History

Fort Denison is a regular tourist attraction located in the middle of the world’s most beautiful harbour: Sydney harbour. Fort Denison is built on Pinchgut Island. This island has been used by settlers ever since the First Fleet, when Governor Phillip used “Rock” island for marooning officers, it had been also used by the local Aboriginals as a “favourite place of resort”.

The island was also used as a ‘building-free’ prison for the most troublesome of convicts. In 1796, as a deterrent to unrelenting wrong-doers, the body of murderer Francis Morgan was condemned to hang in chains for three years, in clear view of the passing convict ships.           Portrait of Rock Island circa 1815

After Fort Denison’s construction was completed it was handed over to the Volunteer Naval Brigade. The brigade used the largest cannons to shoot at targets in Rose Bay some 1700 metres away.

The island was further fortified with a 3-inch gun in World War II for use against ships and aircraft.

In WW II when three Japanese midget submarines penetrated Sydney’s submarine nets and attempted to sink the American cruiser USS Chicago, Fort Denison was damaged in the Chicago’s retaliatory shell barrage.

Since WW II the island lay there mostly unused, except for the daily firing of a gun at noon. In 1991 as part of a harbour restoration scheme, control of the island went to Sydney Harbour National Park, part of the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service.

The island underwent a redevelopment including the building of a café which somewhat added great tourism appeal to this idyllic setting. Fort Denison is now a regular tourist attraction which hosts hundreds of visitors every year.

                                                                       The redeveloped Fort Denison, complete with Cafe