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Right on Q
Louise O’Flynn and Cath Snelgrove | NSW National Parks & Wildlife
One of Sydney’s outstanding heritage landscapes is offering visitors
a unique experience based on history and environmental values
while fulfilling stringent monitoring of its conservation and
management program.
Quarantine Station is of
outstanding cultural
significance and listed on the
NSW State Heritage Register,
while the whole of North Head
in registered on the National
Heritage List.
In February 1833, the site was
dedicated as a place of quarantine
to protect the colony from deadly
ship-borne diseases, which
included typhus fever, yellow fever,
smallpox and bubonic plague. For
140 years its use ebbed and flowed
as modes of transport changed
and new epidemics brought new
threats.
Over the decades, development
of the 27 hectare site grew to include
67 buildings which represent fine
examples of architecture, as well
as evidence of changes to social
values including lifestyle and
medical practice in the control of
disease.
The site contains around 12,000
movable objects and is also
home to the Little Penguin and
the locally endangered Long
Nosed Bandicoot. It also contains
significant remnants of Eastern
Suburbs Banksia Scrub.
Ownership of Quarantine
Station was transferred from the
Commonwealth Government to
the NSW National Parks & Wildlife
Service (NPWS) in March 1984,
and while the Service consistently
carried out basic repairs as far as
budget allowed, it was clear that a
massive injection of funds would
be needed to conserve and present
the site to its full potential.
The leasing of Quarantine
Station on Sydney’s North Head to
a private company in the late 1990s
was a controversial period in the
history of the Station, prompting
heated debate. The NSW National
Trust was concerned about the
potential threat to Quarantine
Station’s fragile and complex
significance posed by commercial
involvement.
In 2000, a conditional lease
was signed with the Mawland
Group which proposed re-use of
existing buildings to provide onsite
accommodation, conference
and other facilities. Supporting
the interpretation of Quarantine
Station and reflecting its significant
history, the plan also detailed
revenue raising options to protect
it for the future. The National
Trust expressed concern about the
length of the proposed lease and
the possible conflict between the
need to make a profit and keeping
the integrity of the site.
right Heritage buildings have been meticulously conserved. C Shain
Trust News Australia november 2012
14