Dawes Point Battery

Dawes Point Battery
Dawes Point, Sydney
Dawes Point Battery
Dawes Point Battery
Coordinates	33°51′18″S 151°12′34″E / 33.854945°S 151.209404°E / -33.854945; 151.209404
Type	Gun Battery
Site information
Condition	Demolished between 1925 and 1932
Site history
Built	1791
Materials	Sandstone

The Dawes Point Battery is an historical fortification that was located adjacent to the southern pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge at Dawes Point, New South Wales, Australia.

The first known building to be constructed on the site of Point Maskelyne (later renamed Dawes Point) was an observatory constructed in early 1788 by Lieutenant William Dawes.

A powder magazine was installed in 1789 followed by the Battery in 1791. In 1798, the Governor's concerns regarding the arrival of schooner Argo prompted defensive measures at the Battery. The battery was constructed under the direction of George Barney, one of Australia’s most important Colonial Engineers of the mid-19th century. The site had previously been used as a cemetery for prisoners executed at Sydney Gaol (1797-c1830). The fort was expanded substantially in 1819 when Governor Lachlan Macquarie ordered convict Francis Greenway, who was an architect to design and construct a castellated fort at Dawes Point, which at the time was only meant to appear threatening to ships sailing into Sydney Harbour. In that same year sandstone blocks were quarried on site at Dawes Point Park for the construction of the fort.

Dawes Point fort received many upgrades throughout the 19th century as new threats to Britain’s empire arose. The fortification was intended to be the first line of defence in the event of an attack by the Spanish in 1790 and further threats of Napoleon’s French troops in 1810.

In 1850 during the Crimean War, there were further fears of an attack by the Russian Pacific Fleet so the battery received additional subterranean powder magazines and occupancy was taken up by Royal Artillery. In this year the Dawes Point Battery became the command post for a series of fortifications that were built around the inner harbor, which included Fort Denison.