Port Botany from La Perouse

We're headed round to Port Botany for the next few days, to see the changes which are taking place there.

Wedding photos, La Perouse

The bridge to Bare Island, La Perouse

Taken from the Bare Island side.

Bare Island, La Perouse

Bare Island was part of the traditional land of the Gweagal and Kameygal Aboriginal tribes. In 1770, it was described as ‘a small bare island’ by early explorer, Lieutenant James Cook.

In 1877 it was decided that a fort was to be built on the island. Botany Bay was considered the back door into Sydney, thus making the city vulnerable to a seaborne attack. Russia was perceived as the main threat. Plans for the construction of a fort were drawn up by the Colonial Architects Department and tenders in 1880. Construction was completed in 1885.

In 1890 a Royal Commission found that construction of the fort was faulty due to the use of an inferior grade of concrete. The whole project started to crumble before it was completed. The Royal Commission was very critical of the material used and were reluctant to refer to the material as concrete. The two clerks who were responsible for the operation, Henry Purkis and Edwin Colley, were found to be neglectful in their duties of inspecting the site. The contractor responsible was asked to repay some of the money that was paid out to him. He was also banned from any other government contracts. The Colonial Architect Mr James Barnet who is more widely known for designing many of the beautiful sandstone buildings in Sydney was eventually blamed for failing to oversee the project and to limit the amount of extra funds paid out to the contractor. This led to his resignation in disgrace from government office.

Though bristling with guns, the fort was soon made redundant by advancing technology. By 1902 Bare Island was decommissioned and ceased to exist as a military fortification, with only a handful of military personnel manning the fort.

In 1912, Bare Island became a retirement home for war veterans from the Crimea, Sudan and China campaigns. It continued to operate as a retirement home until 1963, after this the Randwick District Historical Society became caretakers of the island. In 1967 it was passed onto the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service for use as a museum and tourist attraction. The Bare Island fort has now been declared an historical site, and can be visited by way of guided tours on Sundays.

It featured in the movie Mission Impossible 2.

Boatshed Cafe, La Perouse;site of Paragon Seafood Restaurant

Nick and Angelo Omeros, with their mother, Helen, emigrated to Australia from Greece in 1953. They, and their three older brothers, became restauranteurs.

Nick, Michael, Costa and Comino opened the Paragon Seafood Restaurant at La Perouse in November 1968. They transformed the Paragon Café and Boat Shed from a café, milkbar and take-away with boat hiring facilities. It was the second restaurant to specialise in seafood in New South Wales.

When diners turned up for lunch on the last Sunday in May 1974, they were horrified at the sight that greeted them. The collapsed restaurant building was literally slipping into the sea, a victim of the previous night’s storm. This was regarded as the worst in twenty years and caused a great deal of damage in Sydney. The restaurant was a total write-off, and the Omeros brothers moved on to success elsewhere.

Congwong Bay Beach, La Perouse

Another day, another picnic, La Perouse

A family picnic beside the Barrack Tower, La Perouse. It has been there since the early 1820s to prevent smugglers entering Botany Bay unseen. It is the oldest building still in existence on the shores of the bay. From the 1830s it was a Customs House, and in 1868 it was used as a local school. Restored by the La Perouse Monuments Trust, 1961.

I think they just look cold!

At least it's not as cold as this morning, which is apparently the coldest Sydney morning for 21 years (4 degrees at 7 am in the east, -1 in the western suburbs - oh how we Sydney-siders suffer ;-)

Bare Island

Still at La Perouse. This is Bare Island, joined to the mainland by a ricketty wooden bridge. This fort was built in 1885, when the Crimean War made Sydney feel vulnerable to possible Russian invasion. (Nothing happened, of course). It was named Bare Is after a journal entry by Captain Cook, who referred to it as "...a small, bare island..."

If it appears a little familiar, that may be because you saw Tom Cruise fighting baddies there in Mission Impossible 2. Apparently there is great diving off it too.

More about Bare Island: Here and underwater dive pictures here.

le quatorze juillet

"How to mark Bastille Day on Sydney Daily Photo, with an Aussie flavour? " I wondered.

Well, I think there's only one place in the world* you might come across these three flags flying together: La Perouse, on the northern shore of Botany Bay. The Australian flag, the French flag, and the Aboriginal flag (La Perouse is home to a large Aboriginal community)

French Captain Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de Laperouse, arrived here just six days after the British First Fleet in 1788. Laperouse stayed in Botany Bay for six weeks, building an observatory, stockade and garden. This monument marks the site of his camp.

Today when I arrived there was a group of French speaking young people just packing up musical instruments; I had missed celebrations featuring the Orchestre Polyphonique from Île de la Réunion. Which just proves how even-handed I am, because I also missed the 29 April celebrations on the opposite side of Botany Bay, commemorating the arrival of Captain Cook! (see this blog)


* Hmmmm- perhaps at the Musée Branly in Paris, which has a modern Aboriginal art collection?