Sydney Harbour lies within Port Jackson

History

New Years eve celebrations

The harbour's discovery by Europeans is credited to Lt James Cook in 1770, although he did not enter it. Cook named the harbour after Sir George Jackson, Judge Advocate of the Fleet at the time; he noted in his log that "there appears to be a good anchorage". Captain Arthur Phillip established the first colony in Australia at Sydney Cove inside Port Jackson in 1788 which was to become the city of Sydney. In his first dispatch from the colony back to England, Governor Phillip noted that "...we had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security..."^[1].

A Japanese Ko-hyoteki class midget submarine, believed to be Midget No. 14, is raised from Sydney Harbour on 1 June 1942.

Fortifications

A gun emplacement on the Georges Head Battery, facing Watsons Bay.

Geography

Port Jackson from a helicopter

Port Jackson at the Royal Botanical Gardens

According to the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, Port Jackson is "a harbour which comprises all the waters within an imaginary line joining North Head and South Head. Within this harbour lies North Harbour, Middle Harbour and Sydney Harbour." These three harbours extend from the single entrance (known as Sydney Heads (North and South Heads)). North Harbour is the shortest, and is really just a large bay extending to Manly. Middle Harbour extends to the north-west. It is bridged at The Spit and Roseville. Its headwaters lie in Garigal National Park. The longest arm, Sydney Harbour, extends west as far as Balmain, where it is fed by the estuaries of the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers. Port Jackson is bridged by the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the ANZAC Bridge (formerly known as the Glebe Island Bridge). A tunnel, the Sydney Harbour Tunnel passes underneath the Harbour, to the east of the bridge, and in 2005 it was proposed that a third harbour crossing, this time a railway line, be constructed to the west of the bridge. The harbour is heavily embayed. The bays on the south side tend to be wide and rounded, whereas those on the north side are generally narrow inlets. Sydney's major central business district begins at Circular Quay, a small bay on the south side that has, over time, had its semi-circle reclaimed by land to the point where it is a rectangular quay. The northern side of the harbour is mainly used for residential purposes.

The waterways of Port Jackson are managed by the New South Wales Maritime Authority.

Islands

There are several islands within the harbour, including Shark Island, Clark Island, Fort Denison, Goat Island, Cockatoo Island, Spectacle Island, Snapper Island and Rodd Island. Some other former islands, including Bennelong Island, Garden Island and Berry Island, have subsequently been linked to the shore by land reclamation.

Tributaries and Waterways of Port Jackson

• Tank Stream is a fresh water course which empties into Sydney Cove. Today it is little more than a storm water drain but originally it was the fresh water supply for the fledgling colony of New South Wales in the late 18th century. It originated from a swamp to the west of present day Hyde Park and at high tide entered Sydney Cove at the intersection of Bridge and Pitt Streets.

• Middle Harbour is the northern arm of Sydney Harbour. It begins as a small creek (Middle Harbour Creek) at St Ives Chase^[5]. It joins Port Jackson between the two headlands, Middle Head and Grotto Point Reserve, adjacent to the Sydney Heads.

• Iron Cove Creek is located in the inner-western suburbs of Croydon, Ashfield, Haberfield and Five Dock. Iron Cove Creek traverses mostly through residential areas and parkland, making a two kilometre journey from where it surfaces in Croydon to where it empties along with Hawthorne Canal into Iron Cove, which is a bay of the Parramatta River.

• Parramatta River is the main tributary of Sydney Harbour, a branch of Port Jackson. The river begins at confluence of Toongabbie Creek and Darling Mills Creek west of Parramatta and travels in an easterly direction to a line between Greenwich Point, Greenwich, and Robinsons Point, Birchgrove. Here it flows into Port Jackson, still about 21 km from the ocean.^[6].

• Lane Cove River is a tributary of the Parramatta River, its lower reaches form an arm of Sydney Harbour. The lower reaches of the Lane Cove River are tidal and merge into Sydney Harbour at Greenwich and Hunters Hill.

• Johnstons Creek is located in the inner-western suburbs of Glebe, Annandale, Forest Lodge and Stanmore. It rises in Stanmore and flows in a generally northward direction towards Rozelle Bay. The creek passes beneath the stands of Harold Park Paceway prior to emptying into Rozelle Bay at Bicentennial Park, Glebe. Orphan School Creek is a tributary of Johnstons Creek.

Sydney Harbour as viewed from Grotto Point Reserve where Middle Harbour joins the main harbour

Sydney Harbour Ferries

Sydney Ferries is a state-owned corporation of the New South Wales Government providing commuter and tourist passenger ferry services in Sydney Harbour.

Trivia

A Sydharb is a unit of volume used in Australia for water. One sydharb (or sydarb), also called a Sydney Harbour, is the amount of water in the Sydney Harbour (Port Jackson): approximately 500 gigalitres (about 400,000 acre-feet).^[7]

References

External links

• NSW Maritime Authority
• Maps maintained by the New South Wales Maritime Authority, which legally is the owner of the harbour bed:
  • Port Jackson—east of Harbour Bridge
  • Port Jackson—west of Harbour Bridge
• Sydney Harbour Federation Trust Established by the Australian Government to plan for the future of former Defence and other special Commonwealth Lands around Sydney Harbour.
• Geographic Names Board of New South Wales reference to Port Jackson

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