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Photo: Andy Mitchell (Amitch), CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
Once a defence facility, then under attack from US friendly fire in World War II, now a popular tourist spot in the iconic Sydney Harbour. If you want to take a tour of the island and visit the tower, you need to purchase a ticket which includes the ferry transport 24 hours in advance from the Sydney Visitors Centre at Cadmans Cottage in The Rocks. The National Parks and Wildlife Service run a half-hour guided tour for $27/$17 and $72 for a 4 person family. That includes the ferry trip to the island. Standby tickets are available for the tours from the cafe on the island for $10, but these are subject to availability.
Fort Denison, part of the Sydney Harbour National Park, is a heritage-listed former penal site and defensive facility occupying a small island located north-east of the Royal Botanic Garden and approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) east of the Opera House in Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia. The island may have been known as Mattewanye or Muddawahnyuh in the Eora language, and as Pinchgut Island.
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The former location of Lieutenant Clark's failed garden; the food was often nicked by convicts.
You'd be thinking, what is there to see on the peak of such a tiny failed island. Look west and you could see an elevated view of the Barbour bridge and the Opera House, with your view uninterrupted by ferries and yachts. You might see cruise ships, but they won't block your view either.
The only way you could access the island. A pretty historic pier, and has historically been the only way to access the island.
Picnic area for couples on their honeymoon. Just beside it, it's become a popular spot for rockfishing. Additionally, photographers and Sydney Harbour lovers flock to this spot, just so they can get the perfect shot of the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, and Fort Denison. Oh, and the inside of the Amphitheatre has been used for weddings and other events.
A convict built battery built after four American ships landed in Australia undetected. Today, the mast of HMAS Sydney towers over the parapet is a striking monument to the World War I warship.
Defence ditches were added in the late 19th century after British troops left Sydney and remnants of earlier fortifications are other features of this unique harbourside location.
Bradleys Head Forts
A heritage-listed former mast and defensive battery and military fortification and now war memorial and recreational area. The 1840 fort was cut into the sandstone bedrock outcrop on the tip of the headland and included a barbette gun pit at the eastern end and the small circular bastion at the eastern end of the fort is from 1854.