| Physical description: | EUROPEAN/ASIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE
The 27 hectare site (O'Flynn, 2012).
PREAMBLE
North Head is situated at the entrance to Sydney Harbour. It is a huge sandstone bluff rising eighty metres above sea level. At the time of settlement North Head was linked to the mainland by only a narrow sand spit that separated the harbour from the sea. Early depictions of North Head show the dramatic upheaval of the land form that sloped from the high cliffs on the eastern seaboard back to the protected waters of the harbour to the west. Today North Head appears as a natural extension of the Manly peninsula due the filling of medium rise building development on the low-lying land of the present-day site of Manly and the mature vegetation through that urban development. The Quarantine Station is situated on the western side of North Head, on the natural amphitheatre of land centred on Quarantine beach. The site was originally designated as all the land with a quarter-mile [500 metre] radius of the beach. The area is fringed by a continuous tract of bushland on the north, south and eastern sides, and by the harbour on the western side.
The curtilage for this Conservation Management Plan is the western side of North Head, which has the Quarantine Station as its core. A diagrammatic description of this curtilage, and the context of the Quarantine Station study area within North Head, is provided at Section 1 above. In order to allow description and analysis of this study curtilage, five precincts have been delineated within the study curtilage as follows:
- the Quarantine Station [core] Precinct the Park Hill Precinct
- the Spring Cove Precinct the Quarantine [South] Precinct, and the Marine Precinct.
In addition, where Quarantine Station related sites occur beyond the briefed study area [eg within the Defence owned property], these sites will be discussed following the 'precinctual' discussion. Each of these precincts and related Quarantine Station sites will be examined in turn below.
Within the physical overview of the buildings and site elements of the various precincts the following 'description fields' have been used, as appropriate:
General Description and Physical Overview
Historical Overview
Inscriptions
Cultural Landscape Features, and
HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
As a preamble to the precinct-specific overview, summary statements related to historical inscriptions, historical archaeological sites and cultural landscape features for the study area have been prepared. These Statements, which have been informed by the 1985 and 1992 Conservation Plans 1 and by recent NPWS publications,2 and reports, follow.
EUROPEAN/ASIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE: THE HISTORICAL INSCRIPTIONS
Quarantine internees commenced a tradition of making inscriptions, including poems, initials, memorials and drawings, in the 1830s. This continued throughout the life of the Quarantine Station. Nineteenth and early twentieth century examples include engraved and painted inscriptions on soft sandstone faces, structures and slate storm-water drain covers. Eight hundred and fifty four examples have been recorded, though at least one thousand other examples exist.
The inscriptions commemorate quarantine events, ships and people from the ships and deceased internees. They are located throughout the place with concentrations around the Wharf Precinct and The Old Mans Hat. English and other European, Asian and Arabic languages were used. The most recent inscriptions are a series of written examples on internal walls of Building A20, deriving from its use as a detention centre for illegal immigrants. Most of these appear to have been written by people from the Pacific islands, some in islander languages, many being laments on their authors' detention or abuses directed at their detainers.
Most of the inscriptions are on quarried or natural sandstone surfaces. A few occur on cement or plaster surfaces and several on built elements such as brick walls, drain covers and the Cannae Point flagstaff. Some have been re-worked in the past or are highlighted by paint. A large percentage of the inscriptions are in good condition, easily located and readily legible. Aspect, topography and environmental agents [sun, wind, rain] affect the condition of inscriptions but the major factor is the quality of stone, i.e. the softer [less silicified] the sandstone the faster it deteriorates.
Seeping ground water, lichen, moss, wind and vegetation abrasion and visitor contact are additional agents of deterioration. The latter is now minimised through a policy of controlled access. The inscriptions in A20 have a life limited to that of the paintwork and plaster render on internal walls. A preliminary analysis of European rock inscriptions was completed in 1983, and an interim report on the conservation of rock inscriptions at the Quarantine Station was completed in March 1999, as part of a joint project between the NPWS, Sydney, North Sub-District and the NPWS Cultural Heritage Services Division.
The recommendations of the 1983 Analysis were: that the engravings at The Old Mans Hat be recorded by a similar program [ie to that at the Quarantine Station core precinct] in order to complete the record of the resource; that, it funds become available, an indexing system [of the inscriptions] be devised for the complete resource; and that further research is carried out to identify whether similar engravings have been located at other Quarantine facilities as a means of assessing the National Heritage value of this material.
The 1999 Interim Report provided specific conservation recommendations for the Wharf Area and The Old Mans Hat inscriptions, and general conservation management recommendations for visitor management and monitoring. These recommendations are included as recommendations of this Plan.
The inscriptions are valuable and unusual graphic illustrations ofhistorical incidents and social patterns of Quarantine Station history. They provide a very tangible and 'human' link with the past for present generations and are a valuable historical and genealogical resource. Their research potential is enormous. The inscriptions record a variety of information which cannot be obtained from any other source, especially the feelings of non-English speaking migrants.
EUROPEAN/ASIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
The 1998 North Head Quarantine Station Conservation Plan archaeological survey4 forms the current basis of assessment of areas within the active Quarantine Station area. That report diagrammatically indicated the historical archaeological sites and structures within or adjacent the North Head Quarantine Station core precinct.
The 1991 North Head archaeological site survey5 forms the basis of the assessment of areas outside the active Quarantine Station area. That report indicated the following historical archaeological sites and structures within or adjacent the North Head Quarantine Station study area: the sandstone boundary wall leading from the North Head Road to Collins Beach; the sandstone boundary wall south-east of the Quarantine Station [Site No. L10]; the Australian Institute of Police Management [incorporating parts of the venereal diseases hospital] the Second and Third Quarantine Cemeteries [Sites L1 and VA1]; The Old Mans Hat inscription area; and the Quarantine Head gun emplacement.
All of these sites and structures are related to the history of the Quarantine Station, and are significant physical evidence of the development and contraction of quarantine functions over time. However, the vast majority of buildings and archaeological sites are located within the zone of most intensive quarantine activity, which is more or less contiguous with the current NPWS managed area of the Quarantine Station.
The NPWS has carried out a number of historical archaeological surveys of areas of the Quarantine Station itself, though there has as yet been no systematic survey of the entire Briefed study area. These surveys have identified a large number of former building sites and other features, and has indicated where as yet unlocated building sites might be located. [The site numbers beginning with 'P' relate to 'Potential Sites'. Forty-eight such sites had been identified by 1992.] Because the Quarantine Station has experienced over 150 years of quarantine activity, there is a layering of evidence on and in the ground that reflects the slow growth of the Station, the major development and redevelopment programs, and the subsequent removals and constructions. This evidence exists as independent evidence, though it is also complementary to the documentary evidence, and in large part cannot be interpreted without reference to the latter.
Because the land-use over this period has been solely devoted to quarantine, the evidence is, on the whole, only impacted by later quarantine activity, so the understanding of both the creation and the destruction of the former buildings and landscape elements contributes to the story of quarantine. Because in many cases current building a relocated on the same sites as earlier building, and as many of the surviving buildings have a long history of their own, all sub-floor deposits are considered to have archaeological potential. The changes over time reflected by the surviving buildings and features and the archaeological sites reflect various aspects of the history of quarantine, public health and society as a whole.
The stories able to be illuminated by the physical evidence include, among many others: the Aboriginal occupation of North Head; the changing attitudes to quarantine and its administration; the developing medical and epidemiological knowledge; the development of Australia's immigration policies, and the experience of individuals and groups within that history; the changing attitudes to class and race; the iconography used by inmates to memorialise their experience, in the 1,000 plus inscriptions, memorials and gravestones, and Australia's experience of war, both in the diseases contracted by the military personnel buried in the Quarantine Station cemeteries, and in the direct defence of Sydney.
These stories have been outlined in the overview history above, refer Section 4.0. An unusual aspect of the collection of historical archaeological evidence at the Quarantine Station is that it all contributes to the understanding of this one theme of quarantine [as well as to associated broader themes], and a large amount of evidence appears to have survived. This vests the archaeological sites with a very high research potential for ongoing study of this important aspect of Australian history. In addition to the archaeological potential of buildings which have been demolished, the Quarantine Station buildings also offer the opportunity to research the archaeology of standing structures. As a tightly dated and well-documented group of buildings they have potential to provide information on changes in domestic living arrangements over the past 150 years.
Since 1992 a number of the potential sites have been confirmed by the location of above-ground evidence, or the identification of evidence during works. A systematic survey and recording program is required both within and outside of the Planning Area to identify the complete historical archaeological resource. This comprehensive survey is required as much of the archaeological resource of the Quarantine Station is confined to the thin vegetated surface and the poorly consolidated sandy soils beneath. The fragility of the sites makes them prone to disturbance from excessive foot or vehicle traffic, erosion and animal burrowing. A preliminary Archaeological Management Plan has been prepared by the NPWS to accompany this Conservation Management Plan; and the policy recommendations of that Plan have been incorporated into this Conservation Management Plan.
EUROPEAN/ASIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE: THE QUARANTINE STATION CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
The landscape of the Quarantine Station core precinct can be properly described as a cultural landscape. It is a landscape heavily impacted by human activity [even the 'natural' bushland areas are humanly modified], and the most obvious elements in the landscape are the various layers of human clearing and construction, amid large areas of bushland and interspersed with bush patches.
The main developed area consists of the Quarantine Station itself.
This has three main groups of buildings:
- the wharf and foreshore buildings at Quarantine Beach;
- the hospital group, and;
- the buildings on the upper grassy slopes
with grassy cleared areas around these groups, delineated by bushland remnants and regrowth. This creates a semi-rural, village-like atmosphere which is uncommon in the otherwise closely developed Sydney metropolitan area.
The cultural landscape has heritage values in its own right, as a document demonstrating the planning and construction of the station over its entire life. The landscape also has a strong interpretative value.
The isolation of the Station, the long views out to other parts of the harbour, the contrast between manicured grassy areas and surrounding bush [which was alien to most of the inmates], and the strict classification of occupation areas within the Station, combine to trigger the historical imagination and allow the visitor to empathise with those quarantined here.
The landscape is also visually important not only to visitors to the Quarantine Station but also to viewers from other headlands, suburbs or on the harbour. Many distinctive or prominent landscape elements contribute to the multiple layering of human experience on the landscape.
A strong element in the cultural landscape is the conscious and enforced 'classification' of the land, based on health issues, class and race. This includes the isolation of the hospital, seen but not approached from many parts of the Station; the wharf and 'disinfection' area, which stood as a barrier between the inmates and the main line of escape, and the administration area, which 'guarded' the land route out; the lateral separation of the first, second and third class passengers, with the administration area interposed between third class and the rest, imposing class distinctions in the landscape; and the lateral and elevational separation of the Asian accommodation, away from first and second class, and below third class, imposing a racial layer on top of the class one.
The following discussion of the Quarantine Station cultural landscape refers specifically to the cultural landscape elements which provide the meaning and understanding of how these landscapes worked historically. These elements include the Quarantine Station cemeteries; monuments; fences and walls; boundary markers and walls; obelisks and cairns; and of course tracks, paths and roads.
CEMETERIES
Three cemeteries functioned throughout the history of the Station. The approximate location of the First Cemetery [Site IIIA1, c.1837- 1853], is at the junction of the wharf and hospital roads, however no visible evidence remains, so it is not a landscape element except to those with knowledge of its existence.
The unfortunate positioning of the First Cemetery, always in the view of the well and recovering, was soon recognised, and the subsequent cemeteries were moved out of the perceived landscape of those quarantined.
The Second Cemetery [Site L1, 1853-1881], is located east of the 3rd Class precinct. Three headstones remain in situ [two obscured by vegetation], and the outline of another two graves visible. The cemetery is separated from the experiential landscape of the quarantined unless they chose to visit it.
The Third Cemetery [Site VA1, 1881-1925], is within the School of Artillery, on Commonwealth property. Two hundred and forty one burials are registered, and the cemetery retains many headstones and markers, protected by a chain wire three-metre high person-proof fence. This cemetery is even more removed from the Quarantine Station landscape than the second cemetery was.
The Second and Third cemeteries become obscured and prone to bushfire if native vegetation is not regularly slashed. Erosion of grave sites occurs if the cemeteries are heavily visited or if stabilising vegetation [especially grasses] is removed. There has been natural weathering and corrosion of sandstone headstones and wooden cross grave markers. Uncontrolled public access to these cemeteries [especially the Third] can result in vandalism or theft of remaining headstones and grave markers.
Some headstones from the First and Second cemeteries are now located in the artefact store within Building A20. Further research is required to relocate obscured graves.
The cemeteries are powerful reminders of the purpose of the Quarantine Station, its successes and failures and of its internees. They have historical, archaeological, genealogical and educational significance and special significance for descendants of those interred in them.
An archaeological assessment of the North Head Quarantine Station cemeteries; and an archaeological inspection report of the Third Quarantine Station cemetery have been prepared by the NPWS.6 These documents provide specific policy recommendations related to the conservation and management of the cemeteries, which are accepted as recommendations of this Conservation Management Plan.
This is a marble and sandstone monument which stands on the ridge above the 3rd Class Precinct. It commemorates the quarantining of the ship Constitution and its passengers and crew in 1855 and the reunion of surviving passengers and crew at the Quarantine Station 50 years later. It is in fair condition and requires some stonework and plaque repairs. It is symbolic of the events associated with, and the esprit de corps of, one ship's passengers and crew. Like the inscriptions in the Wharf precinct, it is one of the more obvious memorialising features in the Station landscape.
FENCES & WALLS
The Quarantine Station study area landscape includes a variety of fences and walls which are integral to the history and past functioning of the place.
These include: prominent sandstone block, six feet [two metre] high barrier walls, built in the 1930s Depression by workers on unemployment relief programs. These are located along boundary lines which show the subdivision of the Quarantine ground at that time for hospital, recreation and military purposes; a double chain wire three feet [one metre] high fence at the entry gate to the place which served as a 'neutral zone' across which internees could talk with visitors; wooden paling fences around the staff cottages; the chain wire six feet [two metre] high fences around the Isolation and Hospital precincts which separated them from healthy areas; the foreshore stone and concrete walls at the Quarantine Beach wharf; the low sandstone block kerbing and retaining walls on the main access roads; and Section of remnant paling fences in bush around the Hospital area Fencing, generally six foot [two metres] high paling fences, was the primary means of enforcing the separation of different groups of internees at the Quarantine Station.
The impact of the fences, and clearing of bushland, on the appearance of the Station can be judged from historic photographs. The loss of the majority of fences creates a false impression of the Quarantine Station's layout and reduces the ability to experience the segregation that passengers were required to maintain. In this sense the cultural landscape significance of the fences has been lost, but could be regained by reconstruction.
The sandstone block walls are generally in fair-to-good condition. Some sections, however, have collapsed due to water erosion undermining their footings. Further sections are in imminent danger of collapse. Blocks in the wall end near The Old Mans Hat have seriously eroded due to wind and salty sea spray. Wire fences are substantially intact, though are prone to rusting. Existing timber fences around staff cottages are of recent construction [1985-90], mostly in good condition, though prone to distortion due to high winds. The stone walls and site fencing generally are important legacies of quarantine isolation practices.
OBELISK
A prominent sandstone obelisk thirty feet [ten metres] high stands on the south-eastern edge of the Station. An obelisk is shown at this location on site plans dating from 1807-09, though it is not known if the existing one is the original. The memorial is in fair condition but requires some stonework repairs at the base. It may prove to be highly significant [if it is the original] as the oldest surviving structure on North Head and one of the oldest on Sydney Harbour. The obelisk is one of the few landscape elements relating to a non-quarantine function, though as navigation markers they relate to the overall maritime themes that include quarantine.
ROADS & PATHS
Roads and paths throughout the place include the bitumen roads, sandstone-paved roads and pedestrian paths to The Old Mans Hat area and between the wharf and hospital areas. There is a hierarchy of paths and roads, ranging from sealed vehicle roads, through sealed footpaths and ramps, to unsealed tracks, especially into the surrounding bushland. These reflect how the landscape was lived in, and the strong separation of the managed landscape of the Station precincts and the informality of the surrounding areas such as The Old Mans Hat.
STONE CAIRN [SITE IIIA3]
A sandstone cairn stands adjacent to the 2nd Class Passenger Accommodation building P12. Built during the late 1830s, this is the sole remaining cairn of a line of thirteen which denoted the early boundary of the quarantine ground. It is in good condition. This cairn is the earliest surviving in situ structure associated with the place's quarantine function and demonstrates the early need for isolation and security.
Flagstaff:
The flagstaff at North Head Quarantine Station dates from 1837, is thought to be the world's oldest wooden signal mast (Woollahra History and Heritage Society Inc, 22/7/18).
NATURAL HERITAGE OVERVIEW & DESCRIPTION :PREAMBLE
The study area for this Plan, and for this Natural Heritage Assessment is described at Section 1.3.1 above. The study area specifically requires 'consideration of the following additional areas: the water body and the sea bed between Cannae Point and Spring Cove, including Quarantine Beach and store Beach; the Third Quarantine Cemetery within the former Defence land at North Head and associated installations.
The natural heritage items described and discussed in this section of the Conservation Management Plan are those items recorded as occurring in the subject study area, or those items with a high probability of occurring within the area, based on studies, surveys and reports of the flora and fauna on North Head generally. Native bushland in the North Head Defence property and other parts of the North Head component of Sydney Harbour National Park is contiguous with bushland within the study area and fauna may move from one area to another.
Some fauna may occur sporadically or seasonally in different parts of North Head, and others such as raptors have territories which span large areas regardless of roads, walls or fences. Therefore some of the conservation significance of the study area is linked to the wider context of North Head as a whole and even beyond. For example, the significance of the Little Penguin colony must be considered in the context of other colonies and the feeding range of individual birds.
The maintenance of genetic diversity within plant communities is aided by free movement of bird, mammal and insect pollinators. Wind-borne pollen is dispersed widely; however maximum distances between plants which still allow effective pollination are seldom studied and, in consequence, little understood. It is axiomatic that larger units of vegetation enhance the prospects of long term survival of genetic diversity in remnant plant communities.
Thus the biodiversity values of plants and animals in the study area are discussed in the broader context of those parts of North Head which are within Sydney Harbour National Park. Such an approach is appropriate for this Conservation Management Plan because the areas to the north and south of the Quarantine Station are declared as National Park, and their management for nature conservation in perpetuity is determined by the plan of management required under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974. The approach is also consistent with the requirements identified in the Commonwealth to State Land Exchange Agreement of 1979.
This Section is structured within the following themes: NHQS geodiversity, including geology, geomorphology, topography, soils and hydrology; and NHQS biodiversity, including flora and vegetation, fauna and fauna habitat and introduced fauna, condition of animal biodiversity, threatened species, the marine environment and bushfire.
LITTLE PENGUIN COLONY, LITTLE COLLINS BEACH
Little Collins Beach has the only known mainland NSW breeding ground for the endangered Little Penguin, a colony which is protected by volunteers, each breeding season, to control predators (Daily Telegraph, 16/6/17). This was the scene of a massacre in 2015 when a fox attacked and killed 27 penguins, depleting the population. The colony extends from North Head to Manly Wharf (Channel 9, 14/6/17, nine news now). |
Physical condition and/or
Archaeological potential: | EUROPEAN/ASIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE :
HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
The 1998 North Head Quarantine Station Conservation Plan archaeological survey forms the current basis of assessment of areas within the active Quarantine Station area. That report diagrammatically indicated the historical archaeological sites and structures within or adjacent the North Head Quarantine Station core precinct.
The 1991 North Head archaeological site survey forms the basis of the assessment of areas outside the active Quarantine Station area. That report indicated the following historical archaeological sites and structures within or adjacent the North Head Quarantine Station study area: the sandstone boundary wall leading from the North
Head Road to Collins Beach; the sandstone boundary wall south-east of the Quarantine Station [Site No. L10]; the Australian Institute of Police Management [incorporating parts of the venereal diseases hospital] the Second and Third Quarantine Cemeteries [Sites L1 and VA1]; The Old Mans Hat inscription area; and the Quarantine Head
gun emplacement.
All of these sites and structures are related to the history of the Quarantine Station, and are significant physical evidence of the development and contraction of quarantine functions over time. However, the vast majority of buildings and archaeological sites are located within the zone of most intensive quarantine activity, which is more or less contiguous with the current NPWS managed area of the Quarantine Station. The NPWS has carried out a number of historical archaeological surveys of areas of the Quarantine Station itself, though there has as yet been no systematic survey of the entire Briefed study area. These surveys have identified a large number of former building sites and other features, and has indicated where as yet unlocated building sites might be located. [The site numbers beginning with 'P' relate to
'Potential Sites'. Forty-eight such sites had been identified by 1992.] Because the Quarantine Station has experienced over 150 years of quarantine activity, there is a layering of evidence on and in the ground that reflects the slow growth of the Station, the major development and redevelopment programs, and the subsequent removals and constructions. This evidence exists as independent evidence, though it is also complementary to the documentary evidence, and in large part cannot be interpreted without reference to the latter. Because the land-use over this period has been solely devoted to quarantine, the evidence is, on the whole, only impacted by later quarantine activity, so the understanding of both the creation and the destruction of the former buildings and landscape elements contributes to the story of quarantine.
Because in many cases current building are located on the same sites as earlier building, and as many of the surviving buildings have a long history of their own, all sub-floor deposits are considered to have archaeological potential.
The changes over time reflected by the surviving buildings and features and the archaeological sites reflect various aspects of the history of quarantine, public health and society as a whole. The stories able to be illuminated by the physical evidence include, among many others: the Aboriginal occupation of North Head; the changing attitudes to quarantine and its administration; the developing medical and epidemiological knowledge; the development of Australia's immigration policies, and the experience of individuals and groups within that history; the changing attitudes to class and race; the iconography used by inmates to memorialise their experience, in the 1,000 plus inscriptions, memorials and
gravestones, and Australia's experience of war, both in the diseases contracted by the military personnel buried in the Quarantine Station cemeteries, and in the direct defence of Sydney. These stories have been outlined in the overview history above, refer Section 4.0. An unusual aspect of the collection of historical archaeological evidence at the Quarantine Station is that it all contributes to the understanding of this one theme of quarantine [as well as to
associated broader themes], and a large amount of evidence appears to have survived. This vests the archaeological sites with a very high research potential for ongoing study of this important aspect of Australian history. In addition to the archaeological potential of buildings which have been demolished, the Quarantine Station buildings also offer the opportunity to research the archaeology of standing structures. As a tightly dated and well-documented group of buildings they have potential to provide information on changes in domestic living arrangements over the past 150 years.
Since 1992 a number of the potential sites have been confirmed by the location of above-ground evidence, or the identification of evidence during works. A systematic survey and recording program is required both within and outside of the Planning Area to identify the complete historical archaeological resource. This comprehensive survey is required as much of the archaeological resource of the Quarantine Station is confined to the thin vegetated surface and the poorly consolidated sandy soils beneath. The fragility of the sites makes them prone to disturbance from excessive foot or vehicle traffic, erosion and animal burrowing. A preliminary Archaeological Management Plan has been prepared by the NPWS to accompany this Conservation Management Plan; and the policy recommendations of that Plan have been incorporated into this Conservation Management Plan. |