Sydney Observatory

About

The Sydney Observatory is a heritage-listed meteorological station, astronomical observatory, function venue, science museum, and education facility located on Observatory Hill at Upper Fort Street, in the inner city Sydney suburb of Millers Point in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by William Weaver (plans) and Alexander Dawson (supervision) and built from 1857 to 1859 by Charles Bingemann & Ebenezer Dewar. It is also known as The Sydney Observatory; Observatory; Fort Phillip; Windmill Hill; and Flagstaff Hill. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 22 December 2000. The site was formerly a defence fort, semaphore station, time ball station, meteorological station, observatory and windmills. The site evolved from a fort built on 'Windmill Hill' in the early 19th century to an observatory within the following 100 years. It is now a working museum where evening visitors can observe the stars and planets through a modern 40-centimetre (16 in) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and an historic 29-centimetre (11 in) refractor telescope built in 1874, the oldest telescope in Australia in regular use.

The site of the Sydney Observatory has been a significant place in Sydney and has undergone a number of name changes. It was known as Windmill Hill in the 1790s when it was the site of the first windmill. After 1804 references are made to it as Fort Phillip or Citadel Hill, referring to the construction, but never completion, of a citadel on the site at Governor King 's instruction for use in the case of an insurrection in Sydney. This was prompted by an influx of "Death or Liberty" Boys after the abortive 1798 uprising in Ireland, some of whom he believed to be of the most desperate character and cause for constant suspicion. Construction began but the citadel was not completed until Bligh had been installed in office. There were further discussions about a citadel during the Macquarie period but nothing eventuated beyond a half-built powder magazine, Francis Greenway 's first work after his appointment as civil architect in 1815.

In 1797, early on during the European settlement of New South Wales, Australia, a windmill was built on the hill above the first settlement. Within ten years the windmill had deteriorated to the point of being useless; the canvas sails were stolen, a storm damaged the machinery, and already by 1800 the foundations were giving way. The name of Millers Point remembers this early land use.

In 1803, Fort Philip was built on the site under the direction of Governor Hunter to defend the new settlement against a possible attack by the French and also from rebellious convicts. The fort was never required to be used for any such purposes. In 1825 the eastern wall of the fort was converted to a signal station. Flags were used to send messages to ships in the harbour and to the signal station on the South Head of the harbour.

The site was known as Flagstaff Hill during and after the Macquarie era. A flagstaff had been erected on the site by 1811. Flag signalling was a cumbersome process and Commissioner Bigge advised Macquarie that it was expedient to erect a semaphore at South Head and Fort Phillip. The flag and semaphore were used for signalling in a variety of combinations.

An early observatory was established in 1788 by William Dawes on Dawes Point, at the foot of Observatory Hill, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to observe in 1790 the return of a comet suggested by Edmond Halley (not Halley's Comet but a different one).

In 1848, a new signal station was built by the Colonial Architect, Mortimer Lewis, on top of the fort wall on Windmill Hill. At the instigation of the Governor, Sir William Denison, it was agreed seven years later to build a full observatory next to the signal station. The first Government Astronomer, William Scott, was appointed in 1856, and work on the new observatory was completed in 1858.

The most important role of the observatory was to provide time through the time-ball tower. Every day at exactly 1.00 pm, the time-ball on top of the tower would drop to signal the correct time to the city and harbour below. At the same time a cannon on Dawes Point was fired; later the cannon was moved to Fort Denison. The first time-ball was dropped at noon on 5 June 1858. Soon after the drop was rescheduled to one o'clock. The time-ball is still dropped daily at 1pm using the original mechanism, but with the aid of an electric motor, not as in the early days when the ball was raised manually.

After the federation of Australia in 1901, meteorology became a function for the Commonwealth Government from 1908, while the observatory continued its astronomical role. The observatory continued to contribute observations to The astrographic catalogue, kept time and provided information to the public. For example, each day the observatory supplied Sydney newspapers with the rising and setting times of the sun, moon and planets. A proposal to close the observatory in 1926 was narrowly avoided, but, by the mid-1970s, the increasing problems of air pollution and city light made work at the observatory more and more difficult. In 1982, the NSW Government decided that Sydney Observatory was to be converted into a museum of astronomy and related fields as part of what is now the Powerhouse Museum.

In November 1821 Governor Brisbane arrived with a set of astronomical instruments, a plan for an observatory and two personal employees with astronomical expertise - Carl Rümker and James Dunlop. Brisbane set up an observatory at the Governor 's residence in Parramatta. Problems developed between Brisbane and Rümker. Rümker lost his position and it was not until Brisbane had been recalled that Rümker was reinstated by the Colonial Secretary. The following year Governor Darling, the new Governor, appointed Rümker as Government Astronomer, the first to hold the title in Australia. In 1831 Dunlop was appointed Superintendent at the observatory, Rümker again losing his position while on a visit to London.

Brisbane's instruments remained at Parramatta when he left and they were used in that observatory until it was closed in 1847. The recommendation for the closure came from a commission appointed by Governor Fitzroy at the prompting of London. Dunlop had become increasingly frail and negligent and the Parramatta observatory had fallen into decay. The instruments were placed in ordnance storage at the urge of Phillip Parker King, a leading astronomer in Australia.

King argued that a government observatory should be set up, and not just the suggested time ball. King's preference for Fort Phillip to be the site was eventually accepted. In the eight years from Edmund Blacket 's modest 1850 plan for the time ball observatory until its completion, the plans underwent progressive enlargement. The 1850 plan was a 4-by-4-metre (13 by 14 ft) room for a transit telescope and timekeeping apparatus with a small ante-room. In 1851 an enlarged version was presented to the Colonial Secretary but it had no time ball tower, because neither King or Blacket, the Colonial Architect, knew how it worked. The need for an Observer's dwelling was noted.

Plans were redrawn in the next couple of years. When Blacket resigned in 1854 to take on the design and supervision of construction of The University of Sydney, plans were underway for an observatory that would be both functional and of architectural quality. Blacket's successor, William Weaver, replaced him on the observatory project. Weaver was appointed Colonial Architect in October 1854. Correspondence from him to Blacket in the early years indicates that Weaver was much happier in direct supervision of works than performing the duties of his desk-bound role. As head of an over-loaded department, he complained:

"The arrangements for the performance of the various works, the official correspondence, the number of reports, and the examination of accounts, absorb nearly the whole time of the head of department, who practically can have little or no professional oversight of any work".

A Select Committee on the Colonial Architect's Department in August 1855 questioned an overpayment to the stonemasonry contractor of the Dead House at Circular Quay and accused him of defrauding the Government. Weaver, as head of the Department, was accused of negligence for paying him and subsequently submitted his resignation in apparent disgust. Weaver was only 18 months as Colonial Architect and of the two major architectural works to come from his Department during his term in office, the Government Printing Office at the corner of Phillip and Bent Streets no longer stands and the Sydney Observatory has been generally attributed to his successor. In fact, Sir William Denison approved Weaver's plans "for an Observatory and Astronomical resicence" in August 1855 after some specifications supplied by Denison had been incorporated. When building commenced a year later the new Colonial Architect Alexander Dawson adopted those plans.

Little more was done until the arrival of Sir William Denison as Governor General in January 1855. Denison saw an observatory as an important addition to the colony. As a result, the £ 600 allocated to the time ball and building was augmented by an additional vote of £ 7,000 for a complete observatory and Denison wrote to the Astronomer Royal asking him to find a competent astronomer. Plans and estimates were submitted in August 1855 but Denison decided to defer the final decision on the site and design until the arrival of the astronomer.

Alexander Dawson replaced Weaver as Colonial Architect in April 1856 and the new Government Astronomer, Reverend William Scott, M.A., arrived with his family in October that year. Tenders for the construction were advertised in February 1857. The successful tenderers were Charles Bingemenn and Ebenezer Dewar. The plans used appear to have been the work of Dawson rather than those of his predecessors, there being numerous references by Scott to consultations with the Colonial Architect on the design of the building. Extra work was approved after Bingemann and Dewar won their tender. This included the addition of a telescope dome and an increase in the height of the time ball tower. This increased height caused some dismay for Scott as it blocked out an increased area of the eastern sky.

The completed building combined, for the first time in a major Sydney building, two architectural streams - Italian High Renaissance Palazzo and the Italian Villa forms. These contributed the symmetry of the townhouse facade for the residence and an asymmetry for the observatory born of the peculiar needs of transit room, equatorial dome and time ball tower. The building was thus elevated from basic necessity to fashionable stylishness. Dawson's budget had enabled him to emphasise the distinction between the private and the public, the domestic and the official. The style and form was overlaid with early Victorian theories of fitness and association, that style should be chosen to indicate the nature and status of the building and in some cases, the site.

Scott occupied the residence in 1858 and commenced a trial operation of the time ball in June. His initial equipment was modest, mostly the instruments from Parramatta. He did, however, obtain the money for an equatorial telescope. In 1862 Scott resigned, recommending prominent amateur astronomer John Tebbutt as his replacement. Tebbutt declined the offer and the search for a replacement was commenced. In the meantime, his assistant Henry Chamberlain Russell was left in charge of the observatory. In January 1864 the new appointee George Robarts Smalley arrived and Russell was his second in command.

In 1870 Smalley died and was replaced by Russell. Russell's talent, entrepreneurial flair, intimate knowledge of how to work the political and bureaucratic system of NSW and longevity gave him a 35-year tenure as Government Astronomer and made him the Grand Old Man of physical science in the colonies. It was during Russell's period that Sydney Observatory was popularly believed to have been at its professional zenith, particularly from the 1870s through to the 1890s. Russell wasted no time in pressing the government for the necessary physical and instrumental resources to carry out his astronomical programs at the observatory. The addition of a west wing designed by colonial architect James Barnett was the main work resulting from this. It provided for a major ground floor room for Russell, a library, a second equatorial dome on a tower at its northern extremity which removed the blind spot imposed by the time ball tower. An enlarged Muntz metal dome was also placed on the old equatorial tower to accommodate a new Schroeder telescope. The telescope remains a prized and functional possession today. Russell also turned his attention to improving the residence, claiming it was not large enough to accommodate his family. In 1875 Russell succeeded in securing an extension of the observatory enclosure. Like his predecessors, he had been concerned with the restrictive nature of the observatory grounds which made siting of meteorological and auxiliary astronomical instruments difficult, if not impossible. This extension, together with the adjacent signal station give the site its present symmetrical perimeter. The Astrographic Catalogue was Russell's greatest commitment and would affect programs at the observatory for 80 years. His interest in the application of photography to astronomy and a visit to Paris in 1887 prompted Russell to take part in a "great star catalogue". The Sydney Zone of the catalogue was a massive logistical enterprise and was not practically completed until 1964. Russell died in 1907 after taking leave for an extended period of time due to ill health. His assistant Alfred Lenehan was appointed acting Government Astronomer during this period and later Government Astronomer in 1907. However, in 1906 a premier's conference resolved that the Commonwealth Government would take over meteorological work, leaving astronomy to the states. Thus, the meteorological section of the observatory became a Commonwealth agency under the direction of a former officer of the observatory, Henry Hunt. Lenehan and Hunt continuously quarrelled and did not develop a good working relationship.