SYDNEY HARBOR LEGEND

Hokitika Guardian, 8 June 1926, Page 1

SYDNEY HARBOR LEGEND

SYDNEY, May 27

Another old legend has been swept away. It had been built round Fort Denison, which stands in lonely grandeur on a little islet in the middle of Sydney Harbour, and from which there lias been fired daily, for very many years, the time gun at 1 o’clock. Sydneyisders have been in the habit of pointing out to visitors, with a certain amount of awe, the somewhat grimlooki.ng cell-like apartments at the base of the gun tower as the abode for many years of the convicts in tine early days- The fact has now been revealed that no convicts were placed on the little island after Governor Phillip's time, and that "hat have popularly been regarded as cells were used to store powder and shot when the fort was garrisoned hv the Royal Artillery. It is as “Pinehgut” that Fort Denison will always ho popularly known. It is fitting when one recalls the genesis of it. Soon after the arrival of tho first fleet., Governor Phillip consigned a number of prisoners to this then wooded island. It was there that tho first convict convicted of stealing food, was entcne.ed to a week’s solitary confinement. >

It was because the quantity of food allowed prisoners sent there, no doubt for what would now he regarded as tho most triffling offences, was not bv any means over-plentiful, that the island became known as “Pinehgut.” The grim name has stuck to Fort Denison ever since. Of this history, however, there have been popular elaborations. The passenger by any steamer will he told on passing “Pinehgut” that the prisoners were not- only put- on very short rations, but that escape was made impossible for them, even if they wanted to appease their hunger, because of the swarms of sharks in the waters lapping the island, and that it was “Pinehgut” in a very real sense. Many tides have risen and fallen since those days, hut the name has stuck. Amidst a glittering phantas-magoria of lights that give the harbour a Fairy-like splendour at night, and with the bril-liantly-lighted ferries flitting to and fro, it has been sometimes suggested that “Pinehgut” would provide an admirable setting for a massive illuminated war memorial, but nothing has ever come of the idea,