Paddington is an upscale Eastern Suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Located east of the Sydney central business district, Paddington lies across two local government areas. The portion south of Oxford Street lies within the City of Sydney, while the portion north of Oxford Street lies within the Municipality of Woollahra. It is often colloquially referred to as "Paddo". Paddington is bordered to the west by Darlinghurst, to the east by Centennial Park and Woollahra, to the north by Edgecliff and Rushcutters Bay and to the south by Moore Park. History Aboriginal people The suburb of Paddington is considered to be part of the region associated with the stories of the Cadigal people. These people belonged to the Dharug (or Eora) language group, which includes what is now known as the Sydney central business district. It is known that the ridge, being the most efficient route, on which Oxford Street was built was also a walking track used by Aboriginal people. Much of the Aboriginal population (estimated at the time to be ca. 1000 people) of Sydney died due to the smallpox outbreak of 1789, one year after the First Fleet arrived in Sydney. Some Anthropologists maintain that the tribe moved to other areas of the shared Eora language group. At the time when Robert Cooper began to build his first house in Paddington, approximately 200 Koori people were living in Woolloomooloo in housing which Governor Macquarie had built for them. Post European settlement, Paddington has generally not been a suburb with a dense Indigenous population. In the 1930s, when parts of Sydney such as Redfern and Glebe became hubs for Aboriginal people entering the labour force, Paddington continued to be a suburb mostly inhabited by European working-class people. European settlement 1788–1800 In 1788 the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Harbour and established a settlement in Sydney Cove. Three kilometres to the east lay the land that would become Paddington. With a high sandstone ridge, eroded by streams leading to a marshy rush-filled cove too shallow for ships, the area was ignored by the newcomers, except for collecting rushes for thatch. 1801–1840 On a path used by local Aboriginal people, a road of some form was built by Governor Hunter to South Head as early as 1803. Governor Macquarie upgraded the road in 1811 for strategic purposes to accommodate wheeled vehicles. The road was improved