Q994.41 Jai II I --ZW4W··SYDNEY COVE · AUTHORITY · Dawes Point Battery, I The Rocks I History, Preliminary Archaeology and Research Design Report pa·epared by A. Wayne Johnson and Louise Zarmati Q994.41 J(H I llil~lllijlll~f~~ lllillfl~l H00454 I Dawes Point Battery, The Rocks I I Contents I 1.1 Dawes' Observatories, 1788-1791 ....... ...... ........................... ..................... ................... 3 1.2 Construction of The Battery, 1789 ................................................................................ 6 I 1.3 Dawes Point, 1789-1819 .. ..... ... .. ..................................................................... ............. 8 1. 4 The Battery and Greenway Building, 1819-185 6 .... .. ....................... ......... .... ..... .. ........ 10 I 1.5 Expansion and Use as a Military Installation, 1856-1880s ......................... .................. 13 1.6 An Urban Landscape, 1880s- 1925 ............................................................................ 14 I 1.7 Construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, 1925 to Present.. .......................... ........... 16 2.0 ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORT: EXCAVATION OF TRENCHES ............................ 18 I 2.1 Description ofthe Remains .......... .... ..... ........... .. ..... ... ...... .. .. .................... .... ............... 18 2.2 Conclusion ..... .. .. .... .... .................... .. ... ...... ... .................. ....... .... ... .. ...... ... .. ................. 21 I 3.0 RESEARCH DESIGN ................................ .... ...... .......... ............................................... 22 3 .1 Da\ves' Observatory ................................................................................................... 22 I 3.2 The Battery ................................................................................................................ 22 3.3 The Greenway Building .. ....... .. .......................................................... ............... ...... .... 24 I 3.4 Military Personnel and their Families .......................................................................... 24 3 .5 The Military in The Rocks and Millers Point ... ........ .. ... .. .... .......... .. ............................. 26 I 3.6 Other Uses ofthe Site .................................................................................. .... ........... 26 4.0 REFERENCES ................................. ... ... ................ .. .... .. ............................................... 27 I 4.1 Prim~ry Sources ...... ............... ........................................................................ ............ 27 4.2 Secondary Sources .................. ......... ......... .. ......................... .... .. ................. ............... 27 5.0 COMPARATIVE TABLE OF RESEARCH DESIGN ............................................. ...... 29 I .J !J. f"\ I ~ ll l ,j I I Sydney Cove Authority, Apri/1995 I 2 I I I Dawes Point Battery, The Rocks I 1.0 HISTORY OF DAWES POINT I 1.1 Dawes' Observatories, 1788-1791 I 1.11 The First Observatory In September 1786, after the decision was made to send the First Fleet to Botany Bay, Second Lieutenant William Dawes of the Royal Marines contacted Nevil Maskelyne, the Astronomer I Royal. Dawes offered to join the colonial expedition in order to make astronomical observances, specifically to test Maskelyne's prediction that Halley's comet would return in 1788 and be visible first in the southern hemisphere. Maskelyne arranged for the Board of I Longitude to approve an astronomical project for Dawes and to lend the instruments to the Fleet.1 The First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove in January 1788, and by August2 Dawes had I established a wooden observatory on the western point of Sydney Cove, which he named Point Maskelyne.3 The point was subsequently named after Dawes. I Southwell explains, A Mr. Dawes. lieutenant of marines, and also astronomer, whose abilities in that science are such that he is under the direction of the Board of I Longitude for the purpose of making some singular observations while in this country, to effect which he has a valuable sett of instruments, and an I observatory is erected. 4 The observatory was located a short distance from the encampment. Hunter's first map of Sydney Cove, (Fig. 1} dated March 1, 1788 already shows location ofthe observatory and the I positions of the tents.5 In July 1788 Captain Watkin Tench says that the observatory is, . nearly completed, and when fitted up with the telescopes and other I astronomical instruments sent out by the Board of Longitude, will afford a desirable retreat from the listlessness of a camp evening at Port Jackson. One of the principal reasons which induced the Board to grant this I apparatus was, for the purpose of enabling Lieutenant Dawes, of the I S. Saunders, Astronomy in Colonial New South Wales, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney, 1990. I pp. 76-77. 2 Collins, D.,An Account ofthe English Colony in New South Wales, London, 1789. Vol. 1, p. 15. 3 Dawes to Maskelyne, 17 November, 1788, The Board of Longitude Papers. Cited inS. Saunders, p. 77. I 4 HRA I, 47. Cited in Tench, Sydney's First Four Years. Fn. 6, p. 118. 5 Surveyed by Captain John Hunter and inscribed, 'The position of the encampment & buildings are as they stood 1st. March, 1788', in W. Bradley manuscript, Jouma/1786-92. Reproduced in T. McCormick, First I Views ofAustralia, 1788-1825: A History ofEarly Sydney. 1988. p. 38. I Sydney Cove Authority, Apri/1995 I 3 I I I Dawes Point Battery, The Rocks I marines, (to whose care it is intrusted) to make observations on a comet which is shortly expected to appear in the southern hemisphere. 6 I Dawes chose an exposed sandstone outcrop on the western side of the cove to build the observatory because it would provide a solid foundation for the mounting of the instruments, especially the quadrant. 7 I The quadrant was the most important instrument. It was used to measure local time with Greenwich time, as well as latitude and longitude. It was necessary for this delicate instrument to be set onto an unmovable foundation so that the readings were accurate.8 I Tench records that hundreds of observations and calculations were recorded which estimated the position of the observatory at I 33 °52 '30" south, and the longitude at 151 °20' 30" east ofGreenwich.9 By April 30, 1788 Dawes sent a sketch (Fig. 2) of the completed wooden observatory to I Maskelyne.l o He says, I have, notwithstanding with the assistance offour marines of my own party I and three or four convicts when the Governor has allowed me, cleared a point of land of trees, and am now getting on as fast as possible with an observatory which I hope will be completed and the instruments in it by July I sometime. This has not however been done without a good deal of my own and my servants' bodily labour which shall when necessary be cheerfUlly employed in the same cause. The situation struck me at first sight to be so I eligible and all the necessary materials so conveniently at hand, that I did not hesitate a moment to determine on setting about a permanent one at once a sketch will say more than words. II I The diagram Dawes drew in his letter shows that the observatory was split level: on the higher level was the octagonal quadrant room which sat on top of the rock, and the larger rectangular room was built on the lower level abutting the rock. He also provides a good written description I of the structure of the building. The dimensions of the lower room were given as sixteen feet long by twelve feet wide. I ..~I have got an exceeding good stone cut into the form of a fulstrum of an octagonal pyramid whose base is 2.5 fl and top 1.5 fl this is to be placed on I the center of the octagonal rooms and the quadrant on the top of it. The 6 Tench, p. 72 I 7 Saunders, p. 77. 8 Saunders, p. 84. I 9 Tench, p. 72. 10 Letter from Dawes to Maske1yne with description and sketch of observatory, Dawes' correspondence, 1786- 92, Greenwich Observatory. Cited in R. J. McAfee (ed.),Dawes's Meteorological Journal. 1981. pp. 16-17. I 11 Cited in Saunders, p. 78. I Sydney Cove Authority, Apri/1995 I 4 I I I Dawes Point Battery, The Rocks I roof is to tum around on three or more rollers. A stair case of communication between the upper and lower room, and the proposed place for the astronomical clock. The roof of the lower room is to be so I constructed and to make good against the side of the upper room and the ridge ofit is to be several inches below the top ofthe quadrant.12 I During the first week of July 1788 Dawes moved into the wooden observatory. By the beginning of August he had all the instruments on shore, unpacked and fixed ready for use, including the quadrant 13 and by the first week of August had begun to search for Halley's I comet.I4 I 1.12 The Second Observatory One year later, in July 1789, David Collins wrote that, The observatory building15 which was erected on our first landing being I found small and inconvenient, as well as for the purpose of observing as for the residence of Lieutenant Dawes and the reception of the astronomical instruments, the stone-cutters began preparing stone to construct another, I the materials for which were found in abundance on the spot, the west point ofthe Cove./6 I This evidence, together with Dawes' letter to Maskelyne below indicates that a second, more substantial stone observatory, was constructed to replace the original wooden one. It is likely I that the battery was also built at the same time. In April