Dictionary of Sydney
  1. The Dictionary of Sydney
  2. Browse Entities
  3. Place
  4. Dawes Point

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Dawes Point

Suburb

Harbourside suburb at the southern end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, adjacent to The Rocks. From the earliest days of the colony it was a significant as the site of the first observatory and one of the earliest gun placements.

-33.854228093487, 151.20974304321

Name
Alternate
Maskelyne Point
Alternate
Tar-ra
Commemorates
Dawes, William
Property
Administered by
City of Sydney Council
Part of
City of Sydney local government area
Type
Suburb

Dawes Point

CC BY-SA 2.0
by
Shirley Fitzgerald
,
2008

Known to its Cadigal traditional owners as Ta-Ra, the land that became Dawes Point was Sydney's first observatory and weather station, run by William Dawes. It was fortified to a Greenway design and remained government land. In 1925 part of the fort was demolished for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and most of the land became Dawes Point Park.

more »