Snapper Island - Sydney Harbour - Port Jackson - New South Wales
Snapper is the smallest island in Sydney Harbour — a ship-shaped scrap off Drummoyne and Birkenhead Point, sitting with Cockatoo and Spectacle in the western harbour. Early colonial wordlists record an Aboriginal name Ar-ra-re-agon. For most of the nineteenth century the rocky islet saw little permanent building; it was declared a public recreation reserve in the late 1870s and then barely visited.
World War I leased it for storage tied to Cockatoo Island Dockyard. The silhouette everyone notices today dates from 1931–32, when Leonard (Len) Forsythe of the Navy League had the rock blasted, levelled and expanded by reclamation into Training Depot “Sydney” (TS Sydney) for naval cadets. TS Sydney opened in November 1932. Seawalls were cut to suggest a ship’s bow and stern; buildings followed a deck-like plan a land-locked training ship pointed at Drummoyne. Parts salvaged from HMAS Sydney I when she was stripped at Cockatoo helped furnish the memorial idea.
TS Sydney ran as headquarters for Sydney Navy League units for decades. The island is on the Commonwealth Heritage List for Forsythe, the cadets, and that odd harbour skyline contribution. Structures have weathered; the museum collection moved (including to Spectacle and Garden Island) around 2006. Unlike Spectacle’s explosives complex, Snapper’s significance is cadet training, not magazines; access stays tightly managed.
Navy League / Sea Cadets at Snapper Island, Sydney (historical photograph).