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The Dictionary of Sydney
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Major Lee's hut, Vaucluse, 1857

Major Lee's hut, Vaucluse, 1857

By

Frederick Charles Terry

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

(Dixson Library)

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Parsley Bay: ‘One of the people’s playgrounds’

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Fishing Housing Residential building

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Major Lee

Buildings

Vaucluse House

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Vaucluse

Natural features

Parsley Bay Sydney Harbour

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Terry, Frederick Charles

State Library of New South Wales

Parsley Bay: ‘One of the people’s playgrounds’

Parsley Bay is an inlet of Sydney Harbour bordered by Point Seymour and Village Point, and is the traditional land of the Birrabirragal people. In 1907 the bay and immediate surrounds became a public reserve, and it has remained ‘one of the people’s playgrounds’ ever since.

Fishing

Housing

Residential building

Major Lee

Fisherman and local identity who lived on the Wentworth estate in a hut at Parsley Bay. He would go outside the heads to fish, catching lobster in Broken Bay, and sell his catch at Circular Quay. In February 1857, he and other fishermen caught a 15ft (4.5m) long shark 'Big Ben' off South Head which was then exhibited at Circular Quay. Described as a 'fighting man', Lee was a participant in Sydney's early boxing scene in the 1830s and 1840s, He was rumoured to have come from a wealthy family and come to Australia after killing a police constable in Dublin.

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Vaucluse House

Large Gothic-style residence surrounded by a nineteenth-century garden and outhouses on the harbour in Sydney's eastern suburbs. The original cottage was built by Irish convict Henry Browne Hayes in 1805, and he named it and the estate Vaucluse after the village of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse near Avignon in southern France. The house was greatly expanded by William Charles Wentworth after he purchased the estate in 1827. It is now a house museum run by the Historic Houses Trust.

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Vaucluse

Eastern suburb located on South Head named after Vaucluse House. It is one of Sydney's most expensive suburbs.

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Parsley Bay

Narrow bay in the eastern suburbs with parkland and suspension bridge that is thought to have been named after the profusion of a native plant resembling parsley growing there.

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Sydney Harbour

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The largest arm of Port Jackson, which extends west from the Heads past Balmain and meets the estuaries of the Lane Cove and Parramatta rivers.