Appendix 1 Historic Themes - City of Sydney€¦ · Historic Themes The history of the local...

Millers Point and Walsh Bay Heritage Review Final Report March 2007 Paul Davies Pty Ltd 171

Appendix 1

Historic Themes

The history of the local government area of the Millers Point and Walsh Bay areas is presented in this report as a thematic history. Thematic histories are structured on themes which are a way of describing a major force or process which has contributed to our history .(and) .. provide the context within which the heritage significance of an item can be understood, assessed and compared.1 Historic themes impart information in regard to the place, the local region and/or state and are therefore useful to facilitate a better understanding of a place’s history and its storylines and thus enable comparisons between different sites in New South Wales. Presently there are over 30 historic themes, which are necessarily broad in scope to provide a historical framework for the State of N.S.W. These themes have been established by the Heritage Office. The Australian Heritage Commission has also prepared a thematic list that endeavours to encompass historical processes for the Commonwealth of Australia. The correlation between state and national themes is presented in table A Table A – National and State Themes

National Theme State Theme Environment Tracing the natural evolution of Australia

Environment - natural landscape

Peopling Peopling the continent

Aboriginal cultures

Convict Ethnic influences Migration Economy Developing local, regional and national economies

Agriculture

Commerce Communication Environment – cultural landscape Events Exploration Fishing Forestry Health Industry Mining Pastoralism Science Technology Transport Settlement Building settlements, towns and cities

Towns, suburbs and villages

Land tenure Utilities Accommodation National Theme State Theme Working Working

Labour

Educating Education

1 NSW Heritage Office, History and Heritage, September 1996


Educating Governing Governing

Defence

Government and administration Law and order Welfare Culture Developing cultural institutions and ways of life

Domestic life

Creative endeavour Leisure Religion Social institutions Sport Phases of Life Marking the phases of life

Birth and death

Persons

The Heritage Office’s guidelines to thematic histories include provision for local themes to apply to local histories. In this thematic history the local themes presented in the SHR form have been adopted with minor amendment. Practically all state themes are discussed individually. Themes such as mining, forestry, agriculture, sport, etc. have not discussed because they do not greatly contribute to the story of the area.

State Theme State Heritage Register Theme Millers Point / Walsh Bay Review Theme

Cultural: Cliffs and escarpments influencing human settlement

Cliffs and escarpments influencing human settlement

Cultural: Coasts and costal features supporting human activities -

Coasts and costal features supporting human activities

Scientific: Geoperiod Triassic Epoch Middle 205 to 215 million years ago -

Environment - natural landscape Features occurring naturally in the physical environment which have significance independent of human intervention and features occurring naturally in the physical environment which have shaped or influenced human life and cultures.

Environments important to Aboriginal traditional and spiritual life - Whaling and sealing for commercial gain

Environments important to Aboriginal traditional life

Eora Nation - sites evidencing occupation -

Eora Nation - sites evidencing occupation

Aboriginal cultures

All nations - places of contact with the colonisers

All nations - places of contact with the

Convict Activities relating to incarceration, transport, reform, accommodation and working during the convict period in NSW

Working for the Crown Working for the Crown

Ethnic influences Activities associated with common cultural traditions and peoples of shared descent, and with exchanges between such traditions and peoples.

Theme not used Sailors and merchants

Migration Activities and processes associated with the resettling of people from one place to another (international, interstate, intrastate) and the impacts of such movements

Theme not used Church support



Warehousing and storage for commercial enterprises


Commerce Activities relating to buying, selling and exchanging goods and services

Storing goods for bond and customs duties

Serving residents and visitors

Communication Activities relating to the creation and conveyance of information

Theme not used Shipping Intelligence

Landscapes of military activities - Theme not used

Landscapes of urban amenity - Landscapes of urban development

Environment – cultural landscape Activities associated with the interactions between humans, human societies and the shaping of their physical surroundings

Places important in developing conservation processes -

Places important in conservation movement

Events Activities and processes that mark the consequences of natural and cultural occurrences

Places of strikes and industrial actions - Place of pestilence

Exploration Activities associated with making places previously unknown to a cultural group known to them

Exploring beyond the earth - Exploring beyond the earth

Fishing Fishing - Activities associated with gathering, producing, distributing, and consuming resources from aquatic environments useful to humans.

Whaling and sealing for commercial gain -

Theme not used

Health Activities associated with preparing and providing medical assistance and/or promoting or maintaining the well being of humans

Taking control of places affected by infectious diseases -

The military hospital

Managing industrial relations - Theme not used

Boat Building and Shipwrighting - Boat building and shipwrighting

Industry Activities associated with the manufacture, production and distribution of goods

Operating wind energy facilities - Theme not used

Pastoralism Activities associated with the breeding, raising, processing and distribution of livestock for human use

Wool storing - Theme not used



Researching archaeological relics and landscapes -

Theme not used

Researching the stars and space - Theme not used

Science Activities associated with systematic observations, experiments and processes for the explanation of observable phenomena

Researching astronomy - Theme not used

Technologies of roads and bridges Technologies of wharfs and seawalls

Technology Activities and processes associated with the knowledge or use of mechanical arts and applied sciences

Technologies of bridge building -

Technologies of machinery

Maintaining maritime transport routes - Maintaining maritime transport routes

Transport Activities associated with the moving of people and goods from one place to another, and systems for provision of such movements Building and maintaining jetties,

wharves and docks - Theme not used

Housing working animals - Theme not used

Housing in shop-based accommodation Housing workers and artisans

Housing the clergy and religious - Theme not used

Accommodating travellers and tourists Theme not used

Housing townsfolk - terraces and cottages -

Housing workers and artisans

Housing ship owners and maritime traders -

Housing ship owners and maritime traders

Accommodation Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation

Housing single people in boarding houses –


Naming places (toponymy) - Naming places (toponymy)

Fencing boundaries - retaining walls and embankments -

Establishing boundaries and rights of occupation

Land tenure Activities and processes for identifying forms of ownership and occupancy of land and water

Resuming private lands for public purposes -

Resuming private lands for public purposes



Developing towns in response to topography -

Developing a village in response to topography

Planned towns serving a specific industry - -

A maritime village

Towns, suburbs and villages Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages

Urban landscapes inspiring creative responses -

Theme not used

Workers organising workers - Workers organising workers

Labour Activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour

Working on the waterfront - Working on the waterfront

Private (religious) schooling - Private schooling

Education Activities associated with teaching and learning by children and adults, formally and informally

Public (primary) schooling - Public schooling

Memorialising the defenders - Memorialising the defenders

Defence Activities associated with defending places from hostile takeover and occupation

Building colonial forts - Building colonial forts

Utilities Activities associated with the provision of services, especially on a communal basis

Theme not used First light

Developing roles for government - parks and open spaces -

Theme not used

Developing roles for government - administering a public health system -

Theme not used

Developing roles for government - town and country planning -

Developing roles for government - town and country planning

Developing roles for government - conserving cultural and natural heritage -

Developing roles for government - conserving cultural and natural heritage

Government and administration Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs

Developing roles for government - taking control of places affected by infectious disease Developing roles for government – managing ports

Policing and enforcing the law - Theme not used Law and order Activities associated with maintaining, promoting and implementing criminal and civil law and legal processes

Living a life of crime Living a life of crime



Welfare Activities and process associated with the provision of social services by the state or philanthropic organisations

Providing geriatric and old age care - Providing geriatric and old age care -

Inspirational environments and events - Inspirational environments and events

Creating works of art - Urban landscapes inspiring creative responses

Creating works of literature - Urban landscapes inspiring creative responses

Creative endeavour Activities associated with the production and performance of literary, artistic, architectural and other imaginative, interpretative or inventive works; and/or associated with the production and expression of cultural phenomena; and/or environments that have inspired such creative activities

Building in response to natural landscape features. -

Inspirational environments and events

Going to the pub - Going to the pub - Going swimming - Going swimming Going fishing - Theme not used

Leisure Activities associated with recreation and relaxation

Enjoying public parks and gardens - Enjoying public parks and gardens –

Practising Anglicanism - Practising Anglicanism -

Practising Catholicism - Practising Catholicism

Religion Activities associated with particular systems of faith and worship

Providing halls and other community facilities –

Theme not used

Social institutions Activities and organisational arrangements for the provision of social activities

Places of informal community gathering -

Places of informal community gathering

Associations with Harry Jensen Associations with political figures

Associations with Archbishop John Bede Polding Associations with the Sisters of St. Joseph

Associations with the religious

Associations with Henry Moore Associations with William Walker Associations with Jack Leighton Associations with Robert Towns

Associations with men of commerce

Associations with William Dawes Associations with military figures

Associations with Ted Brady Associations with William Morris Hughes Associations with Watersside Workers Federation Associations with Jim Healy

Associations trade union organisers

Persons activities of, and associations with identifiable individuals, families and communal groups

Associations with Arthur Payne Associations with the Millers Point Push

Associations with notoriety


Associations with Cadigal clan Associations with Colbee

Theme not used

Associations with Norman Selfe Theme not used

Associations with public servants


Appendix 2

Data sheet for Heritage Conservation Area as a whole

City of Sydney Data Form

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APPENDIX 2 ITEM DETAILS

Name of Item

Millers Point and Walsh Bay

Other Name/s Former Name/s

Millers Point, Goodye, Leightons Point, Jack the Millers Point, Dawes Point, Tar-ra, Parish St Philip, Flagstaff hill, Cockle Bay Point, the Point, Walsh Bay Wharves, Millers Point, MSB Bond Store No.3

Item type (if known)

Area/Complex/Group

Item group (if known)

Urban Area Transport Water

Item category (if known)

Townscape Wharf

Area, Group, or Collection Name

Millers Point and Walsh Bay Conservation Area

Street number

Refer to Map 1 & 8

Street name

Refer to Map 1 & 8

Suburb/town

Millers Point/Walsh Bay Postcode

Local Government Area/s

Sydney City

Property description

The area is bounded on the north by waters of Sydney Harbour, on the north-east by the existing Sydney Harbour Bridge, on the east by the Bradfield Highway, on the south by the existing high-rise apartment buildings, on the west by Hickson Road and on the north-west by the cliff edges of Old Millers Point.

Location - Lat/long

Latitude

Longitude

Location - AMG (if no street address)

Zone

Easting Northing

Owner (Map 3 & 4)

Multiple Owners Department of Housing Private Owners Waterways Authority SHFA

Current use (Map 2)

Urban residential, office and retail activities Wharf 1-restaurants and entertainment; Wharf 2/3 public ownership for cultural, exhibition and convention uses. Wharf 4/5-theatres, restaurants etc Wharf 6/7 residential and 8/9 commercial

Former Use

Urban residential, industrial and retail activities supporting harbour functions

Statement of significance

Millers Point and Walsh Bay Heritage Conservation Area is a substantially intact residential and commercial precinct of outstanding State and National significance. It contains buildings and civic spaces dating from the 1830s and is an important example of nineteenth and early twentieth century adaptation of the landscape. Millers Point has changed little since the 1930s whilst Walsh Bay has undergone recent redevelopment.

Millers Point and Walsh Bay Heritage Conservation Area is of state significance for its ability to demonstrate, in its physical forms, historical layering, documentary and archaeological records and social composition, the development of colonial and post-colonial settlement in Sydney and New South Wales.

The natural rocky terrain, despite much alteration, remains the dominant physical element in this significant urban cultural landscape in which land and water, nature and culture are intimately connected historically, socially, visually and functionally.

The close connections between local Aboriginal clans and the place remain evident in the


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historical records and the geographical place names of the area, as well as the continuing esteem of Sydney’s Aboriginal communities for the place.

Much (but not all) of the colonial-era development was removed in the mass resumptions and demolitions following the bubonic plague outbreak of 1900, but remains substantially represented in the diverse archaeology of the place, its associated historical records, the local place name patterns, some of the remaining merchants villas and terraces, and the walking-scale, low-rise, village-like character of the place with its central ‘green’ in Argyle Place, and its vistas and glimpses of the harbour along its streets and over rooftops and views from the harbour to the area.

The post-colonial phase is well represented by the early 20th century public housing built for waterside workers and their families, the technologically innovative warehousing, the landmark Harbour Bridge approaches on the heights, the parklands marking the edges of the precinct, and the connections to the wharves and docklands still evident in the street patterns, the mixing of houses, shops and pubs, and social and family histories of the local residents.

Millers Point & Walsh Bay Heritage Conservation Area has evolved in response to both the physical characteristics of its peninsular location, and to the broader historical patterns and processes that have shaped the development of New South Wales since the 1780s, including the British occupation of the continent; cross-cultural relations; convictism; the defence of Sydney; the spread of maritime industries such as fishing and boat building; transporting and storing goods for export and import; immigration and emigration; astronomical and scientific achievements; small scale manufacturing; wind and gas generated energy production; the growth of controlled and market economies; contested waterfront work practises; the growth of trade unionism; the development of the state’s oldest local government authority the City of Sydney; the development of public health, town planning and heritage conservation as roles for colonial and state government; the provision of religious and spiritual guidance; as inspiration for creative and artistic endeavour; and the evolution and regeneration of locally-distinctive and self-sustaining communities.

The area contains numerous original and characterful views to and from the harbour that are formed by a combination of dramatic topography and long physical evolution. It is the extent, the expansiveness, the change of view of individual buildings as the viewer moves around the water that gives the place distinction and significance. The variety, complexity and scale of views from the wharfs, observatory hill, from roadways, edges of escarpments and walls are significant in defining the character of the area. The area is significant, as aside from the southern edge of the precinct, it is not overpowered by city scale development. The area contains numerous streets and lanes of historical and aesthetic significance. The area contains numerous features such as steps, fences, rock cuttings of historical and aesthetic interest.

The whole place remains a living cultural landscape greatly valued by both its local residents and the people of New South Wales. The value of the area is further enhanced by its separation from the Rocks precinct, which is predominantly commercial in use with Millers Point retaining its residential character, in particular worker housing. This is a rare continuing use. The character of the area is almost defined on a street by street basis rather than a broad precinct basis, but the most striking element is the homogeneity of the whole. With very few exceptions every element of the precinct contributes to the whole in a significant way.

The relative intactness (or interpretation in cases of redevelopment) of the area is representative of measures taken to protect the heritage values of individual buildings and the precinct as a whole since the 1950s by the local community and Heritage/Historic Groups. This led to the listing of Millers Point Heritage Conservation Area, individual listings for items in the area and listing of the Walsh Bay Wharves and related structures on several heritage registers and within planning control documents.

The Millers Point and Walsh Bay area is of State and National Significance: as a rare urban residential area remnant of early port of Sydney dating from the early 1800s which remains relatively unchanged since the 1930s; exhibits a range of fine buildings and spaces from the 1830s-1920s with high individual integrity, important collection of Government housing (built for port workers), community maritime associations from European settlement to 20th


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century. The area has changed little since the 1930s, the high degree of integrity and authenticity area and of individual buildings

The National Trust Centre and associated structures are significant as fine examples of mid-nineteenth century buildings constructed in the Victorian Free Classical and Victorian Regency styles. The buildings have a prominent position and an important visual and contextual relationship with the former Military Hospital building. These buildings have significance as part of the largest national school to be established in the colony during the mid 1850's. They have had a lengthy association with a variety of historically important persons and organisations and are significant as a design of the colony's first Schools Architect, Henry Robertson. The buildings have social significance for their association with the change from denominational to government schooling and for their association with community functions since their construction. The buildings have scientific significance for demonstrating the sequential development of an educational institution.

An important feature of this precinct is the circular stone excavation for the Cahill Expressway that separated the school grounds from observatory hill and from the National Trust Centre (former school buildings) as it marks a phase of development of the city where the whole of the Millers Point area was at considerable risk of loss through new planning policies and development.

The Observatory Hill Park is of outstanding historical significance and a major component of the Observatory Hill precinct. The park commands panoramic views to the north, west and south.

The Observatory is of exceptional significance in terms of European culture. Its dominant location beside and above the port town and, later, City of Sydney made it the site for a range of changing uses, all of which were important to, and reflected, stages in the development of the colony. These uses included: milling (the first windmill); defence (the first, and still extant, fort fabric); communications (the flagstaffs, first semaphore and first electric telegraph connection); astronomy, meteorology and time keeping.

The surviving structures of the Observatory Hill precinct, both above and below ground, are themselves physical documentary evidence of 195 years changes of use, technical development and ways of living. As such they are a continuing resource for investigation and public interpretation.

Observatory Hill has an association with an extensive array of historical figures most of whom have helped shape its fabric. These include: colonial Governors Hunter, Bligh, Macquarie & Denison; military officers and engineers Barrallier; Bellasis and Minchin; convicts: the as yet unnamed constructors of the mill and fort; architects: Greenway (also a convict), Lewis, Blacket, Weaver, Dawson and Barnet; signallers and telegraphists such as Jones and the family Moffitt; astronomers: particularly PP King, Scott, Smalley, Russell, Cooke and Wood.

The elevation of the site, with its harbour and city views and vistas framed by mature Moreton Bay fig (Ficus macrophylla) trees of the surrounding park, make it one of the most pleasant and spectacular locations in Sydney.

The picturesque Italianate character and stylistic interest of the Observatory and residence building, together with the high level of competence of the masonry (brick and stone) of all major structures on the site, combine to create a precinct of unusual quality.

Finally, the continued use of the observatory for astronomical observations and the survival of astronomical instruments, equipment and some early furniture although temporarily dispersed, and the retention of most interior spaces, joinery, plasterwork, fireplaces, and supports ensure that the observatory can remain the most intact and longest serving early scientific building in the State (Kerr 1991: 39). The site is also of significance for relationship of Commonwealth and State powers. It is the site of the first intercolonial conference on meterology and astronomy. (Pearson et al 1999)

The building is an excellent example of a Colonial building erected for scientific purposes and continuing to perform its function at the present time. The structure makes an imposing composition atop the historic hill originally known as Flagstaff Hill and occupies the historic Fort Phillip site (1804-45). Designed by the colonial architect Alexander Dawson and built in 1858. (AHC)


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The Walsh Bay area is of State cultural significance due to its unique combination of steep rocky terrain, early, mid, late-Victorian and Edwardian housing, surviving relatively intact Victorian bond stores, and the results of an early twentieth century urban redevelopment scheme of unique scale: the timber wharf structures and associated rock cuttings, roads and bridges (Clive Lucas Stapleton & Partners 1999: 75). The area demonstrates workings of a technologically advanced early twentieth century shipping port, developed specifically to accommodate new mechanised transportation technology. The wharves have a strong distinctive character created by the logical use of heavy timber construction and the regular grid layout of piles, columns, beams and infill cladding. (Little, Clarke, Whittaker 1979). The wharves, despite redevelopment, remains unified in materials, form and scale and contains elements demonstrating previous maritime uses. It demonstrates the life of inner Sydney in the early twentieth century and urban life. The precinct demonstrates technical and creative excellence of the period 1820-1930. (Department of Urban Affairs and Planning 1989:5)

The Walsh Bay wharves are the largest surviving group of Edwardian timber-framed wharves and Shore sheds in Sydney constructed as part of the Sydney Harbour Trust comprehensive redevelopment of Sydney port facilities in the period 1900 to 1920. Hickson Road and its associated retaining walls, bridges, steps, etc, is a largely intact aesthetically unique example of Sydney urban redevelopment of a scale unsurpassed by other inner city urban redevelopments in Sydney and possibly Australia of the early 20th century.

Because of its age, architectural and technical quality and historical associations the place is held in high regard by the public of Sydney Because of its proximity and attractive qualities as a place to live it is held in high regard by the residents of The Rocks, Walsh Bay and Millers Point.

The Walsh Bay wharves and associated bond stores and streets contain numerous items of machinery and engineering of technological heritage significance due to their scale of construction, use/former use and rarity

Because of the longevity of its previous occupation, the whole of the place has archaeological potential to reveal new information about former structures and life styles (both Aboriginal and European) embodied in buildings, structural fabric and occupational Deposits.

The area retains a number of place names which are associated with important historical figures in either the development of nineteenth century maritime trade or the Sydney.

Level of Significance

State

Local

DESCRIPTION Designer

Builder/ maker

Physical Description

Character There is no single or distinctive character to Millers Point. It is made up of: contrasts; juxtaposition of often disparate elements such as the stark edge of cliff or wall against the softer park or walkway, redefined and rebuilt wharf structures with new gentle uses that belie their history and stylistically defined periods of housing development that follows a well established pattern of small lot housing now contrasted with modern apartment/warehouse style dwellings.

Perhaps the starkest contrast is the Victorian terraces fronting the massive scale of the Harbour Bridge with an ease that hardly causes interest, yet in contemporary terms the Bridge would be considered to be detracting and hostile within the setting of terrace housing. This theme was explored when the bridge was constructed with a number of local artists illustrating this juxtaposition.

Important in understanding the character is understanding that most of the housing was integrally linked to the wharf activity providing housing for workers between 1912 and the


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1970’s. This occurred until recent years with the closure of the wharves and sale of public land. Prior to public housing the proliferation of pubs provided accommodation for the transient population arising out of their location near the wharfs, terrace shops provided services to the area whilst in Lower Fort Street wealthier people built terraces that had association with the wharves. It has been an integrated community of residential, supporting commercial and industrial development with strong links between the port and residential areas seen in the numerous walkways and broad steps that provided access not only for local residents but also for more distant workers who would have frequented the numerous pubs of the locality.

The value of the area is further enhanced by its separation from the Rocks precinct that has existed historically but which was reinforced following the construction of the Harbour Bridge. This separation is a functional one with the Rocks now predominantly commercial in use with Millers Point retaining its residential character, in particular worker housing. This is a rare continuing use that is generally under threat within the close inner city area.

The character is almost defined on a street by street basis rather than a broad precinct basis, but the most striking element is the homogeneity of the whole. With very few exceptions every element of the precinct contributes to the whole in an important way. Even the accommodation of buses on the edge of Argyle Square, dating from 1901, adds an element to the precinct of interest and value. In fact the greatest risk to the character of the area is the possible removal of all of the “undesirable” aspects of development and the gradual gentrification and softening of the traditionally hard edge of the area. While the area has had a range of development phases which have included gentrification and the establishment of substantial townhouses in prominent locations much of the area has had more modest worker housing and industry as its focus.

The gradual loss over time of port activity within the area, but also in adjacent areas to the west, has been a threat to the heritage value and character of the precinct as adaptation and re-use have seen significant structures change and in some cases removed. Introduced urban improvements to public lands are another potential threat to the heritage character of the area. New public realm works need to be carefully considered in terms of their fit into the character of the area so that they are clearly layered and where possible minimised to reduce the clutter that can arise from layers of signs and works. Other intrusions into the character are the proliferation of signs, meters, line markings etc that subtly and incrementally change character. Retention of all of the minor features such as kerbs and gutters, fencing, stonework, pavement types an hard surfaces assist in retaining the setting. Overuse of elements such as planting, street trees, pavement improvements, while in themselves attractive, and needed to maintain the environment, change the historic character of the area. These new elements should be used with care looking to follow patterns of planting and use of finishes that have historic precedent.

Interestingly only two streets feature residential development on either side of the road so that there is an enclosed residential character, most streets face either parks, the port or port related warehousing. This creates a diverse and interesting setting for the residential buildings. A network of lanes and accessways also remains, dating from early and later development. Some of these were for night cart access, others provided the pedestrian network that weaves through the area. Millers Point possesses an array of roadway types and forms such as adjacent roadways separated vertically, bridges, cuttings, ramps, which forms a three-dimensional or vertical layer of street patterns. For example there is the Argyle Cut, Harbour Bridge over Argyle, High Street adjacent to Hickson Road but metres higher, bridges over Hickson road and ramps such as Pottinger Street and Walsh Road and very few rectilinear street intersections. There are streets that mostly intersect at acute angles.

Many corners of blocks feature key buildings that are defining elements of the area’s character. These include the Garrison Church, various hotels, shops and the post office. The rows of port housing from c1912 also feature strong end buildings to create complete and designed streetscapes using asymmetrical massing, roof elements on key buildings and careful massing and modulation to mark the development and provide scale to the long streetscapes.

Perhaps the centre of the precinct is Argyle Place with its rare and distinctive central park area. This is a very fine urban space that is now somewhat marred by parking, particularly


6

taxi stands.

Observatory Hill is another rare urban space that has remained in its open form with the Observatory located at its heart. The elevated setting, the open grassland with mature trees, the few built features such as the bandstand and the enclosed observatory garden provide a place of exceptional value. Paths, walks, stairs and links to and through this space link it to Millers Point, the Rocks and the city.

An important feature of the precinct but not a highly visible one is the circular stone excavation for the Cahill Expressway that separated the school grounds from Observatory Hill and from the National Trust Centre (former school buildings). Again this is a construction that would not now take place (tunnelling would be used in preference) and it marks a phase of development of the city where the whole of the Millers Point area was at considerable risk of loss through new planning policies and development. It is noted that plans have been proposed to cover the cut in the past to reinstate the park area.

A key characteristic of the area is the extensive use of street tree plantings that flank most streetscapes. These are attractive and provide a distinct soft character to the area. This contrasts with the historic character that for many streets was stark as evidenced in early photographs.

Another important characteristic of the area is the network of lanes, pedestrian ways, stairs and small public spaces. Figure 4.1 and 4.2 illustrate the stairs, retaining walls and palisade fences, which are important characteristic of the area. Figure 4.3 illustrates some of the pedestrian network that operates apart from the footpath network related to streets. This network has been created through the changes of level, the need to move workers from the wharves to the residential and commercial areas and from the network of rear lanes and accessways some of which have public access. These routes provide an interesting way of moving through the area offering views both to the Harbour but also to rears of buildings and generally unseen aspects of an area. Broad views are common within the area and often with a backdrop of the harbour.

Of interest in Millers Point is the integration of some of the earlier building stock and development into the massive reconstruction of the wharf precinct under the new Ports Authority and the way in which the design of roads boldly incorporated these elements.

A detail of interest is the change seen in the design of street features such as kerbing and edging from the more widely used stone kerb and gutter to the use of concrete and steel edging in high traffic areas to resist the impact of vehicles mounting kerbs. This is seen throughout this area where bridges and new and old roads intersect. Streetscapes All streets within the area are regarded as having a “Street Rating A: meaning Highly intact streetscapes of the key period (or periods) of significance for the heritage conservation area.” Kent Street: The part of Kent Street that falls within the precinct retains the most intact Victorian streetscape with terrace rows and individual buildings on east and west. The only significant detracting development is the more recent hotel on the corner of High Street with its uncharacteristic scale and form (even though designed to articulate in an attempt to fit into the streetscape). The northern end of the street is marked by early twentieth century buildings in the post office and fine retail building at No 21 that links the group to the 1912 port development. Points of interest are the Agar Steps with the small group of ascending houses creating one of the most interesting and scenic housing groups in the city, the adjacent tennis court and quarry face behind and the relocated Richmond Villa in slightly truncated form. Kent Street is one of three streets, which feature historic residential development on both sides. It has a strong enclosed street character and acts as a channel or buffer between the city and Millers Point. Prior to the construction of the Hickson Road and the related excavation of the escarpment, Kent Street continued north of Windmill Street, descending steeply to the harbour shore, east of Towns Wharf.

The southern end of the area demonstrates changing road levels over time where the stone cut in front of Nos 119 -130 leaves those buildings elevated well above the roadway with a


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rock cut to the street edge.

The public housing infill buildings at No 64 are neutral and fit into the character of the street.

While the quarry face to the east encloses the area, only glimpses of it are available behind the housing. Limited views out to the harbour are available through High Street and the several lanes. High Street: High Street was created after 1900 as part of the reconstruction of the port under the new Sydney Harbour Trust. Hickson Road was cut out of the cliff face, the land raised above and levelled and the new streetscape containing the purpose built worker housing that steps down the slope to the central park area/Lance Kindergarten provided to compensate for the lack of backyards and open space related to each unit. The low point at the centre of the street provided bridge access to the former wharf buildings beyond, similarly to the present Walsh Bay access to the upper level of the wharfs.

The area features intact housing that extends around the corner to link with Kent Street and the very fine retail buildings that mark the edge of the area fronting Argyle Street. The area also features the high rock cut and retaining wall with its striking palisade fencing.

One of the most striking attributes of the streetscape as it is now found is the dramatic sense of height and space providing it with expansive and open views to the Harbour, views up to the rear of Kent Street, down to Hickson Road and across the southwest/west to Balmain. This contrasts with its built form where the roof forms of the warehouse buildings fronting Hickson Road would have intruded into the viewscape.

High Street is unique due to the symmetry of its incline from both the North and South ends to the central low point (at Lance Kindergarten), an aspect that has been reinforced by the symmetrical design of the public housing either side of the Kindergarten. Argyle Street and Argyle Place: The Argyle Square area is the core of the Millers Point precinct. Its unique form with the central park flanked by early houses and the church, the Argyle cut and the landscape of Observatory Hill provide one of the iconic heritage sites in the city. It is contained at the west end by the Millers Point Post Office and other corner buildings. Presently the area is dominated by parking, public transport and traffic as it provides access to the Rocks, to the city to Observatory Hill and Hickson Road as well as accommodating civic events in particular the steady stream of weddings centred around the Garrison Church and Observatory Hill.

Views are both contained within the Square and extend out through the cut to the Rocks and along the connecting streets. The landscape is a key feature of the location. Merriman Street and Rhodens Lane: Merriman Street and Rhodens Lane together with connecting passageways (navigated) is a remnant streetscape of early Victorian buildings from the earliest stages of development of the area. Located on the top of the Millers Point promontory the hill has been cut away on all sides leaving this group and the Dalgety and Munn Street buildings isolated from their traditional links into the area and sitting elevated above the wharfs and road system below. The Merriman Street group now has an outstanding outlook over the wharf areas below that contrasts with the modesty and diminutive scale of the buildings. The outlook and setting are key elements of the character of this isolated group of buildings.

The street has a small park at each end that is the remnant of the earlier hilltop and which is a pleasant but unrelated element to the Victorian setting. The buildings fall into mostly terrace groups of various styles, all modest and several free standing cottages to the north, the end cottage with an unusual oblique wall. The Ports Authority control tower is located in the street extending from the port below to well above roof tops. Dalgety Street: Dalgety Street was created as one of the major road links between Hickson Road and the lower level of wharfage to the upper level streets accessing the warehousing on the wharfs. It is a broad sweeping street with a gentle gradient to allow easy movement of vehicles. The street formation is characterised by stone retaining walls and rock cut extending from the cut in Hickson Road to the curved rock faced stone retaining walls flanking the western edge of


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the street. The street then extends over one of the concrete arched road bridges linking it to Argyle Street.

The street formation and elements are of high significance and contrast starkly with the earlier narrow road configurations that features throughout this area and the Rocks precinct. In combination with streets such as High Street, Windmill Street and Hickson Street a clear planned overlay of heavy vehicle movement can be seen in the area.

Dalgety Street also provides clear demonstration of the changing of levels in the area with the small group of remaining Victorian terraces now set above the retaining wall with a pedestrian walkway for access in place of the original narrow winding road.

Of interest is the integration of some of the earlier building stock and development into the massive reconstruction of the wharf precinct under the new Ports Authority and the way in which the design of roads boldly incorporated these elements.

A detail of interest is the change seen in the design of street features such as kerbing and edging from the more widely used stone kerb and gutter to the use of concrete and steel edging in high traffic areas to resist the impact of vehicles mounting kerbs. This is seen throughout this area where bridges and new and old roads intersect. Bettington Street: Bettington Street is one of the small streets on the former Millers Point headland that now links the 1912 road construction to the remaining streets and lanes. It contains several buildings including the hotel on the corner which provides one of the strong and important character features of this area and marks the 1912 port development period with its fine Federation architecture. Adjacent to this are the rear of a terrace row (one now demolished) also from the 1912 port development. Attached to the rear of the Merriman Street housing are several early Victorian terraces and some modest infill housing that is neutral in its contribution to the area.

The street extends to Dalgety Street which dominates the locality with its broad sweep into Argyle Street.

The street is otherwise modest in its contribution to the area. Munn Street: Munn Street is now a remnant piece of road that has been heavily modified removing its functional role of a wide carriageway providing easy access for vehicles into the bond stores to which it connects. The street features a concrete arched road bridge over Hickson Road and a change of level with the hotel and terrace row to the north set well above the street atop a rock faced stone retaining wall. The use of changes of level to provide access also saw the construction of often complex and well-detailed stairs as is seen at the corner of the hotel where a complex stair is a key feature of the area.

The current parkland built over the road surface and around the end of the terrace row is of no significance or particular value even though it provides pleasant open space. Key elements identified in the description of Dalgety Street in terms of kerbs and walls are also seen in this location. Windmill Street: Windmill Street together with Lower Fort Street, Kent Street and Argyle Street is one of the earliest streets constructed in Millers Point and so named as it provided access to the Windmill.

Windmill Street is one of the most mixed streets in the area, comprising a long row of attached apartments built in 1912 as part of the port development fronting warehousing and access to the upper level of the Walsh Bay wharfs, terminating at one end with one of the group of three bridges built over Hickson Road in the 1912 work and at the other end at the junction with Lower Fort street with a group of early residences that link to the buildings and Victorian character of Lower Fort Street rather than the predominant Federation character of Windmill Street.

The corner buildings on Lower Fort Street are both of outstanding significance and are some of the earliest remaining buildings in the area. The corner buildings on Lower Fort Street (82-


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92 Windmill Street) are of outstanding significance and are some of the earliest remaining buildings in the area having been constructed in the 1850s. No 84 was constructed as a shop and residence in 1855 and was operated by the Musgraves until 1897. These buildings are important streetscape and character elements in the Heritage Conservation Area.

They are important streetscape and character elements in the Heritage Conservation Area.

The topographical form of the street is unusual as it is largely created by a benched cut of the steep hillside that is level for most of its length only rising to the east to align with the early housing. This results in a stone cut at the rear of the 1912 residences that forms their back and a change in level to the earlier terraces above. On the Walsh Bay side the cut was on the edge of the road alignment with the warehousing extending down to the Hickson Road alignment. The buildings on this side address Windmill Street with pedestrian and vehicular entrances.

Several new infill buildings have been inserted between Windmill and Hickson Roads with success as they follow established patterns of height and scale. Lower Fort Street and Trinity Avenue: This area encompasses a range of building types from the grand terrace and townhouses at the northern end of the street to modest terracing against the bridge to substantial Federation terrace housing built in relation to the church and the port development to early (and later) hotels and corner shops. The mix provides one of the most interesting and strongest housing precincts in the city strengthened by its continuing use for residential purposes. Lower Fort Street is one of the earliest streets constructed. The residences at 37 (1828), 43 and 79 (1842) were constructed by the 1840’s and are some of the earliest remaining in the area and the two corner pubs, Hero of Waterloo and the former Young Princess date from the 1830s.

The street character has been slightly altered by the demolition of three buildings (Dawes Point Battery offices and residences) on the eastern side of the street for construction of the Harbour Bridge, but despite the scale and dominance of the bridge, the open space under it allows the residential character and quality of the street to remain. Overall the construction of the Harbour Bridge had minimal impact on the streetscape (relative to the impact on Cumberland Street). The character of the street has also survived despite the excavation of the port land behind many of the houses that sets them well above surrounding development with commanding views to the harbour and as prominent landmark features when viewed from the harbour and the headlands beyond. The network of lanes and accessways that connect to the rear of properties and to the Hickson Road area add interest, provide slot views and create a dense network of pedestrian access that reflects the early stages of development of the area.

The street has added interest through the change of direction at midpoint that closes long views. Views are further contained by the mature street tree planting that restricts views to the buildings. The incorporation of cut rock faces (end of Trinity Road) and the view of the bridge abutments behind much of the housing further defines and encloses the streetscape. The street terminates at Argyle Square and the Garrison church which is one of the core character areas of the proposed Heritage Conservation Area. At the northern end as the viewscape expands towards and then under the bridge with views opening up of the Harbour there is a strong contrast with the open views available from other streets such as High Street and Merriman Street.

Features such as the stairs connecting to Hickson Road, palisade fencing, stone walls defining parks and the connecting road to the last overbridge to the wharf are all key elements of the character of this diverse streetscape. Hickson Road and the Wharfs: Hickson Road is one of the major roads and streetscapes of the northern part of the city constructed to provide broad access to the wharves by the Sydney Harbour Trust in 1911-12 from Sussex Street and the city beyond. It was the major access route for wharf traffic. Its planned width, its level character, its enclosure with buildings and walls, its further containment with bridge structures, give it a strong industrial character that has only been slightly diminished by changes of use and new infrastructure. The change of use of the precinct from active wharf uses to cultural and commercial has required substantial change to


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the fundamental character of the area. This is reflected not only in rebuilding of many elements and refitting others but the changes to the street seen in traffic and parking arrangements, new infill buildings and the loss of the broad expansive settings cluttered only by wharf traffic and cargo. The significance of the wharfs and the area is well set out and understood and decisions appear to have been made within that context.

Key elements of the street are:

• the rendered rock face and constructed retaining wall below High Street that forms a stark edge between Millers Point and the wharfs

• the numerous stair connections, some current and some closed, that demonstrate the links between wharfs and residences, hotels and transport

• the four concrete bridges and the deep cut under them with its wide curving road

• the various steel bridges reflecting different rebuilds connecting to the wharfs

• the strong masonry face of the wharf buildings as well as the remaining timber elements of those buildings

• a number of small service elements seen at Towns Place and opposite Pier 1

• the curved stone retaining walls at the northern end flanking the roadways and base cut for the wharfs

• the visual links between wharfs and residences above

• visual links to the wharves and harbour through openings in the Bond Stores

• the curvature of the road, the flanking Bond Stores and the series of overhead bridges mean that, despite its breadth, views are confined and constantly framed.

• sea walls, palisade fences and other details of the setting. Observatory Hill Area: Observatory Hill or the area defined by the rock cut and retaining walls that separates the top of the hill from the residential area below. This area largely retains its original landform near the crown of the hill although probably somewhat modified over time with fill behind the various stone retaining walls to create a gentler slope. This area features the observatory complex with its contained garden and fine group of buildings, the rotunda and the mature fig plantings in the park as well as Meteorological Building, Sydney Observatory Messengers Cottage, Messenger’s Cottage for Fort Phillip Signal Station, the early school buildings, now the National Trust Centre, and the more recent school buildings set on the circular piece of land left after the excavation for the Cahill Expressway. The two school complexes were connected by footbridges that now form part of the pedestrian access network from the bridge to the city.

The parklands are some of the most attractive in the city and the only public parklands that offer expansive and elevated harbour views and are visible from many points in the area. Set with the Harbour Bridge as a backdrop the location is iconic in Sydney.

Views (Map 9)

A key attribute of the Millers Point area is views to the area and views from various parts of the locality. The views and vistas range from broad panoramic outlooks from elevated locations to streetscapes, slot views down and up stairs and lanes, views to the Harbour Bridge from a number of locations and views under the bridge to the Opera House.

To understand the visual setting and views we need to look at the place from a number of perspectives as outlined below:

1 Millers Point from the harbour and beyond.

The study area is unique within the harbour setting. The juxtaposition of Victorian and Edwardian residential development set within the city area, and on the escarpment edge is sharply defined by rock faces, concrete walls and vertical barriers that separate it from the waterfront and the North Shore. It is as if the area has been carved out and set apart from


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the port below. The result for much of the area is that the residential buildings are clearly seen from the harbour and from distant vantage points, set above the port buildings and cranes. Although small in scale, the buildings dominate, which is an unusual outcome.

Of particular distinction are the rows of three storey terraces fronting the harbour bridge that sit above the Walsh Bay wharves and warehouses with a dominance that changes as the view moves around from the Harbour. Also dominant is the striking early twentieth century worker housing facing west that dips to the centre of the row and is clearly visible again above wharves and sits below the taller and more articulated early housing above it. The layering of development is clear and provides the visual cues to understanding the development and history of the location.

Above this are the views available to the parks, the Observatory precinct and to the approaches to the bridge. The views available to these locations provide a softer more landscaped character of trees and foliage sitting over the harder denser development below.

It is the extent, the expansiveness, the change of view of individual buildings as the viewer moves around the water that gives the place distinction and significance. Unlike much of the city where views to it are two dimensional as a result of the large scale and density of the development, at Millers Point views are constantly varying.

A key characteristic of the precinct is the predominately small scale of the elements, even in most of the larger buildings that provides the complex visual character. Where this has not been followed, such as in the Observatory Hotel which, despite its generally appropriate scale does not integrate well into the context through the choice of materials, detail, colour and massing – especially when viewed from the Harbour, the visual complexity and character of the precinct is removed and blandness results.

2 Views from the area out to the harbour and beyond.

These are numerous views and exist in many locations. They fall into key groups:

- Views that are available from roadways set on the edge of escarpments and walls around all sides of the area where broad views over the wharves to the distant shore and parts of the Harbour are found.

- Above this are the views available from the parks, the Observatory and from the approaches to the bridge. The views available from these locations are dramatic expansive and impressive and reflect the historical views and setting (less the pollution) seen in early photographs. The views from the Observatory are significant for the purposes of astronomy and vital astronomical sightlines.

- Views from the wharves at Walsh Bay to the Harbour, to other wharves and to the far shore. This area provides a high level of public access to the waterfront and the ability to experience the wharves, to look out and to look back.

- Some slot views between buildings to the harbour beyond.

- Views along streets that extend to the Harbour, to the harbour Bridge and the Opera House. These views are found in Lower Fort Street and Pottinger Street in particular where the focus of the view is to a landmark structure framed by the streetscape.

- Generally views are framed by features such as palisade fences, stairs, trees or other devices that mark the edges of the escarpment or level changes. In some locations these intervening elements fall below the viewline but often the view is through a filtering element that gives a sense of looking out from a defined place. The feeling of enclosure or separateness is important in many of the views.

The key broad views are those from Observatory Hill from Merriman Street and its associated reserves and from the northern end of Lower Fort Street. Panoramic views also exist from High Street through the removal of the wharf buildings. While this view is expansive and desirable it can be expected that future wharf development will impact on it. Some loss of this viewscape related to future development can be expected.

3 Views within the area.


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These are the mainly internal views or those that are contained and do not look outwards. They comprise:

- Slot views down lanes and pathways to areas beyond (above and below) and sometimes extending to the Harbour.

- Views from central locations such as Argyle Place where they are contained, planned and complete. These are urban views. The Argyle Place setting is of particular importance as the broad public area not only provides a setting for the various buildings that front it but also to the escarpment and stone walls of Observatory Hill, to Argyle Cut and along a range of streets that lead into the area.

- Streetscape views which may terminate in other buildings, walls or distance. Examples of important streetscape views are: Munn Street, parts of Lower Fort Street, Kent Street and Windmill Street. Examples of key buildings are: Garrison Church, Millers Point Post Office, Palisade Hotel, Lord Nelson, Hero of Waterloo and Harbour View Hotel.

- The enclosed and curved viewscape along the northern end of Hickson Road between the wharf buildings and the development against the escarpment framed by the pattern of overbridges providing access to the upper level of the wharfs.

A distinctive feature of the area is that apart from the southern edge of the precinct it is not overpowered by city scale development. The historic buildings have to a large part defined the scale and context. This is threatened to some extent by some of the new development around the edges of the residential area but through generally skilful design and treatment the new buildings have not dominated as they may have done.

Physical condition and Archaeological potential

Much of Millers Point retains high archaeological potential, as demonstrated in reports by Higginbotham et al, notably Observatory Hill, Fort Street School and its immediate environment, and under all c.1900 buildings, external spaces and asphalted areas. Millers Point is notable for the presence of the earliest known above-ground archaeological structures relating to Fort Phillip. Archaeological significance and potential to reveal items of historical merit is considerably higher than elsewhere in the Sydney CBD. Its potential archaeological integrity has been protected through the lack of extensive redevelopment of the Millers Point area during the twentieth century. The building stock of Millers Point is in varying condition, from excellent to fair, and is representative of building styles, intact through the resumption process, dating from each decade from the 1820s to the 1930s. Occasional exceptions are newer facilities introduced in the later twentieth century, such as the Baby Health Centre.

Construction years

Start year

1788 Finish year present Circa

Modifications and dates

1790s - government windmills built on the high land; construction of Dawes Point fort and observatory. 1804 - construction of Fort Phillip on the heights of the peninsula ridge. 1820s-80s spread of urban development across whole precinct. 1850s - adaptation of Fort Phillip site for Observatory and parklands 1900s - post plague demolitions and rebuildings throughout the precinct, less so in Dawes Point. 1910s-20s - construction of Walsh Bay wharves. 1920s - construction of Sydney Harbour Bridge and approaches on the heights of the peninsula ridge. 1970s-80s - construction of Darling Habour wharves, moving the western shoreline c200 metres westwards. Several phases of development are evident across the Millers Point landscape, governed by periods of prosperity and social change: 1788-1820: Early European alterations to the natural environment including the establishment of quarries and early roadway infrastructure. c.1820-1850: Significant modification of the original Millers Point landscape occurred during the establishment phase of maritime industries, with wharves, commercial/warehouse premises and residential quarters constructed to fill local demand, together with local features such as the Argyle Cut. c.1850-1890s: A steady progression of larger-scale commercial housing edged out the smaller structures, and a changing economic climate resulted in housing adapted from large single buildings to boarding houses and temporary accommodation. Also 1870s-1880s’ boom and better transport allowed managers/owners to relocate to more salubrious areas (Potts Point etc) c.1890s-1900s: A further phase of modification of the area occurred in the late nineteenth century with Council street re-alignment and modernisation, with a subsequent mass resumption in the early twentieth century, with the plague epidemic


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serving as grounds for political expedience. 1905-1918: Following redevelopment or reconstruction of wharves/worker housing in the early twentieth century, only sporadic modification has been carried out on the Millers Point landscape, so that it provides intact examples of nineteenth and twentieth century industry and community. 1932: Construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge altered the visual qualities, streetscape and social isolation of Millers Point, from that of The Rocks and the city proper, as well as reinforcing the ‘village’ community and perceptions. c.1950-1990s Limited modifications to the landscape

Further comments

Heritage Inventory sheets are often not comprehensive, and should be regarded as a general guide only. Inventory sheets are based on information available, and often do not include the social history of sites and buildings. Inventory sheets are constantly updated by the City as further information becomes available. An inventory sheet with little information may simply indicate that there has been no building work done to the item recently: it does not mean that items are not significant. Further research is always recommended as part of preparation of development proposals for heritage items, and is necessary in preparation of Heritage Impact Assessments and Conservation Management Plans, so that the significance of heritage items can be fully assessed prior to submitting development applications

All individual listings for Millers Point are an integral part of the whole precinct and are of the same level of State significance as the precinct. The area is generally in State Government ownership and most individual items are identified in s170 registers of owning authorities (mainly Department of Housing). All items sold to private ownership are protected by SHR listings; however, recent practice has been to retain State ownership and sell leasehold only. The Millers Point Conservation Area as defined in the City of Sydney LEP 1992 does not include the Walsh Bay precinct which is covered by an REP. However, as a heritage item, Millers Point and Walsh Bay are integral. For more detailed information on Walsh Bay see the entry for the Walsh Bay Wharves ('Wharves 1 to 9 & buildings & bridges etc.'). Millers Point area endorsed as an item of State and national significance by the Heritage Council on 15 December 1988.

The Millers Point context is strengthened by the contribution of the local community, which is firmly committed to the preservation of the suburb’s unique character and sponsored the heritage listing nomination to ensure the protection of Millers Point. The area is held in deep affection by the residents, many of whom have family connections that can be traced through preceding generations of the Millers Point population, and/or have links to maritime industries. The historic, social and physical fabric of Millers Point cannot therefore be considered as separate components, but rather as interwoven traits making up the precinct so that an unusually high and rare degree of social significance can be ascribed to this area.

Glossary of place names and other terms

‘Millers Point’ - (see also The Point) - Refers generally to the whole listed area.

Dawes Point Quarter - Refers to the Dawes Point portion of the listed area.

Dawes Point/Tar-ra - Refers to the geographical feature at the northern tip of the listed area - the first such feature to officially receive a dual name (English/Cadigal) in NSW.

Millers Point - Refers to the north-western cape or point of the Darling Harbour wharves - a shift name - see Old Millers Point.

Millers Point & Dawes Point Village Precinct - The listed precinct: ‘Millers Point’ and ‘Dawes Point’ are the official locality names listed in the Geographical Names Register; ‘Village’ recognises the existing qualities and character of the precinct as elucidated in the history prepared by Fitzgerald & Keating in 1991 titled 'Millers Point: the urban village' and in the nomination prepared by the Millers Point Dawes Point The Rocks Action Group; and ‘Precinct’ refers to the relevant definition of a heritage item of this type in the Heritage Act.

Millers Point Quarter - Refers to the Millers Point portion of the listed area.

Old Millers Point - Refers to the rocky headland, now largely surrounded by the Darling Harbour wharves, and topped by Clyne Reserve, but which once constituted the geographical feature of Millers Point on the water’s edge, and named for the windmills built upon it in the 1820s.

The Point - An abbreviation sometimes used by residents of the nominated precinct to refer to the area generally; sometimes also to refer to Old Millers Point - occasionally used as an


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adjective ‘Pointer’, referring to inhabitants of the listed precinct.

HISTORY

Historical notes

Development Phases

1788-1810-Settling at Sydney Cove

European settlement of Australia with the arrival of the First Fleet and establishment of the penal colony at Sydney Cove and the banks of the Tank Stream. The high ground of the promontory on the west side of the Cove used for defence (battery), communication (flagstaff) and exploration (observatory). In this era the promontory is notable for the number of early events associated with the European settlement of Australia - first observatory at Dawes Point (1788), first flag station on Observatory Hill (1788), the first windmill (1797) and the fort on Observatory Hill (1804). The natural topography of the promontory however deterred permanent settlement with access from Sydney Cove limited owing to the rock outcrops.

1810-1830s-Moving to Millers Point

The beginning of the transformation of Sydney from a penal outpost to trading port and the development of private enterprise to feed, clothe and shelter the population and the influx of free settlers as business opportunities opened. The building of the first generation of wharves and store houses in the 1820s principally engaged in the whale and seal trade. The area also supported quarrymen and tradesmen engaged in maritime activities. The first streets were laid out leading to the windmills erected by Nathanial Lucas and Jack Leighton (1810s probably). In the 1830s wharf building activity increased considerably as the colony’s economy entered into a boom driven by exports of pastoral products namely wool. Around Millers Point the likes of Henry Moore and J.B. Bettington and James Munn and up trading wharves as did T.G. Pittman, John Lamb and William Brown, and William Walker along Walsh Bay. The higher ground which offered views of the wharves and harbour surrounds and enjoyed beneficial cooling breezes and fresh air was utilised for building residences (freestanding dwellings and terraces) for the merchants, and a military hospital (1815). Houses for the working class were also erected.

1840s-Forming the Village

By the late 1830s a distinct street layout had emerged in Millers Point, but one which did not connect with the town centre to the east. Over the 1840s the village was connected to the town in extending Kent Street as quarrying of Observatory Hill progressed and the Argyle Cut was slowly put through from 1843 to extend Argyle Street and form Argyle Place. Other new streets were formed to service the wharf areas. The genesis of the village was formalised in the construction of the Holy Trinty Church and St. Brigid’s Chapel. Following the cessation of convict transportation to New South Wales in 1841, the colony faced a new and uncertain future with a severe economic downturn following the collapse of the pastoral boom. Associated with the birth of this new era came the town’s first municipal council established in 1842 and the provision of rudimentary services such as reticulated water and public works in street forming such as the Argyle Cut.

1850s-Gold Rush

Discovery of gold in New South Wales and the onset of the Gold Rush brought a massive influx of migrants and capital which transformed colonial society. Representative government in New South Wales came in 1856, while expansion of the town of Sydney in the new suburban areas encouraged a drift of the middle classes away from the older settled areas. Changes in the education system and emerging interest in the sciences heralded the opening of the Fort Street Model School in the refurbished Military Hospital in 1850 and the construction of the Observatory, utilising the hexagonal walls of the former Fort Phillip, in 1859.

1860s-1870s-Commercial Expansion

The influx of capital generated through the expansion of the economy with the ongoing gold rush and emerging technologies such as steam powered machinery and ships, and ever larger traditional sailing vessels, led to a new wave of wharf expansion with new purpose built jetties and warehouses. The handling of goods became increasingly specialised with an emphasis on wool exports replacing more general cargoes. Around Millers Point there was an influx of workers to meet the demand for labour on the wharves, and a gradual withdrawal of the middle classes from


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the increasingly commercialised and industrialised harbour front.

1880s-1890s-A City in crisis

The dominance of wharf labourers in Millers Point with their seasonal, intermittent and poorly paid unskilled work became more pronounced and conflict mounted with the stevedoring companies over pay and conditions. The long simmering tensions resulted in the unsuccessful three month long Great Maritime Strike of 1890. The subsequent blacklisting of union members combined with the economic downturn of the early 1890s resulted in large scale unemployment and hardship in the area. A symptom of this social crisis of the time was the advent of the Push or gangs of larrikins terrorising residents and visitors. In the wider picture, the great building boom of the 1880s had placed enormous strains on government infrastructure in transport, water, sewerage and drainage, education, health services, etc. The port of Sydney which had evolved with little government oversight over the nineteenth century needed radical replanning to face the new century as the commercial wharf operators faced new challenges to meet the demands of the technological advances in overseas shipping.

1900-1940s- A Company Town

On the outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900 the government’s initial response was in passing the Darling Harbour Wharves Resumption Act to resume the wharf areas. The government then moved to manage and rebuild the port facilities in appointing the Sydney Harbour Trust, and the City Improvement Advisory Board to consider the future of the Rocks Resumption Area. With federation in 1901 and the end of the drought that had depressed pastoral exports the finances of the government of New South Wales improved dramatically and many of the infrastructure problems of the late nineteenth century were remedied over first decades of the new century. The construction of Hickson Road and large modern finger wharfs at the newly named Walsh and razing of older residential and commercial building stock was achieved over 1906-1922. In 1901 an electric tram service to Argyle Place broke the sense of isolation from the city and may have helped diminish the debilitating effects of the local Push. Two world wars and the depression years however abated the rate of reform achieved earlier in the century, but the long held dream of a bridge over Sydney Harbour came to fruition in 1932. On the social front, the outbreak of war in the Pacific in 1941 placed great demands on the wharves and indirectly led to wide ranging labour reforms on the waterfront.

1950s-1970s- A Different Age

The post war boom of the early 1960s resulted in major development pressures in the city with the coming of high rise buildings. Some of the earliest high rise buildings were erected fronting the southern and eastern frontages of Circular Quay and southern fringe of Millers Point. In 1963 there was an initial government proposal to redevelop The Rocks with high rise buildings, which was revised in 1968 and the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority established to oversee the development. While continuing under the administration of the Maritime Services Board, a similar move on Millers Point was widely anticipated. Concurrently, the Maritime Services Board embarked on a ten year plan in 1966 to remodel the Darling Harbour wharfs and build Port Botany to handle container and roll-on-roll-off shipping traffic. The Walsh Bay wharves having become increasingly ill suited to modern shipping requirements and largely obsolete for commercial shipping. The threat imposed by development on heritage buildings was abated through the Wran (Labour) Government introduced the NSW Heritage Act which culminating years of public agitation to protect sites of heritage significance from development.

1980s-2000- A Different Outlook

In confronting a depressed financial outlook in the early 1980s, the government instigated in 1983 the Efficiency Audit Division of the Public Service Board which resulted in Maritime Services Board being divested of all non-port related land and the public housing in Millers Point was transferred to the Housing Commission. Faced with redundant wharves at Walsh Bay, Pyrmont and Woolloomooloo the Maritime Services Board sought private investment to provide alternative uses. With development pressures afoot again measures were taken to protect the heritage values of individual buildings and the precinct as a Heritage Conservation Area in 1988. Over 1989-1999 the Walsh Bay wharves were redeveloped for non-commercial shipping related activities. A number of schemes were considered and in 1998 the Mirvac backed scheme was adopted. New residential apartments were also built in Millers Point for the first time since the 1910s albeit for a different client base.


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Thematic History

Environment-natural landscape The localities of Millers Point and Walsh Point are located to the western side of the peninsula lying to the west of Sydney Cove, within Sydney Harbour. The harbour, which is a flooded river valley, was formed around 6000 years ago as the coastline receded owing to climatic changes. The eastern face of this peninsula, The Rocks, was settled at the outset of European settlement in Australia, while Millers Point was settled later due to its inaccessibility; Millers Point was and continues to be a relatively remote area of Sydney. The ridge of the promontory dividing Millers Point from The Rocks was defined in the nineteenth century by Princes Street which was removed in the 1920s for the construction of the southern approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The ridge necessitated scaling the steep and rocky inclines or trekking around the foreshore via Dawes Point. While the topography initially discouraged permanent settlement, its elevated height, abundance of sandstone, and a long shoreline of Aboriginal middens along Darling Harbour encouraged industrial, commercial and defence activities. By mid 1788 the high ground of the peninsula, which offers commanding views of the harbour and surrounding districts, was reserved for a flagstaff, giving rise to its early name of Flagstaff Hill, later Observatory Hill. The point of the promontory, Dawes Point, had been used for fortifications since 1791. The exposed promontory also provided ideal ground for the establishment of wind powered mills to grind the fledgling colony’s grain. The first government windmill was erected on Observatory Hill in 1797 and another followed in 1798. The private windmills came with the arrival of Lachlan Macquarie as governor with Nathaniel Lucas’ mill at Dawes Point erected by 1812 and John Leighton’s three mills and house on the conical knoll of the sandstone promontory projecting into Port Jackson. The windmills were landmarks in the topography of the harbour and are frequently depicted in early nineteenth century paintings and sketches of the penal settlement at Sydney Cove. Leighton’s mills must have been widely known to the greater populous for the area bears his name, i.e. Jack the miller’s point. Over the following decades the exposed heights were sought after by the well to do of Sydney as places of residence in offering fine views and salubrious surrounds of fresh air and cooling winds. The western foreshore of Millers Point/Walsh Bay fronts Darling Harbour which at European settlement was dotted with Aboriginal shell middens. This resource of Cockle Bay, as Darling Harbour was originally known, was excavated by the Europeans for making the lime for the mortar used in the construction of the masonry buildings of early Sydney. As the local supply diminished, shellfish was brought from the wider Sydney area to be burnt at Millers Point. This activity would seem to have continued into the mid nineteenth century as Michael Kennedy, owner and occupant of the terraces at 49-51 Kent Street, still described himself as the lime burner in 1855. Lime Street (now removed) once commemorated this trade in lime burning at Darling Harbour. Another profitable industry that exploited local resources was the extraction of sandstone for the construction of housing and services in early Sydney. Quarrying was an established industry by the mid 1820s with Observatory Hill encircled by stone quarries. The relentless cutting of the hillside altered the natural topography and ultimately directed the development of the local streetscape and housing pattern through forming the alignment of Kent and Argyle Streets, and making the level area of Argyle Place at the foot of Observatory Hill. The extracted stone went into the building of early colonial Sydney and a large portion of Millers Point. The remoteness of Millers Point to the early town centre around Sydney Cove and the Tank Stream encouraged the establishment of noxious industries such as slaughterhouses and whaling. An early name for the area was Slaughterhouse Point reflects the association with the colony’s first slaughter house near Dawes Point. The South Seas whaling industry had a more lasting effect on the history of the area initially as a place to berth off Walsh Bay and victual developed into places of mercantile activity. The whaler Captain Charles Grimes built the house at 50 Argyle Place in 1831 as his place of residence and then as a place of mercantile houses. Aboriginal Cultures The rocky promontory of Millers Point set between the bays originally known as Sydney Cove (Circular Quay) and Cockle Bay (Darling Harbour) was part of the wider indigenous Cadigal territory; the Millers Point area was known to the Cadigal as Coodye, and Dawes Point as Tar-


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ra/Tarra. The Aboriginies have inhabited Sydney for at least 20,000 years, although the majority of archaeological sites date to within at least 2,500 years ago.Immediately upon the Europeans’ arrival the indigenous people’s environment was modified through removal of the bush to secure building materials and firewood, cutting away the sandstone bedrock and cliff overhangs used for shelter, rock engravings and axe grinding, and digging the shell middens, which demonstrated millennia of Aboriginal occupation in the area, for lime burning for the building of Sydney. The Cadigal population, as with the greater indigenous community, was devastated by the colonisation process with its introduction of diseases, land alienation, etc.

In spite of radical modifications to the environment with European settlement, Aboriginal midden sites have been rediscovered since 1980s through archaeological excavations in locations nearby but outside the study area. At the site of Moore’s Wharf, the middens demonstrated both pre and post contact Aboriginal habitation. At Dawes Point there was evidently a rock engraving site known to the post-contact Aboriginal community in the late nineteenth century but is assumed to have been destroyed by European development.

Convict Sydney was settled as a British penal colony in 1788 with the arrival of 1,350 convicts and their military overseers on eleven ships under the command of Arthur Phillip. Over the following few decades much of infrastructure associated with the administration, housing and welfare of the convicts was located on the western side of Sydney Cove. The neighbourhood of the present day The Rocks by the early 1820’s had developed into a centre of cottage industries established extensively to serve the convict garrison.

Convict labour would have been intermittently used throughout Millers Point culminating initial stage of making of the Argyle Cut at the tail end of the convict transportation system in New South Wales in the early 1840s. Convict labour was also used to clear the site for the building of the Holy Trinity (Garrison) Church at the same time.

Earlier government works engaging convicts would include the fortifications at Dawes Point and Observatory Hill, the government windmills, and probably the lime building sites and stone quarries.

The initial stage of making of the Argyle Cut was constructed using convict labour from 1843 at the tail end of the convict transportation system in New South Wales (it was finally completed in 1859 using council labour). Convict labour was also used to clear the site for the building of the Holy Trinity (Garrison) Church.

Ethnic Influences Millers Point in the nineteenth century had a diverse ethnic mix reflecting the seafaring nature of the area with sailors, artisans and merchants. The ethnic population was predominantly Scottish, while other nationalities such as Americans, Chinese, German, Scandinavians were represented to a degree not visible elsewhere in the city, while Robert Towns’ South Sea trading enterprise also brought islanders.

Given this breakdown it is perhaps surprising that no non-conformist churches were erected in Millers Point and no public hotels reflect discernible sectarian affiliations. This is perhaps indicative of the transient nature of the local population.

Migration Millers Point in being an area long associated with overseas shipping is association with the story of migration to Australia. This is demonstrated at Pier 1 at Walsh Bay which was used by the large ocean liners of British shipping companies prior to the 1950s. Associated with is the hall of Holy Trinity (Garrison) Church which was used from 1924 as a branch office of the Church of England Migration Council, an organisation that offered services to assist the reception and settlement of British migrants. The Council would seem to have been a development of an earlier group known as Church of England Welcome Home for Overseas Arrivals which had premises in Gloucester Street in the 1910s.

Evidently associated with the Church of England Migration Council was the Empire Service Hostel in Windmill Street, which started to accommodate newly arrived migrants in 1925.

Commerce The impetus for the development of wharf and storage facilities at Millers Point/Walsh Bay came with the pastoral expansion of the colony and the wool export trade of the 1830s. The prominent


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merchants of this era included William Walker and Co., John Lamb, Aspinall and Brown, and Timothy Gordon Pittman. These men and their companies had established in the 1820s wharves on the foreshore of what is today known as Walsh Bay. By the early 1850s nine commercial wharves were operating in the area including Robert Towns’ wharf at the end of Kent Street, Moore’s wharf on Millers Point, and the wharves of Bott, Macnamara, Ebsworth, Alger, and Duke.

Moore’s wharf was typical of the enterprising spirit of these merchantile houses. The company was founded by Captain Joseph Moore who settled in Sydney in 1820 on acquiring a share in the firm of Jones and Walker, and in 1837 acquired William Long’s wharf at Millers Point. His son, Henry, developed the company through the nineteenth century. Much of the bullion sourced form the gold fields of the colony was exported from Moore’s wharf in the 1850s, while the first direct English mail delivered under contract arrived at Moore’s wharf in 1853. Moore’s bond store, built in 1835 by William Long using local stone, was relocated by the Maritime Services Board in 1978 to the northern edge of Walsh Bay.

The export of wool and other goods, such as gold, brought the construction of new storage facilities for wool stores and bonded warehouses (where goods are held for payment of government duties). From the 1860s the foreshore area of Walsh Bay became increasingly devoted almost entirely to warehousing. Further to the west along Darling Harbour the Grafton warehouses were established in the 1830s but principally date from 1881 (and are now substantially demolished).

During the 1880’s there was a shift to investing in new wool stores such as Hentsch’s (now Oswald’s Bond Store) with the extensive capital backing required being secured through shares in public companies. Representatives of this change was the Australasian Mortgage and Agency Company, the owners of the Central Wharf at Walsh Bay. The company was formed by a large Edinburgh based financial company in 1879 with a capital of 1,500 pounds. Initially trading from Melbourne, the Sydney company office was opened in 1881 with the operations at Walsh Bay being established in 1887 with the newly formed Central Wharf Co. The board of directors of Central Wharf Co. included prominent graziers James White and George Henry Cox. The initial temporary facilities at Walsh Bay were markedly upgraded with the construction of the Central Store in Windmill Street around 1892. The Central Wharf Co. continued to trade at Walsh Bay, but as a stevedoring company, well into the twentieth century.

The largest warehouse of the twentieth century was Dalgety’s for which a large longshore berth and woolstore complete with modern mechanical handling devices was completed by the Sydney Harbour Trust in the early 1900s (Walsh Bay Wharf 11 and Darling Harbour Wharves 1a, 1b & 2. Dalgety & Co had extensive premises throughout the city but centralised its wool and bond stores at Millers Point with the New Bond and Free Stores in Munn Street, and wool stores in Merriman Street. Dalgety’s continued to operate its wool handling facility operation at Millers Point into the 1950s.

In servicing the needs of the local residents and visiting seamen, many Sydney ‘business identities’ in the nineteenth century secured a reliable source of income in operating a licenced public hotel. The Lord Nelson was built by the former plasterer William Wells in the 1830s as a residence and later as a hotel, while the stonemason George Paton (builder of part of the Garrison Church) built the Hero of Waterloo in 1843.

Other basic services were provided by grocers, bakers, butchers and the like. By 1880 there was a cluster of these stores along Argyle Street near Kent Street and isolated examples elsewhere.

Few shops of the nineteenth century survived the demolitions of 1900-1910’s. The building at Lower Fort Street is one example built in 1842 as a hotel (The Young Princess and later The Whalers Arms), but was used for nearly a century as a shop. Another is 56-58 Bettington Street which was built in 1877 and used as a grocer’s shop.

The Sydney Harbour Trust built a number of purpose built shops to replace the older retail built a number of purpose built shops to replace the older retail building stock. The shops at 1-7 and 6-12 Argyle Street are such development completed in 1910 and 1905 respectively. A singular example is 75-76 Lower Fort Street which was completed in 1927 and was used as fruiterers.

The Sydney Harbour Trust designed their new retail premise to suit particular uses. This is evident at the former ‘Kentish Dining Room’ at 9 Argyle Street completed in 1910 and probably originally associated with catering for the needs of the local labourers.


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Another form of investment, property, was popular in the nineteenth century as it is in today’s hyperventilated market.

New building stock was constructed for the rental market by local investors as well as from the ‘bigger end’ of town. Solicitor George Wigram Allen’s Alfred Terrace in Kent Street is an example of the later, but in the same street a number of terraces were built for local shipwrights in the 1870s at the end of the shipbuilding era in Millers Point with the closure of Cuthbert’s yard. Examples include 53-55 Kent Street (1876/77), 82-88 Kent Street (1868/70), 71-73 Kent Street (1876/77), and 75-79 Kent Street (1875). In Lower Fort Street there is Robert Drysdale’s Eagleton Terrace of the same era (1876).

The need for accurate time led to the decision to build a visible Time Ball which was operated by an astronomer for the benefit of increasing the volume of shipping to allow the Colony to engage in commerce and business.

Communication Some months after land fall at Sydney Cove in 1788 the tip of the promontory of Millers Point was utilised for a flagstaff on present day Observatory Hill to communicate with the maritime fleet. This role was expanded in 1790 with a second flag station erected at South Head to notify the arrival of vessels. Following the completion of Fort Phillip the flagstaff was relocated around 1808-1811 to an area east of the rampart, and became known as Flagstaff Hill.

Under Governor Macquarie the system of flag stations was upgraded to a telegraph (or semaphore system) with the erection around 1821 with semaphores and flags at Fort Phillip and South Head. The first master of the telegraph station at Fort Phillip was James Stewart who was provided with a residence at the fort.

In the mid 1820s the telegraph system was extended to Mays Hill on the heights above Government House at Parramatta with two intermediary relay stations (Gladesville and Dundas). The telegraph stations at Fort Phillip and South Head were converted to electric telegraph in 1857 to improve shipping intelligence, but the communication system was also extended to Liverpool at same time.

Environment-cultural landscape Charged with total control over Port Jackson and a large portion of land located to the west of the Sydney CBD, the work of the Sydney Harbour Trust is unique in the sense that it had the mandate to reorganise wharfage in Sydney and this by sweeping away at the birth of a new century the baggage of a nineteenth century townscape - poorly aligned and graded roads, uncoordinated development of valuable foreshore space, and inadequate workingmen’s housing. The impact this work is discernible to this day in Hickson Road, Pottinger Street and High Street, stone retaining walls (rear of Milton Terrace, Lower Fort Street), pedestrian stairs (Windmill and Hickson Road Steps), and public housing and amenities.

The role of the City Council in listing the whole of the Millers Point/The Rocks as an area of historic and architectural significance in its Strategic Plan of in 1971 reflects recognition by the wider community of the historic value of the area since the 1950s. The Argyle Place precinct for example was listed in the late 1950s by the Historic Building Committee of the now defunct Cumberland County. The National Trust of Australia (NSW), established in the 1940s, also listed buildings and townscape features such as Argyle Place in the early 1960s. However in an era without statutory protection for historic built environment militant unions such as the NSW Branch of the Builders Laborers Federation effectively stymied developers’ proposals through ‘Green Bans’.

The first statutory protection of the area came in 1977 with the passing of the Heritage Act and establishment of the Heritage Council by the newly elected Wran Labour government. While individual buildings in Millers Point were protected under the provisions of the Act, in 1988 the Heritage Council acknowledged the Millers Point Heritage Conservation Area as being of state and national significance. In mid-1989 the Central Sydney Heritage Inventory identified Millers Point as a heritage precinct. In 1999, the Millers Point Heritage Conservation Area was placed on the State Heritage Register (SHR). Other listings included the Observatory and the Garrison Church Group, and a separate SHR listing protecting Walsh Bay wharves and its related structures. Both individual and group listings of buildings and structures relating to Millers Point have also been identified by the Register of the National Estate, including the Walsh Bay Wharves and The Rocks Heritage Conservation Area.


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The work of the Sydney Cove Authority (now absorbed into the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority) from the late 1980s increasingly emphasised the heritage of The Rocks and adjoining areas of Millers Point though the provision of guided walks, interpretative signage, etc. Recent private development of the Walsh Bay Precinct under the supervision of the Heritage Office as consent authority has resulted in comprehensive interpretation schemes to inform both the local and overseas visitors about the history of the area. Events The general unhealthy atmosphere of the wharf areas had been regularly noted in the late nineteenth century with their unhygienic sewerage and water services, noxious smells of the wharves and waterside industry, and disease spread from the passing ships. In January 1900, at the dawn of a new century, a flea-born outbreak of plague carried by rats arrived in Sydney via the overseas trading wharves. The first recorded infection was Arthur Payne of Ferry Lane. By February the first victim was claimed, a resident of Sussex Street, Darling Harbour. The localisation of the outbreaks to the wharf areas of Sydney was no coincidence as the construction of the nineteen century wharves (earth fill construction infested by rats) was a major contributing factor. As were the old and neglected houses of poor construction, some dating back to the 1820s..

During early March there was a general air of public panic in Sydney, and on the 23rd legal control of the wharf areas was assumed under the Quarantine Act of 1897. The plague promoted bipartisan action by members of the Legislative Assembly under Premier W.J. Lyne to sign a petition to resume the foreshores of Darling Harbour. The resumption was proclaimed in May with the Darling Harbour Wharves Resumption Act. Resumed areas included most of the waterfront property from Dawes Point down Windmill, Kent and Sussex Streets beyond Pyrmont Bridge. A program of quarantine, cleansing and disinfecting was rigorously implemented. Wharf activities were effectively suspended, and many labourers and shipping employees detained in quarantine zones.

The residential areas neighbouring the wharves around Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks, the Observatory Hill Resumption Are, were proclaimed to be resumed within two years from 1900. The AGL gas works were excluded from the initial resumption, but was subsequently resumed in 1912. In all 900 properties were acquired.

The resumption, at a cost of over one million pounds, directly cleared the way for the government under the Sydney Harbour Trust and City improvement Advisory Board to rebuild the wharves to meet modern shipping standards and indirectly endowed Sydney with a large area of historic waterside commercial and residential buildings in public ownership.

Science Within months of the Europeans settling at Sydney Cove a makeshift observatory had been established by Lieutenant William Dawes on the tip of the promontory (Dawes Point) to the west of the settlement. Dawes had a particular interest in astronomy had enjoyed the friendship and patronage of the Astronomer Royal, the Rev. Dr Maskelyne.

The Observatory, Sydney’s first, was disbanded with the return of Dawes to England in 1791. Interest in astronomy in the colony was revived in 1821 with the establishment of an observatory at Parramatta with the support of Governor Brisbane. Over the 1840s the need for new observatory was debated in the colony and the site of Fort Phillip initially settled on in 1850, although it was not until 1857 that the site was confirmed and tenders called for its construction under the direction of colonial architects Alexander Dawson. The building was completed in 1859 and the new government astronomer, the Rev. William Scott settled in with his family. Plans for Sydney Observatory began as a simple time-ball tower, to be built near the signal station. Every day at exactly 1.00pm, the time ball on top of the tower would drop to signal the correct time to the city and harbour below. The erection of the time ball was a result for the need of an accurate time device and the subsequent decision to build a visible time ball at the Observatory, operated accurately by an astronomer for the benefit of the increased volume of shipping to allow the Colony to engage in commerce and business. At the same time a cannon on Fort Denison was fired. It was soon agreed to expand the tower into a full observatory. Designed by Alexander Dawson, the observatory consisted of a domed chamber to house the equatorial telescope, a room with long, narrow windows for the transit telescope, a computing room or office, and a residence for the astronomer. In 1877, a western wing was added to provide office and library space and a second domed chamber for telescopes. Under Henry


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Chamberlain Russell, in the 1880s Sydney Observatory gained international recognition. Russell took some of the first astronomical photographs in the world, and involved Sydney in one of the greatest international astronomy projects ever undertaken, The astrographic catalogue and measurement of the transit of Venus. The catalogue was the first completed atlas of the sky. The Sydney section alone took 80 years and 53 volumes to complete. In 1877 Russell published the first daily weather map in the Sydney Morning Herald. After federation in 1901, meteorological observations became a Commonwealth government responsibility, but astronomy remained with the states. Sydney Observatory continued working on the astrographic catalogue, keeping time, making observations and providing information to the public. Every day, for example, the Observatory supplied Sydney newspapers with the rising and setting times of the sun, moon and planets. Observatory Hill is significant as the site of the first dedicated building for meteorology in Australia in 1859 and as one of the key locations from where Sydney’s weather is still measured.

The choice of the site in close proximity to the city was soon found to be unsuited to its role being disadvantaged by high levels of city light, traffic vibration and magnetic disturbance. The transfer of some of the utilitarian aspects of the work of the observatory, especially meteorology in 1908, with the establishment of Bureau of Meteorology, reduced its profile with the public and government. In 1917 the Bureau moved to the Messenger’s cottage for Sydney Observatory. The purpose built Weather Bureau Building was occupied by forecasting and technical staff, as well as a residence for the Regional Director between 1922 and 1963. After this time it was occupied by technical staff until 1992 when it became unoccupied and remains so to date. By the mid 1970s the increasing problems of air pollution and city light made work at the Observatory more and more difficult. The commitment of the Observatory to an international observing program began in 1890 prevented the government from closing it down in the 1920s, but also stopped it from taking part in the 20th century advances in modern astronomy. The scientific work at the Observatory continued until 1982, in turn it became a museum of astronomy and a public observatory.

Health The heights of Millers Point were favourable to the establishment of a hospital for the military garrison at Sydney Cove. The hospital was completed early in Governor Macquarie’s term in 1815 to a design prepared by his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant John Watts. The hospital was designed to accommodate one hundred patients in large open wards over two floors, with separate quarters for surgeons at each end. The hospital featured a sweeping double storey verandah (one of the first examples in Australia) and enclosed grounds for the patients to recuperate. With the removal of the soldiers to new barracks outside of the town at Paddington in the 1840s, the hospital was closed and converted to a public school – The Fort Street National School or Model School.

In the 1920s the Sydney Eye Hospital government services in the area returned. In the 1950s the Baby Health Centre in Lower Fort Street was opened. This was a joint venture run by the Department of Health in conjunction with the City Council.

Industry Unlike many of Sydney’s inner city suburbs or villages Millers Point was never an area associated with colonial industry. Ship building was undertaken on a limited scale through to around 1880.

The first of the ship building yards in the area was established by James Munn by 1825 located at the foot of Munn Street and Clyde Street. Other yards of this era were operated by John Redgrave, Joseph Faris and Andrew Summerbell.

In the mid 1840s Lawrence Corcoran took over Munn’s yard, which in turn was acquired by John Cuthbert. Cuthbert’s yard was one of the most extensive in the colony employing upward of 250 men at the ed of the 1960’s. Cuthbert’s yard at Millers Point opened in 1856. A number of steam ships were built here for local shipping firms such as the A.S.N. Co. and the government. The yard area measured about four acres, much of which was reclamation. There was a large jetty and yard comprising blacksmiths’ shops, carpenters’ sheds, sail lofts, steam saw mill, etc and large store of timbers, most sourced from the Sydney region. In 1862 Cuthbert won a silver medal for a selection of local timbers displayed at the Great International Exhibition in London. In addition to new construction, the yard had a profitable business in refitting vessels, many from


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England requiring repair. The yard closed in the 1870s and the site was redeveloped by T.A. Dibbs for wharfage. The site is now part of the longshore wharf scheme on Darling Harbour built by the Maritime Services Board in the 1970s.

Smaller boat building yards also operated in the area including Langford’s yard to the South of Cuthbert’s on Darling Harbour. This yard had an enviable reputation for its watermen’s skiffs.

Technology and Engineering Challenges The local topography of the Millers Point and Walsh Bay area characterised by rock outcrops and escarpments presented from the outset of European settlement unique engineering responses.

In the mid nineteenth century the Argyle Cut was put through over 1840s and 1850s by the government, and later in the decade private capital built some of Sydney’s unique wharfs at Walsh Bay. The noted civil engineer Norman Selfe designed costly improvements at the Central Wharf and Parbury’s Wharf which presented ‘problems never before encountered in the city’.

In the twentieth century the Sydney Harbour Trust redeveloped the wharves at Walsh Bay to accommodate the largest ships of the time providing jetties comparable to the ports of San Francisco and New York.

The engineers of the Sydney Harbour Trust were at the forefront of introducing reinforced concrete technology to New South Wales with the construction of a concrete sea wall between 1902 and 1910 along the eastern shore line of Darling Harbour and Walsh Bay. The wall was a direct response to the general panic experienced in Sydney at the time due to the outbreak of plague with its design being rat-proof and self-cleansing.

In the nineteenth century, the handicap of low berths backed by high escarpments at Walsh Bay necessitated hydraulic equipment to haul goods. At least three hydraulic plants were operated by Parbury’s, Dalton’s and Central Co’s wharves. In the twentieth century the wharves were fitted with hydraulic and electrically operated machinery. At Pier 8/9, originally the best equipped wharf at Walsh Bay, the mechanised handling equipment reflected the primary use of the wharf for wool handling by the Central Wharf Co.

At the centre of the Sydney Harbour Trust scheme for the reconstruction of Sydney’s wharfage is Hickson Road intended to improve road access to the berths. The road was initially planned to extend from Dawes Point to Sussex Street and on to Darling Island. While the full scheme was never completed the wide low level road allowed for access to all of the Sydney Harbour Trust’s wharves from Circular Quay West to Darling Harbour. In doing so, the Sydney Harbour Trust engineers built a road network on a scale not experienced to that time. Hickson Road is also notable for the reinforced concrete bridges over Munn, Windmill and Argyle Streets completed over 1910-1914permitting high-level access to the wharfs, and the intersecting New Pottinger Street which for most of its length is a reinforced concrete viaduct.

The construction of the Harbour Bridge was the ultimate demise of the Dawes Point battery and Greenways Guardhouse both being razed to the ground and on completion the ground levels were then changed around them. Engineers building the bridge, including Dorman and Long were accommodated in the Officers Quarters and another Officers’ residential building to the north of the battery. The southern approach road of the Harbour Bridge was constructed from materials brought to the site by barge. To facilitate this a railway was built from the northernmost tip of Dawes Point to George and Cumberland Streets. The railway was elevated on timber supports and bogies were winched up the incline. The railway was dismantled by late 1925 when excavation commenced for the South Pylon. At the same time the eight piers were erected, two of which impinged on the remains of the battery. In the second half of 1925 the site of the Greenway Guardhouse was demolished and became an important part of the construction of the bridge. In order to hold back each half of the Bridge’s arch until they met in the middle “U” shaped tunnels were excavated to depths of some 40 meters on either side of the harbour. The inlet for the southern shaft was situated on the site of the former guardhouse). On completion of the Bridge in 1932 any remaining battery buildings were demolished, although some of the sandstone retaining walls and steps in the vicinity of the Officer’s quarters were retained.

The expressway was first proposed in 1945 as part of an overall expressway plan for Sydney. Public opposition began when the proposal was first made public in 1948, with the Quay Planning Protest Committee being formed. Despite the opposition, construction on the elevated section of the expressway went ahead in 1955. Funding was provided by the Sydney Council and the NSW


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Government, and the elevated section was opened on 24 March 1958. Work on the sunken section commenced almost straight away after that, and the additional section was opened on 1 March 1962. The Expressway is named after the then NSW Premier Joseph Cahill, who also approved construction of the Sydney Opera House. While a vital link in the Sydney road system, it is generally not well loved by Sydneysiders, for its ugly appearance and the way it divides the city from its waterfront. The Cahill Expressway was controversial from when it was first proposed. Its elevated nature, proximity to the city and utilitarian appearance meant that when the design of the elevated section was first unveiled to the public, it was described as ridiculous, ugly, unsightly and a monstrosity. An early example of freeway revolt. Sydney Morning Herald writer Elizabeth Farrelly describes the freeway as 'doggedly symmetrical, profoundly deadpan, severing the city from the water on a permanent basis' (SMH, 12/02/02-Opening up the Cahill Expressway won't be a dynamic change).

Transport The location of Millers Point with its extensive water frontage was ideally suited for shipping purposes, and merchants tapped in to its potential by erecting private jetties and wharves with associated storage for goods. The first wharf at Walsh Bay was established by William Walker in the 1820s adjoining Dawes Point.

The early shipping industry was predominantly associated with the South Seas whaling and sealing trade victualing vessels while in port. The impetus for the large scale redevelopment of wharfage facilities came with pastoral expansion of the 1830s and the demand for wharves capable of accommodating international shipping. Coinciding with the growth in wool exports was an increase generally in shipping following the relaxation of duties imposed by the British East India Company, which had a longstanding government sanctioned monopoly on trade in the Indian and Pacific oceans. By 1835 at Millers Point were aforementioned Walker’s wharf, Lamb’s wharf (later Parbury’s), Aspinall and Brown’s wharf (later Central) and Bettington’s (later Dibb’s wharf).

An early impediment to the development of wharfs was the deep water off Walsh Bay which required expensive piling. Nevertheless by 1860 finger jetties had appeared along the shoreline and continued to be built over the 1870s. This era of wharf-building heralded the introduction of new wharf designs, such as the two-storey jetty shed (where loading into ships was from the upper level and unloading from the lower level). At Parbury’s wharf a deep water frontage of 85m could accommodate large vessels on the overseas trade and a large open area to store goods in transit.

With reorganisation of the wharfage in the area between 1910 and 1922 by the Sydney Harbour Trust, the principal commercial activity at Walsh Bay continued to be shipping general overseas cargo. The number of operators was reduced to three principal companies - Central Wharf Co. (Pier 8/9), Burns Philp & Co. (Pier 6/7), and the Commonwealth Government Line of Steamers (Pier 4/5). A number of other companies used the facilities offered at the Sydney Harbour Trust’s open wharves (Piers 1, 2/3), and the Blue Funnel Line used the Central Wharf Co’s Pier 8/9. Of these, the Central Wharf Co. was the only company which operated out of Walsh Bay both before and during the resumption. Pier 1 was provided for international passenger ships and fitted with specialised machinery and areas to suit this traffic.

The decline in shipping using Port Jackson commenced in the 1930s with a 43% decrease in the number of ships handled in the port between 1937 and 1954. However for the same period there was a 9% increase in the total tonnage of goods going through the port due to the larger and more specialised ships (containerisation, roll-on-roll-off, and bulk materials handling, etc.)

Over the 1970s Port Botany was developed to handle this shipping traffic and the older facilities at Walsh Bay were either closed or redeveloped. Indicative of these changes was the demolition of Walsh Bay wharves 10A/10B and 11 and Darling Harbour wharves 3-6 in the mid-1970s for the construction by the Maritime Services Board of new facilities for international containerised shipping. The harbour control tower at Millers Point was constructed in 1974 as part of this ambitious port redevelopment.

At a local level a steam ferry service to North Sydney berthed at the end of Pottinger Street from the 1850s.

Accommodation


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The relatively secluded enclave of the heights of Millers Point was the residence of many of the city’s merchants who had commercial interests in the wharfs and warehouses situated along the foreshore areas of Darling Harbour, Millers Point and Circular Quay. The merchants in this era also had business interests elsewhere in the world which necessitated frequent trips aboard. The merchant’s housing was more often than not leased.

Around the point, Spencer Lodge was initially tenanted by the merchant Captain John Lamb, Moorecliff was built for Henry Moore and tenanted by Captain Robert Towns, and the eclectic Albion House (now demolished) overlooking Darling Harbour was built around 1826 for William Dawes. Of the houses in Lower Fort Street, a street described by one visitor to Sydney as being ‘probably one of the best neighbourhoods in Sydney, is Clydebank. It’s succession of owners included Joseph Moore, John Terry Hughes and Robert Campbell, Junior. Today the interior is open as a house museum. Of the 1830s housing stock, a particularly fine example of Georgian style townhouses is at 39-41 Lower Fort Street which was designed by John Verge in 1836. Aside from the proximity to their business premises, the area in the early and mid nineteenth century offered the middle classes in their elevated houses a locale with favourable cooling fresh air off the harbour and views to the largely undeveloped harbour and northern harbourside localities. At the other end of the social scale the wharves generated the establishment of small firms of skilled artisans such as shipwrights, transient seamen and labourers who also lived in the neighbourhood in more modest accommodation. The seasonal and casual nature of employment necessitated leasing of rental housing stock; in 1845 84% of the building stock was rental property. As elsewhere in Sydney tenements of between one and four rooms were built to meet this demand with terraces of like buildings indicative of speculative development, although the vast majority of this rental building stock around the wharves has been demolished a number of good examples remain, including:

• Milton terrace in Lower Fort Street which comprises a terrace of ten, three storey houses built in 1880 for Donald Larnach, the son-in-law of the merchant William Walker who had established a trading wharf at Dawes Point in the 1820s. these grand houses were leased during the late nineteenth century by the late 1880s some were being used as boarding houses. The terraced row was still in possession of the Larnach family in 1900.

• The fine Regency style townhouses at 67-61 lower Fort Street were erected in 1855/57 for the opticians and jewellers John & Henry Flavelle. The Flavelle’s built the neighbouring terrace at 63-65 Lower Fort Street in 1891. Both terraces were still owned by the Flavelles in 1900.

• Alfred Terrace at 37-47 Kent Street, was built in 1870 for the solicitor George Wigram Allen.

The local ship’s blacksmith George Talbot built a number of terraces around the Point in the 1840s including 7-13 Dalgety Terrace, which were retained in family ownership to 1900.The village of the 1830s and 1860s was therefore insular and self-sufficient, existing primarily to service the shipping trade. This dichotomy of represented by members of the wealthy merchant class, skilled tradesmen, and labourers closely set together distinguished Millers Point from other areas of colonial Sydney.

By the 1870s the western half of the city was the most urbanised, and contained the city’s oldest building stock. At Millers Point with the expansion of the wharves and warehouses some of the wealthier landlords moved out and the majority of residents were labourers who because of the casual nature of wharf works required rental accommodation close to the place of employment so labourers would not to miss the pick-up of mustered men by the stevedoring company for the days’ work. Speculative developers and absentee landlords were again active in this era with demand for wharfside accommodation reflected in higher rents. Evidence of these tenements has now largely been removed through the slum clearance of the early years of the twentieth century of cottages on the south side of Windmill Street, the east side of Upper Fort Street and the tenements of the now removed Hart Street, Clyde Street, Wentworth Street and Unwin Street.

While the initial aim of the Sydney Harbour Trust was the commercial redevelopment of the area vested in it, this purpose soon included the provision of housing for workers to reside near their place of work. The Trust (and later the Housing Board) reshaped worker’s housing in the area. This was undertaken in two ways: the demolition of much of the older housing stock during the period 1901-1910 as a plague-prevention measure and to make way for new warehousing and wharfs (for example 40 buildings were demolished in Thornton Street, Munn Street and Argyle


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Street in connection with the Walsh Bay wharfs), and the construction of new ‘model’ housing intended for the rental market for single men and families.

The model housing followed the recommendations put forward in 1902 by the City Improvement Advisory Board (whose chairman was architect Varney Parkes). This Board was established in 1901 to provide advice on the properties which the Government had resumed. It recognised the need for wharf labours to live near their place of work and proposed model housing which incorporated flat dwellings. Purpose built boarding houses, such as the eight room premise at 9 Argyle Street, were also completed in this period to meet the demands of the single person.

Between 1907 and 1917 the Sydney Harbour Trust, the Housing Board and the Government Architect’s Branch of the Public Works Department constructed dwellings and shops throughout Millers Point. Much of the housing stock built by the Trust pre-dates the wharves they built:

1905 –four combined shops/dwellings in Argyle Street designed by the Sydney Harbour Trust

1908 – thirty two model houses in Windmill Street designed by the Government Architect’s Branch

1908 –twenty two dwellings in Dalgety Road designed by the Sydney Harbour Trust

1910 –seventy two flats along High Street with Lance Kindergarten designed by the Sydney Harbour Trust

1910 –four shops at the corner of Argyle and High Street designed by the Sydney Harbour Trust

1910 - twelve dwellings in Munn Street designed by the Sydney Harbour Trust

1910 – nine dwellings in Lower Fort Street and Trinity Avenue designed by the Government Architect’s Branch

With the exception of eighteen flats constructed in High Street in 1917, construction of new worker housing effectively ended with the declaration of the first world war, so that ultimately the number of hotels, housing and shops in Millers Point was considerably fewer in number than before the resumption and demolition. No new housing was constructed until the 1980s.

It is probable that the model housing provided by the government in this era was influenced by contemporary developments being completed in London by the Architect’s Branch of the London County Council (LCC). The LCC buildings were ‘walk up’ flats erected from 1900. In common with the housing at Millers Point the LCC buildings are striking in their bold architectural detailing drawing on the in vogue Arts and Craft style qualities of honesty, originality and urban presence.

Tentative advances in providing alternative modes of accommodation for the working classes following such overseas developments had actually been attempted in the final years of the nineteenth century as demonstrated by M. Stevens’ apartments at 73 Windmill Street.

The Anglican Church parish of Holy Trinity in its own modest way also contributed to this need to provide modern accommodation through the building in 1907 of the rectory and adjoining residential terraces on Lower Fort Street. The terraces were leased to local residents on a boarding house commercial basis. Both the old and new housing was tenanted by people whose lives were bound up with the wharves, also allowing the Trust to maintain its own work force and in essence Millers Point became a ‘company town’ with the Trust, and later the Maritime Services Board, being landlord for these new properties as well as for the older housing stock, such as the former merchant’s townhouses that were converted to boarding houses.

While much of the housing stock within Millers Point has remained in government ownership, operated through agencies such as the Department of Housing, redevelopment pursued by private enterprise since the mid 1980s has rekindled interest in providing contemporary apartment and townhouse living for the city’s professional middle class. This accommodation includes adaptive reuse of former storehouses and wharves, and new infill development.

Between 2004 and 2005 there was a release by the Department of Housing of properties through the sale of 99 year leases, eg 80-92 Windmill Street. 79 Lower Fort Street has initiated a new series of development including expenditure on conservation works.

Land Tenure European settlement of the Millers Point/Walsh Bay area commenced well before the 1820s although formal Crown grants were not issued until the 1830s. While some occupations were documented as granted leases, other parcels were evidently not and by the mid 1830s surety of land title necessitated a Crown Commissioner of Claims to issue land grants for most of Millers


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Point. The configuration, size and distribution of the grants acknowledged the existing land usage with large grants for water frontage land, with smaller allotments behind. The difficult terrain necessitated unusual measures to demarcate property boundaries in high retaining walls.

The available land records provide glimpses into the early land occupations. An area of Lower Fort Street around present day no’s 61-67, was granted to William Mannix under a leas of 14 years in 1810. Mannix sold the land to William Davis in 1817. About half the area of land fronting Argyle Place was in the possession of emancipists Susannah Place and Thomas Newman by 1820; Susannah ran a bakery and Thomas quarried the nearby hillside. On the harbour, an area of over one acre of land behind Lower Fort Street was leased to William Brown for 14 years in 1817 and sold to T.G. Pittman in 1828.

Over the nineteenth century the water frontage was reclaimed by the shipping companies and leased from the Crown. With the resumption by the government in 1900 the leases and freehold land were consolidated and on reversion to Crown land opened the way for large scale development unhindered by constraints imposed by traditional property boundaries.

On a broader scale, the colonisation of the area by the Europeans necessitated place names for specific land features and/or areas. By the time of Hoddle, Lanner and Mitchell’s map of 1831 the north-west promontory projecting into the harbour was known as ‘Miller’s Point. Walsh Bay in contrast is a comparatively recent name of around 1922 which commemorates the work of Henry Deane Walsh of the Sydney Harbour Trust. While Millers Point, Dawes Point/Ta-ra and Walsh Bay are the official locality names listed in the Geographical Names Register, there have been a variety of other names over time including Cockle Bay Point (the first name), Bunkers Hill, Maskelynes Point, Goodye, Slaughterhouse Point, Leightons Point, Jack the Millers Point, Tar-ra, Parish St Philip, Flagstaff Hill, West Point, and the Point. Towns, Suburbs and Villages The nucleus of the village of Millers Point was formed in the early 1830s as maritime and other related enterprises radiated outwards from Sydney Cove in response to demands for increased wharfage and storage accommodation. Owing to the topography of the peninsula, prior to the mid 1840s Millers Point was effectively physically removed from the main commercial, administrative and residential areas centred on Sydney Cove and relied on rough rock hewn steps for passage between the town proper and the village. While plans to provide easier access to Millers Point dated from the early 1830s in the Argyle Cut, construction was not commenced until 1843.

In building the Cut and the continuation of Argyle Street the four principal roads of the nineteenth century, Argyle, Kent, Windmill and Fort (Upper and Lower), formed the nucleus of the village with the centre being the park reserve of Argyle Place. The northern edge of the village was defined by the Holy Trinity (Garrison Church), the village church, while the southern edge was defined by a cluster of shops and hotels around the intersection of Kent and Argyle Streets.

This commercial district was redeveloped in the early twentieth century by the government with the provision of shops, a coffee house and post office building. Another innovation of the time was the extension of the city tramway system into Millers Point in 1901. The tramway meandered from George Street North into Lower Fort Street and terminated at Argyle Place.

The residents of the area comprised both the successful wharf-owners and their employees, and labourers and artisans serving the shipping trade mixed with a transient population of seamen. With the rebuilding of the wharves from the 1860s the artisans and merchant gentry gradually moved out and the number of transient seamen declined to be replaced by labourers.

The concentration of commercial, residential and ecclesiastical buildings within a geographically well delineated area set against a backdrop of wharves and warehouses came to define Millers Point as a harbourside district irrevocably associated with maritime activities and a largely self-contained community; something which is still perceived today. Labour Employment in the Millers Point area in the first half of the nineteenth century was mostly associated with the maritime trade – be it labouring at the wharf or warehouse, engaged in a trade such as a shipwright, or signing-on as a seaman. Unlike other areas of Sydney such as Pyrmont, Balmain, and southern Darling Harbour there was no industry in the area aside from the limited number of shipyards.


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Work at the wharves and associated warehousing was initially very labour intensive, but increasing mechanisation, in particular the use of hydraulic powered machinery such as wool presses and lifts, inevitably reduced the demand for labour. While the volume of trade increased over the late nineteenth century and the use of steam powered ships became more prevalent the demand for unskilled labour did not fully employ the pool of labour available as the range of work opportunities in the area also diminished. The oversupply of labourers led to ongoing widespread unemployment in the wharf areas; a situation exacerbated with the influx of rural workers migrating to the city over the winter months seeking work which was also a traditionally slack time for shipping dependent on exporting pastoral produce. In addition, in the overseas wharves at Walsh Bay the required wharf labour was hired through the stevedoring companies which hired a gang of labourers for a specific period on the ‘pick up’ system. The livelihood of wharf labourers was therefore dependent on the seasons, the economy, and the goodwill of the stevedoring companies.

Waterside workers unions had been formed since the 1870s, but initial attempts to reform the labour conditions on the waterfront met with little success. The first true test of unionised labour came in August 1890 with the Maritime Strike which involved a wide variety of occupations aside from maritime workers. The unions lost because the employers were well organised and non-unionised labour was willing to take the strikers’ jobs. The loss not only diminished the status of the unions, but directly impacted on many of the strikers who were blacklisted by the employers; their plight being compounded by the economic downturn of the 1890s which reduced the number of ships calling into the port. Need less to say the pick-up system continued.

Over the twentieth century unionised labour gradually succeeded in reforming pay and conditions on the wharves, and the residents of Millers Point came to be predominantly associated with unionised wharf labourers. With federation the new arbitration system was used by the Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) under the leadership of W.M. (Billy) Hughes, later prime minister of Australia, began to improve pay and conditions of its members. The war emergency of the 1939-1945 conflict was effectively used by the WWF under its general secretary Jim Healy to replace the pick up system of hiring labourers by the gang system with a rotating roster of work for union members. Further more far reaching reforms to working conditions and pay were gained over the 1950s. The wharf labourers at Millers Point enjoyed full employment through to the 1970s..

The housing at Millers Point funded and managed by the state was the domain of the men and their families who worked the wharves. Married labourers had access to the houses through local employment or family affiliation. The boarding houses managed on behalf of the state by landlords and landladies provided temporary accommodation for itinerant workers or single men on a long-term basis.

This close bond between labourer and the wharf in regard to places of employment and residence began to break down from the 1960s as regular working hours and improved pay coinciding with improvements in communication (radio call-ups) and transport (private motor car and improvement in the road network) and suburban expansion provided provide opportunities to move away from the area and thus sever the longstanding link between work and residence.

In Millers Point there are a number of places that demonstrate the role of organising wharf labour such as Abraham Mott Hall which includes the former Coal Lumpers Union office, and Towns Place which is associated with the pick-up’ system of wharf employment. In contrast there are few places directly associated with seaman such as the Rawson Building.

Education From the beginning of European settlement until government reforms of the late 1840s, the provision of primary education was left entirely to the churches and private schools. The Anglican Church, as the colony’s only official religion, initially benefited from this policy through the receipt of state aid with the battle to secure a more equitable education system commencing in the mid 1830s under Governors Bourke and Gipps.

With increasing residential settlement of Millers Point in the early 1830s both the Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Church moved to establish schools in the area respectively St Brigid’s in Kent Street opened in 1835 and the Anglican’s Holy Trinity (Garrison) school in the former Princes Street was established in 1844. The present former schoolhouse attached to the church was probably completed by the beginning of 1846. Another church school was attached to the nearby St Philip’s Church Hill.


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St Brigid’s (or St. Bridget’s) initially offered co-education facilities under the instruction of lay teachers. In 1843 the Christian Brothers were charged with the care of the school and at this time became a boys’ school. In later years from 1880 the school was run by the Sisters of St. Joseph and from 1901 the Sisters of Mercy. The school operated in association with other neighbouring Catholic schools at St. Patrick’s and the demolished St. Michael’s.

In 1848 the church schools came under the administrative control of the Denominational School Board. Denominational schools were part of Governor FitzRoy’s reforms to provide for a secular public education system through the state run National Schools administered by the Board of National Education and concurrently retain the church system of parochial schools maintained by the churches under the umbrella of Denominational Schools.

The former National School on Observatory Hill opened in 1850 in the former Military Hospital of 1815. The former hospital was transformed by colonial architect Mortimer Lewis and the original graceful verandahs formed into arched arcades. The school was initially used as model school to instruct teachers on oganising and managing a national school. The school was later named Fort Street and was the largest school in the National School system. Sir Edmund Barton, Australia’s first prime minister, attended Fort Street School.

State funding for all parochial schools ceased in 1882 with the passing of the Public Instruction Act, at which time the Anglican Church (known as Trinity School) was absorbed into the government system and the school became, prosaically, Lower Fort Street School. Lower Fort Street School operated through to 1905. At the same time, the Roman Catholic Church continued in funding its schools drawing on services of the Sisters of St. Joseph to care for the children St. Brigid’s and at the former St. Michael’s school and orphanage near the corner of Lower Fort Street and Cumberland Street (removed by the Sydney Harbour Bridge).

While the three schools were close neighbours, the quality of education, student numbers and facilities varied markedly. The best school was the ‘Model PublicSchool’ but even by the early 1880s the design of the classroom accommodation was outmoded, the play grounds poor and the sanitation appalling. The conditions at St. Bridget’s were worse with an enrolment of 200 pupils but no playground and one water closet. Operating concurrently with the church and government schools in the nineteenth century was the Ragged School in Lower Sussex Street from 1860 which expanded into the Rocks in 1862. It relocated to Millers Point in 1907 (location not known). The Ragged School movement was an example of Victorian philanthropy based on English example set up by members of the Anglican Church to provide free education of poor children unable to attend the state-aided primary system.

At the other end of the Victorian class system, to satisfy the aspirations of the merchant class families, a number of finishing schools for ladies were established in the fine houses of Lower Fort Street.

Sydney Observatory has over 15,000 school visitors per year and plays a major part in astronomy students education, particularly to primary school students, senior physics and disability groups.

Defence The security of the penal colony established at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip in 1788 was initially provided by four specially raised companies of Marine Corps. The marines were encamped on the slopes above the western shore of Sydney Cove in The Rocks. The role of the marines was displaced in 1792 with the arrival of New South Wales Corp. The anchorage at Sydney Cove was protected through fortifications built at Dawes Battery (from 1791) and Fort Phillip (Observatory Hill) from 1804 as well as Fort Macquarie (Bennelong Point) in 1817.

The Dawes Battery or West Battery was armed with eight 12-pounders and a pair of 6-pounders. The Battery was remodelled in 1801. Dawes Battery was maintained through the nineteenth century. The battery comprised the fort, powder magazine and adjoining officer’s quarters, and stood atop the northern edge of Dawes Point until 1925 when it was demolished for construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The foundations have recently been uncovered and now form a feature within the park area directly under the southern approach to the Harbour Bridge.

The Battery was soon supplanted by the larger Fort Phillip. The new fort was built in 1804 at the instigation of Governor King who had concerns about the potential for convict insurrection, which proved to be well founded given the Irish convict uprising at Vinegar Hill of that year. The fort was built around the tower of the disused windmill erected in 1797.


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From the late eighteenth century up to the establishment of Victoria Barracks on the heights of the Paddington sand dunes in the 1840s, the troops of Sydney’s garrison were stationed on the western slopes of the valley of the Tank Stream at Wynyard Square. From humble tents and wattle and daub shelters, facilities associated with the garrison were improved through the 1800s and 1810s and a military hospital, designed by Lieutenant John Watts, was opened in 1815 (the present day headquarters of the National Trust of Australia (N.S.W.)) on Observatory Hill.

As the port of Sydney developed in the 1820s and 1830s, and convict transportation ceased in 1841 the need for a large military headquarters in the commercial centre of the town diminished. Following the completion of new barracks erected at Paddington, the George Street barracks were vacated in 1848 and the 15 acres subdivided and sold to form Wynyard Square. The military hospital was converted into the Fort Street Model School at the same time. The hexagonal battlements of Fort Phillip of 1804, designed to carry 24 guns, were reutilised for the Observatory opened in 1859.

With the reorganisation of the military defence of Australia in the 1870s following the withdrawal of Imperial troops, the role of the Imperial Navy came to the force and with it the need to establish a permanent depot to centre its operations in the Pacific Ocean. Garden Island became this depot, but in the years leading to it establishment Dawes Point was given serious consideration.

The association of the Dawes Battery and the Holy Trinity (Garrison) Anglican Church would seem to have been fostered through Captain Francis Hixson, RN. Hixson (1833-1909) was the long serving president of the Marine Board of New South Wales, the commandant of the Volunteer Naval Brigade, and was resident at the Dawes Battery. He was also the chairman of the Sailors’ Home on Lower George Street, and was warden of Holy Trinity up to 1901. Hixson is reported to have ensured a squad of the Naval Volunteer Artillery (attached to the Naval Brigade) attended regular morning services at Holy Trinity; this practice possibly predates the Hixson years.

It is from Rev. S.G. Fielding’s ministry of 1904-1907 that the military associations of the church were instigated on a regular basis. Fielding was the chaplain of the Royal Navy stationed in Sydney and in this capacity drew large congregations of sailors from both the Imperial and Royal Reserve. These functions were no doubt fostered through the occasional attendance by Governor Admiral Sir Harry Rawson at services. At the time of Fielding’s ministry, Charles Rosenthal (later Sir), architect and soldier, was a member of the parish and soloist in the choir. During the second world war, the parish hall of the Holy Trinity (Garrison) Church was converted to a Church of England National Emergency Fund (C.E.N.E.F) hostel. The work of C.E.N.E.F. was widespread, but in this instance related to the provision of a canteen and hostel for servicemen on leave or travelling between postings. The C.E.N.E.F. function continued well into 1950 as a hostel for ex-servicemen forming part of the Anglican Church’s contribution to the provision of post war rehabilitation services.

The church was re-dedicated as Holy Trinity (Garrison) Church at a special memorial service held in 1952, formalising a name that had been in circulation since the time of the first history of the church published in 1940. The regimental insignia (still extant) showing the crests of the various regiments believed to have worshipped at the church were installed throughout the church at this time. In recent years the Royal NSW Regiment has become associated with Holy Trinity Church.The drill hall was completed in 1916 by the Commonwealth of Australia. The need for the hall was perhaps associated with the first world war role in embarking and repatriating troops for until 1920 it was used as a military clothing store. In the inter war era it was the headquarters of the 30th Battalion (NSW Scottish Regiment. Its role in the second world war is not known, but in the post-war years the hall reverted to a battalion headquarters.

Utilities A major nineteenth century industry in the area to the south of Millers Point on Darling Harbour was the gasworks of the Australian Gas Light Company. In the age before electricity, reticulated gas supply was integral to the functioning of any major nineteenth century town and city and a technological advancement of civic pride.

The Australian Gas Light Company was a privately owned company formed in the financially buoyant 1837 and acquired land in Kent Street at the southern edge of the study area near Jenkins Street with water frontage to off-load coal, initially supplied from Newcastle. Darling


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harbour throughout the nineteenth century the centre in Sydney for the shipping of coal. The works opened in 1841 on completion of the gas holders and retorts and provided reticulated gas for domestic, industrial and municipal consumption (in the form of street lights). Gas production was progressively transferred to Haymarket in the 1850s and then Mortlake from the mid 1880s. The site was acquired by the government in 1912 and cleared by 1922 to allow completion of Hickson Road as the main port road. First electricity cables (5Kv) laid in 1915 from Dawes Point to Milsons Point as part of the first electricity supply to the northern suburbs.

Government and Administration Through the last half of the nineteenth century the Millers Point/Walsh bay area was administered by the City Council, the area being sited within Gipps Ward, which also included the neighbouring Rocks. The local alderman of the nineteenth century were:

• John Peacock, 1842-1843

• JJohn Chapman, 1842-1845

• Daniel Egan, 1842-1853

• Thomas Ryan, 1843-1853

• Henry Fisher, 1844-1853

• George Paton, 1847-1851

• Robert Watson, 1852-1853, 1859-1864

• Owen J. Caraher 1859-1871

• Alexander Smail, 1864-1867

• James Merriman, 1867-1883

• (J.R.) Linsley, 1871-1875

• Thomas Playfair, 1875-1893

• John D. Young, 1879-1893

• Peter F. Hart, 1883-1890

• Isaac E. Ives, 1893-1898

• George E. Smail, 1893-1900

• Robert George Watkins, 1898-1904

Gustavus A. Waterhouse, 1899-1900

Some of these local politicians were associated with maritime activities of the general area; Egan was a shipwright and Merriman was a ship owner as was Peacock. Others such as Paton were local builders and licenced hotel proprietors. Merriman, who was twice mayor in the 1870s, is commemorated in Merriman Street and the fine set of stained glass windows in the Holy Trinity (Garrison) Church. Linsley Terrace was probably named so for its association with John Richard Linsley as owner.

The council in this era was responsible for the provision of water and sanitation services (prior to 1888), the up keep of roads, street lighting, maintenance of park reserves and the swimming pool at Dawes Point etc. It completed in the 1860s a number of notable civic improvements which today are rare as a collection in the context of the city. This work centred on Argyle Place and the relationship of it with the neighbouring Observatory Park and Holy Trinity (Garrison) Church. The first of these major works was the Argyle Cut initially completed in 1859. The terracing of the northern face of Observatory Hill was probably undertaken soon after with the steps and retaining walls completed in 1866. The levelled but ill-formed area below the Observatory Hill was realigned and the present day Argyle Park vested with the City Council and dedicated a reserve for public recreation in 1867. The landscaping of the reserve was probably completed in 1869 with the dedication of the public drinking fountain.

From 1901 the Millers Point/Walsh Bay area had been administered by state government departments. The first being the Sydney Harbour Trust, which was established under the provisions of the Sydney Harbour Trust Act of 1901 and was empowered to administer the port areas resumed in 1900 and Millers Point which had been initially under the jurisdiction of the City Improvement Advisory Board. The Trust was initially administered by three commissioners,


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collectively representing the interests of the government, landlords and shipping: Robert R. P. Hickson, Thomas Francis Waller, and Lachlan Beaton.At the time of the Sydney Harbour Trust control of Millers Point comprised in the resumed areas 401 dwellings, 82 shops or combined shop/dwellings, 23 licenced hotels, 45 factories and workshops. From around 1906 the Sydney Harbour Trust after its ‘vigorous onslaught ... upon the unsanitary conditions then prevalent at the various wharves’ redeveloped the port to provide essential infrastructure at a time when shipping was the principal mode of transporting goods interstate and overseas. The Sydney Harbour Trust was replaced by the Maritime Services Board in 1936 with the Board being responsible for controlling all ports and inland navigable rivers in New South Wales. In managing the port, the Maritime Services Board MSB directly managed controlled the wharves and stores replacing the Sydney Harbour Trust practice of leasing to private companies. With the Maritime Services Board’s new offices at nearby Circular Quay, there were a number of sites at Walsh Bay that housed administrative support functions, inclusive of the Board’s motor garage at Towns Place, manager of bonds at Parbury’s Bond on Hickson Road, the iron and steel depot, blacksmith’s shop, fitters’ shop, electrical, building and wharf construction workshops all on Hickson Road. The sole new non-port related building at Millers Point completed by the Maritime Services Board was the Baby Health Centre in 19552 which was run jointly by the Department of Health and the City Council. Its completion was a forerunner of other changes in the administration of the area with the City Council re-asserting its role after over half a century of inactivity in matters relating to services for the local community. From the mid 1950s the council was partially subsiding the local kindergarten (and acquired the site in 1991). In 1960 the Coal Lumpers Union premises was taken over by the Council and converted to a community centre for the aged pensioners named after Abraham Mott. The neighbouring Harry Jensen Welfare Centre which included a gymnasium for the young was opened by the council in 1966.With the administration of Millers Point by Maritime Services Board post second world war development entirely took a different path to neighbouring areas under the administration of the City Council. While some of the city’s earliest post 1950 high rise office towers (Caltex House) were erected in Kent Street at the fringe of the resumption areas, elsewhere the peninsula evaded the commercial pressures. The first moves on the resumption areas came in 1967 when the government of Sir Robin Askin appointed a commissioner of enquiry, headed by J.W. Overall, to assess The Rocks and propose suggestions for its future. The outcome of this was the establishment of the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority (SCRA) in 1970 and a bold proposal for high rise development. At the same time the City Council in its Strategic Plan of in 1971 for future development of the City listed the whole of the Millers Point/The Rocks as an area of historic and architectural significance. The battle had begun and over the early 1970s the voice of government SCRA clashed with the voice of the people, the local residents, National Trust and unionised building labourers. By 1975 the tide had turned and concern about heritage was on the rise.

During 1986 registrations of interest from developers were sought for the redevelopment of redundant wharves at Walsh Bay to retain and restore the historic wharf structures within a mixed commercial and residential development. By this time, Pier 1 (which ceased as a commercial wharf in 1977) had been redeveloped into a tourist-orientated complex of shops and restaurants, and in 1984 Piers 4/5 was redeveloped as the home of the Sydney Theatre Company. In recent years an additional theatre complex has been completed in Hickson Road. The transfer of the Maritime Service Board’s non-port related property to the portfolio of the Department of Housing commenced in the 1980s. The new landlord filled vacant Millers Point housing with people wanting the public housing thus breaking the tradition of the state funded houses being tenanted by wharf labourers or others associated with maritime activities. Other changes initiated by the Department of Housing included the construction of infill housing and commercial development along Kent Street during the 1980s. Other proposals were unsuccessful and contributed to a renewed determination by groups such as the Millers Point Resident Action Group to protect the unique nature of the precinct. Sale of 99 year leases by Department of Housing including 80-92 Windmill Street and 79 lower Fort Street in 2004-05. Shift in consent authority from SHFA to City of Sydney in 2005.

Law and Order In the minds of some Sydney-siders, Millers Point has been associated with a locality bedevilled with the problems of criminal or ‘rough’ elements. In the late nineteenth century the Argyle Cut emerged as symbolic of a Sydney enclave of degeneracy and the Millers Point Push. The association with larrikinism was undeserved, with the neighbouring Rocks Push more


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responsible for nefarious activities however incidents such as the murder of seaman Tom Pert in 1893 in a brawl outside the now demolished Gladstone Hotel in Moores Road were widely reported.

Creative Endeavour The promontory of Millers Point set within Port Jackson has elicited creative responses by Europeans over generations. In Colonial and early Victorian eras a succession of artists captured views of the promontory and its harbour setting from the heights of Observatory Hill or views of the promontory from the northern shore of the harbour. Countless such images have been generated by professional and amateur artists alike such as Joseph Lycett, Conrad Martins, Samuel Elyard, Joseph Fowles, Frederick Garling, Major Thomas Taylor, George Edward Peacock, John Rae, John Skinner Prout, Sir William Elliot Johnson and Frederick Charles Terry.

In the age of photography the painted image was supplanted by the mechanical with well known works of the area taken for documentary and/or artistic reasons by William Hetzer, Bernard Holtermann, Harold Cazneaux, David Moore, and the nameless photographers employed during the plague cleansing operations of 1901. The unique experience of the Argyle Cut, Observatory Hill, and Argyle Place continues to attract photographers. The fascination with the built character of the area continues in the present generation with occasional use of Hickson Road and the wharves as a backdrop to numerous commercial theatrical films, television series, and television advertising.

The historic built environment expressed individually and as a cohesive whole has engendered a number of creative responses to redundant building stock. An early example was the conservation of Moore’s store of the 1830s through relocation in the mid 1970s to northern shore of Walsh Bay. Concurrently, the Fort Street School was refurbished for use by the National Trust and the S.H. Ervin Gallery in 1975 and 1978 respectively. On a more modest scale, a privately run ‘colonial museum’ opened in 1972 in Palmero Terrace in Lower Fort Street. Work of Government Architects Branch under W.L. Vernon includes Millers Point Post Office (1900) Other architects that have worked in the area includes Hallen, Verge and speculation that Greenway designed 37 Lower Fort Street. The SH Ervin Gallery with its promotion of artistic endeavour and Australian culture marks the beginning of a protracted and on-going program of organised cultural activities in the Millers Point/ Walsh Bay area. Wharf 1 was redeveloped into a tourist-orientated complex of shops and restaurants and Wharves 4/5 were transformed 1984 into the production and presentation space of the Sydney Theatre Company. The other redundant wharves prior to their recent commercial and residential redevelopment were used intermittently through the 1980s and 1990s for events such as Sydney Biennale and the temporary home of the Museum of Fire. As part of the Walsh Bay Precinct redevelopment an entirely new theatre on Hickson Road has been completed as infill development. Leisure With a predominantly working class population, Millers Point has a close association in the minds of contemporary Sydney-siders with historic licenced hotels such as the Lord Nelson. Hotels are the traditional place for social interaction for the working class. Early accounts suggest that there was a proliferation of pubs in the area. By 1900 there were 13, but through redevelopment, changing demography and licensing laws, and the active prohibition movement of the early twentieth the number of pubs in the area has gradually been reduced. The best known hotels are the rare survivors from the mid-nineteenth century, the ‘Lord Nelson’ (licensed 1842) and the ‘Hero of Waterloo’ (1843), but the Sydney Harbour Trust built hotels, the former ‘Dumbarton Castle’ (1908), the ‘Palisade’ (1912) and the ‘Harbour View’ (1922) are also well patronised.

The long gone nineteenth century hotels reveal the sectarian and/or trade affiliations which demonstrate the historical diversity of the area. While some hotel names such as the ‘Quarryman’s Arms’ (late 1830s), ‘Shipwright’s Arms’ (1831) and ‘Blacksmith’s Arms (1836) clearly demonstrate trade associations, the symbolism of other names such as the ‘Old Cheshire Cheese’ and ‘Hit or Miss’ (evidently a hunting association), both in Windmill Street are not as readily apparent. The maritime association is today recalled by the ‘Lord Nelson’ and Captain Cook’ in Kent Street, but in the past there were also the ‘Crown and Anchor’. The military association of the area with the dawees Point battery is reflected in the ‘Hero of Waterloo’. In the twentieth century hotels patronised by the Waterside Workers Federation members were the ‘Lord Nelson’, ‘Captain Cook’ and ‘Dumbarton Castle’. More recently The Palisade Hotel.


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The natural advantages of the Millers Point area with its elevated public land and harbour foreshore has provided he local inhabitant and visitor alike to partake in some unique leisure activities. The heights of Observatory Park was from at least the Macquarie era Crown land reserved alienation for military uses. Aside from the fort and later observatory, and military hospital and later school promontory was not enclosed and judging from the numerous pictures and photograph created from its lookouts created over the nineteenth century popular with Sydneysiders. This role was formalised in the 1910s when the City Council erected a bandstand to the north of the observatory.

The sea baths at Dawes Point erected by the City Council in 1869 may have been a form of leisure activity in the nineteenth century but they were established to provide public baths for the working classes. In most countries such facilities draw on fresh water, but in Sydney in the mid nineteenth century the chronic shortage of water necessitated use of the harbour. The baths at Woolloomooloo Bay were first completed in 1858, Dawes Point followed in 1869 and Pyrmont in 1874. The rapid industrialisation of the harbour and the impact of the harbour sewerage impacted detrimentally on the amenity of the pool. By the time of its demolition by the Sydney Harbour Trust for Pier 1 the baths were managed by the council a under with the Eves family.

The site of the tennis court was originally a western facing slope of Kent Street that was likely to have been extensively quarried to obtain building materials for public works. The date of the quarry has not been determined but it may have been established by Macquarie. By the early 1830s the use of the government quarries lining Kent Street was diminshing as new quarries were opened up at Pyrmont. The building line of Kent Street (formerly a winding track) was established and allotments on the east side of the street were put for sale with a small portion being reserved 'to Supply Stone for a time for the completion of Public Works'. A plan by H Percy Dove in 1880 shows the tennis court site as vacant whilst the remainder of the street had been developed. This suggests that this one such area reserved for further stone quarrying. At the top of the hill to the east of the tennis court site was Fort Phillip, the mills and the Military hospital. The Military hospital was converted to the National School in 1854 with several extensions and additions including the Infants School in 1885. The site of the tennis court was linked to the above sites via the Agar Stair constructed between 1870-1880. In 1900 the tennis court site was included in the large scale resumption of land made under the Darling Harbour Wharves Resumption Act 'for the extension of a system of public wharves and approaches thereto at Darling Harbour'. The resumptions were part of a larger scale resumption of land at Millers Point and The Rocks, following an outbreak of Bubonic Plague. Although the land was resumed as part of the extensive remodelling of Sydney's wharfage and the surrounding suburb, it was never required for this purpose and the land most likely remained vacant. The letting of the land was controlled by the Housing Board, subsequently the Sydney Harbour Trust and then the Maritime Services Board. From the early 1900s, under the control of the Sydney Harbour Trust, it is most likely that the site served as a games court/recreational space for the National School which continued until the boys were relocated to Taverner's Hill in 1916, the infants department was relocated to a new school building near the Observatory in 1941 (Fort Street School) and the girls school was relocated to Petersham in 1974. It is likely that the site was turned into a tennis court in the 1960s to serve the recreational needs of Fort Street School. In 1983 much of the land in Millers Point came under the control of the Department of Housing including the tennis court site. During this time the Isles Delivery Services and Parking Station up the street at 64 Kent was used for new housing projects whilst the tennis court site was not developed. The tennis court and pavilion is currently under the control of Sydney City Council and has been leased by the Observatory Hotel since 1996-7. The federation style pavilion was most likely associated with the use of the site as a games court/recreational space. There are remnants of a iron palisade fence in the stone base that also identify this area as being enclosed land at an early date.

There are over 130,000 visitors annually to Sydney Observatory to stargaze and learn more about astronomy as part of their leisure time. They do this in family groups, as couples or individuals day and night. Seeking expertise or learning as part of leisure-time is a post-modern phenomenon. The Observatory has over 15,000 school visitors per year and plays a major part in astronomy education.

Religion In the first decades of the penal settlement at Sydney Cove prior to the coming of Governor Macquarie there were few purpose built places of worship. The first permanent church in the


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colony was erected by the Rev. Richard Johnson, the chaplain to the First Fleet, in 1793. This wattle and daub structure, situated at the intersection of present day streets of Bligh and Hunter, was destroyed by convicts in 1798. A replacement church, St. Phillip’s, was quickly constructed on Church Hill in 1798, although it was not completed until 1810 and rebuilt in the 1850s. The Anglican parish of St. Phillip is the largest in the city in incorporating the waterfront areas of Darling Harbour and Circular Quay, and the elevated plateau in-between. The parish was also, historically, one of the most populous in the city including the highly urbanised areas of The Rocks, Millers Point, and the wharf side residential areas along Sussex Street fronting Darling Harbour. The parish, when Sydney was a garrison town, also incorporated a significant number of early military institutions inclusive of the fortifications at Dawes Point and Fort Phillip and the military hospital on Observatory Hill. By the 1830s, the parish’s population had increased markedly and the city’s merchants had moved away from Sydney Cove to the newer wharf areas such as Millers Point. This development placed pressures on the old parish church and resulted in the foundation of the Holy Trinity, or Garrison Church, in 1840. The new church had a number of prominent supporters including the Presbyterian Robert Campbell junior (1769-1846) whose special interest in the spiritual welfare of the local seamen and working classes ensured at least a quarter of the available sittings were provided free in an era of pew rents. This role was largely assumed by the Mariners’ Church on George Street North in the Rocks which was established by the Anglican Church associated Bethel Seamen's Union in 1856. St Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church in Kent Street was completed in 1835 as a school house and chapel is the oldest Catholic building in Australia. The building is sited on land granted to the Church by Governor Bourke in 1833 and was designed by the colonial architect Ambrose Hallen. The Catholic Church subsequently expanded its activities in the 1840s through the new parishes of St Patrick’s in Grosvenor Street in 1840 (outside the study area), and St Michael’s later in the century in Cumberland Street behind Lower Fort Street (demolished).

Persons The Millers Point/Walsh Bay area is associated with a number of persons of note in the history of the local area, the city and/or the state. The identification of persons in their role is an ongoing one and largely reflects the concerns and/or outlook of individual and/or community. In some instances these associations are demonstrated through naming of localities and local landmarks – Walsh Bay is named after the first chief engineer of the Sydney Harbour Trust, Henry Deane Walsh, Hickson Road is named after the Trust’s first chairman, Robert Rowan Purdon Hickson, Towns Place recognises Captain Towns wharf and his extensive nineteenth century South Seas trading empire, and Parbury’s bond store recalls Frederick Parbury. In other instances, the contribution of persons established through memorialising and/or commemoration. The Holy Trinity (Garrison) Church for example has a stained glass east window installed in 1861 donated by Dr James Mitchell on behalf of his wife Augusta Maria Frederick (nee Scott). The Scott and Mitchell families were closely associated with The Rocks/Millers Point district in the 1830s/1840s. Of a later generation, James Merriman, a city ship owner, merchant and politician and resident of Osborne House at Argyle Place donated the stained glass Lyon and Cottier and Co.’s windows. Mott Hall is named after Abraham Mott who was a local Labour Party representative and highly respected member of local community in his day (1950s). Other associations are more ephemeral: Australia’s first prime minister attended Fort Street School, Jack 'the miller' Leighton and Lieutenant William Dawes endowed the district with its name, Arthur Payne who lived in Ferry Lane and had the bubonic plague in 1900, William Morris Hughes, a prominent prime minister, was associated with the Waterside Workers Federation as was Jim Healy a generation later. The work of the Catholic Church is associated with the Sisters of St Joseph, Sisters of Mercy and Father Piquet. There are many more persons who have made or are making a contribution to the area who are not identified for brevity. For instance activist Nita McCrae and Shirley Ball are significant for their long and effective leadership to the local community of Millers Point. Shirley was extremely active in the local community, and headed the Millers Point Resident Action Group and worked to ensure the area retained its character and historical importance in an ever-changing city. Established for more than 20 years, major achievements of the

Millers Point Resident Action Group include: heritage listing of Millers Point, establishment of Darling House, a senior citizens residence, creation of a tennis club for local youth, general care and maintenance of the Millers Point area. In March 2003, the City of Sydney awarded Shirley the Key to Millers Point and officially dedicated a local park, known as The Paddock, in her honour.


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Welfare Provision of the welfare and the charity for most of the history of Millers Point/ Walsh Bay was marginal until the government reforms which commenced at the turn of the twentieth century with the Old Age Pension in 1901.

In nineteenth century Sydney the charitable institutions operated bby the state and church were located in areas beyond the study area, However some church groups ran organisations that intermittently acted to alleviate local distress. The demolished St. Michael’s Catholic Church cared for orphaned children in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The Central Methodist Mission opened a Seamen’s Rest Home and the ffirst floor was converted into dormitories for seamen. From 1932 until the early 1950s the building was a relief depot for the local unemployed and destitute.

THEMES

State Themes State Heritage Register Theme Millers Point / Walsh Bay Review Theme

Cultural: Cliffs and escarpments influencing human settlement

Cliffs and escarpments influencing human settlement

Cultural: Coasts and costal features supporting human activities -

Coasts and costal features supporting human activities

Scientific: Geoperiod Triassic Epoch Middle 205 to 215 million years ago -

Environment - natural landscape Features occurring naturally in the physical environment which have significance independent of human intervention and features occurring naturally in the physical environment which have shaped or influenced human life and cultures.

Environments important to Aboriginal traditional and spiritual life - Whaling and sealing for commercial gain

Environments important to Aboriginal traditional life

Eora Nation - sites evidencing occupation -

Eora Nation - sites evidencing occupation

Aboriginal cultures

All nations - places of contact with the colonisers

All nations - places of contact with the

Convict Activities relating to incarceration, transport, reform, accommodation and working during the convict period in NSW

Working for the Crown Working for the Crown

Ethnic influences Activities associated with common cultural traditions and peoples of shared descent, and with exchanges between such traditions and peoples.

Theme not used Sailors and merchants

Migration Activities and processes associated with the resettling of people from one place to another (international, interstate, intrastate) and the impacts of such movements

Theme not used Church support



Commerce Activities relating to buying, selling and exchanging goods and services

Storing goods for bond and customs duties

Serving residents and visitors

Communication Activities relating to the creation and conveyance of information

Theme not used Shipping Intelligence

Landscapes of military activities - Theme not used

Landscapes of urban amenity - Landscapes of urban development

Environment – cultural landscape Activities associated with the interactions between humans, human societies and the shaping of their physical surroundings

Places important in developing conservation processes -

Places important in conservation movement

Events Activities and processes that mark the consequences of natural and cultural occurrences

Places of strikes and industrial actions - Place of pestilence

Fishing Fishing - Activities associated with

Whaling and sealing for commercial gain -

Theme not used


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gathering, producing, distributing, and consuming resources from aquatic environments useful to humans. Health Activities associated with preparing and providing medical assistance and/or promoting or maintaining the well being of humans

Taking control of places affected by infectious diseases -

The military hospital

Managing industrial relations - Theme not used Boat Building and Shipwrighting - Boat building and shipwrighting

Industry Activities associated with the manufacture, production and distribution of goods

Operating wind energy facilities - Theme not used

Pastoralism Activities associated with the breeding, raising, processing and distribution of livestock for human use

Wool storing - Theme not used

Researching archaeological relics and landscapes -

Theme not used

Researching the stars and space - Theme not used

Science Activities associated with systematic observations, experiments and processes for the explanation of observable phenomena

Researching astronomy - Theme not used

Technologies of roads and bridges Technologies of wharfs and seawalls

Technology Activities and processes associated with the knowledge or use of mechanical arts and applied sciences

Technologies of bridge building -

Technologies of machinery

Maintaining maritime transport routes - Maintaining maritime transport routes

Transport Activities associated with the moving of people and goods from one place to another, and systems for provision of such movements Building and maintaining jetties,

wharves and docks - Theme not used

Housing working animals - Theme not used Housing in shop-based accommodation Housing workers and artisans Housing the clergy and religious - Theme not used Accommodating travellers and tourists Theme not used

Housing townsfolk - terraces and cottages -


Housing ship owners and maritime traders -

Housing ship owners and maritime traders

Accommodation Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation

Housing single people in boarding houses –


Naming places (toponymy) - Naming places (toponymy) Fencing boundaries - retaining walls and embankments -

Establishing boundaries and rights of occupation

Land tenure Activities and processes for identifying forms of ownership and occupancy of land and water

Resuming private lands for public purposes -

Resuming private lands for public purposes

Developing towns in response to topography -

Developing a village in response to topography

Planned towns serving a specific industry - -

A maritime village

Towns, suburbs and villages Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages Urban landscapes inspiring creative

responses - Theme not used

Workers organising workers - Workers organising workers Labour Activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour Working on the waterfront - Working on the waterfront

Private (religious) schooling - Private schooling

Education Activities associated with teaching and learning by children and adults, formally and informally

Public (primary) schooling - Public schooling

Memorialising the defenders - Memorialising the defenders

Defence Activities associated with defending places from hostile takeover and occupation Building colonial forts - Building colonial forts

Utilities Theme not used First light


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Activities associated with the provision of services, especially on a communal basis State Theme State Heritage Register Theme Millers Point / Walsh Bay Review

Theme Developing roles for government - parks and open spaces -

Theme not used

Developing roles for government - administering a public health system -

Theme not used

Developing roles for government - town and country planning -

Developing roles for government -town and country planning

Developing roles for government - conserving cultural and natural heritage -

Developing roles for government -conserving cultural and natural heritage

Government and administration Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs

Developing roles for government -taking control of places affected by infectious disease

Developing roles for government –managing ports

Policing and enforcing the law - Theme not used Law and order Activities associated with maintaining, promoting and implementing criminal and civil law and legal processes

Living a life of crime Living a life of crime

Welfare Activities and process associated with the provision of social services by the state or philanthropic organisations

Providing geriatric and old age care - Providing geriatric and old age care -

Inspirational environments and events - Inspirational environments and events

Creating works of art - Urban landscapes inspiring creative responses

Creating works of literature - Urban landscapes inspiring creative responses

Creative endeavour Activities associated with the production and performance of literary, artistic, architectural and other imaginative, interpretative or inventive works; and/or associated with the production and expression of cultural phenomena; and/or environments that have inspired such creative activities

Building in response to natural landscape features. -

Inspirational environments and events

Going to the pub - Going to the pub - Going swimming - Going swimming Going fishing - Theme not used

Leisure Activities associated with recreation and relaxation

Enjoying public parks and gardens - Enjoying public parks and gardens –

Practising Anglicanism - Practising Anglicanism - Practising Catholicism - Practising Catholicism

Religion Activities associated with particular systems of faith and worship Providing halls and other community

facilities – Theme not used

Social institutions Activities and organisational arrangements for the provision of social activities

Places of informal community gathering -

Places of informal community gathering

Associations with Harry Jensen Associations with political figures Associations with Archbishop John Bede Polding Associations with the Sisters of St. Joseph

Associations with the religious

Associations with Henry Moore Associations with William Walker Associations with Jack Leighton Associations with Robert Towns

Associations with men of commerce

Associations with William Dawes Associations with military figures Associations with Ted Brady Associations with William Morris Hughes Associations with Watersside Workers Federation Associations with Jim Healy

Associations trade union organisers

Persons activities of, and associations with identifiable individuals, families and communal groups

Associations with Arthur Payne Associations with the Millers Point Push

Associations with notoriety


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Associations with Cadigal clan Associations with Colbee

Theme not used

Associations with Norman Selfe Theme not used Associations with public servants

APPLICATION OF CRITERIA Historical significance SHR criteria (a)

Natural

• Not applicable Indigenous

• The area was occupied by the Cadigal, Wangal, Borogegal and Gameragal clans. The Precinct retains some of these clans place names and is illustrated by several early colonial artists and cartographers in its pre-colonial landform and vegetation, sometimes with Aboriginal people in view, making it one of the oldest places on the continent so depicted. There is evidence that there were Aboriginal people using Millers Point until at least the 1840s.

Non Indigenous

• Millers Point & Walsh Bay Special Area is of state significance for its ability to demonstrate, in its physical forms and associated documentary evidence, over 200 years of European settlement – making it one of a few sites in Australia to display the oldest such continuum of evidence on one site since the beginning of British colonisation in 1788.

• The elevated height, abundance of sandstone and long shoreline of Aboriginal middens along Darling Harbour was important in encouraging industrial, commercial and defence activities in the area.

• British settlement in the area began with the first colonial fortifications, then the development of wharves and dock facilities and their associated housing. The outbreak of the Plague in 1900 and the consequent mass-resumption of the area and its large-scale rebuilding during the early 20th century was a significant period. It was followed with the development of waterside trade, underlain by a continuing separation from the rest of the City of Sydney by topography and social differentiations to the present day. All of these historical phases remain evident in the area.

• The area is of state and national significance due to its unique characteristics, composition, architectural diversity and its continuity of nineteenth and twentieth century residential and maritime elements. It is a living community with clearly discernible links to the maritime industries that formed the village’s core from the early part of the nineteenth century, and one that has long-term memories of the precinct’s fabric and relevance. Its architecture is representative of each decade from the 1820s to the 1930s, with many structures of excellent aesthetic, technical or rare value.

• The street pattern of this suburb demonstrates both early nineteenth century transport routes, early haphazard development and replanning and urban design in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Further, it provides evidence of early twentieth century government policy, with large portions of the landscape re-shaped in response to the bubonic plague health crisis and through resumption by the State government. It features, virtually intact, residential areas, port and stevedoring works created by the Sydney Harbour Trust, 1900 1930, in response to the Sydney plague and the requirements of maritime trade at that time

• Millers Point and Walsh Bay contains dwellings, shops, businesses, warehouses, wharves, churches, schools, institutions and related maritime structures that remain closely affiliated to the community today in a meaningful fashion. The area contains both private and government controlled components that merge seamlessly into a cohesive whole.

• An important feature of the area is the circular stone excavation for the Cahill Expressway that separated the school grounds from observatory hill and from the National Trust Centre (former school buildings) as it marks a phase of development of the city where the whole of the Millers Point area was at considerable risk of loss


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through new planning policies and development.

• The Walsh Bay Wharves and their associated infrastructure (despite redevelopment) remain as evidence of a port and stevedore works created by the Sydney Harbour Trust in response to the requirements of maritime trade at that time. The area documents the workings of a technologically advanced early twentieth century shipping port, developed specifically to accommodate new mechanised transportation technology.

• The National Trust Centre (and associated buildings) are significant as part of the first 'model school' of the Board of Education, established in Sydney during the mid 1850s and also as a remnant of the first military hospital. The buildings have had a lengthy association with a variety of historically important persons and organisations and are significant as a design of the colony's first Schools Architect, Henry Robertson. The buildings are a remnant of the first Military Hospital. They have historic significance at a State level.

• The Observatory's dominant location beside and above the port town, and later, city of Sydney, made it the site for a range of changing uses. All of these were important to, and reflected changes in the development of the colony.

Historical association significance SHR criteria (b)

Millers Point & Walsh Bay Special Area is of State significance for its many associations with many women and men significant in the history of NSW.

Natural


• Cadigal people of the area; Colbee, a Cadigal ‘leading man’ in the 1790s; Non Indigenous

• Jack ‘the miller’ Leighton, wind mill owner;

• William Walker, merchant;

• Henry Moore, merchant;

• Robert Towns, merchant;

• Sisters of St Joseph, Catholic nuns at St Brigit’s;

• the ‘Millers Point Push’, gangsters of the Point;

• Ted Brady, wharf labourer, ALP and Communist Part stalwart;

• Arthur Payne, first sufferer of the Plague in 1900;

• William Morris Hughes, union leader and later prime minister;

• Waterside Workers Federation (WWF), union established in 1902;

• Jim Healy, general secretary WWF 1937-1961;

• Harry Jensen, Lord Mayor of Sydney 1957-1965;

• ‘Pointer’ families that give the Precinct its distinctive social character;

• Colonial merchant class, represented by ownership of Bligh House (43 Lower Fort St) know also as ‘Clydebank’ by the Campbell family which Robert Crawford, Principal Clerk to Alexander Macleay lived in;

• Later merchant class who invested in major warehouses (Towns and Parbury);

• Prominent Sydney citizens of the mid nineteenth century such as John Fairfax of the Sydney Morning Herald who enjoyed the proximity to the town. (The relatively modest scale of the houses at Miller's Point, and the relative importance of its pre 1870 inhabitants reflects the economic circumstances and the aspirations of the citizens of the town of Sydney);

• 1880s property investors who built substantial rows of terrace houses of which 1-19 Lower Fort Street is the finest in Miller's Point, and the grandest surviving terrace in New South Wales;

• Publicans, as key civic figures, for example, the Armstrong family of the Palisade Hotel; the Irish community, as a major social group,

• Significant architects and their work: H. Ginn & E. Blacket : Holy Trinity Church; W. L. Vernon : Post Office; A. Dawson : Observatory; J. Watts and M. Lewis : Fort


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Street School (also H. Robertson); M. Lewis : Richmond Villa, Kent Street (moved from Domain c.1975); J. Verge : 39 41 Lower Fort Street; G. McRae : 1910s workers' housing; V. Parkes : proposals c.1910 to Sydney Redevelopment Advisory Board for new hygienic tenaments between Argyle Place and Windmill Street; W. Wardell : Grafton Bond Store,

• Significant engineers and their work: H.D. Walsh : Walsh Bay Port structures and works; N. Selfe : advice on new wharf facilities c.1910,

• Significant maritime figures: John Irving (boat builder), James Munn (ship builder), John Cuthbert (Cuthbert's Patent Slip);

• Members of the Sydney Harbour Trust Board: RRP Hickson, chairman Sydney Harbour Trust

• Artists, and the discovery of the pictorial qualities of Australia including urban squalor, waterfront incident and the harbour bridge: Prout and Rae 1840s in Sydney Illustrated; S. Elyard 1860s; Lindsay family c.1900; W. Hardy Wilson c.1910;Cazneaux c.1920; Dorrit Black c.1930.

• The Observatory has an association with an extensive array of historical figures, most of whom have helped shape its fabric. These include colonial governors, military officers and enginers, convicts, architects and astronomers (Kerr 1991: 39)

Aesthetic significance SHR criteria (c)

Natural

• Millers Point & Walsh Bay Special Area is of state significance for its landmark qualities as a terraced sandstone peninsula providing an eastern ‘wall’ to the inner harbour and supporting the fortress-like southern approaches to the Sydney Harbour Bridge; for its aesthetic distinctiveness as a walking-scale, low-rise, village-like harbourside district with its central ‘green’ in Argyle Place, and its vistas and glimpses of the harbour along its streets and from escarpments, as well as for the technical innovations evident in the remoulding of the natural peninsular landform from the hand-picked Argyle Cut to the ongoing levelling and terracing of the western slopes to the highly planned and mechanically created Walsh Bay and Darling Harbour docklands of the 20th century.

• The area contains numerous original and characterful views to and from the harbour that are formed by a combination of dramatic topography and long physical evolution. It is the extent, the expansiveness, the change of view of individual buildings as the viewer moves around the water that gives the place distinction and significance.

• The area is distinctive in that the escarpment edge is sharply defined by rock faces, concrete walls and vertical barriers that separate it from the waterfront.

Indigenous

• Not applicable Non Indigenous

• The area is distinctive in that it has no single character but is made up of contrasts; juxtapositions of often disparate elements such as the stark edge of cliff or wall against the softer park or walkway; redefined and rebuilt wharf structures with new gently uses that belie their history, stylistically defined period of housing development that follows a well established pattern of small lot housing now contrasted with modern apartment/warehouse style dwellings.

• The variety, complexity and scale of views from the wharfs, observatory hill, from roadways, edges of escarpments and walls are significant in defining the character of the area. The area is significant as aside from the southern edge of the precinct it is not overpowered by city scale development. The area contains numerous streets and lanes of historical and aesthetic interest. The area contains numerous features such as steps, fences, rock cuttings of historical and aesthetic interest.

• The value of the area is further enhanced by its separation from the Rocks precinct which is predominantly commercial in use with Millers Point retaining its residential character, in particular worker housing. This is a rare continuing use. The character of the area is almost defined on a street by street basis rather than a broad precinct basis. With very few exceptions every element of the precinct contributes to the whole in a significant way.

• The area has long been a source of creative inspiration, being imaginatively depicted by painters such as Joseph Fowles, James Taylor, Frederick Gosling,


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Eugene Delessert, Rebecca Hall, Samuel Elyard and John Rae in the mid-19th century and Lionel Lindsay, Sydney Long and Harold Greenhill in the early to mid-20th century; by photographers such as Johann Degotardi and Bernard Holtermann in the 1870s, John Harvey and Melvin Vaniman in the early 20th century, and Harold Cazneaux and Sam Hood in the 1930s; as well as being cartographically rendered by colonial map makers such as Dawes (1788), Lesueur (1802), Meehan (1807) and Harper (1823) and later engravers such as those working for Gibbs Shallard (1878) and the Illustrated Sydney News (1888).

• The area has a range of architectural styles that are both intact and excellent examples of their type, many of which are rare surviving shops and dwellings, with specific importance attributed to the Observatory, Fort Street School, Holy Trinity Church and Millers Point Post Office, as well as colonial housing, hotels, and commercial amenities. It demonstrates characteristic dramatic harbourside topography that has been modified for human purposes, and is regarded as a complete and cohesive area due to contributory materials, form and scale, with clear definition brought about through the location of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Bradfield Highway, Walsh Bay and Darling Harbour.

• It demonstrates technical and creative excellence of the period 1820 to 1930, including wharfage, warehousing, civic facilities and landscaping, the observatory, hotels, public housing and its support facilities, colonial housing and the Garrison Church buildings. This is contrasted with modern apartment/warehouse style dwellings and the redeveloped wharves.

• The wharves are evident of the workings of a technologically advanced early twentieth century shipping port, developed specifically to accommodate new mechanised transportation technology (engine driven vessels and motor lorries), and retains and demonstrates the physical character of a port.

• The wharves have a strong distinctive character created by the logical use of heavy timber construction and the regular grid layout of piles, columns, beams and infill cladding. (Little, Clarke, Whittaker 1979) The precinct, despite redevelopment, is unified in materials, form and scale and contains structures that continue to demonstrate its former maritime uses.

• The National Trust Centre (and associated buildings) are significant for their sequential development initially as a Military Hospital and then as an educational institution throughout the last half of the nineteenth century. They have aesthetic significance at a State and local level.

• The elevation of the Observatory site with its harbour and city views and vistas framed by the mature fig trees of the surrounding park, make it one of the most pleasant and spectacular locations.

• The Observatory picturesque Italianate character and stylistic interest of the observatory and residence building, together with the high level of competence of the masonry (both stone and brick) of all major structures on the site, combine to create a precinct of unusual quality. (Kerr 1991: 39)

Social significance SHR criteria (d)

Natural



• Millers Point & Walsh Bay Special Area is significant through associations with a community in NSW for social, cultural and spiritual reasons. A proportion of the existing population is descended from previous generations of Millers Point locals, and has fostered a strong and loyal sense of community and solidarity.

• The preservation of the physical and social components of Millers Point has both provided insight into, and ensured the continuity of, early twentieth century inner Sydney lifestyles. The post-resumption phase of its history shows the establishment of social and public works, with building improvements brought about through the suburb’s consolidation as a company port town. The role of the Sydney Harbour Trust entailed the construction of worker housing and support services, and the improvement in existing building stock and amenities.

• The modern Millers Point community is still administered under a similar


42

arrangement with the Department of Housing, with a proportion of the area held as public domain and private ownership.

• The area retains evidence of educational and social improvement programmes carried out at church and school sites such as St Brigid’s School and the Fort Street School.

• Additional traces of spiritual contribution and social relevance relates to the Anglican Holy Trinity (Garrison) Church and the Catholic-based St. Brigid’s Church and school, which remains a centre catering for the Irish working class community.

• The National Trust Centre (and associated buildings) are significant for their association with the change from a denominational system of schooling to government schooling. They have been associated with community functions since their construction. They have social significance at a State level. The buildings are significant as fine examples of mid-nineteenth century school buildings constructed in the Victorian Regency and Victorian Free Classical styles. They are significant for their prominent location and their visual and contextual relationship to the former Military Hospital building. The S. H. Ervin Galleries at the National Trust provides social association with the art community.

• The numerous corner pubs continue to provide social associations and are frequented by locals and tourists alike.

Technical/Research significance SHR criteria (e)

Natural


• Evidence from an archaeological excavation at Moore’s Wharf when it was moved showed continuing indigenous occupation at least until the 1830s and it is possible other such sites exist.

Non Indigenous

• Millers Point & Walsh Bay Special Area is of state significance for its potential to yield information from its archaeological resources not readily available elsewhere including oviform drains, early kerb and guttering, woodblock or other features that remain extant in Millers Point.

• The changing domestic life of the residents has been documented in several excavations of residential sites;

• The area contains examples of buildings demonstrating each stage and every major component in the history of the suburb, the only exception being for the period 1788-1820.

• The evolving nature of colonial and 20th century capitalism as supported by the state has become evident in both the archaeological record and built structures of the Walsh Bay and Darling Harbour wharfages which demonstrate technical and creative excellence of the period 1820-1930. The archaeological investigations undertaken to date are indicative of the remaining potential of the area.

• The building and archaeological fabric of the place has remained intact through community opposition to redevelopment, resulting in a large number of sites within the locale that remain comparatively or minimally undisturbed.

• The physical evidence of the area’s history is complemented by the wealth of oral history contained within the existing resident population, which is a rare resource that allows a greater opportunity to understand the historic role of Millers Point and its social frameworks.

• The Sydney Observatory continues a tradition of astronomical research that began with the first observatory on Dawes Point in 1788. The changing defences of Sydney are also evident in the areas archaeological resources, notably at the site of Fort Phillip. Underlying this diverse potential for researching changing human occupation is also the potential for the peninsular landform itself, constantly shaped and re-shaped by human agency, to yield information on the abilities of the people of NSW to continue to craft cultural landscapes of strong aesthetic appeal. The surviving structures, both above and below ground, are themselves physical documentary evidence of 195 years of changes of use, technical development and ways of living. As such they are a continuing resource for investigation and public interpretation. (Kerr 1991:39)


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• Millers Point and Walsh Bay layered fabric, both in terms of structures and archaeology, has had relatively little disturbance since intervention by the Sydney Harbour Trust and has the potential to provide valuable evidence about the place and its community.

• Rarity SHR criteria (f)

Natural Heritage

• Millers Point and Walsh Bay is an important area in the Sydney City LGA, and its prominence is emphasised by its strong topography, particularly as viewed from the Harbour.

Indigenous heritage

• Not applicable Non indigenous

• Millers Point & Walsh Bay Special Area is of state significance as a rare, if not the only, example of a maritime harbourside precinct that contains evidence of over 200 years of human settlement and activity that spans all historical phases in Australia since 1788. While there are other historical maritime precincts in Australia that might show a comparable mix of historical and contemporary values, none are as old or so intimately associated with the spectrum of historical, social, aesthetic, technological and research values that have shaped Australian society since 1788.

• The area is one of a few unique sites in Australia because of a strong sense of cohesion facilitated by a range of complementary architectural, structural, physical and social elements. The maintenance of both original fabric in a more or less intact state, and the successive generations of Millers Point residents, allows for a degree of rarity and authenticity.

• Millers Point has significant structures, and has in close proximity a range of shipping and wharf structures that are believed to be of international significance.

• The area has a range of early buildings with specific functions that are rare within the Australian context, such as the Lord Nelson Hotel and the Observatory.

• Its unity, authenticity of fabric and community, and complexity of significant activities and events make it a significant historic urban place in Australia.

• Walsh Bay wharves and associated port structures are unique in Australia and are of international significance in their association with the whole port-town.

• The National Trust Centre (and associated buildings) are rare surviving example of modifications to an Old Colonial Georgian hospital building for use as a mid-nineteenth century school.

Representativeness SHR criteria (g)

Natural



• Millers Point & Walsh Bay Special Area is of state significance for its ability to demonstrate the principle characteristics of 19th and 20th century Australian maritime harbourside or dockland precincts, such as a close proximity between workplace and work residence; the development of new methods for moving produce and passengers between land and water; interaction between natural elements such as water and wind and cultural elements such as wharves, boatyards and warehouses; and the constant remaking of the shoreline and its hinterland in response to changing economic, social, political and environmental factors in order for it to remain viable as a living, working place.

• The area typifies the nineteenth and twentieth century residential and maritime environments through the retention of a range of architectural styles and buildings. It contains good examples of both domestic and commercial Australian building forms, including a clearly discernible staged evolution of housing progression of housing from the Ark on Kent Street to early twentieth century Australian Edwardian terrace houses.

• The social and public nature of neighbourhood hotels and corner shops can be


44

identified as typical of nineteenth century social spaces. The retention of such structures are demonstrative of the earlier ‘everyday’ environment of Millers Point, with the combination of formerly commonplace buildings within a distinct space making the representative nature of Millers Point of extremely high standard.

• The National Trust Centre (and associated buildings) are representative as fine examples of the Victorian Regency and Victorian Free Classical styles as used in public school buildings in the mid-nineteenth century.

Integrity

Millers Point is a remnant of the government port of Sydney and is remarkable as a collection of buildings of high integrity, resulting in an important historic residential precinct in very good condition. The area retains a strong ability to demonstrate its significance. Walsh Bay whilst predominantly in original condition has undergone a process of adaptive reuse, new development and in the case of the wharves, Pier 6/7 has been redeveloped in its entirety.

Heritage Value The gradings of Significance for individual properties are shown in two maps of Millers Point and Walsh Bay Special (Conservation) Area (Figure 5.1 and 5.2): the first identifying Periods of Construction and the other Heritage Value. The information is extracted into a table of properties by street address. The assessment is based on information obtained from the Conservation Management Guidelines NSW Dept. of Housing Properties Millers Point and from Paul Davies Pty Ltd investigations of the area. These gradings are specifically for use as a management tool within the proposed Millers Point and Walsh Bay Heritage Conservation Area and do not detract from, or in any way alter, the listing of all individual items within the proposed Heritage Conservation Area as of State significance. Refer to Maps 5 & 6.

Item Ownership Grading Level (State-S/ Local-L)

Lower Fort Street 1-19 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 21-23 Dept of Housing High S 25-33 Dept of Housing High S 35 Dept of Housing High S 37 High S 39-41 Exceptional S 43 Exceptional S 45 Neutral L 47-53 Dept of Housing Moderate S 55 High S 57-61 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 63-65 Dept of Housing High S 67-73 Dept of Housing Moderate S 75-77 Dept of Housing Moderate S 79 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 81-83 Exceptional S 85 Dept of Housing Moderate S 87 Dept of Housing Detracting 18 High S 20-22 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 24 Dept of Housing High S 26 Dept of Housing Moderate S 28 Dept of Housing High S 30-42 Dept of Housing High S 50 Institution/Government High S 52 High S 54 High S 58 High S 60 Institution/Government Exceptional S


45

Trinity Avenue 2-4B Dept of Housing High S 8-12 Dept of Housing High S 14-16 Dept of Housing Moderate S 18-22 Dept of Housing Moderate S 24 Sydney City Council Moderate L 36-62 (Trinity Avenue sub-station)

Institution/Government High/Moderate S

Windmill Street 1-63 Dept of Housing High S 65 Dept of Housing Moderate S 67 Dept of Housing High S 69 Dept of Housing High S 71 Dept of Housing Moderate S 73 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 75 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 8 Neutral L 30 (MSB Bond Store No.3)

High S

82 Dept of Housing High S 84 Dept of Housing High S 86-88 Dept of Housing High S Hickson Road 14 (Hickson Road utility building)

High L

16-18 (Rendered brick wall and iron fence)

High L

20 Neutral 22 (NB: Sydney Theatre)

Neutral

26 Bond No 1 High L 11 Pier 1 Exceptional S 13-13A (Wharf 2/3 and Shore Sheds)

Exceptional S

15 (Wharf 4/5 and Shore Sheds)

Exceptional S

17-19 (Wharf 6/7 and Shore Sheds)

Exceptional S

21-23 (Wharf 8/9 and Shore Sheds)

Exceptional S

25 (Dalgety’s Bond Store)

High S

Argyle Place 1-7 Dept of Housing Moderate S 6-12 Dept of Housing High S 16-20 Dept of Housing Neutral L 22 Dept of Housing Neutral L 24-32 Dept of Housing High S 34 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 36-44 Dept of Housing Moderate S 46-48 Dept of Housing High S 50 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 52-60 Dept of Housing High S 62-64 Dept of Housing High S Argyle Street


46

Pottinger Street 3-5 Park owned by NSW

Maritime and leased to Council

Moderate L

7 leased to Council Moderate L 36-38 NSW Maritime (leased

to Council) Exceptional S

Kent Street (east) 10-12 High S 14-16 High S 18-22 Dept of Housing High S 24-26 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 28 Dept of Housing High S 30 Dept of Housing High S 32-40 Dept of Housing Moderate S 42 Dept of Housing Moderate S 44 Dept of Housing High S 46 Dept of Housing High S 48-54 Dept of Housing Moderate S 56-62 Dept of Housing Moderate S 64-78 Dept of Housing Neutral 80 Dept of Housing Neutral 82-88 Dept of Housing Moderate S 90-92 Dept of Housing High S 94 Dept of Housing High S 96-108 (Kent Street Tennis Court and Pavilion)

High L

110-114 High L 116-122 High S 124 High S 126-128 High S 130-134 High S Kent Street (west) 21-29 Dept of Housing High S 33-35 High S 37-47 Dept of Housing High S 49-51 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 53-55 Dept of Housing High S 59-63 Dept of Housing High S 65-69 Neutral 71 Dept of Housing Moderate S 73 Dept of Housing Moderate S 75-79 Dept of Housing High S 81 Dept of Housing Moderate S 83-85 Dept of Housing Moderate S 87 Dept of Housing Moderate 89-105 Low/Detracting 115-121 Dept of Housing High S 123-125 Dept of Housing High S Bradfield Highway 1001 (National Trust Centre and associated structures)

Institutional/Govt Exceptional S


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Upper Fort Street 3A (Fort Philip Signal Station)

Exceptional S

3B (Messenger’s Cottage for Fort Phillip Signal Station)

Exceptional S

9 (Bureau of Meteorology Building)

High S

9A (Messenger’s Cottage for Sydney Observatory)

High S

1003 (Observatory) Institutional/Govt Exceptional S 1005 (Fort Street Primary School

Institutional/Govt Moderate/High/Exceptional

S

High Street 1-1A Moderate L 3-9B Dept of Housing High S 2-36A Dept of Housing High S 37 Dept of Education High L 38-72A Dept of Housing High S 74-80A Dept of Housing High S Dalgety Road 5 Dept of Housing Exceptional L 7-9 Dept of Housing Exceptional L 11-13A Dept of Housing Exceptional L 15-35A Dept of Housing Moderate L Bettington Street 27 Moderate L 35-37 Exceptional S 66-68 Dept of Housing High S Merriman Street 14-16 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 18 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 20-26 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 28-34 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 36-38 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 40-42 Dept of Housing Exceptional S 44-48 Dept of Housing Exceptional S Munn Street 18-20 Dept of Housing Exceptional S Watson Road 1 (Abraham Mott Hall) High L

Building Contributions Rating A Millers Point and Walsh Bay Building Contributions Map of the proposed Millers Point and Walsh Bay Heritage Conservation Area identifying buildings as being contributory, detracting or neutral to the Heritage Conservation Area is included as part of the heritage review (Map 7 Building Contribution Map). Contributory Significant layer, substantially intact Significant layer, altered, yet recognisable and reversible Secondary layer, highly intact Neutral Significant layer, altered in form, unlikely to be reversed Secondary layer, altered New Sympathetic layer or representative of a new layer Non significant layer Vacant sites/ construction sites


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Detracting New detracting development Other detracting development (Detracting in either scale or materials/details) Streets: -all ranked A Kent Street High Street Argyle Street and Argyle Place Merriman Street Dalgety Street Bettington Street Munn Street Windmill Street Lower Fort Street and Trinity Avenue Hickson Road Observatory Hill Area Upper Fort Street Lanes/Stairs/Pedestrian Links/Retaining Walls: - all Ranked A Agar Steps & Walls High Street retaining wall and fencing Lance and High Lane Lance and High lane retaining wall and steps Observatory Hill Parkland Watson Road steps Argyle Park Munn Street overbridge Argyle Street overbridge Munn Street retaining wall Munn Street/Bettington Street steps Dalgety Road retaining wall Rhodens Lane retaining wall Merriman Street rock face Windmill Street overbridge Windmill Steps Wharf overbridges Argyle Street Laneway Pottinger Street laneway and archaeological site Pottinger Street steps Pottinger Street retaining walls Lower Fort Street laneways and fences Hickson steps Hickson Road retaining wall and steps Footbridge Cahill Expressway cut Cahill Expressway rock face National Trust Centre retaining walls High Street/ Hickson Road steps Tennis Court and Pavilion Hickson Road sea wall

RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations

This section sets out the recommendations that arise from this study. They relate to the creation of a Heritage Conservation Area, identification of places of individual heritage significance, planning considerations and management of both the private and public aspects of the study area.

The recommendations are proposed within the framework that the whole of the area is of very high heritage value, that overall it should be retained and managed as it is currently being managed and that there should not be major or dramatic changes to the area or its character. It is also noted that there is limited opportunity for new buildings or elements to be added to


49

the area, the recent development having occupied most of the vacant and available development sites.

Heritage Conservation Area

1 It is recommended that the appropriate form of heritage protection for the area is the recognition of a Millers Point/Walsh Bay Heritage Conservation Area in the City of Sydney LEP Schedule. This changes the status of the area from the current ‘Special Area’ LEP listing.

This would be consistent with the planning management of other areas of heritage significance within the broader City of Sydney local government area and can provide uniform controls and management.

2 The proposed revised area boundary should be adopted as the Heritage Conservation Area boundary as set out in Map 1 & 8.

This reflects the boundary of the area as it is now found (in relation to adjacent areas), removes elements that properly belong to those adjacent areas within the boundaries of those areas and removes the major high-rise development at the southern edge of the study area along Kent Street that more correctly belongs with the central city area than in the smaller scale of the Millers Point area.

The proposed heritage conservation area’s edges have been carefully defined to include topographical features that are important to the character of the area.

3 The NSW Heritage Council should be requested to adjust their State Heritage Register listing boundary to align with the proposed Heritage Conservation Area.

The two areas (the proposed Heritage Conservation Area and the current State Heritage Area boundary) are quite closely aligned in their boundaries at present but it would be preferable to have all listings adopting the same boundary so that there is consistency in the application of both the City of Sydney and the NSW Heritage Office approvals processes (refer to the proposed and existing area boundary maps – Map 1 & 8).

4 That the amended Millers Point LEP Character Statement be adopted for the proposed Heritage Conservation Area reflecting the extended boundaries and outcomes of this study.

The current character statement contained in the LEP 2005, Schedule 6 Character Statement and Objectives for Special Areas, has been reviewed and expanded to encompass the broader boundaries of the proposed Heritage Conservation Area with the wharf areas and the impact of the early twentieth century port improvements.

The character statement as revised is:

Millers Point - Character statement

The Miller’s Point area is highly significant, as one of Sydney’s earliest suburbs developed to serve the nearby port. It was the location of windmills, quarries, observatories, fortifications and maritime activities from colonial times. Built evidence remains of some of these as well as early Victorian workers’ terraces and grander Victorian townhouses and villas. Much of the area has high archaeological potential.

The area contains a residential community, which is unique in city terms for its strong identity and self-containment with employment, housing and community facilities available within the area. Government ownership has played an important role in the area with successive demolitions and redevelopments since the Darling Harbour Resumptions in the early 1900s, the involvement of the Sydney Harbour Trust from 1908, the Housing Board in the inter-war period and more recently the Department of Housing. Much of the 1908 reconstruction of the wharves and adjacent residential precinct remains today.

The area’s steep, coastal topography and early development in combination with the extensive 1908 development phase of ports, warehousing and residences have generated its character and built form with evidence of quarrying, retaining walls, and a


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public domain, which includes public staircases, laneways, pedestrian pathways, bridges, and parks of a variety of scales. The area south, along Kent Street, forms a transition in scale to the city with 2-storey development providing the dominant character. There is a significant change in level to the west with the lower building addressing Hickson Road. The area affords significant views to and from the water and of the Harbour Bridge. A significant panorama of the Harbour and the City is gained from Observatory Hill to north and west.

The area is characterised by a fine grained subdivision pattern for residential areas, the broad and consistent form and scale of the wharf buildings and bond stores, the use of sandstone and other traditional building materials, 2-3 storey residential terraces, similar scaled commercial buildings (often pubs) defining the corners and the use of pitched roofs. While there is a consistency of materials, scale and and form, a variety of styles and street alignment are represented, with many of the terraces setback at street level.

The area provides an historically interesting and significant blend of early development overlaid with successive major facilities developments related to port activities and residential accommodation.

The area as now found has relatively few new buildings or additions after the major early twentieth century port development phase allowing it to retain much of that character despite changes of use of the port buildings.

Objectives

The objectives for this proposed HCA are

(a) to ensure that any new development respects the adjoining development and maintains the predominantly two storey residential character of the residential areas and the predominant and large scale form and character of the wharf areas,

(b) to conserve and reinforce the heritage significance of this HCA, (c) to ensure that any new building respects the adjoining buildings in siting, scale, form

and use of materials, (d) to limit the amount and type of non-residential uses, to ensure the social and cultural

mix of Millers Pont is maintained, (e) to maintain significant existing views and vistas into and out of the precinct to the water

and Harbour Bridge north and to the city south, and Observatory Park, (f) to ensure that the social and cultural mix of Millers Point is maintained, (g) to conserve the continuity of Millers Point and adapt to meet the continuing needs of the

significant uses.

5 That the City of Sydney Heritage Development Control Plan provisions be adopted to protect the special and particular character of the Millers Point/Dawes Point/Walsh Bay area.

The proposed Heritage Conservation Area is unique in that it brings together port activity, small scale residential areas, civic spaces and public open space in a close knit integrated area with a distinctive character and inter-relationship not often found in Heritage Conservation Areas. The character statement in combination with the proposed DCP controls provide a strong basis to guide future development but also to provide consistency in the application of heritage principles across Heritage Conservation Areas within the City of Sydney area.

6 That all of the streets in the proposed Heritage Conservation Area be included on the significant streets register of Council for their high heritage significance.

All of the streetscapes, lanes and walkways within the proposed Heritage Conservation Area are of high value and should be included on the street register. This has been confirmed by the analysis set out in this report.

7 That Council adopt the significant views set out in this study and protect them as part of Council’s broader view study.


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Heritage items 8 The places identified in the study as heritage items (both existing listed places and

additional places) be gazetted as heritage items in the City of Sydney LEP.

Most places within the proposed Heritage Conservation Area have been recognised as having high heritage value and are already included as heritage items on the LEP, the few remaining places (of heritage value) that are not listed should be included to achieve consistency across the area. The study recommends additional places for several reasons.

Firstly, an expanded area including the wharves has been included within the City of Sydney Area requiring places previously identified by other authorities and in other studies to be entered onto the City of Sydney heritage schedule. This is consolidating existing established listings.

The second group are a small number of places that have not been previously included on a heritage schedule but which have similar heritage values to places already included. If for no other reason, on the basis of consistency these places are recommended to be listed. It is not known why these places have been previously overlooked but this study has clearly identified them as having sufficient heritage significance to be recommended as Heritage Items.

Individual inventory sheets that provide a full assessment of the heritage value of each of these properties are provided as part of this study.

The list of new places recommended for inclusion as heritage items in this group are (Map 14):

• Hickson Road utility building (14 Hickson Road)

• Trinity Avenue Sub-station (36-62 Trinity Avenue)

• Fort Street Primary School site (1005 Upper Fort Street)

• Abraham Mott Hall (2 Watson Road)

• Pier 1 (11 Hickson Road)

• Wharves 2/3 and Shore Sheds (13A Hickson Road)

• Wharves 4/5 and Shore Sheds (15 Hickson Road)



• Messenger’s Cottage for Fort Phillip Signal Station (3B Upper Fort St)

• Messenger’s Cottage for Sydney Observatory (9A Upper Fort Street)

• Fort Phillip Signal Station (3A Upper Fort Street)

• Bureau of Meteorology Building (9 Upper Fort Street)

• MSB Bond Store no 3 (24-26A Hickson Road)

• City Wool Centre (30 Windmill Street)

• Rendered Brick Wall and Iron Fence (16,16A & 18 Hickson Road)

• Kent Street Tennis Court and Pavilion (96-108 Kent Street)

9 That public domain features (identified in individual data sheets), not specifically listed in earlier studies, be gazetted as individual elements of local and State heritage significance.

The list of places recommended for inclusion as heritage items in this group are: (Map 15)

• Bettington Street steps


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• Watson Road steps

• Windmill Steps

• Pottinger Street steps

• Hickson steps

• High Street/Hickson Road Steps (closed)

• High Street/Hickson Road Steps (open)

• Lance and High Lane retaining wall and steps

• Merriman Street rock face

• Agar Walls

• Pottinger Street retaining walls

• Cahill Expressway rockface

• National Trust Centre retaining walls

• Rhodens lane retaining wall

• Hickson Road sea wall

• Hickson Road/ High Street Sandstone and Concrete Wall

• Munn Street overbridge

• Argyle Street overbridge

• Windmill Street overbridge

• Observatory Hill Footbridges

• Ferry Street Laneway and Pottinger Street archaeological site

• Argyle Street laneway

• Lower Fort Street Laneways and fences

• Dawes Point Ferry Dock

10 That places identified as having exceptional, high or medium significance (as defined in the study) be recommended to the NSW Heritage Office for inclusion on the State Heritage Register (Map 16) where they are not currently listed on that register.

This is recommended to provide a consistent approach across the proposed Heritage Conservation Area so that all properties of State heritage value are included on the State Heritage Register. This list includes:

Properties

Carlson Terraces/Agar Steps Terraces

Abraham Mott Hall

Hickson Road utility building

Kent Street Tennis Court and Pavilion

Public Domain Features

Bettington Street steps

Dalgety Road wall

Munn Street wall

Agar walls

High Street Retaining wall and fencing


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Lance and High Lane Retaining wall and steps

Watson Road Steps

Munn Street overbridge

Argyle Street overbridge

Rhodens lane retaining wall

Merriman Street rock face

Windmill Street overbridge

Windmill Steps

Argyle Street laneway

Laneway and archaeological site at Pottinger Street

Pottinger Street step

Potinger Street retaining walls

Lower Fort Street Laneways and fences

Observatory Park Footbridges

Cahill Expressway Rockface

National Trust Centre retaining walls

High Street/Hickson Road Steps (closed)

Tennis Court and Pavilion

Hickson Road sea wall

11 That the amended City of Sydney heritage inventory sheets for all places be used as the basis for the revised listings in the new LEP and any proposed SHR listings (Appendix 3).

The City of Sydney heritage database, at the time of this study, varied in quality and completeness of information. This study has revised and updated the inventory database information for Millers Point and Walsh Bay.

A key source of information has been the well-prepared and thorough inventory data base prepared by the Department of Housing for their properties which comprise a significant proportion of buildings within the proposed Heritage Conservation Area. The data found in that database has been used without amendment in the present study as it is of high quality and as it will achieve consistency between the various registers and lists.

12 That the detailed requirements of the City of Sydney Heritage Development Control Plan be applied to the Millers Point/Walsh Bay proposed Heritage Conservation Area as the primary control for new works, additions, minor works, maintenance works, management of streetscapes, use, sub-division or lot amalgamation and public domain works.

While the proposed Heritage Conservation Area is unique, management of its heritage values is no different to other areas of the City of Sydney that have high heritage value. The combination of the DCP provisions, this heritage study and the individual inventory forms will provide proper guidance and controls to ensure the retention of heritage values, provide scope for future works and protect the public realm.

13 That Council encourage owners to prepare maintenance programs for their buildings to ensure long-term conservation and proper asset management.

While this is addressed in the proposed Heritage DCP it is particularly noted as maintenance is not an activity that requires consent. Active promotion of heritage values and the need for maintenance is important in retaining heritage values across the area.

It is noted that the Department of Housing have undertaken detailed maintenance


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studies for properties in their ownership, this could form a model for other maintenance works in the area.

14 That Council prepare clear management guidelines for heritage elements of the Heritage Conservation Area under their ownership.

It is important for Council to establish a benchmark for managing heritage properties, engaging in appropriate maintenance and repair and demonstrating to the community good management practices. Often communities react to what is seen as the unfair impost of heritage listing and the increased cost and burden of owning heritage property. Council can demonstrate good management practices and the benefits of looking after heritage places to set an example and also to avoid criticism of not abiding by their own regulations.

15 That Council correct minor inconsistencies between names of heritage items on the City of Sydney Council Heritage Schedule and the State Heritage Register for ease of identification of properties.

Identification should be generally altered to align with the SHI listings as this register is static and the City of Sydney Register is being reviewed as part of this study. These include:

Address City of Sydney Council Heritage

Schedule Name State Heritage Register Name

1-7 Argyle Place Building Group Shops 9 Argyle Place Retail Group Shop and Residence 6-12 Argyle Place Group of buildings Shops 50 Argyle Place Undercliff Cottage Undercliff Cottage (former) 56-60 Bettington St Terrace Victorian Terrace Address City of Sydney Council Heritage


66-68 Bettington St Building Edwardian Terrace Hickson Road Former Grafton Bond Store Former Grafton Bond Store

and Sandstone wall 1-17 Kent Street Oswald Bond Free Stores Oswald Bond Store 21-29 Kent Street Retail Group Edwardian

Shop/Residences 14-16 Kent Street St Brigids Church and School St Brigid’s Roman Catholic

Church and School 32-40 Kent Street Building Terrace 42 Kent Street Building Terrace 44 Kent Street Building Terrace 46 Kent Street Building Terrace 48-52 Kent Street Group of Buildings 48-50 Terrace House

52-54 Terrace 49-51 Kent Street Terrace Stone House 53-55 Kent Street Terrace Stone House 56-62 Kent Street Terrace 56-58 Terrace

60-62 Terrace 59-63 Kent Street Hexham Terrace Hexam Terrace 81 Kent Street Seaforth Terrace Katoomba House 39-41 Lower Fort Street

Terrace Georgian Town House

47-53 Lower Fort Street

Point Terrace Terrace


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Building Regency Townhouses


Terrace Vermont Terrace

18 Lower Fort Street

Harbour View Hotel Harbour View Hotel and site


Building Townhouse

58 Lower Fort Street

Drill Hall Psych Unit

14-16 Merrimam Street

Building Stone Cottage and Wall

20-42 Merrimam Street

Terrace 20-48-Merrimam St Terraces 20-26-Georgian Style Victorian Terrace 28-38- Part of Davies terrace 40-48 Residence

18-20 Munn Street Terrace 18,18a, 20, 20a Terrace 6-20 Warehouses

Upper Fort Street National Trust Centre National Trust Centre and associated buildings

73 Windmill Street Building Stevens Terrace 75 Windmill Street Building Shipwrights Arms Inn

(former) Address City of Sydney Council Heritage


82 Windmill Street Building Royal College of Pathologist (former)

84 Windmill Street Building Royal College of Pathologist (former)

Views and Vistas

16 Retain the mapped major viewscapes from the precinct to the harbour, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and headlands beyond.

The major viewscapes identified in Map 9 are:

- the broad viewscape from Observatory Hill to the west over Kent Street to the harbour and the foreshore beyond

- the broad view from Observatory Hill to the north over Argyle Street, Walsh Bay wharves to the harbour and the northern headlands and shore

- the expansive view from Merriman Street and the attached park areas over the wharves to the harbour and headlands beyond

- slot views between buildings, along streets, down stairways and lane ways that provide a range of views to lower streets, to buildings and in some locations to the water

17 Development within the viewshed of the Observatory Hill park area should not interrupt or remove views to the harbour when looking north to the harbour (the whole of the Harbour view should be retained from this location) and west across Darling Harbour to Pyrmont, Balmain and White Bay (while development is proposed along the waterfront, views to parts of the water and headlands beyond should be retained).

This affects major future development (mostly outside the current study area) which


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could have an impact on current identified significant broad views. The intent of the recommendation is to conserve the existing view to the north and to ensure that views to the water and the headlands beyond are retained to the west. It is acknowledged that there will be some change in the view to the west with future development however retention of water views and consideration of how the views from Observatory Hill are retained with their significant links will be an important aspect of potential development.

18 Identified and mapped significant views within the area should be retained in future development or public realm projects.

Many parts of the proposed Heritage Conservation Area have important and significant views both within and looking out of the area. The range of views from local to expansive all contribute to the character of the area. The most important of these views are mapped on Map 9 and should be considered if proposals that affect them are made.

It is recommended that “vistas and views identified in Map 9 of this study be retained in future development of the area.”

19 Any new infill building within the area should not detract from or adversely impact on any identified significant views or vistas.

Any new or replacement building within the proposed Heritage Conservation Area should be controlled so that it does not adversely impact on established views either to, around or over that building. This will affect height controls, siting of new buildings and the design approach so that generally new work will need to provide a contextual fit into the area.

The City of Sydney Heritage Development control Plan addresses infill development and views at 7.2(6) where it states “infill development is not to obscure existing significant views to and from heritage items”. It is recommended that this statement be expanded to include “… or identified and mapped significant views.”

General Recommendations 20 The principles set out in this study and the specific controls set out in the City of Sydney

Heritage Development Control Plan, be adopted for the Heritage Conservation Area.

The controls aim to:

- retain the mix of character found in each streetscape and retain the character of individual streetscapes

- consider each building or element from the main street frontage and from rear or side lanes and public vantage points as most places are seen three-dimensionally in contrast to many residential areas where rear sections of buildings and sites are not subject to overviewing.

- control alterations, additions and any changes to significant places to retain heritage values while allowing some flexibility to improve amenity

- retain existing uses and patterns of use as seen in the high level of residential use of the area, the small-scale retail found at street intersections, hotels and commercial uses and the re-activated wharf areas with cultural and tourism uses.

- identify sites with potential for future re-development (these are sites identified in the study as neutral or detracting) and establish clear guidelines for these sites.

21 The principles set out in this study and the specific controls set out in the City of Sydney Heritage Development Control Plan (in particular Section 13), be adopted for the public domain heritage values found in public spaces (Maps 10, 11,12 & 13).

These elements include:

- retaining walls

- rock faces (cut and natural)

- palisade fences


57

- pavements of various historic forms

- kerbs and gutters of various historic forms reflecting different phases of construction and use

- stairs and steps

- bridges

- lanes

- pedestrian access routes

- parks

- archaeological remains

Summary

The Millers Point/Walsh Bay area is an area of outstanding heritage significance and value. This has been widely recognised in a range of studies and previously by the creation of the ‘Special Area’ listing along with the NSW Heritage Council creation of a conservation area covering a similar area.

Broadly the management of the area has been effective in retaining heritage values through the various controls that are available even though the management of the area has fallen under several different agencies over time.

Creation of a Heritage Conservation Area and completion of the individual listing process of places of significance will bring the whole precinct under a consistent and common set of controls that are also proposed for the other heritage conservation areas within the City of Sydney boundaries. This will provide a high level of control of heritage matters and a consistent approach to heritage management across levels of government.

Consolidating the area into a single Heritage Conservation Area with one set of controls will provide the best and most appropriate management model for the area.

Of particular note is the extensive land ownership of the Department of Housing and their comprehensive approach to managing those lands and properties. The studies prepared by the Department are acknowledged in this study as the basis for the assessments and recommendations that affect those properties. Use of this material also provides a high level of consistency in management and control of these properties between agencies

HERITAGE LISTINGS

Heritage listing/s State Heritage Register Register of the National Trust Register of the National Estate Sydney City Council LEP 2005 Archaeological Zoning Plan SREP No 16 Walsh Bay Royal Australian Institute of Architects Institution of Engineers Australia State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Projects) 2005

INFORMATION SOURCES Include conservation and/or management plans and other heritage studies.

Type Author/Client Date Title Repository Written Attenbrow, Val 2002 Sydneys Aboriginal Past: investigating

the archaeological and historical records

City of Sydney Archives

Written Blackmore, Kate 1990 Millers Point Conservation Policy City of Sydney Archives

Written Brodsky, Isadore 1962 The Streets of Sydney City of Sydney Archives


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Written Casey, Mary 1994 Excavation Report, Darling House, Millers Point, Volumes 1 & 2


Written City of Sydney City Planning Department

1986 Supplementary report on Millers Point Dawes Point Precinct


Written Department of Housing 2001 Draft Millers Point Local Area Social Housing Plan


Written DPWS for Department of Housing

2002 Draft Conservation Management Guidelines for Housing Properties at Millers Point


Written Fitzgerald, Shirley & Keating, Christopher

1991 Millers Point: the urban village City of Sydney Archives

Written Higginbotham, E., Kass, T., & Walker, M

1991 The Rocks and Millers Point Archaeological Management Plan, Vol 1 and 2


Written Kerr, James Semple 2002 The Sydney Observatory Conservation Plan (revised edition)


Written Howard Tanner & Associates

1986 Millers Point Conservation Study Architectural Study


Written Kass, Terry 1987 A Scio-economic history of Millers Point


Written Kelly, Max and Crocker, Ruth

1978 Sydney Takes Shape: a collection of contemporary maps


Written Millers Point Dawes Point The Rocks Action Group

2003 State Heritage Inventory [Nomination] Form


Written Thalis, Peter & Cantrill, Peter John

1995 Millers Point, Walsh Bay and The Rocks: draft final report


Written Turbet, Peter 2001 The Aborigines of the Sydney District before 1788 - revised edition


Written Wing, Judy 1999 Millers Point: a brief history City of Sydney Archives

Management Plan (HC endorsed)

Clive Lucas Stapleton & Partners Pty Ltd

1999 Walsh Bay Precinct Conservation Plan, Vols A, B, C, D.


Tropman & Tropman Architects

1999 Pottinger Street & Adjacent Areas - conservation management plan



1999 Pier 8/9 (Part of Site 2) Part 1, Conservation Management Plan



1999 Bond Store 4 East (Sites 31 & 32) Conservation Management Plan

Written B. Little, S. Clarke, W. Whittaker

1979 National Trust Classification Card - Walsh Bay Wharves

Written Department of Urban Affairs and Planning

1989 Walsh Bay - Regional Environmental Plan No. 16

Written Henderson, Geraldine 2003 Trust concedes 'facadism' fits after the war of the wharves.

Written Lyndall Crisp 2004 A sense of drama arrives at the docks - SMH 9/1/04

SOURCE OF THIS INFORMATION Name of study or report

Millers Point and Walsh Bay Heritage Review Year of study or report

2006/2007

Item number in study or report

Author of study or report

Paul Davies Pty Ltd

Inspected by

Paul Davies Pty Ltd


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NSW Heritage Manual guidelines used?

Yes No

This form completed by Chantal Danieli Date 2007


60

IMAGES

Image caption

Character of Millers Point and Walsh Bay-made up of contrasts and juxtapositions

Image year

July 2006 Image by Paul Davies Image copyright holder

Paul Davies Pty Ltd

Hickson Road

Kent Street

Kent Street

Argyle Street

Merriman Street

Escarpment between Merriman Street

and the wharves

Dalgety Street

Bettington Street

Munn Street


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Windmill Street

Lower Fort street Trinity Avenue

Rear of Lower Fort Street

Hickson Road

Hickson Road

Observatory Park

Upper Fort Street School Observatory Hill


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IMAGES

Image caption

Map 1: Proposed Boundary Change Map 2: Land Uses Map 3: Land Ownership Map 4: Historic Land Management Areas Map 5: Periods of Construction Map 6: Heritage Value Map 7: Building Contributions Map 8:Proposed Heritage Conservation Area and Sub Precincts Map 9: Views and Vistas Map 10: Stairs, Bridges and Retaining Walls Map 11: Palisade Fences Map 12: Pedestrian Access Map 13: Parks and Reserves Map 14: Properties recommended for listing on City of Sydney LEP Heritage Schedule Map 15: Public Domain features recommended for listing on City of Sydney LEP Heritage Schedule Map 16: Items recommended for listing on State Heritage Register

Image year

2007 Image by Paul Davies Pty Ltd City of Sydney

Image copyright holder

Paul Davies Pty Ltd City of Sydney


63

Map 1


64

Map 2


65

Map 3


66

Map 4


67

Map 5


68

Map 6


69

Map 7


70

Map 8


71

Map 9


72

Map 10


73

Map 11


74

Map 12


75

Map 13


76

Map 14


77

Map 15


78

Map 16


Appendix 3

Data Sheets for individual properties and items in Conservation Area

Refer to separate volume


Appendix 4

Character Statement and Objectives for Special Areas: Millers Point (Schedule 6 Sydney LEP 2005)

SYDNEY LOCAL ENVIRONMENT PLAN 2005 UNDER THE ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT ACT 1979SCHEDULES AND DICTIONARY

© City of Sydney December 2005 19 of 53

1 Millers Point

Character statement

The Millers Point area is highly signifi cant, as one of Sydney’s earliest suburbs developed to serve the nearby port. It was the location of windmills, quarries, observatories, fortifi cations and maritime activities from colonial times. Built evidence remains of some of these as well as early Victorian workers’ terraces. Much of the area has high archaeological potential.

The area consists of a residential community, which is unique in city terms for its strong identity and self-containment with employment, housing and community facilities available within the area. Government ownership has played an important role in the area with successive demolitions and redevelopments since the Darling Harbour Resumptions in the 1900s, the involvement of the Sydney Harbour Trust from 1908, the Housing Board in the inter-war period and more recently the Department of Housing.

The area’s steep, coastal topography and early development have generated its character and built form with evidence of quarrying, retaining walls, and a public domain which includes public staircases, laneways, pedestrian pathways, bridges and parks of a variety of scales. The area south, along Kent Street, forms a transition in scale to the city, while 2-storey development is a dominant character on Kent Street. There is a signifi cant change in level to the west with the lower buildings addressing Hickson Road. The area affords signifi cant views to and from the water and of the Harbour Bridge. A signifi cant panorama of the Harbour and the City is gained from Observatory Hill.

The area is characterised by a fi ne grained subdivision pattern, the use of sandstone and other traditional building materials, 2-3 storey residential terraces, similar scaled commercial buildings (often pubs) defi ning the corners and pitched roofs. While there is a consistency of materials, scale and form, a variety of styles and street alignments are represented, with many of the terraces setback at street level.

Objectives

The objectives for this Special Area are as follows:

(a) to ensure that any new development respects the adjoining development and maintains the predominantly two storey residential character of the area,

(b) to conserve and reinforce the heritage signifi cance of this Special Area,

(c) to ensure that any new building respects the adjoining buildings and provides a reasonable stepping to the City’s higher buildings,

(d) to limit the amount and type of non-residential uses, within this Special Area, so as to ensure the social and cultural mix of Millers Point is maintained,

(e) to maintain existing views and vistas into and out of the precinct to the water and Harbour Bridge north and to the city south, and Observatory Park,

(f) to ensure that the social and cultural mix of Millers Point is maintained,

(g) to conserve the continuity of Millers Point and adapt to meet the continuing needs of the signifi cant uses.

2 York Street

Character Statement

York Street and the streets and lanes surrounding it contain evidence of one of the early warehousing areas in Sydney that serviced Darling Harbour as a working port. The area is typifi ed by its 19th and 20th century, 5-8 storey masonry buildings of a consistent scale, form and character. The architectural emphasis of the buildings located at street intersections are a distinctive characteristic of this area.

The network of lanes, internal courtyards, uniform block pattern with narrow frontages and west-east transport links all present the various layers of the area’s past and present commercial/retail character.

The Queen Victoria Building is evidence of early markets in the area. Its grand scale and rare composition with dominant domes appear in many views and terminate vistas within the area, such as that from Mullins Street. There are views through the area between the Harbour and the City, as well as many signifi cant vistas such as that along York Street, which is terminated by the Town Hall to the south.

Objectives

The objectives for this Special Area are as follows:

(a) to reinforce the historic subdivision pattern in the design of buildings,

(b) to conserve and enhance existing signifi cant views between the area and Darling Harbour and the signifi cant vistas terminated by the QVB and the Town Hall, such as those along Mullins Street and York Street,

(c) to conserve the existing laneways and courtyards and their heritage signifi cance,

(d) to respond to the historic warehouse typology in the design of buildings.

Schedule 6 Character statements and objectives for Special Areas (Clause 79 (c))

Appendix 1 Historic Themes - City of Sydney€¦ · Historic Themes The history of the local...

Documents

Transcript of Appendix 1 Historic Themes - City of Sydney€¦ · Historic Themes The history of the local...