Most of the photos I’ve shown so far of Sydney in relationship to the city’s harbor have featured tree-covered hills and dramatic sandstone cliffs. I thought the photo below did a good job of showing why one site was chosen over others for the initial settlement. It’s flat. Soaring headlands, precipitous cliffs, and even rolling hills didn’t suggest “stop here” for the first settlers, but a freshwater stream and a bit of flat land did seem promising.
Sydney Skyline
Waltzing Australia 
“a freshwater stream and a bit of flat land did seem promising.”
Hehehe, that, to my mind, is why Australian history doesn’t have the dramatic, heroic flair of American history: totally nonchalant understatement 🙂