Page 3 - 1977 NAB CalendarMaritime Life in early Australia Part One

FORT MACQUARIE FROM PINCHGUT (SYDNEY)

COVER
The “Fort” never served any military purpose other than storage. It is now
This view, unsigned and undated, takes in three important landmarks of maintained by State authorities because of its historic interest and s a suitable
history. To the extreme left of the painting can be seen the second place for navigation signals, for the recording of tides by means of an
Government House, whose first occupant was Governor Gipps in 1845. Fort automatic gauge, and for fireworks displays on gala nights. During 36 years,
Macquarie, designed by Francis Greenway for Governor Macquarie, lies from February, 1906, a gun on the island was fired each day at 1 p.m.; the
between the two sailing ships. And in the foreground is Pinchgut or Fort practice was discontinued during World War II and has not been resumed.
Denison. Proposals have been made from time to time, but so far without success, for
‘Pinchgut’ was the name the early settlers gave to the small island or rocky the island to be equipped with a large statue on the lines of the Statue of
outcrop in Sydney Harbour, a third of a mile from Point Macquarie. This was Liberty in the harbour of New York.
because soon after the first fleet arrived some of the most troublesome of Frederick Garling, 1806-1873, arrived in Sydney from London in 1814. He
the convicts were sent to the island and kept upon a short allowance of food. was really Australia’s first marine artist and is said to have made remarkably
Following an unheralded visit to the harbour by several American warships accurate sketches of riggings, masts and ropes. Garling worked in a
in 1839, it was recommended that a battery be placed on the island for Government department and his painting was virtually limited to weekends,
harbour defence. In 1841 a tall pinnacle of rock on the island was removed yet he seemed never to have missed any ship which entered Sydney Harbour.
in order to make room for a fort, but the project was temporarily abandoned He was entirely self-taught, working mainly in watercolours, and was unfor-
and was not revived until after the Crimean War. Several thousands of tons tunately so modest that he rarely signed his.
of rock were taken to the island and a martello tower with strong walls - 12
feet thick at the base and 9 feet thick at the top - was built to accommodate
a number of guns. When completed, in 1857, the structure was named Fort
Denison, in honour of the Governor of the day.

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