Sydney Opera House conservation plan

–9–enabled them to be discharged over the parapet with a wide field of fire.Other guns were mounted to fire through embrasures in the east, northand west parapets, three to each side. The fort was entered by a bridgeover a dry moat and then through an octagonal Gothic guard tower.Similarly embellished towerletssprouted from the east and west extremitiesof the counterscarp. Amagazine capable of holding 350barrels of gunpowder was built intothe base of the tower and accommodationfor an officer and twelve menwas located in the upper part (Ellis,104).Most military observers regarded thefort as an ornamental and archaictoy. They were alarmed by the factthat its terreplein was only 22 feetabove high water, thus unnecessarilyexposing the gunners to enemy fire.They also objected to the towerwhich would become a source of flyingsplinters under bombardment. In1836 the newly-arrived commanding royal engineer, George Barney,reported that both Dawes Point battery and Fort Macquarie were‘totally inadequate to the defence of Sydney Cove’ (WO 55.852, f.75–77).The subsequent life of the fort attests to the comparative soundness ofits construction, but the process had been a painful one. At the timeGreenway had a massive task of designing and supervising a range ofpublic works in trying circumstances and each delay made his clientmore exigent. The artisan in charge of Fort Macquarie complained thatGreenway had never given him a proper plan to follow and tended tochange details while construction was underway (Kerr & Broadbent, 43).Greenway for his part became increasingly paranoid about the theft ofhis ideas and misuse of his plans by others and increasingly proceededon a day-to-day ‘need to know’ basis (Havard, 168, quoting Bigge). It infuriatedhis builders. Despite the problems the fort was sufficientlycompleted to fire its first salute on the departure of Mr CommissionerBigge in February 1821.The arguments which occupied the next third of a century over thedefence of Sydney and its harbour had little impact on Fort Macquarieand it continued to be used for drills and saluting, although withoutregular professional gunners. It was not until the Crimean war that FortMacquarie was seriously reconsidered as a part of a defensive program.The imperial authorities had passed the title of the Sydney fortificationsover to the colonial administration in 1851 (Kerr, Fort Denison, 18) largelyto avoid the cost of long-overdue development. In 1856, however, thecolony had a new (more or less) responsible government with a treasuryswollen by the gold rushes, an active and pushful Barney incharge of harbour defence and a decisive royal engineer governorgeneral, William Denison (ibid, 19–20). Works at Fort Denison, MrsMacquarie’s Point, Kirribilli Point, Dawes Point and Fort Macquariewere undertaken (LA, V&P, 1856–57, Vol.III, EC minute 56–60).8. Fort Macquarie after theconstruction of the upperbattery, sea wall and esplanadein the early 1860s. Unknownphotographer about 1870.Private collection.For an account of harbour defencesin the period see J.S. Kerr, FortDenison, 16–21.