and most prominent global cities in the world.