Following an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900, and for the 'public good', the New South Wales Government resumed much of The Rocks and Millers Point for redevelopment. Scores of Sydney's colonial buildings were demolished, whole streets destroyed and the waterfront reshaped. Remarkably, these events gave rise to Sydney's first heritage conservation movement. A group of artists - including Julian Ashton, Sydney Long and Alice Muskett -set out to capture the charm of 'Old Sydney' before it disappeared. Their often romantic and sentimental paintings, exhibited in 1902, depicted in loving detail domestic life spilling onto the streets at the turn of the 20th century. Theirs was a more optimistic alternative to the stark realities recorded in the government photographs and inspection reports that condemned much of the inner city to destruction. Although few people at the time mourned the loss of Old Sydney, relentless development over the ensuing decades finally provoked Sydneysiders to recognise the value of their colonial past. The heritage industry was born.

PAINTING THE ROCKS examines the forces that changed Sydney's built environment throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the people who lived in and campaigned for The Rocks, and the events that led to the loss - and the preservation - of significant parts of our colonial heritage.