Whoops Graveyard found under Sydney Town Hall

Archaeologists have discovered a First Fleet graveyard under Sydney's Town Hall, containing at least 20 bodies believed to have been left by a devious contractor.

The Town Hall has been a prominent meeting point for the living since its construction in 1869 but before then, it was a resting place for the dead.

A First Fleet cemetery operated there between 1792 and 1820, but Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore says it was supposed to be moved west to make way for the fast growing city.

"The story goes that when the Town Hall was constructed later in 1869, a contractor was paid to exhume the bodies and they were to be taken to Rookwood," she said.

"But story has it that perhaps he might have taken the money but didn't transfer all the bodies."