remembering Arbanoo: gwara (flags), 2022
Three flags, located on the northern (Customs House Lane)
and western (Loftus Lane) facades of Hinchcliff House
Wool
750 × 50cm
Jonathan Jones
remembering Arabanoo: betūŋigo (oysters), 2022
Bronze (lost-wax technique)
3500 individual oysters, welded together into approximately 60 clusters
Each cluster: 13.2cm (height) × 64cm (length)
19.25m (length overall)
Affixed at height of 1m off the ground to the southern wall of
heritage building, Gallipoli Memorial Club; the height
approximates the high-tide mark of nearby Sydney Harbour
Jonathan Jones
remembering Arabanoo: bengadee (ornament), 2022
In situ cast concrete
1298.7cm (length) × 503.3cm (height) at its western end,
decreasing as the slope rises to 291.2 cm (height) at its eastern end
Jonathan Jones (Kamilaroi/Wiradjuri),
remembering Arabanoo: weerong (Sydney Cove), 2022
Artwork synonymous with the ceiling of the internal through-site
link of 6-8 Loftus Street
LED lights, aluminium, Perspex, and 24-hour stereo soundscape
featuring two native speakers of the local Eora Aboriginal language,
Lille Madden (Arrernte/Bundjalung/Kalkadoon from Gadigal Country)
and Joel Davison (Dunghutti/Gadigal)
Sound design by Luke Mynott, Unison Sound, Sydney
6.5m (height at western end) reducing to
5.6m (at eastern end) × 20m (length)
Jonathan Jones
remembering Arabanoo: magora (fish), 2022
Verde Issorie marble, brass, bluestone
1007 fish scales of Verde Issorie marble, salvaged and recycled by the
artist from the lobby of the former AMP Tower at 50 Bridge Street,
and waterjet-cut in the shape of abstracted fish scales; set into high-tensile
brass casings (‘shoes’) with a mirrored finish, then dropped into bluestone
pavers with a grit-blasted finish
LocationQuay Quarter Lanes, Sydney
CommissionerAMP Capital
Architects 3XN, Studio Bright, Silvester Fuller, SJB
CuratorBarbara Flynn, Art Advisor
Award Property Council of Australia Innovation & Excellence Awards,
Award for Best Public Art Project 2023: Olafur
National Association of Women in Construction Awards for Excellence 2022,
Finalist, Innovation in Design: artist
Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter,
The City of Sydney Lord Mayor’s Prize 2022
Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter
Urban Design Award 2022
PhotographyMark Pokorny
Made with the permission of elders from Gadigal Country, in particular Uncle Charles ‘Chicka’ Madden, the artwork acknowledges the Gadigal people as traditional owners, the wider Eora Aboriginal community and the site’s pivotal role in early colonial relationships. It also celebrates the site’s future ambitions, as described in AMP Capital’s planning documents.
The site
The site is situated in the north-west of Gadigal Country. At the end of a protected cove known as Warang (Sydney Cove), the site and its immediate surrounds would have included an intertidal rock platform, a permanent freshwater source (later known as the Tank Stream) and rich coastal bushland. Gadigal people have lived in this region for thousands of generations, and the area and its resources would have been highly significant to them. These same resources were the reason the British chose the area to establish the first permanent European colony in 1788, making the site the epicentre of colonisation in Australia. The British flag was raised (believed to be on present-day Loftus Street), exposing both Gadigal people and the Eora nation to British imperialism and violence.
Governor Arthur Phillip (in office 1788–92) selected the site and its surrounds for the establishment of Government House and the Government House Gardens. Government House was the first permanent building in Sydney, completed in 1789 using a combination of locally made and imported bricks, along with local stone and timber. As the centre of colonial administration, the site played a major role in Australia’s history, impacting directly on Aboriginal lives. The site’s importance in the establishment of Sydney and in turn Australia is witnessed in the memorials located in the adjacent Macquarie Place Park, including the Obelisk of Distances (erected 1818), which marks the official starting point for measuring all the road distances in New South Wales.
Gadigal were forced out of Warang and its surrounds, and Eora avoided contact. However, following the devastating impact of galgalla (smallpox) in 1789, when it has been estimated that up to 90 per cent of the Eora population died, Government House was frequented by a number of notable Eora, the most well-known being Woollarawarre Bennelong (c. 1764–1813), a Wongal man. Bennelong and his cohort often dined with the governor and in an act of exchange shared his name Woollarawarre with Phillip, and called himself ‘governor’.
Exchange continued to define this site, both locally and internationally, with Warang being the key port for the warehouses developed in the colony, including wool stores, and in 1844–45, Customs House was built on the site to serve as the headquarters of the government’s customs service until 1990. Aboriginal people continued to engage with Warang, with Aboriginal people living on its eastern shores at the Government Boatsheds in the late nineteenth century. Later, members of the La Perouse community would come to Customs House to sell their boomerangs, shellwork and other goods.