The Harbour

by Scott Bevan

  ‘fascinating, warm, grey sky and yellow rock’: Letter from Arthur Streeton to Tom Roberts, 14 July, 1907, in Croll, R.H., Smike to Bulldog: Letters from Sir Arthur Streeton to Tom Roberts, p88.

  ‘Sydney-Side’: Lawson, Henry, reproduced in Roderick, Colin (editor), Henry Lawson Collected Verse: Volume One, Angus & Robertson Australia, 1981 (reprint), p349, reproduced with permission of the publisher, ETT Imprint, Sydney.

  intent on turning the city into a South Pacific town: Pringle, John, Australian Accent, Chatto & Windus, London, 1958, pp187-189.

  the facilities were grossly overdue: ‘The New Fortifications’, Illustrated Sydney News, 18 February 1871, p12, accessed trove.nla.gov.au, 5 July 2017.

  the most extensive playground in Australia: From a 1913 ferry guide, quoted in Aplin and Storey, Waterfront Sydney, p133.

  About 575 fish species have been recorded: Those figures are from the Sydney Institute of Marine Science’s website, www.sims.org.au/research/long-term-projects/sydney-harbour-research-program/about-sydney-harbour, accessed January 24, 2017.

  the ‘military road’ was an impressive 66 feet wide: Illustrated Sydney News, 18 February, 1871, p12, accessed trove.nla.gov.au, 5 July 2017.

  ‘better entitled to his rank than the English to his land’: O’Connell, James, A Residence of Eleven Years in New Holland and the Caroline Islands, an excerpt from which is reproduced in Flannery, Tim (editor), The Birth of Sydney, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 1999, pp230-231.

  the third largest facility in Australia: For more on the Georges Heights hospital, read Fletcher, Patrick (editor), The Hospital on the Hill, Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, Sydney, 2012.

  writers also stayed, including Robert Louis Stevenson: The reference to Robert Louis Stevenson comes from Gavin Souter’s Time & Tides, Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney, 2004, p209.

  designed to ‘prevent any attack from without’: King to Duke of Portland, March 1801, quoted in Oppenheim, p10.

  the first time there had been loss of life: ‘Edward Lombe: Wreck Inspection Report.’ Prepared by Tim Smith and David Nutley, Underwater Cultural Heritage Program, NSW Heritage Office, Department of Planning, June 2006.

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  ‘The country …was rather high and rocky …’: White, John, Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, accessed at www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301531 on 17 January 2017.

  ‘fear heightening the night’s enchantment’: Phelan, Nancy, Kingdom by the Sea, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1969 (reprint 1980), p118.

  If he saw another artist’s paint marks on a rock, [he] would get annoyed: Jackson, Jacqueline, James R. Jackson: Art was his life … Bay Books, Sydney, 1991, p94.

  She called them ‘Treasure Island’ beaches: Phelan, Nancy, Kingdom by the Sea, p54.

  ‘stretches like a natural bridge nearly across the channel’: Tackra, ‘Vignettes of Sydney Harbour’, in Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, Wednesday, 30 December 1908, p1705, accessed trove.nla.gov.au on 17 July, 2016.

  The traffic on the deck above has continued to grow: Information from http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/maritime/using-waterways/bridge-opening-times, accessed 27 December, 2016.

  ‘Wonder … that the houseboat idea has not been adopted’: ‘Sydney Harbour Residential Club’, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, Saturday, 10 June 1899, page 1351, accessed on trove.nla.gov.au on 17 July 2016.

  there was even a boarding house boat on the harbour: ‘House boats for Sydney Harbour’, Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 27 February, 1909, page 3, accessed on trove.nla.gov.au on 17 July, 2016.

  for ‘gentlemen only’ to live on board: ‘Sydney Harbour Residential Club Company’, Australian Star, Sydney, Friday, 2 June 1899, p5, accessed on trove.nla.gov.au on 17 July, 2016.

  ‘a world of delight, adventure and privilege’: Moore, David. Sydney Harbour, p8.

  ‘with a confidence that was discernible by the spectators’: ‘A Daring Feat’, Illustrated Australian News, 16 April, 1877, p62.

  ‘walked fearlessly at the rate of eighty steps to a minute’: ‘L’Estrange’s rope-walk over Middle Harbour’, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 April, 1877, p5.

  ‘The Bridge to Health and Wealth at Northbridge’: Raine and Horne advertisement, 1913, quoted in Clifford, Pam, Northbridge – Building a New Suburb, self-published, Sydney, 2014, p49.

  even the state’s road authority officially accepted the name: Clifford, Pam, Northbridge – Building a New Suburb, p37.

  The owner apparently thought the land … was suitable for only goats: Clifford, p23.

  made Fig Tree House pleasant for the human species: Clifford, p165.

  ‘waves of fire and smoke were rolling out of the vessel with such fury: ‘The Itata Completely Destroyed’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 January, 1906, accessed on trove.nla.gov.au on 29 December, 2016.

  one of the smallest tidal rock pools: Information from a plaque at the site, read on 22 August, 2016.

  as though the whole landscape was theirs: ‘Griffin legacy at Castlecrag’ on www.griffinsociety.org, accessed on 2 January, 2017.

  The caves had been home to escaped convicts: I’m indebted to Gavin Souter’s wonderful book, Time & Tides, and for his wealth of information and knowledge of Middle Harbour.

  debates … may have been smoothed by the harbour waters: Details of the yacht from Miles, Patricia, Lucinda: Little Ship of State, Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, 2001.

  converted into a centre for recovering alcoholic men: Information from a plaque at Echo Point Park, read 28 May, 2016.

  ‘the most … solitary seclusion …’: White, John, Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, accessed at www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301531 on 17 January, 2017.

  ‘no unsightly mud-banks are uncovered at low water’: Froude, James, Oceana, or England and her Colonies, Longmans Green, London, 1886, reproduced in Hall, Richard, Sydney, p73.

  ‘The water was stained with blood …’: ‘Shark kills actress in shallow cove: fight by fiance’, Sydney Morning Herald, 29 January, 1963, p1.

  ‘At Clontarf … it was an orgy’: Bulletin, 9 January, 1881, reproduced in Hall, Richard (editor), Sydney, pp70-71.

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  They were evicted and the huts were boarded up: Details of the residents of Crater Cove and the battle to evict them are from Grayson, Russ, ‘Hidden path to a cove’s history’, on www.pacific-edge/2007/2008/hidden-path-to-a-coves-history, accessed 6 May, 2016.

  twenty-five people have died on Gowlland Bombora: Figure from the article ‘Gowlland Bombora ended a brilliant career’, Morecombe, John, published on 26 February, 2016, at http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-beaches/gowlland-bombora-ended-a-brilliant-career/news-story/e948265ad8f16c1c8ce2f84b041e98e1, accessed on 22 January, 2017.

  the man’s doctor pronounced him healthy: Andrews, Graeme, The Ferries of Sydney, p111.

  to try … to ‘live in amity and kindness with them’: Reproduced in Eldershaw, M. Barnard, Phillip of Australia, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1972, p29.

  ‘finding bodies of the Indians in all the coves …’: Tench, Watkin, A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, G. Nicol and J. Sewell, London, 1793, republished by the University of Sydney library, Sydney, 1998, accessed at www.setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit on 22 January, 2017.

  ‘the bathing suburb of Sydney – one of them’: Lawrence, D.H., Kangaroo, p21.

  there were only about thirty-five left: A lot of the details about the Little Penguin come from Pulman, Felicity, The Little Penguins of Manly Wharf, Sydney, 2013.

  the substance is ‘not known to be toxic’: Read by the author on 4 May, 2016.

  ‘joined by 3 Canoes with one Man in each …’: Bradley, 29 January, 1788.

  warned to keep their doors … open to avoid damage: Oppenheim, Peter, The Fragile Forts, p232.

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  the first to sail alone across the Pacific from west to east: Details on Fred Rebell from Fulloon, Gillian, ‘Rebell, Fred (1886-1968)’, Australian Dict
ionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed at www.adb.anu.edu.au on 5 June, 2016.

  ‘soon discoverd lying between two steep bluff heads …’: www.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/discover_collections/society_art/french/perouse/botanybay

  ‘To describe … the different Coves … I cannot do justice …’: Smyth, Arthur Bowes, Journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth, 1787 March 22-1789 August, accessed at http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms4568 on 6 February, 2017.

  ‘like a smile of welcome to my new country’: Meredith, Louisa Anne, Notes and Sketches of New South Wales, J., Murray, London, 1844, pp34-35, reproduced as a Project Gutenberg of Australia ebook, accessed at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600201h.html on 7 February, 2017.

  ‘two great brown pillars of Hawkesbury sand-stone …’: ‘Dr Talmage’, in ‘Cosmos’, The Kiama Independent, and Shoalhaven Advertiser, Thursday 4 October 1894, p4, accessed at trove.nla.gov.au on 21 July, 2016.

  ‘Opal-blue water, a band of golden sand …’: Rees, Lloyd, Small Treasures of a Lifetime, p45.

  ‘I saw Sydney for the first time the very best way …’: Culotta, Nino, They’re a Weird Mob, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1958, p14.

  ‘I felt I could be happy in Australia …’: As well as speaking with Teruko Blair on the telephone in February, 2017, I spoke with her in May, 2007, in Canberra, for a story I did for The 7.30 Report, titled ‘Japanese war brides reflect on their journey’, which was broadcast on ABC Television on 14 May, 2007.

  2 metres clearance under the structure: ‘Harbour Master’s Directions’, Port Authority of New South Wales, July 2016, p14, accessed www.portauthoritynsw.com.au on 27 February, 2017.

  ‘Room here for all the navies of the earth …’: ‘Dr Talmage, in ‘Cosmos’, The Kiama Independent, and Shoalhaven Advertiser, Thursday 4 October 1894, p4, accessed at trove.nla.gov.au on 21 July, 2016.

  ‘the major form of attack under consideration …’: Quoted in Oppenheim, Peter, The Fragile Forts, p207.

  three Japanese midget submarines brought into Sydney: Carruthers, Steven L., Japanese Submarine Raiders, 1942: A Maritime Mystery, Casper Publications, Narrabeen, 2006, p116.

  The pilot had … flown up the harbour: Ito’s flight is recounted in Jenkins, David, Battle Surface! Japan’s Submarine War Against Australia, 1942-44, Random House Australia, Sydney, 1992, pp186-192.

  there were no words, just deep feelings: My story, titled ‘Remembrance service held for midget sub crews’, was broadcast on The.730 Report, on ABC TV on 6 August, 2007.

  attacked and killed people in the harbour: Carruthers, Steven L., Japanese Submarine Raiders, 1942, p145.

  ‘the better chances of keeping the submarines down until daylight’: Muirhead-Gould, G.C., ‘Japanese Midget Submarine Attack on Sydney Harbour – Preliminary Report’., No B.S. 1518/37, 22 June, 1942, reproduced in Carruthers, Steven L., Japanese Submarine Raiders, 1942, p244.

  ‘How many of us are really prepared to make … the sacrifice …?’: Quoted in Jenkins, David, Battle Surface! Japan’s Submarine War Against Australia, 1942-44, p230.

  Ode to the Fallen (The Sailor’s Ode): printed in ‘Memorial Service for Japanese Midget Submarine M24, Sea Ceremony, HMAS Melbourne’, Monday, 6 August, 2007, program, Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

  ‘He works with rocks and waters and skies …’: Dr Talmage, in ‘Cosmos’, The Kiama Independent, and Shoalhaven Advertiser, Thursday 4 October 1894, p4, accessed at trove.nla.gov.au on 21 July, 2016.

  ‘a stepping stone for greater engineering feats …’: Bradfield, quoted in Lalor, Peter, The Bridge, p332.

  ‘As you sail into the opening between the Outer Heads …’: Bradley, William, A Voyage to New South Wales, 1802, p83, facsimile copy at Mitchell Library, Sydney, ML. Ref.1/981/54A3-4

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  ‘This place was call’d Camp Cove’: Nagle, Jacob, Collection 08: Jacob Nagle – memoir, titled ‘Jacob Nagle his Book A.D. One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty Nine May 19th. Canton. Stark County Ohio’, 1775-1802, compiled 1829, p83, State Library of NSW, MLMSS 5954 (Safe 1 / 156), www.sl.nsw.gov.au.

  ‘it is much valued, I believe, by glass-makers’: Meredith, Louisa Anne, Notes and Sketches of New South Wales, J. Murray, London, 1844, p35, reproduced as a Project Gutenberg of Australia ebook, accessed at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600201h.html on 7 February, 2017.

  ‘a brother-officer, was with me …’: Tench, Watkin, A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, originally published by G. Nicol and J. Sewell, London, 1793, reproduced by University of Sydney Library, 1998, accessed at http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/p00044 on 4 March, 2017.

  ‘In boisterous weather the surges … break in mountains …’: Wentworth, W.C., Description of The Colony of New South Wales and Its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen’s Land, G. and W.B. Whittaker, London, 1819 (Facsimile Edition, Griffin Press, Adelaide, 1978.), p15.

  ‘heaven and earth performing beneath his insignificant feet’: Slessor, Kenneth, ‘Storm Troops’, The Sun, 12 December, 1920, reproduced in Haskell, Dennis, Kenneth Slessor, pp205-207.

  The Gap has become renowned as a suicide spot: Lifeline: 13 11 14.

  a lifeboat service was based at Watsons Bay: ‘The “Alice Rawson” and the Port Jackson lifeboat service’, p4, accessed at www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au on 8 March, 2017.

  ‘Life is poor and unpretentious, life can be quiet …’: Stead, Christina, Seven Poor Men of Sydney, first published Peter Davies, London, 1934, reprinted Sirius Quality Paperback, Sydney, 1987, p2.

  ‘The beach provided not only fuel, but also dead fish …’: Stead, Christina, Seven Poor Men of Sydney, p3.

  residents ‘were absolutely fearless …’: Stead, Christina, Seven Poor Men of Sydney, p3.

  ‘The Harbour’: Olsen, John, Seaport of Desire, Port Jackson Press, Melbourne, 2002, seen at John Olsen: The City’s Son, Newcastle Art Gallery, November 5, 2016-February 19, 2017, reproduced with permission.

  ‘I was drawn down by suction …’: ‘Ferry Disaster’, The Argus (Melbourne), 5 November, 1927, p35, accessed at www.trove.nla.gov.au on 7 March, 2017.

  ‘We have only one Sydney harbour …’: ‘Our Harbour Foreshores’ (letter to the editor), Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April, 1906, p11, accessed at www.trove.nla.gov.au on 8 August, 2016.

  ‘to keep a watchful eye on all matters of public concern …’: ‘Vigilance Committee Formed’, Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday, 2 November 1905, p5, accessed at www.trove.nla.gov.au on 8 August, 2016.

  ‘It was bound to come …’: ‘The Harbour Foreshores’, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, Wednesday, 23 October 1907, p1049, accessed at www.trove.nla.gov.au on 8 August, 2016.

  ‘unless we bestir ourselves …’: Letter to the Editor, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December, 1907, p10, accessed at www.trove.nla.gov.au on 8 August, 2016.

  ‘the southern shore … will be densely populated …’: Letter to the Editor, Sydney Morning Herald, December 19, 1907, p10.

  ‘the ceremony of filling in the trench was performed …’: Wilson, The Rev. Canon, ‘Old Sydney’, in Illustrated Sydney News, 4 April, 1889, p11-13, accessed on www.trove.nla.gov.au on 8 August, 2016.

  ‘Looking towards the coast …’: Wentworth, W.C., Description of The Colony of New South Wales and Its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen’s Land, G. and W.B. Whittaker, London, 1819 (Facsimile Edition, Griffin Press, Adelaide, 1978), p13.

  Alice was … hijacked by some of Wentworth’s staff: Tink, Andrew, William Charles Wentworth, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2009, pp135-136.

  more than 4000 attended to have an uninterrupted view: ‘Rejoicings for General Darling’s Departure from New South Wales …’ Australian, 21 October, 1831, p2, accessed www.trove.nla.gov.au on 8 August, 2016.

  the house … looked like a Gothic Revival mansion: Tink, Andrew, William Charles Wentworth, p129.

  ‘The value of land in this town … is daily increasing’: Wentworth, W.C., Description of The Colony of New South, p7.


  ‘My city is a whore’: Words from ‘You Gotta Love this City’ by Tim Freedman, used with permission of Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

  could escape the ‘lethal air’ and ‘floating germs’: Details from the information plaque outside Greycliffe House, read on 2 November, 2016.

  ‘how numerous … are the Sharks …’: ‘Local Intelligence’, in Kilmore Free Press, Kilmore, Victoria, 20 September, 1877, p2, retrieved from nla.trove.gov.au on 30 June, 2017.

  a ‘truly Edwardian English park’: Term used on information notice on Shark Island, NPWS.

  ‘It marked the spot … that was furthest from reality …’: Barnard, Marjorie, Macquarie’s World, originally published 1941, republished by Angus & Roberstson, Sydney, 1971, p49.

  impossible to grow anything before it was stolen: Clark, Mary Shelley and Clark, Jack, The Islands of Sydney Harbour, p179.

  the urinal with the best view in the world: Sydney Morning Herald, 22 November, 1994, cited in Clark and Clark, p176.

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  ‘I not mean to punish any of the natives …’: Quoted in Barton, G.B., History of New South Wales from the Records. Vol 1 – Governor Phillip, 1783-1789, Charles Potter, Government Printer, Sydney, 1889, p301.

  ‘… an epitome of the far-famed Eden’: Sydney Gazette, 16 February, 1827, p2, quoted in Cherry, Derelie, Alexander Macleay: From Scotland to Sydney, Paradise Publishers, Kulnura, 2012, p105.

  she sailed into Sydney with cuttings of lantana: Cherry, Derelie, Alexander Macleay: From Scotland to Sydney, pp289-290.

  ‘an amphitheatre of lofty woods …’: Shepherd, Thomas, Lectures on Landscape Gardening in Australia, 1836, p89, quoted in Cherry, pp315-316.

  ‘one of the last periods to allow whimsy …’: Koch, C.J., The Doubleman, Chatto & Windus, The Hogarth Press, London, 1989, p139.

  ‘inviting as a dream of pre-war Hollywood …’: Koch, C.J., The Doubleman, p134.

  ‘Daemons in periwigs …’: Slessor, Kenneth, ‘Five Visions of Captain Cook’, Selected Poems, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 2014, published in Haskell, Dennis (editor), Kenneth Slessor, UQP, St Lucia, 1991, p22, reproduced with permission.