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Dawes Point Battery
The Dawes Point Battery remains is a heritage-listed former artillery fortification and now visitor attraction located adjacent to the southern pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge at Hickson Road in inner city Sydney, on the boundary between Dawes Point and The Rocks in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was built and modified from 1791 to 1925 by Lieutenant William Dawes, Robert Ross, Francis Greenway, and George Barney. The property is owned by Property NSW, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 May 2002.
Dawes Point is a prominent landmark in Sydney Harbour, terminating the western arm of Sydney Cove. It has a rich documented history beginning with one of the earliest recorded cultural exchanges between the Eora Aboriginals and the First Fleet. Subsequently, it remained in government ownership both as a place of strategic administration, defence and transport and as a place contributing to the magnificent landscape of our harbour city. The Point forms part of Sydney's historic Rocks precinct.
The first known building to be constructed on the site of Point Maskelyne (later renamed Dawes Point) was an observatory constructed in early 1788 by Lieutenant William Dawes, of the Royal Marines. A powder magazine was installed in 1789 followed by the battery in 1791. The first guns came from HMS Sirius, which had wrecked at Norfolk Island the year before. A dispute in 1790 between Spain and Britain, leading to fear of a Spanish attack, motivated the project. In 1798, the Governor's concerns regarding the arrival of schooner Argo prompted defensive measures at the Battery. George Barney, one of Australia's most important colonial engineers of the mid-19th century, oversaw the construction. The site had previously been used as a cemetery for prisoners executed at Sydney Gaol (1797-c. 1830).
In 1810, Napoleon ordered the French forces at Île de France to launch an attack on Sydney. However, the Royal Navy captured the island, forestalling any attack.
During the Napoleonic Wars, French and Spanish ships captured in the Pacific Ocean and brought into Sydney harbour received salutes from the battery.[citation needed] The fort was expanded substantially in 1819 when Governor Lachlan Macquarie ordered convict Francis Greenway, who was an architect, to design and construct improvements. The result was a semicircular battery, supported by a new, decorative castellated guardhouse built on the site of the 1780 powder magazine, which now provided the guardhouse's basement. The elaborate defenses were meant to appear threatening to ships sailing into Sydney Harbour. In that same year sandstone blocks were quarried on site at Dawes Point Park for the construction of the fort.
The fort was expanded substantially in 1819. Further buildings were constructed in the 1850s and at the end of the century. The site had also been used as a cemetery for prisoners executed at Old Sydney Gaol (1797-c. 1830). The Aroostook War, a confrontation in 1838–1839 between the United States and the United Kingdom over the international boundary between the British colony of New Brunswick and the US state of Maine, raised concerns over the harbour's defenses. The arrival of two American sloops during the night, however peaceful, highlighted the colony's vulnerability.
The Russian success in repulsing an Anglo-French force in the Siege of Petropavlovsk, in the northern Pacific during the Crimean War (1854–56), raised concerns that the Russian Pacific Fleet would attack Sydney. At the time New South Wales was undergoing an economic boom following the discovery of gold. The colonial government enlarged Fort Macquarie and Dawes Point, constructed further fortifications at Kirribilli and Mrs Macquarie's Chair, and finished Fort Denison. Dawes Point received additional subterranean powder magazines and the Royal Artillery provided a garrison. Dawes Point Battery also became the command post for the fortifications around the inner harbor.
Colonel George Barney was given the task renovating Sydney's fortifications and an extension of Dawes Point in 1860.
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Dawes Point Battery
The Dawes Point Battery remains is a heritage-listed former artillery fortification and now visitor attraction located adjacent to the southern pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge at Hickson Road in inner city Sydney, on the boundary between Dawes Point and The Rocks in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was built and modified from 1791 to 1925 by Lieutenant William Dawes, Robert Ross, Francis Greenway, and George Barney. The property is owned by Property NSW, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 May 2002.
Dawes Point is a prominent landmark in Sydney Harbour, terminating the western arm of Sydney Cove. It has a rich documented history beginning with one of the earliest recorded cultural exchanges between the Eora Aboriginals and the First Fleet. Subsequently, it remained in government ownership both as a place of strategic administration, defence and transport and as a place contributing to the magnificent landscape of our harbour city. The Point forms part of Sydney's historic Rocks precinct.
The first known building to be constructed on the site of Point Maskelyne (later renamed Dawes Point) was an observatory constructed in early 1788 by Lieutenant William Dawes, of the Royal Marines. A powder magazine was installed in 1789 followed by the battery in 1791. The first guns came from HMS Sirius, which had wrecked at Norfolk Island the year before. A dispute in 1790 between Spain and Britain, leading to fear of a Spanish attack, motivated the project. In 1798, the Governor's concerns regarding the arrival of schooner Argo prompted defensive measures at the Battery. George Barney, one of Australia's most important colonial engineers of the mid-19th century, oversaw the construction. The site had previously been used as a cemetery for prisoners executed at Sydney Gaol (1797-c. 1830).
In 1810, Napoleon ordered the French forces at Île de France to launch an attack on Sydney. However, the Royal Navy captured the island, forestalling any attack.
During the Napoleonic Wars, French and Spanish ships captured in the Pacific Ocean and brought into Sydney harbour received salutes from the battery.[citation needed] The fort was expanded substantially in 1819 when Governor Lachlan Macquarie ordered convict Francis Greenway, who was an architect, to design and construct improvements. The result was a semicircular battery, supported by a new, decorative castellated guardhouse built on the site of the 1780 powder magazine, which now provided the guardhouse's basement. The elaborate defenses were meant to appear threatening to ships sailing into Sydney Harbour. In that same year sandstone blocks were quarried on site at Dawes Point Park for the construction of the fort.
The fort was expanded substantially in 1819. Further buildings were constructed in the 1850s and at the end of the century. The site had also been used as a cemetery for prisoners executed at Old Sydney Gaol (1797-c. 1830). The Aroostook War, a confrontation in 1838–1839 between the United States and the United Kingdom over the international boundary between the British colony of New Brunswick and the US state of Maine, raised concerns over the harbour's defenses. The arrival of two American sloops during the night, however peaceful, highlighted the colony's vulnerability.
The Russian success in repulsing an Anglo-French force in the Siege of Petropavlovsk, in the northern Pacific during the Crimean War (1854–56), raised concerns that the Russian Pacific Fleet would attack Sydney. At the time New South Wales was undergoing an economic boom following the discovery of gold. The colonial government enlarged Fort Macquarie and Dawes Point, constructed further fortifications at Kirribilli and Mrs Macquarie's Chair, and finished Fort Denison. Dawes Point received additional subterranean powder magazines and the Royal Artillery provided a garrison. Dawes Point Battery also became the command post for the fortifications around the inner harbor.
Colonel George Barney was given the task renovating Sydney's fortifications and an extension of Dawes Point in 1860.