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'State of Fort Phillip...', 13 August 1806

From the collections of the
State Library of New South Wales
[a1945198 / SAFE / Banks Papers / Series 40.063]
(Banks Papers, Series 40: Correspondence, being mainly letters received by Banks from William Bligh, 1805-181)

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Defending colonial Sydney Fort Phillip
Buildings
Fort Phillip
Natural features
Observatory Hill

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State Library of New South Wales

Defending colonial Sydney

For more than a century, Sydney faced recurrent and often well-founded fears of raids and even invasion. The British Empire's enemies and rivals sent warships into the Pacific to annexe territories, and Sydney was a potentially desirable conquest. Fortress Sydney grew out of anticipated dangers that could not be ignored.

Fort Phillip

Standing high on Windmill Hill above The Rocks, Fort Phillip was built to defend the colony from threats coming from the ocean to the east, and the hinterland to the west. Though the guns remained there until the 1820s, the fort was never finished, and was more useful as a signal and telegraph station by 1840, when it was partly demolished.

Fort Phillip

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Hexagonal fort built on Windmill Hill from 1804, but never finished.

Observatory Hill

Hill at the top of The Rocks, west of Sydney Cove, which is the highest point overlooking Port Jackson. With commanding views both east and west, it was the site of one of Sydney's first windmills from 1796 before being replaced with a fort in 1803. By 1849 an observatory had also been constructed which can still be visited.

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