Exploring Fort Denison

[khiemtran]

Fort Denison is a familiar landmark in Sydney Harbour, sitting on a small island just a kilometre from the Opera House. My Sydneysiders will have taken ferries past it, and I've even sailed around it, but to actually step ashore on it, you need to buy a special pass from NSW National Parks and Wildlife.




AS you can see, the island is actually quite small. Originally, it would have stood higher than that flagpole on the right, but the sandstone was cut away to provide usable space. The stone was then used to help build Circular Quay. When they needed more sandstone to build the fort, they then had to quarry more at Kurraba Point across the harbour, and bring it across.



These days, at least half the available space is taken up by a function centre, which can be booked out for weddings or events. If you book ahead, you might also be able to reserve a table, but the prices are a bit eye-watering. Ironically, the island was once known as Pinchgut, when it served as a punishment site in the convict days.



The main feature of the fort is the Martello tower, that big turret in the background. Martello towers were very popular in the British Empire in the nineteenth century, but this was the only one built in Australia. Owing to bureaucracy, changing priorities, and other minor dramas, it took over twenty years to build, by which time it was completely obsolete. Martello towers were designed to be able to resist a ship of the line indefinitely, while harassing them with hot shot fired from a cannon on the roof. You can see the original cannon in the foreground.



After it ceased being useful as a fort, the cannon was replaced with a navigation light. This is the current modern one. You can see the frame of the original lamp in a small museum next to the function centre.



Martello towers typically have two floors, with powder storage and supplies at the bottom, and living quarters above. This one is unusual because the second floor actually has three small cannons. The gunners would have slept in this floor on folding out bunks. These cannons were built into the fort - there is no door or window big enough to get them in or out. And yet they were also apparently used only for training purposes (the National Parks guide was a big vague on this). If you really wanted to use three cannon just for training, would you really build them into a small stone fortification?



The best part of the tour is the trip to the roof. (We also got to see the magazines, but it was too dark for photography.) Here you can see the modern navigation light.



The view out across the harbour is amazing. The gun on the roof would have had a range long enough to hit any ship attempting to sneak past.



Each day, at 1pm, a signal is still fired from a smaller cannon on the island (there were three the same size, so I'm not sure if it this one specifically.



Across the waters, you can view Australia's modern defences at nearby Garden Island.



Or simply sit and watch the local pleasure craft go by. Unfortunately, it is soon time to catch the ferry back to Circular Quay, for some welcome gelato on a hot day.

Comments

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating - thank you! I've never managed to visit a martello tower, even though there are fair few surviving along the English coast.

I can see why the tables at the function centre are a bit pricey. The views are just stunning...

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

The views are amazing indeed. I would have happily stayed on the island longer, but the best view was from the roof of the tower and we were only there for a few minutes.

It's interesting to think what it must have been like for the colonists for those twenty years while the tower was being built, knowing that there was a clear and imminent danger (for example, the Crimean War), yet there was this half-built fortress just off circular quay that everyone could see every day. Hopefully, our response to climate change won't be similarly delayed...

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

The only Martello tower I've come across is the one in Dun Laoire where the opening of Ulysses is set. (I've seen it from the outside; it was shut whilst I was waiting for my ferry from there to Holyhead.) I shall have to look up about where else they can be found now... though living in Berlin goodness knows when I shall ever get to see one.

Thanks for posting the photographs and the explanations, khiemtran.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that the original tower was at Mortella Point and the English name seems to have come about due to a spelling error. I think there are still a few more stories untold about the one at Fort Denison. Why exactly, for example, were those three cannon sealed inside and who were they supposed to work? It's difficult to imagine them operating in such a confined space, and yet, once inside, they couldn't be used for any other purpose. According to the National Parks Guide, they were also three hundred years old, so nearly a century older than the colony itself.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

How fascinating. I've seen Martello towers on TV because some of the ones on the English coast have been turned into homes -- very expensive homes! I don't know of any in Wales though so I've never seen one in the flesh. I hadn't realised that the British continued to build them in various far flung locations.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It looks like you can find them all over the world now, thanks to the British Empire. Ironically, the original tower at Mortella Point made its name by resisting two British warships. That obviously must have made an impression, so they copied the design all over the world.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wow, all the sailboats look like gulls or other waterbirds, flocking on the water.

So the gunners in this tower slept with cannons. "Happiness is a warm gun," writ large.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I think you can be pretty well assured that they were all hard of hearing too. The living quarters were very echo-ey and you can imagine what it must have been like to fire a cannon inside.

The yachts you can see are actually racing. There were actually a few different races on at the same time, which is quite normal for a Saturday on the harbour.