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Australia Today: Fort Denison - Early history
Title:
Australia Today: Fort Denison - Early history
NFSA ID
67045
Year
1939
Courtesy
Enterprise Film Co.
This newsreel looks nostalgically at the history of Fort Denison, a fortified island in Sydney Harbour, and its place in Sydney’s military and cultural heritage.
This clip covers the early history of Fort Denison, from its initial construction in the 1840s as a defence against a feared invasion, to its completion in 1857, and its manning by Royal Artillery men from England during the 1860s. By the 1930s it was manned by a single janitor.
Since the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 until its reincarnation as a Fort, the island of Pinchgut was used to intern criminals. Fort Denison was initially constructed when it was decided that Sydney was ‘inadequately defended’ against attack. The site’s layered history makes it a significant piece of settler heritage.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.