The Paddington suburb is seen as being a portion of the area connected to the Cadigal people’s legends. These individuals belonged to the linguistic group known as Dharug (or Eora), which encompasses the area that is now the Sydney CBD. It is known that Aboriginal people used the ridge—which was the most practical route—as a walking pathway in addition to Oxford Street. A significant portion of Sydney’s Aboriginal population—roughly 100 individuals at the time—died as a result of the smallpox epidemic that struck in 1789, one year after the First Fleet landed in Sydney. According to some anthropologists, the tribe dispersed to different parts of the common Eora linguistic group.