Sydney Travellers' Guide: Historic Walls and Structures

Walls, Steps and Other Structures

Government Dockyard Wall
A 3-metre high stone retaining wall was built by Gov Macquarie along the eastern side of George Street during the early years of his Governorship. Once part of the retaining wall behind the Government Dock Yard, it is visible behind Cadman's Cottage, Circular Quay. The stone for the wall was quarried on site.
Macquarie enlarged and improved the existing dockyard with new building and repairing Docks, Wharfs, Quays, Sail Rooms, and all the requisite Workshops, including Boat Houses, and also Offices for the Master Builder and Master Attendant of the Colonial Marine. The whole premises were enclosed with a stone wall, the section of wall we see today is the only surviving part of that wall.

Historic Observatories
An observatory to view the heavens from a different perspective was one of the first structures built by first fleeters after they arrived in Sydney Cove in January 1788. Australians have had a fascination with star gazing ever since.

Steps and Stairs
Before the advent of motor transport, the majority of people walked from place to place so it is not surprising that there are some 14 sets of finely crafted stone stairs in and around the inner Sydney area which give access up and over the high ridges which surround Sydney Cove.

The 30-Year Wall
A section of seawall around Farm Cove, built of stone quarried on Cockatoo Island, is known as the 30-Year Wall because that is how long it took for it to be built (1848-78). A similar sea wall was built around Circular Quay. Work on it commenced in 1841, first on the eastern side and later on the western and southern sides (1854) after reclamation of mudflats where the Tank Stream entered Sydney Cove had been completed. It was the last major public work to utilise convict labour.

Man O'War Steps
The steps are the only known remains of harbour works from the Macquarie era still in existence in Sydney Harbour. They are in what appears to be their original configuration, and still in daily use, and recall a bygone era when Navy ships anchored in Farm Cove, and the soldiers came ashore to Fort Macquarie, Sydney's main military base which once stood where the Opera House is today.

Sydney Harbour Fortifications
The arrival of a French expedition to Botany Bay almost simultaneous to the arrival of the first fleet in January 1788 was a timely reminder that the colony of New South Wales, being the most isolated outpost of the British Empire, was always going to be vulnerable to any military action which might be taken against it. For this reason the major headlands of Sydney Harbour and strategical coastal locations were quickly reserved for fortifications.

Macquarie Place Obelisk
The tiny triangle of greenery that is Macquarie Place Park was once the lower corner of a garden used to grow the produce for the Governor's table. Facing the Governor's wharf, it was from this spot that Governor Macquarie first measured distances within the colony of New South Wales in 1818 and commissioned Francis Greenway to design and build a sandstone obelisk to record those distances. The obelisk still stands.

South Head Distance Marker
A marker post located near the Harbour foreshore in Robertsons Park at Watsons Bay records the construction of the first major road through Sydney's east which was also the first to be financed by subscription in suburban Sydney. The post reads, "This road, made by subscription, was completed in 10 weeks from 25th March, 1814 by 21 soldiers of His Majesty's 73rd Regiment." The marker post was erected by Gov. Macquarie and honours the construction work of Macquarie's own regiment. The road was paid for by residents who lived between Sydney and the tiny fishing settlement that had sprung up at Watsons Bay in the form of a subscription negotiated with them by Macquarie. The agreement allowed for pedestrians to travel free, a horseman paid three pence and the cost to vehicular traffic would be "in accordance to its quality". The road replaced a rough track cut through the bush by the colonial surgeon John Harris in 1803. Early records indicate that the section of road between Hyde Park and Centennial Park known today as Oxford Street followed an Aboriginal track between the two locations.

Thornton's Scent Bottle
It looks like an Egyptian obelisk, but in fact it is only a ventilator for a sewer. On its completion in 1857, the local press dubbed it Thornton's Scent Bottle, George Thornton (1819-1901) being the Mayor of Sydney who erected it and came under heavy criticism for wasting money for building it. The obelisk remains a mysterious element in the Sydney city streetscape.

Macquarie Wall
In 1788, Gov. Arthur Phillip set aside a large tract of land from Farm Cove south for a public domain. During his term as Governor, Lachlan Macquarie Macquarie segregated part of it as The Governors Domain. He established a Botanic Garden there in 1816 when Mrs Macquaries Rd was also built through it. The Garden was enclosed with a stone wall, dividing it from the town across the neck of land between Sydney Cove and Woolloomooloo Bay. A remnant of the convict built Macquarie Wall begins just past the Gardens Shop in Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens, after you cross the creek on the oldest culvert in Australia. The Gardens' foundation day is traditionally 13th June 1816 when Elizabeth Macquarie’s road to her ‘Chair’, a carved rock ledge at the Point, was completed. The new Road ran along the new Wall. If you walk along the harbour side of the Wall you will be treading the route of the original Mrs Macquaries Road.

Fort Phillip
The oldest surviving structure in the inner city area is believed to be a section of the Fort Phillip perimeter wall. Constructed at the peak of Observatory Hill in 1804, Fort Phillip was ill-conceived, was never completed and never had the potential to be used as anything but a barracks or, as happened, a signal station.

Mrs. Macquarie's Chair
A stone seat that was hand carved out of a rock overhang by convicts in 1810, Mrs. Macquarie's Chair commemorates Elizabeth, the wife of Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. Mrs. Macquarie loved the harbour, she often took harbourside strolls and this spot was her favourite place of relaxation. Folklore has it that she used to sit on the rock and watch for ships from Great Britain sailing into the harbour.

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