Sydney Cove, on which Circular Quay is located, was the site of the initial landing of the First Fleet in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. In 1794 Thomas Muir, a Scottish constitutional reformer, was sentenced to transportation for sedition. Thomas Muir purchased Lightfoot's farm. Muir also had a cottage on what is now Circular Quay. It is likely that the farm was located at the Jeffrey Street end of Kirribilli (not near Admiralty house) and was named "Huntershill" by Thomas Muir, after his father’s home in Scotland. Thomas Muir escaped from the colony in 1796 aboard an American brig, the Otter.

Circular Quay was originally mainly used for shipping and slowly developed into a transport, leisure and recreational centre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_Quay