Visit Sydney Australia

The Domain is one of the few surviving direct links within the inner city area to the founders of the colony of New South Wales and the city of Sydney. Very soon after the arrival of the First Fleet of convicts from Britain in 1788, the Governor of the newly founded colony of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, reserved a large area beyond the ridge to the east of the Sydney Cove settlement as a common. This area remained set aside but undeveloped until the arrival of Governor Macquarie in 1910 who, during his tenure, established The Domain, The Botanical Gardens, Hyde Park and Moore Park. All are part of the land that had been allocated for public space by Phillip in 1788 and all have remained to a large degree as Phillip determined they should be - public open space.

The Domain was once used for military and ceremonial events and evolved as a venue for soap box oratory and political meetings. From 1860 the Domain was opened up at night to pedestrians, allowing people to use this valuable recreational space on summer evenings. It became known as the Park where the Gates Never Close. Carriage traffic however remained restricted after dusk for many years.

The growing city of Sydney put great pressure on the Domain. A major encroachment was the construction of the Garden Palace for the Sydney International Exhibition (1879). Only its gates and some statues remain after a fire in 1882. The site of the Garden Palace was later absorbed into the Royal Botanic Gardens.


Eastern Suburbs Railway

The Eastern Suburbs Line railway exits the tunnel on the eastern side of the Domain and proceeds across Woolloomooloo as a viaduct In more recent years, major transport projects have affected the Domain. The most significant of these was the building of the Cahill Expressway in 1952. As part of this project to build an eastern tributary to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the small roads to the north and east of the Domain were widened into expressways. After the completion of the project, traffic moving south from the Bridge could pass through a tunnel built into the western part of the Royal Botanic Tunnels, after which it became a sunken road built into the northern edge of the Domain. The road crosses the eastern part of the Domain in a tunnel, exiting through the slope on the east side of the Domain, after which it continues south along the eastern edge of the Domain as the Eastern Distributor. The Cahill Expressway emphatically separated the Domain from the Royal Botanic Gardens, and destroyed the close spatial relationship between the Gardens and the Domain.

In 1959, the Domain Parking Station was built under the Domain. It can be accessed via a moving footway from College Street, near St Mary's and other surrounding roads. Then in the 1970s, the rail tunnel for the Eastern Suburbs Line was built under the southern part of the Domain: the railway exits the tunnel on the eastern slopes of the Domain, after which (owing to the large change in ground elevation) it becomes a viaduct. In 1992, the Sydney Harbour Tunnel was built, with its southern section under the northwestern part of the Domain.

Speakers Corner (an area for public speaking) is located in the northeastern part of this part of the Domain, close to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Officially established in 1878, this area was historically an important gathering place where any person may turn up unannounced and talk on any subject they wish, although they were likely to be heckled by people holding opposing views. This has historically been the focal point of free speech in Sydney. Although now largely disused, the corner's role is enshrined in legislation, and a steel platform with engravings commemorating notable speakers still occasionally attracts speakers on Sunday afternoons.

A number of significant political rallies and meetings have occurred in at Speakers Corner, including Palm Sunday rallies, May Day demonstrations, and anti-war and anti-conscription protests. During the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975, the Australian Labor Party held their policy launch in The Domain on 24 November 1975 before a huge crowd.

On 17 February 1935, the Czech journalist Egon Kisch addressed a crowd of 18,000 in the Domain warning of the dangers of Hitler's Nazi regime. His visit was organised by the Movement Against War and Fascism and vehemently opposed by the Lyons Government. Kisch polarized Australian politics in 1935 when he denounced Hitler's Nazi government and warned of war and concentration camps. On 24 November 1975, the former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who had recently been dismissed by the Governor-General in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, launched an election campaign at the Domain. 30,000 attended the gathering, overspilling the Domain.

The part of the Domain to the east of Art Gallery Road and to the south and west of Cahill Expressway falls in the east via a sharp slope towards the much lower-lying Woolloomooloo. It is named the "Crescent Precinct" after the Sir John Young Crescent that marks its eastern boundary. This part of the Domain is dominated by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, with a neo-classical fa�ade facing Art Gallery Road and a modern extension built onto the eastern slope.

The Domain Parking Station is a 1,130 space car park that caters predominantly for The Art Gallery of NSW patrons, Domain event attendees, and inner city workers. It was built in the 1960s at a time when motor traffic was on the increase and town planners around Australia experimented with the idea of placing car parks on the perimeters of the capital cities to reduce traffic in the inner city area itself. The car parks were intended for all day parking for city workers. Rapid transport was provided to shuttle works from the car parks to the inner city streets.



In the case of the Domain Car Park, a moving walkway was installed to take patrons from the car park to tHyde Park in the city centre. The walkway, or travelator, is an impressive 207 metres in length. The Express Walkway features a painted mural along the length of the walkway that depicts Aboriginal and local scenes, and the Walkway is most likely the longest continuous moving walkway in the Southern Hemisphere and reportedly the third longest in the world.

The Domain occupies the entirety of the peninsula of Mrs Macquaries Point, with Farm Cove to the west and Woolloomooloo Bay to the east. Offering the iconic view of the Sydney Opera House alongisde the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Mrs Macquaries Point is a popular destination for tourists and photographers. Mrs Macquarie's Chair is a stone seat carved out of the rock for Governor Lachlan Macquarie's wife in 1815. Above the chair is an inscription recording the completion of Mrs Macquaries Road on 13th June 1816.



Mrs Macquarie had a hand in designing the newly created Botanical Gardens which leads to the location at Mrs Mascquaries Point. She loved the harbour and often came by carriage to Yurong to sit and look at the harbour. Yurong was the point's aboriginal name. It was earlier known as Anson's Point after John Anson, a carpenter, who held the lease to the farmlet in this area. It was stocked with grafted fruit trees, and advertised for sale in May 1805.

Andrew (Boy) Charlton is the Domain s best kept secret. Located on the fringe of the Royal Botanic Gardens, the pool has the leafy precinct of Mrs Macquarie s Point on one side and Woolloomooloo Bay on the other. Not only is it a great place for a swim, it offers patrons breathtaking views of Sydney Harbour whether they are in the water or relaxing poolside with a coffee or lunch from the Poolside Cafe.

The 50-metre outdoor pool is perfect for lap swimming. It has 8 lanes and ranges in depth from 1.2 to 2 metres. The pool is heated from 1 September to 30 April and filled with chemically treated salt water. The smaller (20 metre) pool is 1 metre deep throughout and perfect for those who are learning to swim or just want to have fun. It is heated to 28�C and also contains chemically treated salt water. This pool has a shade cover to protect your skin from the sun.

The Fleet Steps, facing Farm Cove, link Farm Cove to Mrs Macquarie Road. The steps are named after the Great White Fleet of the US Navy, and was built for the visit of that fleet to Sydney in 1908. It is the point where Queen Elizabeth II first set foot on Australian soil in 1954, and a commemorative wall plaque marks the event. The site is often used for large marquee functions with stunning views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The name of the steps recalls the fact that the convicts transported to New South Wales with the First Fleet came ashore in the vicinity in January 1788.

This jetty is the only known remains harbour works from the Macquarie era still in existence in Sydney Harbour. It is in what appears to be their original configuration, and still in daily use. It recalls a bygone era when Navy ships anchored in Farm Cove, and the soldiers came ashore to Fort Macquarie, Sydney's main military base which once stood where the Opera House is today. The Man O'War Jetty was the embarking and disembarking point for this function for over a century.

The original construction dating from 1810-20 became part of Fort Macquarie (Governor Macquarie laid the foundation stone of the fort on 17 December, 1817) and has been improved and /or replaced over subsequent years. The majority of the existing structure appears to have been put in place as part of Farm Cove seawall constructed in the 1860s.

Over the years, wooden wharves and pontoons were added to the stone jetty, and a substantial wooden shed built at the shore end for naval purposes.

In the 1850s, female immigrants were landed at Man O'War Jetty and marched through the Gardens and the Domain to their barracks. By 1850, it was referred to by the Admiralty as a 'stone pier,' and stated to be in use for watering shipping anchored nearby. Naval use has of the steps has now ceased, with expansion of alongside facilities for major warships at Garden Island. When the Opera House was built, the Man O'War Jetty was cleared of all structures and the present day pontoons were added to the original stonework. Restored in 1973, the steps are now a major embarkation point for harbour cruises.

Cut off from the rest of the Domain by the Cahill Expressway, a narrow strip of open parkland runs alongside the eastern side of Macquarie Street and the western boundary of the Royal Botanic Gardens, rising towards the north to encompass the elevated area near Bennelong Point, which overlooks the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House via a rocky escarpment. This area is named the Tarpeian Precinct, after the resemblance of the escarpment to the Tarpeian Rock. This relatively small elevated green space dotted with large trees has views from above to parts of Circular Quay, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Government House is immediately to the south-east of this area.


Sydney's city's oldest trees

Two Forest Red Gums in this precinct behind the Sydney Opera House are believed to be the oldest trees in the inner city area. They are also the closest native trees to the centre of Sydney. It is not known if they were alive when the first fleet arrived in 1788 and therefore would actual remants of the natural bushland of the area, or whether they are descendents of original bushland species, as the age of trees of this species is hard to confirm. What is known is that they have been growing there since the 1840s, as they appear on landscape paintings of Sydney from that era.

Sited below part of The Domain, between a substation and the start of the Eastern Distributor Tunnel in Woolloomooloo is a rectangular park elevated above Lincoln Crescent. The grassed area of the park, behind which are the Botanical Gardens, The Domain and The Art Gallery of NSW, covers the roof of two x 280,000 litre capacity oil reservoirs. Now empty, they were once used for oil storage by the Royal Australian Navy, whose Garden Island base is situated nearby on the other side of Woolloomooloo Bay.



While the park is rectangular, the reservoirs are tapered towards a point at their outer ends. On Lincoln Crescent the 8m high outer wall of the reservoir, with a low chain link fence on top of its mown roof, is visible. Its roof supported by row upon row of narrow square pillars, with box shaped bases and inverted pyramid tops. A dividing wall with square overflow windows separates the two sections. The end wall has been penetrated by roots of trees on the edge of the park/roof.

This 290 metre long piece of history is all that remains of a wall built by convicts in 1810 and is the oldest colonial relic is the inner city of Sydney. It was one of the first building projects undertaken by Governor Macquarie after taking up his post as Governor. Within weeks of his arrival, he set aside the land surrounding Farm Cove as a domain for the people of Sydney and ordered the construction of the wall - from Farm Cove to Woolloomooloo Bay. The reason for the wall was to divide the domain in two halves, one for the convicts and another for the town's Respectable Class of Inhabitants. The Botanic Gardens were created six years later around a series of pathways which criss-crossed the domain and emanated from a spot where Captain Arthur Philip had established the colony s first market garden in 1788.

Sydney Conservatorium of Music, built as stables for Government House using stone from the Domain quarry.

For the majority of colonial era buildings on the eastern side of Macquarie Street, the stone used in their construction was quarried on site. Macquarie Street runs along the top of a ridge, therefore it was convenient to use the vast amount of sandstone on the hillside going down to Farm Cove and Woolloomooloo Bay for the construction of the Conservatorium of Music, The Rum Hospital, Hyde Park Barracks and St James Church. There is little evidence of the quarry today as it has been levelled and grassed over to form the Royal Botanical Gardens and The Domain. Buildings such as Government House were built in part from sandstone quarried on site or quarries nearby that have been included here as they are in the general vicinity of The Domain.

Cricket matches, which had been played in Hyde Park since the early 19th century, moved to the Domain in the 1850s. New South Wales had beaten Victoria by three wickets in their first inter-colonial match held in Melbourne in 1856. The return match was played in the Domain on from 14 16 January 1857 and New South Wales won again, this time by 65 runs.

Although used for cricket for the next 14 years, the Domain was not a high quality ground even by the standards of the day. It was a rough, uneven, open paddock and cricketers had a constant battle with the public who insisted it was public parkland. On top of that it was still used to graze cattle and cow pats often had to be removed before a game could start. Despite the fact that a game of cricket was a major occasion, often attended by the Governor, and the leading players promenaded with their ladies, the ground was not enclosed and spectators could not be charged an entrance fee.

These continuing problems were well known to those who attended a public meeting in the Domain on 13 December 1859 at which the New South Wales Cricket Association was formed. The search began for a more suitable ground and was still going on when the first England side toured Australia in 1862. In the absence of another venue they played a NSW XXII at the Domain.

A solution of sorts to the venue problem was found when the Albert Ground opened in Redfern on 29 October 1864. Although it featured good facilities for players and crowd alike, the cost to the NSWCA of staging matches there was so high that it continued to use the Domain until the early 1870s. In all, six first-class matches were played in the Domain between the 1856 57 and 1868 69 seasons.

Almost Once sculpture by Brett Whiteley (1991)

Almost Once: a sculpture donated to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1991 by its creator, Brett Whiteley, a year before he died of a drug overdose. The striking sculpture, eight metres tall including its plinth, takes the form of two big matchsticks. Located in The Domain around the back of the Art Galley, the sculpture has suffered over the years from the elements and from cockatoos which land on it and sharpwn their beaks on the charcoal at the top of the burnt matchstick. it is said to have been created to prompt meditations on life and death, burning out, and the cost of living life to the full, something Whiteley knew all about.

Henry Lawson Statue: Art Gallery Road. Not too far away from Robert Burns is a statue of one of Australia's most celebrated writers and poets, Henry Lawson. Erected in 1931, it depicts Lawson beside a bushman with his swag and dog, a reference to his well loved humorous tale, The Loaded Dog. The last sculpture of Lawson's friend, artist George Washington Lambert, it was cast in bronze by A.B. Burton in London.

Sir John Robertson Statue: A life size bronze statue of the five times Premier of New South Wales and member of the first Legislative Assembly in 1856, Sir John Robertson, is located near the Art Gallery of NSW. As Lands Minister, Sir John Robertson who, as Lands Minister, approved the opening of the Domain at night to pedestrians in 1860. The statue, paid for by public subscription, was unveiled in 1904.


Robert Burns Statue

Robert Burns Statue: Art Gallery Road. A statue of one of Scotland's most famous sons, poet Robert Burns, was erected on a stone pedestal of Melbourne granite in 1905 for the Burns Memorial Committee by Englishman Frederick Pomeroy. It is appropriately located in what was known as Speaker's Corner, where in years gone by crowds gathered on Sunday afternoons to listen to speakers of all descriptions saying their piece.

Dual Nature: Woolloomooloo Bay, Domain These hybrids of marine, industrial and natural forms cling to the shoreline of Woolloomooloo Bay like abandoned hulks reflecting the maritime and cultural history of the site. The water sculptures are partly submerged at high tide and attached by wire to two derrick forms. The land based sculptures emit a pre-recorded soundscape entitled Ebb and Flow which relates to the history of people and shipping in the bay. Created by Nigel Helyer.

The Archaeology of Bathing: Woolloomooloo Bay has a long association with bathing. Prior to and after European settlement, the Cattigal people bathed there and it is along this shore that Sydney's first baths were built. Between 1833 and 1955, this section of the bay was the site of four separate ladies bathing establishments, including Mrs Biggs' Ladies Baths and the Domain Baths for Ladies. The Archaeology of Bathing traces elements of the former Domain Baths for Ladies: a floating jetty and marine piles evoke the memory of the boardwalk and mark the tidal change - a concrete path defines the poolside deck and changing cubicles - a bathing machine is evoked by the stair, cage and portal frame, reflecting the cultural attitudes towards bathing in Sydney at the time - lights in the portal frame signal morse code across the bay. Created by Robyn Backen.


Memory is Creation Without End

Memory is Creation Without End: This spiral of sandstone blocks consists of relics carved by stonemasons from demolished buildings such as the Pyrmont Bridge. Once quarried for the city's early sandstone buildings the Tarpeian Way is now but a thin veneer of earth covering the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. Memory is Creation Without End symbolises the circular connection of past, present and future. In salvaging and reconfiguring the stones into this spiral unification of sculpture and landscape the artist endows them with new life, meaning and memory. By Kimio Tsuchiya.

Viva Voce Installation: Installation by Debra Phillips consisting of a red stepladder and five marble clad 'soapboxes' arranged amongst the trees at Speakers Corner in the Domain. Acknowledges the historical and contemporary importance of the area as a site of public oratory, as both the 'living voice and democratic heart of the city', 1999.

Police Memorial Wall: Memorial Wall to Police Officers who have lost their lives in the course of their duty, 1862&endash;1998, erected 1999.

Veil of Trees: The passage of glass panels and new tree planting's reflects the botanical history of the Domain whilst rejuvenating species that were once found in the area. Consists of a meandering line of forest red gums with glass panels embedded with seeds, ash, honey, resin, and fragments of prose and poems by Australian writers, inspired by the landscape, 1999. Janet Laurence also created 'The Edge of Trees' in the forecourt of the Museum of Sydney. Installation by Janet Lawrence and Jisuk Han.