Museum of Sydney

I've long had a soft spot for  the Museum of Sydney, although it's very small, and doesn't have a great deal of stuff in it.



It's a pleasant space though, and does a good job of telling you a bit about the history of the city in the hour or so that you devote to it.






There's usually a special exhibition on, like the Lloyd Rees black & white drawings of early twentieth century Sydney that I encountered today.



The Museum of Sydney is at the junction of Phillip and Bridge Streets, on the site of the first Government House, a model of which is perched above some of the relics unearthed from the site.









One new (to me) permanent addition is the room devoted to the local aboriginal clans, and the unfortunate history of their early interactions with the British settlers.



I've always been most taken though, with the scale models of the First Fleet ships - usually all 11 of them, though one seemed to have gone missing today. Until I first set eyes on this, I'd somehow had much less of an idea of what Governor Phillip's amazing expedition half way across the world had been all about. And remember, they all had to stay within sight of each other!