Bennelong Point, a former island in Sydney Harbour, is a headland that, since the 1970s is the location of the Sydney Opera House in Sydney,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia.

History

Bennelong Point is known to the local

Gadigal The Cadigal, also spelled as Gadigal and Caddiegal, are a group of Indigenous people whose traditional lands are located in Gadi, on Eora country, the location of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Gadigal originally inhabited the area that ...

people of the Eora nation as ''Dubbagullee''. The point was originally a small

tidal island A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands, many of them have been sites of ...

, Bennelong Island, that largely consisted of rocks with a small beach on the western side. The island was located on the tip of the eastern arm of Sydney Cove and was apparently separated from the mainland at high tide. For a brief period in 1788, this relatively isolated protrusion into

Port Jackson Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea ...

(Sydney's natural harbour) was called Cattle Point as it was used to confine the few cattle and horses that had been brought from

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

by Governor Arthur Phillip with the First Fleet. The area at that time was also strewn with discarded oyster shells from many long years of gathering by the local aboriginal women. Those shells were regathered by the newly arrived convict women and burnt to make

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

for cement mortar. The point was called Limeburners' Point for that reason, though those shells only furnished enough lime to make a single building, the two-storey government house. In the early 1790s, the Aboriginal man

Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813), also spelt Baneelon, was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia in 1788. Bennelong ser ...

— employed as a cultural interlocutor by the British—persuaded

Governor Phillip to build a brick hut for him on the point, giving it its name. In December 1798, a half-moon battery was constructed at the extreme northern end of the Point, mounted with guns from ''HMS Supply''. In the period from 1818 to 1821, the tidal area between Bennelong Island and the mainland was filled with rocks excavated from the Bennelong Point peninsula. The entire area was leveled to create a low platform and to provide suitable stone for the construction of

Fort Macquarie Fort Macquarie was a square castellated battlement fort built in 1798 at Bennelong Point, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on the site where the Sydney Opera House now stands. It was demolished in 1901 to make way for the Fort Macquarie Tra ...

. While the fort was being built, a large portion of the rocky escarpment at Bennelong Point was also cut away to allow a road to be built around the point from Sydney Cove to Farm Cove. This was known as Tarpeian Way. The existence of the original tidal island and its rubble fill were largely forgotten until the late 1950s when both were rediscovered during the excavations related to the construction of the Sydney Opera House. Prior to the Opera House's construction, Bennelong Point had housed

Fort Macquarie Tram Depot Fort Macquarie Tram Depot was part of the Sydney tram network. It opened in 1902 on the site of the old Fort Macquarie and was demolished in 1958 to make way for the construction of the Sydney Opera House. History Fort Macquarie Tram Depot was ...

Gallery

File:Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot03.jpg, Bennelong Point and Fort Macquarie . File:Sydney Circular Quay 1880.jpg,

Bennelong Point Bennelong Point, a former island in Sydney Harbour, is a headland that, since the 1970s is the location of the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. History Bennelong Point is known to the local Gadigal people of the Eora ...

, Fort Macquarie & the first

Sydney Rowing Club Sydney Rowing Club is the oldest rowing club in New South Wales, Australia formed in 1870. It has occupied its current site on Port Jackson's Parramatta River at Abbotsford Point since 1874. The club has a focus on its high performance and elite ...

shed 1880 File:Aerial view of Sydney Harbour - the bridge is under construction.jpg, Bennelong Point and Fort Macquarie during the 1920s. File:Fort Macquarie Tram Depot.jpg, Fort Macquarie Tram Depot shortly before demolition in 1958. File:Sydney Opera house 3.jpg, The Sydney Opera House on Bennelong Point, 2010. File:Bennelong Point restaurant 201708.jpg, Restaurants in Bennelong Point.

References

{{Sydney Harbour and Parramatta River islands Sydney Harbour Headlands of New South Wales Sydney localities Islands of Sydney Sydney Opera House

History

Gallery

See also

References