Fort Macquarie

Fort Macquarie was a square castellated battlement fort built in 1798 at Bennelong Point, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on the site where the Sydney Opera House now stands. It was demolished in 1901 to make way for the Fort Macquarie Tram Depot.

The original name of Bennelong Point, the finger of land on which Fort Macquarie was built, was Inbughalee (djubuguli), Farm Cove was Yoolaugh and Sydney Cove was Warane. On 25 November 1789 an Aboriginal man named Bennelong was captured and brought to Governor Arthur Phillip. Eventually three huts were built on this spit of land for Bennelong, his wife Barangaroo, and other Indigenous visitors.

The first attempt at naval fortifications were erected here in July 1788, when Lieutenant William Dawes was directed to build a small redoubt. When finished in November 1788 it held two brass six-pounder guns. This early fort was demolished in 1791 and the guns and flagstaff moved to the west side of the cove. The earthworks were then used for the Governor's garden and later the largest building in Sydney, a 24 x 7.5 metre storeroom, was erected there.

In 1798 a half-moon battery was built on the extreme end of the point which purportedly used guns from the armed tender Supply. It was described by a Mr Pern in 1802, the goal battery on the northern point of Sydney Cove is built on a rock of difficult access, carrying six pieces of cannon protected by a trench of turf, crosses the fire by another battery. Lieutenant William Kent and his crew were assigned to man the primitive defences.

In 1817, Governor Lachlan Macquarie ordered that a new fortification be built on the site at Bennelong Point under the direction of then Colonial Architect Francis Greenway, which was completed in February 1821.

In 1901, the New South Wales Minister of Works decided to demolish Fort Macquarie. A naval drill shed on the site was also pulled down and both buildings were replaced with the Fort Macquarie Tram Depot, whose crenulated walls imitated the original towers and walls of the fort.

Designed by Francis Greenway the foundation stone of Fort Macquarie was laid by Governor Lachlan Macquarie on 17 December 1817. The stone used was from the nearby Governor's Domain quarry and convicts worked on it for around two years before it was complete.

Text adapted from “Fort Macquarie” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort Macquarie ranks #6,640 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #6 of the 14 mapped in Australia. Founded 1817, it is older than 12% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 607 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Australia compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗