Circular Quay Heritage

“Heritage conservation seeks to sustain the values of heritage landscapes, places and objects, individually and collectively, so that the community and visitors can continue to appreciate, experience and learn from them and about them, and that they may be passed on to future generations.”  Source: NSW Heritage Branch, Department of Planning, Heritage Information Series, Heritage Interpretation Policy , August 2005.
 
Quay Quarter Sydney is constructed on a site that has a rich cultural history, and therefore we have a precinct wide heritage interpretation strategy and conservation management plan that celebrates several interesting themes.
 
The Natural Landscape
The site is located in Circular Quay and is in close proximity to Sydney Harbour and the Royal Botanic Gardens, giving us a natural landscape which is an important cross-cultural interpretive element with both Indigenous and Colonial Sydney themes.
 
Aboriginal Settlement (Pre 1788)
Here we have the opportunity to interpret the pre-1788 social, economic and ritual lives of the original Aboriginal owners.
 
Two Cultures Meet: 1788-1800
In this place, the first-recorded interactions between the traditional owners (the Gadigal people) and the European colonists took place.
 
Colonial Sydney/ the Governors Domain (1788-1850)
Quay Quarter Sydney is intrinsically linked to the early European history and the development of Sydney Cove, including the establishment of the First Government House and government gardens, early layout and division of land, formative road patterns and the reclamations and development of the semi-circular quay. The site also features the historic Bennelong Stormwater Channel No 29 which runs underground across both blocks of land.
 
Establishment of the trading port: The Wool Industry and Stores (1840-1900)
There are two historic commercial buildings undergoing refurbishment as part of Quay Quarter Sydney’s development, including the former Hinchcliff Wool Stores at 5-7 Young Street, the former Barker's Wool and Produce Stores at 12-14 Loftus Street (Gallipoli Memorial Club building).  This reminds us of Circular Quay as a 19th century shipping port, and the wool industry nationally. 
 
The Australian Mutual Provident (AMP) Society in the Modern City
The AMP Building at 33 Alfred Street Sydney is historically and aesthetically significant as the first “skyscraper” in Sydney, a famous modernist building, and the tallest building in Sydney for six years.
 
When visitors to the new neighbourhood experience Quay Quarter, they will see beautiful heritage plaques showing some of the stories of European settlement.
 
Public art on the Quay Quarter Lanes site by Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones pays tribute to the life of Sydney aboriginal man, Arabanoo. Arabanoo is central to the story of the Aboriginal peoples’ first engagement with the newcomers, and this first contact took place on and around the Quay Quarter Lanes site. His name appears multiple times in the early chronicles of the colony in association with the site, and he is said to be buried close by. Jones will bring Arabanoo’s narrative to life through five artwork elements that will be embedded across the whole of the Quay Quarter Lanes.

First Government House

Quay Quarter is built on the site of the first Government House. Sydney, c.1807.
 

Hinchcliff House

Hinchcliff House has achieved State heritage significance as a rare example of a largely intact wool store of the mid-19th century. It is being restored as an exciting destination for dining.

The story of wool may be a time gone by, but Hinchcliff House survives to take its part in an entirely new story of a dynamic new urban neighbourhood.