Since convict times the trade of Australia has flowed through Millers Point. When it was an exotic seaport village, whaling, sealing and sandalwood crews thronged the rowdy pubs. Its mansions housed merchant princes. Later, Millers Point was mostly peopled by wharfies and their families, scraping a living from "the Hungry Mile". Plague reached Sydney, and it was quarantined. The government has managed it and mismanaged it ever since.