Sydney Opera House conservation plan

–4–made the vicinity useful for temporary defensive works and, when theywere derelict, as a shore camp for visiting foreign expeditions. On thepoint, the foreigners could be held at a not inconvenient arm’s lengthand at the same time be kept under easy surveillance.For the first quarter century of European settlement, then, practicalconsiderations arising from the topography determined the use of thenorthern part of the point. In the second decade of the nineteenthcentury, however, a new dimension was added to the way in whichthe place was perceived and Bennelong Point and its spinal ridgebecame the focus of a new official aesthetic.Bennelong Point and the Picturesque, 1810–1843The area now occupied by Bennelong Point, the gardens and MrsMacquarie’s Point was reserved for the crown by Phillip and was tocontinue as a government demesne free of leases or encroachments(Gilbert, 14–15). Under Hunter and King, however, a variety of leases andbuildings were permitted. When Governor William Bligh took over in1806 he would have none of such foolish or venal nonsense. Hecancelled the leases and required the removal of the buildings (HRNSW,VI, 305). It was yet another act that failed to endear him to his ‘mutinous’free subjects. Fortunately the next official governor, Lachlan Macquarie,reinforced and completed the clearance.Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth did a lot more than return thegovernment domain to its former shape: they also set out to embellishit. Elizabeth’s taste for the Picturesque is now well documented (Kerr &Broadbent, chapter 3) and in Sydney she had one of the grandest waterlandscapes in the world to work on. Moreover she had a husband whoshared her taste and was prepared to take responsibility for getting thework done.3. Billy Blue’s house, detail ofan engraving by S. Hallpublished in W.C. Wentworth’s… Description of … NSW, 1820.The first fruit of the partnership on Bennelong Point was modest: atwo-storey, vaguely castellated, octagonal cottage completed in 1812on the west side of Bennelong Point (figs 3 & 4). It was built onMacquarie’s orders as a dwelling for an eccentric black Jamaicanknown as Billy Blue. William Blue had been transported for stealingsugar and acted as a waterman, watchman and oyster seller. With histop hat and ‘naval’ uniform he was a highly visible member ofMacquarie’s marine menagerie (Ritchie, 165; Maclehose, 176–177).In 1814 Macquarie received a never-to-be-repeated gift on the convicttransport General Hewitt. It was the convicted forger, FrancisGreenway, an architect capable of the stylish realisation of theMacquaries’ dreams. Those dreams required castellated Gothic structuresas embellishments of harbour views and these Greenway provided—although not without complaint at the occasional interference of hisautocratic clients and the subversive activities of his military mastersand convict craftsmen. The latter recognised his talent but couldn’tstand his conceit.Greenway clothed the Dawes Point Battery with a masonry screen andadded a towered and castellated guard house, but his major defensive