Circular Quay, Sydney Harbour to Historic Hunter's Hill

This area has a history that pre-dates British settlement. The Wallumedagal people fished in and lived alongside the Lane Cover River around here for many hundreds of years before Europeans arrived. They called the river - Turanburra.

Governor Arthur Phillip was a keen explorer and led parties across the Sydney Harbour from the colony itself into the river estuaries as well as to several of the coves. On the 22nd April 1788, he and a contingent of marines intended to explore the head of the harbour. Landing somewhere around the confluence of the Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers, his party set off on foot westward searching for good land on which to start farms. Phillip was very positively impressed by the landscape on this trip describing it as ‘singularly fine’, ‘of a very pleasing and picturesque appearance’ and mentions finding ‘the soil excellent, except in a few small spots where it was stony.’ (From The Voyage Of Governor Phillip To Botany Bay by Arthur Phillip).

Lots of great places for food, wine and chat in hunter's hill

The post-European history of Hunter’s Hill includes colourful periods such as the 1840s when this area was the home of many convicts who had escaped from the penal colony on Cockatoo Island and set up home here apparently safe from recapture.

In June 1788, on the 18th in fact, Governor Phillip sent another exploration party to land on the south bank of the Lane Cove River and see if a westward track could be found overland to locations suitable for settlement and farms. This excursion, with provisions for six days, comprised four officers and a contingent of marines. They landed on the south side of Lane Cove River probably in what is now called Alexandra Bay and proceeded on foot as instructed in a westerly direction through what we now call Hunter’s Hill.

At the Nelson Parade entrance to Kelly’s Bush beside two plaques on the path of the Great North Walk erected by the ‘friends of Kelly’s Bush’ group. These plaques recognize the Builders and Labourers Federation and other unions who backed the efforts of the valiant Sydney women who saved Kelly’s Bush. The World's first green ban (on building) June 1971 - thirteen women, most of them living around here, began the fight to save the bush. They called themselves the ‘Battlers for Kelly’s Bush’. A commemorative plaque inscription lists their names as: James, Lehany, Sheehan, Bell, Chubb, Croll, Dawson, Farrell, Fitzgerald, Hamilton, Kallir, Stobo and Taplin. The park dates back to much earlier - Kelly’s Park was first designed as a buffer from the radioactivity oozing and blowing out from the famous Sydney Smelting Company. This company was at its height of productivity about the same time as Woolwich Dock was being built.

Visit Sydney Observatory - The Observatory published Australia’s first weather map in 1887. Weather readings were taken at Dawes Point, near today’s Observatory by Lieutenant William Dawes from 1788 when the First Fleet arrived; in the grounds of Sydney Observatory from 1855 until 1917; and continue nearby to this day. Located on Watson Road, Observatory Hill, The Rocks, Sydney, about 1.2 km from Sydney Harbour.

To build Woolwich Dock they dug out more than 20,000 tonnes of stone to create the deep docking and build up the sea-wall. There are a series of signs in the Goat Paddock garden (opposite the Woolwich Pier Hotel). A 15–20 minute tour of the Goat Paddock rewards the walker with a brief history of the remarkable Mort’s Dock. The Atlas Engineering Company established their first ship repair workshops here at Clarkes Point in 1884. Four years later, the workshops were taken over by Mort’s Dock Co that dug out this very impressive 188 m by 27 m dry dock. When it opened in December 1901, it was the largest and longest dry dock in Australia: a title sustained (partly as a result of enlargement to 260 m) until finally overtaken by the Captain Cook Graving Dock completed at Garden Island in 1945.

Ferrying across Sydney Harbour is super cheap and a wonderful experience at any time of year. Circular Quay to Valentia Street Wharf is a great rip -- a few kms and not many more minutes.

Berry Island Reserve Art: indigenous people occupied this ‘island’ and Ball’s Head (‘Yerroulbine’) long before Europeans. There are middens, campsites, weathered engravings and evidence of axe grindings. Take the right hand bush trail to reach the engravings (3 minute walk) of a large whale-like creature encompassing a (possible) stingray. You can also continue on the Gadyan Track, a 20-minute bush trail around the island following interpretative signs describing Aboriginal and European history. Both Berry Island and Ball’s Head are very close to the ferry route from Circular Quay (on the Great North Walk) to Valentia Wharf. No longer an ‘island’, this reserve is a 5-10 minute walk from Wollstonecraft station at the end of Shirley Road.

Sydney Harbour is thought, especially by those of us lucky enough to live near, to be one of the most splendid harbours in the world. As well as being naturally spectacular, and further ornamented by the Opera House and Harbour Bridge on which fireworks blossom every New Year’s Eve, it is also one of the world’s largest harbours: including all its bays, it is well over 55 sq km in area and has a shoreline of over 300 km.