Called Ta-Ra by its first inhabitants, the Gadigal people, Millers Point was named after windmills built in the hills and their owner John Leighton, also known as Jack the Miller.

By the 1850s, Millers Point was a maritime enclave with almost all its residents and employers connected to the wharves and the trade they brought.

In 1900, after an outbreak of the bubonic plague, the government took control of all the wharves and streets behind them to start a massive redevelopment project. This period produced some of Sydney's greatest public works - the wharves from Woolloomooloo to White Bay and the Harbour Bridge.

Intact throughout the plague, the depression and war, the community at Millers Point was threatened in the 1970s when the Askin government tried to push high-rise development in the area.

Jack Mundey and the Green ban movement of the early 1970s, saved many of the oldest buildings in the area, as well as parks and open spaces. This fight was not just about protecting old buildings; it was also about protecting the area's low-income residents.