Semi Circular Quay - Port Jackson - Sydney Harbour -

 

Circular Quay is one of Sydney's most iconic and historically significant areas, known for its stunning waterfront, bustling harbor, and role in the city's development. Here's a comprehensive overview of the complete history of Circular Quay:

Early Indigenous Use:

• Before European colonization, the area around Circular Quay was inhabited by the Eora Aboriginal people, who had a strong connection to the harbor and waterways.

Early European Settlement:

• In 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet established the first European settlement in Sydney Cove, near what is now Circular Quay.
• The area served as a landing point and a hub for early colonial activity.

Early Infrastructure:

• By the early 1800s, wharves, docks, and warehouses were built along the harbor, turning Circular Quay into a bustling maritime center.
• The area became a hub for trade, shipping, and transport.

Expansion and Development:

• Throughout the 19th century, Circular Quay continued to develop, with improvements to its infrastructure, including wharves and customs facilities.
• The construction of Circular Quay's first wharf, the Commissariat Store, and other structures enhanced its commercial importance.

Transportation Hub:

• The mid-19th century saw the introduction of steamships and improved maritime facilities, solidifying Circular Quay's role as a transportation hub.
• Ferries and steamships connected Circular Quay to other parts of Sydney and beyond.

Renovation and Modernization:

• In the early 20th century, Circular Quay underwent renovations and modernization projects, including the construction of the Circular Quay Railway Station (now Circular Quay Station).
• The area continued to evolve as a bustling commercial and transport center.

Harbor Bridge and Opera House:

• The opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932 transformed the area, connecting Circular Quay to North Sydney.
• In the later 20th century, the Sydney Opera House, a world-renowned architectural marvel, was constructed on Bennelong Point near Circular Quay.

Tourism and Cultural Center:

• Circular Quay's central location, stunning views of the harbor, and proximity to iconic landmarks made it a popular destination for both locals and tourists.
• The area is home to numerous cultural institutions, dining establishments, and public spaces.

Urban Renewal:

• In recent decades, Circular Quay has undergone various urban renewal projects to enhance its accessibility, attractiveness, and cultural offerings.
• The area hosts events, festivals, and markets, contributing to its vibrancy and cultural significance.

Transport and Accessibility:

• Circular Quay remains a major transportation interchange, with ferries, trains, buses, and light rail connecting the area to different parts of Sydney.

Today, Circular Quay stands as a vibrant and historic precinct that embodies Sydney's past, present, and future. Its role as a transportation hub, cultural center, and iconic harborside location continues to shape the city's identity and draw people from around the world.

Bennelong Point - Circular Quay East - Australia's First Stock

Bennelong Point - Circular Quay East 

In 1788  Bennelong Point  Was A Tiny Island Seperated From The Mainland By A Narrow Tidal Channel - Since Filled In By Drifting Sands. Known By The Aborogines As Juba Ghalee. 

It Was Called Bennelong By Poineers Due To The Go Between Bennelong Untol Dec 1792 When Governor Phillip Returned To England With Bennelong. 

It Then Went Under Another Native Name Of  Yemmer - Awan - Yea. 

After His Companion Died In England, Bennelong Returned To Sydney 

 It Over His Countrymen. 

The Sydney Gazette Of 9th January 1813  Reporting His Death On The 3rd Said 

"Of This Veteran Champion Of The Native Tribe Little Favourable Can Be Said. His Voyage To, And Benevolant Treatment In Great Britain Produced No Change Whatever In His Manners & Inclinations, which Were Naturally Barbarous & Ferocious" 

The Outcrop which Now Bears The Name. Bennelong Point Was Called Cattle Point By the Earlly Settlers, Because The First Livestock. Were Landed There. 

Captain Watkin Tench's Journal Records That The Live Animals Taken On Board were "Two Bulls, Three Cows, Three Horses, Forty four sheep, & 32 Hogs, & A Very Lrge Quantity Of Poultry Of Every Kind"

In His Journal Lietenant Philip King Recorded "The Landing Of Stock on The 28th January, On The Eastern Point On The Cove. We Landed Only 4 Mares & 2 Stallions, 4 Cows, 1 Bull & 1 Bull Calf, Ewes, Poultry & 3 Goats With Hogs."

Governor Phillip Wrote "February Was Ushered In By A Violent Storm; Lightning Struck & Shivered A Tree  Under Which A Shed Had Been Erected For Some Sheep, & Five Of These Arrivals Were Destroyed."

A Stock Muster On 1 May 1788 Revealed the only 2 Bulls & 5 cows were left. On 5 June Sergeant James Scott noted that for cows & 1 pool with 1 Bull calf was drove Australia way from the governors farm. They remained straight until 21 December 1795, when scores of wild cattle were found in the cow pastures, a grassy paradise in the valley of the Nepean River 40 miles south west of Sydney

Underwood Street - Laneways - Sydney - New South Wales

Underwood Street - Laneways - Sydney - NSW

Here Is Another Reminder Of How Remote The Original Waterfront Has Become, As This Is The Place Where James Underwood Built Sydney's First Commercial Shipyard In 1798. The Red Brick Building At The Bend In The Lane Is Unusual, Employing An Architectural Style That Was More Commonly Used In Domestic Apartment Buildings in The 1930's & 1940's 

Bulletin Place - Laneways - Sydney - New South Wales

Bulletin Place - Laneways - Sydney - NSW

The Basement Has Long Been A Favourite Jazz Venue In The City. Beyond This, Warehouses & Stores From The Mid 19th Century Preserve A Little Enclave Of Olde Sydney. The Bulletin Newspaper Was Published Here From 1880, & Writers Such As Henry Lawson & A B Paterson Would Have Frequented This Little Street. 

This Lane Possibly inspired The Lines Of Patterson's Famous Poem 
"Clancy Of The Overflow" 
About Dingy Offices And Folk With 
"Stunted Forms & Weedy, For Townsfolk Have No Time To Grow, They Have No Time To Waste"

Loftus Lane - Circular Quay - Sydney - New South Wales

Loftus Lane - Circular Quay - Sydney - NSW 

For Most Of Its Life This Laneway Has Served As The Entrance To The Buildings On Loftus Street, Housing Custom Agents, Shipping Brokers & Wool Buyers. The Old Three Storey Sandstone Building On The Right, Which Forms The Rear Of The Gallipoli Club, Was Built In 1876. This & Hinchcliffs Are The Only Remaining Woolstores In The Circular Quay Precinct. 

Customs House Lane - Circular Quay - Sydney - New South Wales

Customs House Lane - Circular Quay - Sydney - NSW

Hinchcliffs Woolstore, On The South West Corner, Built 1860 - 1880, Is A Rare Survivor From The Time When Circular Quay Was A Centre For International Shipping & Wool Was Australia's Greatest Export. Imagine The Bales Being Raised On The Hoist Pulleys That Are Still Attached To The Building. In The Second Half Of The 20th Century The Building Was Set Up With Dormitories & A Soup Kitchen And Used As The Matthew Talbot Hostel For Unemployed Men. 

Customs house was where shipping was cleared and goods passing through the Port of Sydney will text for sale or export.
When the port was busy the house was crowded and noisy, a scene of raised tempers, delays in disputed dealings.

The six story colonnaded building you see today evolve through several phases of expansion between 1845 and 1917.
On Loftus Street alongside the house, union Jack flies permanently on the site where the first British flag was raised.

Fort Macquarie Eastern Point - Sydney Cove - Western Point Of Farm Cove - Bennelong Point -

Fort Macquarie - Bennelong Point - Eastern Side Sydney Cove - Western Side Of Farm Cove

             

It would be hard to even believe that there was once a full operating Fort, like you’d see in medieval England. Very Soon After Lachlan Macquarie Was Appointed And Constituted As The New Governor In Chief Of The Colony Of New South Wales He Became Quite Aware Of The Threat Of Invasion.
 Early to his time and to greet you South Wales can quite clear that Sydney was a penguin colony is giving no naval forces within about 5000 Miles.
 It was on the night of August 7 around is either 1813 or 1814 and American fleet sailed into Sydney unnoticed by anyone in the colony until the next morning.
If you clean quite clear that Sydney was available target for the French or the Dutch to attack on all the Americans at one stage I was at fleet arrived in Sydney harbour and are there everybody in the colony realise the time they could’ve been burnt down and destroyed overnight the reasons for having a fort and the battle placements around the harbour became more important.
 Therefore Governor Macquarie made one of the most important things in his time is governor to make sure that replacements were placed in strategic parts around Sydney in the first point of call was Bennelong point.
By that stage Bennelong had died over alcohol abuse and the lonely washed up man got accepted by the aboriginals not accepted by the colony.
Barangaroo had also died giving birth previously and so there was no link then I’ve been on point being anyone’s property apart from the colonies.
Going to McQuarrie decided to build a sandstone for it on the little bay outcrop of rock that test it out in low tide from Bendalong point are the sandstone quarry it from the top he on way.

 
Governor Macquarie decided to build a sandstone foot on the little bay outcrop of rocks it’s a straight out in Lowtide from Bendalong point are the sandstone quarry at from the top in way.

 On the other side of the semi circular key is as it was cold in those days are Caedmon‘s cottage girls proximately 1815 for John Cadman who was about Stuart at that stage.
You have to imagine that the actual semi circular key was 150 m further back before 1845 when Governor darling are filled filled in through convert work and all the fence XS sandstone and rubble used from the government buildings.
 Next point of call for governor McQuarrie was to set a site on the other side on another point new doors point call Port Phillip which had been set aside back in the 1790s by Governor Philip for that purpose
 The land was set for Fort Philip on the northern side of the key which happened to be the most perfect semi circular key for shipping anywhere in the modern world.

 Between 26 January 1788 on 6 February 1788 to 12 the ships were unloaded at Bendalong point which was called cattle point to that stage where they unloaded the forecast and six sheep as well as blacksmith animals and other equipment the governor of the Philip had made sure that they had on the ships when I first got here to be able to set up our small colony and I keep going without any supplies for 3 to 5 years







 It was in the third you I’m going to the 50th at the convicts and the Marines as Wellers the party started to give up hope that Sydney was going to be a place that they could inhabit.
Ground around Sydney was very rocky and very sandy and not suitable for cropping the first farm was built for created in what is now the government botanical Gardens are and that took nearly a year to get up and running in the first crop was destroyed by marsupial mice.
Also in that they could’ve been rats from the ship ships that when they first start in to Sydney harbour. The rap population grew rapidly as there were no way







It was on the Site Of Where The Sydney opera House Is Located At Bennelong Point. 


To think they pulled down such a grand building built By Governor Macquarie in 1816 to Build a Tram Shed, and then later The Opera House. 

Although governor Macquarie was a military man, there is little evidence to suggest that he made any contribution towards the defence of Sydney other than upgrading the fort on Dawes Point and building Fort Macquarie on Bennelong Point which replaced a small fort established by First Fleeter William Dawes in 1788
Francis Greenwaydesigned The Fort which came into use in January 1821, just before Macquarie departed. Fort Macquarie was a large, impressive structure built of stone hewn frmo an outcrop of rock near the construction site known as the Tarpien Precinct. In 1902, it was replaced by the Fort Macqaurie Tram Depot. 

The Original Building Was Designed By Francis Greenway, But As For Being A Fort....... Apparently it was terrible 

The Site Was Used As A Tram Depot For Many Years Before The Thpught ofThe Opera  House Came To Mind 

Fort Macquarie, Bennelong Point, Sydney (1820-21): Though Governor Macquarie was a military man, there is little evidence to suggest he made any major contribution towards the defence of Sydney other than upgrading the fort on Dawes Point and building Fort Macquarie on Bennelong Point which replaced a small fort established by First Fleeter William Dawes in 1788. Francis Greenway, Macquarie's buddy in arms when it came to the erection of public buildings in Sydney, designed the fort which came into use in January 1821, just a short while before Macquarie's departure from NSW. Fort Macquarie was a large, impressive structure built of stone hewn from an outcrop of rock near the construction site now known as the Tarpeian Precinct. By the turn of the 20th century, Fort Macquarie had outlived its usefulness. In 1902, it was replaced by the Fort Macquarie Tram Depot, a terminus and workshops for the Belmore to Circular Quay electric tram service. The site is today occupied by the Sydney Opera House





Man O'War Steps, Farm Cove Crescent5, Sydney (1810-20): The steps are the only known remains of harbour works from the Macquarie era still in existence in Sydney Harbour. They are in what appears to be their original configuration, and still in daily use. The Man O'War Steps recall a bygone era when Navy ships anchored in Farm Cove, and the soldiers came ashore to Fort Macquarie, Sydney's main military base which once stood where the Opera House is today. The Man O'War Steps were the embarking and disembarking point for this function for over a century. The original construction dating from 1810-20 became part of Fort Macquarie (Governor Macquarie laid the foundation stone of the fort on 17 December, 1817) and has been improved and/or replaced over subsequent years. The majority of the existing structure appears to have been put in place as part of Farm Cove seawall constructed in the 1860s. 










The TARPEAN WAY 

The site of one of Sydney's oldest sandstone quarries, it provided the building materials for some of Sydney's early stone buildings, particuly those built by the Government for its own use, that were constructed around the turn of the 19th century. Unfortunately, of these, only the Man O'War Steps survive today. The biggest of these buildings was Fort Macquarie, which was the first building to occupy the site of the Sydney Opera House. The seawalls of Farm Cove (built between 1848 - 1878) and the eastern shore of Circular Quay (completed in 1847) were also built in part out of the rock excavated from this quarry. The hole left by quarrying became known as the Tarpeian Way, after the resemblance of the escarpment to the Tarpeian Rock, a steep cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Roman Forum in Ancient Rome. In the time of the Caesars, criminals were hurled to their deaths from it. 
Cut off from the rest of the Domain by the Cahill Expressway, the Tarpeian Precinct is a narrow strip of open parkland in the vicinity of the quarry site running along the eastern side of Macquarie Street above the old quarry face. This relatively small elevated green space dotted with large trees has views to parts of Circular Quay, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Government House is immediately to the south-east of this area.

Customs House - 31 Alfred Street - Circular Quay - Sydney Cove - New South Wales

Customs House 

Built - 1844 - 1845
Architect - Mortimer Lewis - Colonial Architect 
Additional Architects - 
1887 - James Barnet - Colonial Architect 
1896 - Walter Liberty Vernon - Government Architect
1915  - George Oakeshott

Sydney's Custom House At Circular Quay Occupies A Unique Symbolic Place On The Site Of The Foirst Fleet Landing In 1788. Today Its Location Is A Physical Reminder Of The Importance Of Circular Quay As The Original Maritime Centre Of The Colony, And The Colony's reliance On Trade. Its Renewal Over The Decades Also Emobides The Work Of Three Government Architects

The Customs Service ws Responsible For All Imports And Exports, Excise On Local Goods, Immigration Control, And Control Of Narcotic Substances And Morally Corrupt Goods (Such As Books And Films)
By 1844, With Sydney's Maritime Trade Booming, The Existing Customs Building In The Rocks Was Packed To The Rafters. This Prompted Governor Sir George Gipps To Commission A New 2 Storey Georgian Building, Designed By Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis, With A Facade That Included 13 Large Windows Offering Commanding Views of Shipping Activity In Sydney Cove. 


In 1887, The Building Was Partly Dismantled And Expanded To Three Levels By Colonial Architect James Barnet. It was Further Expanded In 1896 By Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon, Who Staged Alterations Adding Two New Levels And A Rear Wing In The Courtyard. In 1915, Architect George Oakeshott Add A New Framed Internal Structure That Opened Up The Ground Floor With An Atrium. 

Despite These Later Additions During World War 1, Significant Parts Of The Original Building Remain Today, Having Been In Continuous Use For 145 Years As Headquarters For The Customs House Right Up Until 1990. in 2003 The Historic Building Became The Venue For The City Of Sydney Library, Along With restaurants, Bars And Offices. 

There Is A Scale Model Of Sydney's CBD, Under A Glass Floor In The Ground Floor Foyer. At A Scale Of 1:500, It Covers Around 10 Square Kilometres Of The City And Includes More Than 1000 Detailed Buildings, As Well As 5000 Trees, And People, And Cars And Boats 

The 6 Storey Building Evolved  through Several Phases Of Expansion  Between 1845 & 1917. 

On Loftus Street Alongside Customs House, A Union Jack Flies Permanantly On The Site Where The British Flag Was First Raised On January 26th 1788. For Some Australians, This Is The Site Of The Invasion. 

Customs House in Sydney, Australia, is an iconic heritage building that has played a significant role in the city's history. It has served various functions over the years and stands as a symbol of maritime trade, cultural engagement, and architectural beauty. Here's a comprehensive overview of its history:

Early History:

• The original Customs House on the site was constructed in the early 19th century. It served as a customs and maritime office to regulate trade and collect taxes on imports and exports.

Construction of the Current Building:

• The present-day Customs House building was constructed between 1844 and 1845, designed by colonial architect Mortimer Lewis in the Neoclassical architectural style.
• The building's design features grand columns, a pediment, and ornate detailing, reflecting the architectural trends of the time.

Function as Customs Office:

• The new Customs House continued to serve as a hub for customs and maritime operations, facilitating trade and overseeing shipping activities in Sydney Harbour.

Expansions and Additions:

• Over the years, Customs House underwent expansions and additions to accommodate its growing functions and staff.
• In the late 19th century, additional wings were added to the building to accommodate increased maritime activity.

Cultural Role and Transformation:

• In the 20th century, as shipping and customs operations moved to other locations, Customs House underwent a transformation into a cultural and public space.
• In 1988, the building was renovated and repurposed as a multi-purpose cultural and educational center.

City of Sydney Library:

• Customs House houses the City of Sydney Library, offering a range of books, resources, and services to the public.
• The library features modern amenities while preserving the building's historical features.

The Sydney Room:

• The Sydney Room within Customs House holds a collection of historical maps, plans, photographs, and documents related to the city's history.

Civic and Cultural Events:

• Customs House is also used as a venue for various civic and cultural events, exhibitions, and lectures.

Lighting of the Dome:

• The dome of Customs House is often lit up with colorful and dynamic light displays to mark special occasions, events, and celebrations.

Heritage Status:

• Customs House is recognized as a heritage-listed building, reflecting its historical, architectural, and cultural significance.

Customs House stands as a reminder of Sydney's maritime heritage and its transition from a functional government building to a dynamic cultural center. Its architectural beauty, versatile functions, and central location have made it a focal point of Sydney's urban landscape and cultural life