Mosman properties

The Borogegal and Bungaree

The Mosman area was home to the Borogegal people. A well-known Aboriginal figure, Bungaree, lived from about 1775 to 1830. He joined British explorers on voyages. One voyage, with Matthew Flinders, went around Australia, and Bungaree was 26 at the time.

Bungaree later became leader of his tribe. A grant of land at Georges Head came to him, and he had Governor Lachlan Macquarie's patronage. Bungaree welcomed people arriving by ship at Port Jackson, and he met Russian and French explorers. Artists painted him many times, and his likeness was displayed in London, Paris and Moscow.

Naming after the Mosman brothers

Mosman takes its name from Archibald Mosman, who lived from 1799 to 1863, and his twin brother George. In 1831 the brothers took up a grant of four acres in the area. They worked in shipping and started a whaling station on a harbour bay, which became Mosman's Bay. George later turned to grazing, while Archibald continued whaling.

By 1838 Archibald Mosman owned 108 acres along the Mosman waterfront. He was buried at St Jude's Church cemetery in Randwick. Mosman Council maintains his grave. In the late 1820s Chowder Bay served as an anchorage for visiting American whaling ships. Archibald Mosman and John Bell were given land at Mosman Bay in 1831 to start a whaling station. The Barn on Avenue Road is the one building left from the whaling station. It was a store and a sail-drying house. It now houses the 1st Mosman 1908 Scout Group.

Harbour defences

In 1789 the First Fleet's flagship, HMS Sirius, entered the water now called Mosman Bay or Great Sirius Cove. From 1801 Mosman held important maritime and defence sites for Sydney. Sydney's harbour defences grew, and Georges Head Battery, Middle Head Fort and the Bradleys Head Fortification Complex were among the works. A casemate known as the Beehive was built into the cliff at Obelisk Bay in 1871.

A Submarine Miners' Depot was built at Chowder Bay, also known as Georges Head, in the 1880s. The site was modified in 1888 for the latest harbour defences. It was seen as a strategic position, the best place to watch and fire underwater mines. Between 1876 and 1922, minefields covered the main shipping channels of Port Jackson. A base for the submarine miners was built at Chowder Bay, at Clifton Gardens.

From Georges Head, the miners watched for ships entering the harbour. They had to set off the nearest mine when an enemy ship came close. An electric cable ran from each mine up the cliff to a firing post. In 1891, several thousand people watched a demonstration. The accident killed four miners and left eight injured.

During the Second World War, in 1942, an anti-submarine boom net was built on Georges Head to stop enemy submarines entering Sydney Harbour. The net stretched across the full width of Port Jackson, and a winch house stood at Liangs Point, Watsons Bay. On 31 May 1942, three Japanese midget submarines made an attempt to enter Sydney Harbour, in the attack on Sydney Harbour. One became caught in the boom net. After the crew failed to free it, they set off charges inside the submarine, killing themselves and destroying it.

Artists' camps and the painted suburb

In the 1880s and 1890s, a love of painting outdoors, encouraged by the Barbizon and Impressionist movements in France, led to art colonies called the Sydney artists' camps around the harbour. They flourished mainly in the Mosman area. Mosman became known as 'Australia's most painted suburb'. One camp was Curlew Camp in Little Sirius Cove.

Painters who worked in the camps included Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton, along with Julian Ashton and John Mather. On the east side of the cove, a rock still shows the inscription 'Curlew 1890'. The site of Curlew Camp, where Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts once stayed, lies on the eastern shore of Sirius Cove. The council has built the Curlew Camp Artists Walk.

Roads, ferries and a municipality

In the 1840s, a foot track linked North Sydney and Middle Head. Avenue Road, which went from Mosman Bay to Mosman Junction, was built in 1860. Ten years later came Military Road, Bradleys Head Road and Middle Head Road. Land development spread east from Milson's Point from the 1870s. It reached the Mosman area, helped by a regular ferry service around that time.

In 1859 Richard Harnett Senior bought the 108 acres that had belonged to Archibald Mosman. In 1878 he opened a sandstone quarry at Mosman Bay. He built a wharf in 1871 and helped pay for a ferry service. The ferry linked Mosman Bay to Neutral Bay and to Circular Quay. He promoted a land development called the Mosman Bay Estate. After the sale of the land, the ferry service stopped. The new landowners were annoyed.

In 1893 Mosman became a municipality with 1,600 residents, leaving the North Sydney municipality. His son, Richard Harnett Junior, was elected as its first mayor. The two men shaped Mosman in many ways. Roads, a horse-drawn bus service and ferries to the city were part of their work. In 1880, Mosman Public School opened.

As the 20th century began, rows of shops appeared, along with homes in the Federation style. Taronga Zoo opened in 1916. It moved from a site at Moore Park, where it had been since 1884. 'Taronga' comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'beautiful view'. In the late 1950s, multi-storey flats began to appear. They became a public concern, and controls and restrictions followed. A federal opposition leader was the target of an attempted assassination at Mosman Town Hall on 21 June 1966.

Living in Mosman

The suburb of Mosman lies on a peninsula. Sydney Harbour lies on one side and Middle Harbour on the other. Balmoral and Chinamans Beach are harbour beaches, and two more, Obelisk Beach and Cobblers Beach, are legally designated clothing optional beaches. Landmarks also take in Taronga Zoo, Bradleys Head, and parts of Sydney Harbour National Park. Rawson Park holds the Scotland Australia Cairn, built with a stone drawn from every parish in Scotland. The cairn remembers Scottish pioneers and came as a gift from Scotland for the 1988 Bicentennial Celebrations. Highland games are usually held there the day after St Andrew's Day.

Ashton Park includes Athol Hall. The hall is used for events and has a café open every day. The shopping centre is on Military Road and reaches Spit Junction. It also runs along Spit Road and into side streets. Mosman Council treats the early 20th century shops on Military Road as a conservation area. Bridgepoint, a small shopping mall, sits at Spit Junction. Bard on the Beach, once called Shakespeare by the Sea, is an outdoor event held in summer. The Mosman Art Prize runs each year. A 1969 memoir recalls Mosman around 1920.