Sydney Harbour National Park

Cultural sites

Rock engravings in the park

Engravings of marine animals (such as fish, sharks and whales) and land animals (including kangaroos and emus) can be found in the park. Human figures can also be seen in places and, at Shark Point near Nielsen Park, there is an engraved image of a sailing ship, from the earliest meetings between Europeans and Aboriginal people.

On a sandstone outcrop at Grotto Point on Dobroyd Head, fine examples of Aboriginal rock engravings depict a giant kangaroo, a whale and several small fish.

There are also axe-grinding grooves in many places around the harbour foreshores and along creek lines.

Bradleys Head amphitheatre

Wheelchair access: medium
Disabled parking and toilets are available.

Located in the Ashton Park area of Sydney Harbour National Park, this site is exceptionally popular thanks to its magnificent amphitheatre and breathtaking views of the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Fort Denison.

Getting there: From Mosman follow Military Road onto Bradleys Head Road.

Bus services stop near this venue. Sydney Ferries services operate to the nearby Taronga Zoo wharf. Contact the Transport Info Line for more details.

Wharf access: the wharf at Bradleys Head is not accessible by private vessel or water taxi. The nearest accessible wharf is the public wharf at Taronga Zoo.

Maps of the venue:

• Bradleys Head local area map (PDF 118 KB)
• Bradleys Head detailed map (PDF 163 KB)
  

Facilities: picnic tables, flush toilets, carpark

Venue hire: See details

Permitted here: Chairs. Maximum of 15. They must have continuous or rail type legs to avoid piercing turf.

Not permitted here: Vehicles longer than 5.3m (12 seater minibus).

Contact: Sydney Harbour (Cadmans Cottage), Phone: 02 9247 5033

Bungaree's Farm

The site of Bungaree's Farm lies somewhere near Middle Head on Sydney Harbour. The farm dates back to the earliest days of the colony, and is only known through stories that have come down to us. It was here that convicts taught local Aboriginal people how to farm.

Cadmans Cottage

Gap Bluff Centre, The Armoury

The Gap Bluff Centre is in Watsons Bay. It is part of Sydney Harbour National Park, and was formerly the South Head School of Artillery. The centre consists of two heritage-listed buildings - The Armoury and the Officer's Mess. Both can be hired for social functions and conferences.

Getting there: The Military Road turn-off is at the end of Old South Head Road, in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs.

Bus services stop near this venue. Sydney Ferries services operate to the nearby Watsons Bay wharf. Contact the Transport Info Line for more details.

Venue map
South Head (PDF 161 KB) - showing the Head Lightkeepers Lawn, Outer South Head, Inner South Head, Green Point (North, West and South), The Armoury, Officers' Mess and the Fountain Garden

Facilities: venue

Venue hire: See details

Contact: Gap Bluff Centre, Phone: 02 9337 2333

Gap Bluff Centre, The Officers Mess and Fountain Garden

The Gap Bluff Centre is in Watsons Bay. It is part of Sydney Harbour National Park, and was formerly the South Head School of Artillery. The centre consists of two heritage-listed buildings - The Armoury and the Officer's Mess. Both can be hired for social functions.

Getting there: The Military Road turn-off is at the end of Old South Head Road, in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs.

Bus services stop near this venue. Sydney Ferries services operate to the nearby Watsons Bay wharf. Contact the Transport Info Line for more details.

Venue map
South Head (PDF 161 KB) - showing the Head Lightkeepers Lawn, Outer South Head, Inner South Head, Green Point (North, West and South), The Armoury, Officers' Mess and the Fountain Garden.

Facilities: venue

Venue hire: See details

Contact: Gap Bluff Centre, Phone: 02 9337 2333

Georges Head military relics

At Georges and Middle heads, you can see evidence 150 years of military improvements. Back in the Napoleonic Wars (1805-15), a sandstone parapet was cut into the rock to ward off a feared French invasion. Then a series of interlinking tunnels and passageways were excavated after the withdrawal of British colonial troops garrisoned in Sydney.

The defences continued to be upgraded, and during the Second World War, guns were installed here. You can still see the gun emplacements - and the remains of earlier fortifications - on a walk around the headlands

Grotto Point Aboriginal rock engravings

Grotto Point Lighthouse

This lighthouse near Dobroyd Head used to guide boats away from the headland and towards Sydney Cove - it makes an interesting detour on the Manly Scenic Walkway.

Hornby Lighthouse

Hornby Lighthouse, at the entrance to Sydney Harbour, was built as a harbour light. The lighthouse was build in 1858, immediately after the tragic wrecking of the Dunbar on South Head. All on board, bar one, perished.

The lighthouse can be reached by a pleasant stroll along the South Head Heritage Trail through Sydney Harbour National Park, starting at Camp Cove.

Middle Head

Wheelchair access: medium
For venue hire, vehicle access for disabled visitors can be arranged with prior notice.

This is a great lookout spot. To the left lies North Head, to the right South Head. Between them, the Pacific Ocean stretches off to the horizon. This lookout can be hired as a venue and is ideal for wedding ceremonies and photography shoots.

Getting there: Follow Middle Head Road past HMAS Penguin through the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority management defence lands to the headland.

Parking
There is no public vehicle access to Middle Head.  Parking is at the public carpark on the corner of Chowder Bay and Middle Head Roads, Mosman. The walk to Middle Head from the carpark is 600 metres via a bitumen road. Parking is only permitted in marked spaces and spaces cannot be reserved for guests.  Vehicle access for a bridal party may be arranged with prior notice.  Additional conditions and fees apply if required.

Public transport
Bus services stop near this venue.  Contact the Transport Information line on 131500 for more information.

Venue map

• Middle Head (PDF 174 KB)
• Middle Head local map (PDF 150 KB)
  

Facilities: flush toilets, drinking water

Venue hire: See details

Permitted here: Chairs. Maximum of 15 permitted.

Not permitted here: Domestic animals or pets.

Military relics at Bradleys Head

When four American warships arrived in Sydney Harbour undetected in 1839, Sydneysiders began to feel vulnerable. Convict labourers built a battery on Bradleys Head, and a circular parapet was installed some years later.

Defensive ditches were then added in the late-19th century, after British troops left Sydney. You can see the original timber gun carriage and slide from this period - along with remnants of the earlier fortifications - on the Bradleys Head walking tracks.

Navigation markers in the harbour

Australia's early colonial government didn't just have to defend the harbour. They also had to make sure that transport and trade was efficient and safe - both within the colony, and with the outside world. Navigational aids had to be placed on many of the harbour's prominent headlands, and you can still see some early examples of these in the park.

On North Head there's an obelisk built in 1807, together with some wooden navigation markers. There are also obelisks from the mid-19th century at Obelisk Bay near Middle Head, and at Laings Point near South Head.

In 1871, one of the sandstone columns from the Sydney General Post Office was placed on Bradleys Head, to mark one nautical mile from Fort Denison (this allowed authorities to measure the speed of boats).

Nielsen Park

Wheelchair access: hard
There are gentle slopes, three large, grassy picnic areas with harbour views, an accessible toilet and some seats here. Various bitumen paths can take you around to vantage points where there are panoramic views from the city to the harbour entrance. You can also swim at Shark Beach, though access is difficult and assistance will be needed with the steps. Parking is available just outside the area in Greycliffe Avenue, but it can be full on weekends.

Nielsen Park is well known for its shady grounds and scenic harbour-side beach, which is protected by a shark net during the summer months. After your swim, you can laze on the beach or under a shady tree, or enjoy a meal at the Nielsen Park kiosk. There are also scenic walking tracks around the foreshores. The park has a long tradition as a favourite family beach and picnic area in the Eastern Suburbs.

Activities: swimming

Cultural heritage: Nielsen Park was established as a public reserve in 1911, thanks to the efforts of the Harbour Foreshores Vigilance Committee. The committee was formed in 1905 to urge the return of foreshores to public ownership.

Facilities: picnic tables, flush toilets

Quarantine Station (Q Station Retreat)

Explore, tour, dine, stay. Escape for a day or stay for a few nights. The former North Head Quarantine Station, established in the 1800s, is now Q Station - a place to stay, relax and enjoy the magic of Sydney Harbour and the wonders of the Australian bush.

Just five minutes from Manly and 30 minutes from the heart of Sydney, this historic retreat in the heart of Sydney Harbour National Park offers 72 beautifully restored heritage accommodation rooms, the industrially themed Boilerhouse Restaurant next to Quarantine Beach, and a range of interactive day and night tours, including the long-running Ghost Tour. Take the opportunity to swim, snorkel, kayak and bushwalk, relax with a massage on the beach, or head into Manly, just minutes away, for entertainment, beaches and nightlife.

Cultural heritage: Sydney's immigrants, who started arriving in the colony from 1788 onwards, often brought communicable diseases such as smallpox with them. In 1828 Spring Cove, on the western side of North Head, was used to quarantine new arrivals. A permanent quarantine facility was set up in the 1830s, and it continued to operate until 1972. Vietnamese refugees were housed there in 1975 and Cyclone Tracy victims in 1976. It was finally closed in 1984. Today, it gives us a fascinating insight into the distances and hazards faced by immigrants - and the different social and racial attitudes they faced when they arrived here.

Getting there: Q Station is located at North Head in Manly. Roads are paved.

Road access: Sealed road - 2WD vehicles.

Facilities: cafe/kiosk

Accommodation fees: Available on the Q Station website.

Bookings: For reservations and tour bookings, phone 02 9466 1500 or visit the Q Station website.

Queen's Magazine

The Queen's Magazine, which stands on Goat Island, was built in the 1830s by convicts using sandstone quarried from the eastern side of the island. It was used to store explosives, and beside it there's a barracks, cooperage and kitchen - all built by convict labourers. You can see these buildings, and a channel cut through the eastern tip of the island by convicts, on a tour of the island (fees apply).

Tea Room, Fort Denison

What do the names Mat-te-wan-ye, Rock Island, Pinchgut, and Fort Denison have in common?

They all are, or were, names for the island of Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour National Park. Aboriginal people knew the island as Mat-te-wan-ye. Governor Phillip and his Advocate General, David Collins, called it Rock Island but soon after it became popularly known as Pinchgut.

Fort Denison was used to imprison, punish, and execute criminals from the time of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. On 11 February 1788, Collins recorded that '… three prisoners were tried, one for assault … he was sentenced to 150 lashes, a second, for taking some biscuit from another convict, was sentenced to a week's confinement on bread and water on a small rocky island near the entrance to the cove …'

In 1796 the body of the convicted murderer Francis Morgan was hung from a gibbet post on Pinchgut Island as a lesson to serious offenders. The macabre spectacle was, as Collins put it, '…an object of great terror to the natives … to the natives his appearance was so frightful—his clothes shaking in the wind, and the creaking of his irons … that they never trusted themselves near him, nor the spot on which he hung; which until this time, had ever been with them a favourite place of resort.'

When a fortification battery was built on the island in 1862, the island was renamed Fort Denison after the governor, William Denison.

Facilities: flush toilets, drinking water, cafe/kiosk

Water Police Station, Goat Island

A water police station was built in 1839 on Goat Island. With its central location, this island became the base for harbour management in the early 20th century.

Historic roads and tracks

Bradleys Head and Chowder Head walk - 5km

Walking (easy)

Where else can you go on a gentle stroll in the bush to see Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge? This walk starts near the Taronga Zoo wharf and follows the shoreline around to Morella Road at Chowder Head. As well as spectacular views, it gives you a chance to see historic cannons that once defended Sydney. You can also have something to drink at Athol Hall, which once served the soldiers operating the fortifications.

This walk continues on to Chowder Bay, Middle Head and Balmoral Beach for a further 3km (see map on the Mosman Council website) and also to The Spit (see 'Harbour Bridge to The Spit Walk' below).

Plant communities: dry eucalypt forests

Manly Scenic Walkway - 9.5km

Walking (medium difficulty, 4 hours )

Going past areas of bushland and exclusive waterfront houses, this walk is the best way to get a complete 'harbour experience'! It hugs the harbour shoreline, taking in beaches, Aboriginal sites, community parks, forests, scrublands and even pockets of subtropical rainforest. Make sure you're prepared for all types of weather - take protective clothing and plenty of water with you.

You can start at various points, but to do the full walk you'll need to start at The Spit (which can be accessed by a range of buses from Sydney (Wynyard)), and finish at Manly - or vice versa. From Spit Bridge, follow the shoreline around Fisher Bay (where you can see an Aboriginal midden) and Sandy Bay, before skirting Clontarf Beach. From Clontarf Point, you leave the large beaches behind, following the rocky shoreline and then entering a stand of Sydney red gums. You can take a detour to the right, visiting historic Grotto Point Lighthouse, before continuing along to Crater Cove lookout (opposite Tania Park). Admire the sweeping views of the harbour from here, then carry on over Dobroyd Head, which is in Sydney Harbour National Park. The track passes Reef Beach and Forty Baskets Beach before returning to residential areas, in the suburbs around Manly. From Manly, you can either catch the bus back to Spit Bridge (if you left your car there), or go home via the Manly ferry or jet cat to Circular Quay. For more information on the walk, contact the park information centre.

Plant communities: heathlands, grassy woodlands, dry eucalypt forests

South Head Heritage Trail - 1.4km

Walking (medium difficulty)

South Head is well known for its sandstone cliffs, historic fortifications and sweeping views. You'll see different angles of the harbour from a variety of lookouts on this track, which starts from Camp Cove in Watsons Bay. Follow the path over the 1870s cobblestone road, past Lady Bay Beach and onto the headland. Here, you can see the historic Hornby Lighthouse and its lightkeepers' cottages, and walk around the gun emplacements. Enjoy the view, then retrace your steps back to Watsons Bay.

Plant communities: heathlands