The Gunnery, Woolloomooloo is a heritage-listed historic site located at 43–51 Cowper Wharf Roadway, in the inner city

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

suburb of

Woolloomooloo Woolloomooloo ( ) is a harbourside, inner-city eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1.5 kilometres east of the central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney. It is in a low-lying, former dockla ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. It is also known as The Gunnery. The property is owned by the

Housing NSW Housing NSW, formerly the Housing Commission of New South Wales and before that the New South Wales Housing Board, was an agency of the Department of Communities and Justice that was responsible for the provision and management of public housin ...

, an agency of the

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

. It was added to the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

on 2 April 1999.

History

The building now known as The Gunnery was built c.1900. It was erected as a bulk store for the

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newspaper. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the

Commonwealth Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the prime ...

acquired the building for defence purposes and the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...

used it as a gunnery and instructional centre for trainees to practice their gunnery skills.Urban Growth and Decline of Woolloomooloo
Accessed 10 May 2019 HMAS ''Mindari'', the former training site, was commissioned on 1 July 1945 and was decommissioned on 30 April 1948 and was initially used as a naval film laboratory and cinema before being repurposed as the Gunnery Art Gallery under the management of the Ministry for the Arts. A newspaper article in 1945 reported that HMAS ''Mindari'' is a gunnery instructional centre in Woolloomooloo. Its principal activity has been the training of Australian and Allied merchant seamen in the use of guns. For this it used a "dome," on the ceiling of which a cinema projects a plane. Members of the class shoot at this with Oerlikons and

Bofors AB Bofors ( , , ) is a former Swedish arms manufacturer which today is part of the British arms manufacturer BAE Systems. The name has been associated with the iron industry and artillery manufacturing for more than 350 years. History Locate ...

guns while attempts to distract their aim are made by the realistic sound of guns and planes."R.A.N. ESTABLISHMENTS.

Cairns Post ''The Cairns Post'' is a major News Corporation newspaper in Far North Queensland, Australia, that exclusively serves the Cairns area. It has daily coverage on local, state, national and world news, plus a wide range of sections and liftou ...

, 17 September 1945, p. 5. Accessed 10 May 2019

Present use

After extensive renovations, in 2023, The Gunnery was reopened as a revitalised contemporary art space operated by Artspace and supported by the NSW Government. The transformation works were completed by Sydney-based architectural firm DunnHillam Architecture + Urban Design.

Heritage listing

The Gunnery was listed on the

on 2 April 1999.

References

Attribution

External links

* New South Wales State Heritage Register Woolloomooloo Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register {{NewSouthWales-struct-stub