"D is for Fort Denison"

I'm now sitting in Sydney airport (again) and have decided that I'm too tired to do some work. So, I'm going to write about the wonderful trip that Sha and I had to Fort Denison. Fort Denison is the island in the middle of Sydney harbour that is close to the Opera House and the harbour bridge. We got to the island by taking a boat from Darling Harbour (note to self ... the boat keeps going to Shark island. I'd like to go there as well one day). The Aboriginal name for the island was Mat-te-wan-ye and, in that time, looked beautiful - a small, rocky island. However, it didn't take long for the settlers and convicts to destroy the looks of the island (it was quarried to construct circular quay). In 1796 a man was hanged on the island and his body simply left hanging to frighten the arriving convicts. Apparently it frightened the Indigenous community more. Then it was decided to fortify the island, but by the time the fortifications were complete they were already out-of-date. The only time the island has been hit was accidentally by the Americans in 1942.

We arrived just before 1pm and managed watched the gun firing to mark the hour. Apparently it was used for ship captains to set their chronometers because "the salt water attracts magnetism that changes the ship clocks". hmmmm.

Now the island has a a tide gauge (that looks very impressive), a restaurant (that is very posh) and a small, but interesting museum.