Bare Island (New South Wales)

At European contact the Gweagal and Kameygal Aboriginal groups were associated with Bare Island.[5] It is mentioned in the journals of both Joseph Banks and James Cook. Banks collected shell specimens there, while Cook noted that the island described as "a small bare island" provided a convenient navigational marker. The name stuck from this first usage. As such the name is one of the first European names for a part of the east coast.[2][6]

Governor Phillip and French explorer Jean-Francois de La Perouse were the next to enter Botany Bay, but neither group is known to have visited Bare Island. The French built a stockade and (kitchen) garden nearby (300 metres (980 ft) from the Macquarie Tower) towards Frenchmans Bay and buried their dead, Father (Pere) Receveur.[7][2]

William Bradley, in his journal "A Voyage to New South Wales", relates that in July 1788 noticeboards were erected on the island to advise visiting ships that the settlement had moved to Port Jackson.

The area was considered remote from Sydney and as the nineteenth century progressed became the focus of noxious trades such as tanneries and fell-mongering as well as the development of a unique Aboriginal community at La Perouse which serviced the diverse tastes of urban Sydney.[2] The removal of all remaining garrison troops from Australian colonies excepting those retained and paid for by colonial governments as a result of the Cardwell reforms in the late 1860s forced a rethink of local defence preparedness, especially with the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Britain in 1876. As a result, the Australian colonies requested the services of an Imperial Engineer to advise them on defence matters. Military engineers Scratchley and Jervois were sent.[2]

Bare Island is a low sandstone island about 30 metres (98 feet) from the shore of the southern end of La Perouse Headland, near the entrance to Botany Bay. The island has been completely altered from its natural profile. The fortification complex comprises the battery, barracks buildings, parade and courtyard, access bridge and laboratory room/guards quarters. The fabric of the complex is best described in relation to the 6 phases of occupation identified by Gojak:[2]

Phase I, 1880 – 1890 Original fortification works by McLeod

Includes all major concrete work and earthworks, the bridge, original space functions and finishes. Characteristic materials are mass concrete with sandstone aggregate, cement render, cream fired brick, checker pattern salt-glazed tiles under asphalt, some reinforcing, armour plate, use of vaulting to span tunnels and much of the timber detailing. see endorsed conservation plan, 1997

Phase II, 1890 – 1912 Second phase fortification works by de Wolski and others, primarily before 1895

Includes mainly the Barracks and the installation of a hydro-pneumatic gun and stores. Characteristic materials include concrete with finer bluestone aggregate, reinforcing beams to span voids, some conduit, red tuckpoint brickwork with dressed sandstone quoins and lintels, some paint finishes.[2]

Phase III, 1912 – 1963 War Veterans Home, primarily around 1912, then a second phase of activity in 1939

Includes minor modifications in all areas of the Fort. Characteristic materials include paint finishes, timber flooring inside store rooms, some conduits and cabling, alterations to original use of spaces and installation or removal of internal walls. Changes also made to Barracks with opening up of new access passages, and circulation routes.[2]

Phase IV, 1941 – 1945 World War II military usage

No definite evidence of this period beyond possible painted signage.[2]

Phase V, 1963 – c. 1975 Randwick Historical Society Museum; includes the period when Museum was in operation, both before and after NPWS ownership

Characteristic evidence includes reinstatement and reproduction of original features by removal of later material, mainly War Veterans period, or addition of material to a presumed original form, also some repairs, paint finishes, resurfacing of floors, especially in Caretakers area in the lower floor of the Barracks building.[2]

Phase VI, 1975 – present NPWS administration

All changes made since Randwick Historical Society vacated island. Mainly constitutes large scale repair and conservation work to retaining walls, Barracks verandah, roof of casemate, drainage system, removal of more recent additions and provision of safety works.[2]

As at 18 May 2010, Bare Island is nationally significant as an almost completely intact example of late nineteenth century coastal defence technology. Designed by Sir Peter Scratchley to a specification by William Jervoise, it represents one of the more substantial and impressive of the many fortifications built around Australasia. The Fort reflects the evolution of the relationship between New South Wales as an increasingly independent colony and Britain. It shows the way that strategic defence policy was operating in Australia on the eve of Federation. The Fort is also nationally significant as the site of the first War Veterans Home founded in Australia. This reflects the social and moral obligations felt by Australians early this century to the veterans of wars fought across the British Empire. It is an early major construction from mass concrete, at a time when the use of this material was still uncommon and not well understood. The Fort is of State significance for its pivotal role in the closure of the career of James Barnet, NSW Colonial Architect. It has significant impacts on the way publicly funded construction was carried out in New South Wales after that time. The Fort is regionally significant as the only island in Botany Bay. The form of the island has been changed by the construction of the Fort, to present a functional structure which nonetheless is of high aesthetic value. It is an important example of fortification design which demonstrates the evolution of the theory of coastal defence, the technology of defence and coastal fortification design. The Fort is regionally significant to the general community as part of the recreational and historic landscape of Botany Bay. Bare Island has particular local significance to the La Perouse community as an item of local heritage value.[14][2]

Bare Island Fort was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria.[2]

The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales.

Bare Island Fort is historically significant at national and state levels. It represents processes of national development and strategic defence policy that helped to shape the modern Australian nation, it played a pivotal role in the career of the last Colonial Architect and affected the nature of public administration in New South Wales. It was the site for the first War Veterans Home in Australia[15][2]

The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

Bare Island can be characterised as a low monolith extending along the line of La Perouse Headland. The scale of the works, their colouring and placement emphasises the rounded shape of the island, and is within the scale of the island's original size. The concrete works increase in density with elevation, presenting an impression of organic growth from natural bedrock at the bottom to solid concrete at the highest point. This also serves to enhance the feeling of solidity of the construction.[2]

The earliest views of Bare Island emphasised it as a small rugged island, and the current form of the island still permits an understanding of the island's original size and shape. Once it became fortified and connected by a bridge to the mainland it remained a popular object for photography, with most photographs of the island either emphasising the western face with large expanses of concrete and loopholed walls, or the view down the bridge towards the jumble of concrete, rocks and grass.[2]

As a coastal fortification the design and organisation of the Fort is typical of others built around the British Empire in the 1870s and 1880s. It uses the flexibility of mass concrete to create massive but sinuous curved shapes, and a complex juxtaposition of straight lines and curved forms on differing levels. These are functional spaces and lines, linking the circular gun emplacements, and the curving gun passage with the regularity of the Barracks and loopholed rear walls. In plan the Fort is essentially symmetrical, in two main levels, accessed by ramps and stairs. The view from seaward, to the east, is primarily of natural surfaces and contouring, with few hard lines except for the casemate gun shield. The predominant features that create Bare Island are low relief, a juxtaposition of natural and concrete surfaces, scale and mass. Bare Island is significant as the only island in Botany Bay. The construction of the form is aesthetically pleasing for its close relationship and integration with the natural island landform with the built form. The visible built work provides an indication of the massiveness of the concealed construction. It is a nationally representative example of the corpus of significant designers of fortifications – Jervoise and Scratchley, a regionally representative example that demonstrates fortification design in the late 19th century, and regionally representative as an example in the evolution of the design of coastal fortifications.[15][2]

The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

Bare Island is significant to a number of well-defined groups either as a discrete entity or as part of a broader social setting.[2] Bare Island has significance as part of the land used and exploited by members of the La Perouse Aboriginal community over the past century. This includes the use of the beaches and surrounding waters for food gathering, work and recreation, the relationships formed with soldiers stationed on the island and with the veterans, and as part of the social landscape of the community.[2] It also has an added association with Cook, Banks, Phillip and La Perouse and therefore represents for the wider Aboriginal community a significant contact point in the history of European – Aboriginal relationships.[2]

For the mainstream Australian community the prevailing importance of Bare Island is its identification as a nineteenth-century fortification. This includes associations with the British Empire, the fear of attack by foreign powers and Australian insularity. The Fort is seen as a reminder that the world was different in the past and that there has been palpable change in the relationships between Australia and the rest of the world.[2] These are an outgrowth of feelings in the community earlier this century and last century relating to the ambivalent relationship over ties with England, and to what extent Australians were part of the Empire or separate people. The perceived continuity is demonstrated by the use of the Fort as a War Veterans Home, strengthening the ties to the imperial bond.[2] The Sydney community and particularly residents of Randwick Municipality and the Randwick and District Historical Society take an active interest in the management and future of the Fort.[2]

• 
  Bare Island Fortification facing south-east.
• 
  A view of Botany Bay as the First Fleet entered, with Bare Island in the background. The image is from the journal of Arthur Phillip.
• 
  Bare Island from Henry Head

• List of islands of New South Wales
• Henry Head Battery
• Military history of Australia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bare Island (New South Wales).

• http://members.tripod.com/~coastalgunner/index.html
• Bare Island – Sydney.com