Today the site, situated between Loftus and Young Streets, and Loftus and Custom House Lanes, is known as Quay Quarter Lanes and was developed by Kent Street Pty Ltd as a mixed-use development. The site is made up of three new commercial/residential buildings by architects Studio Bright (Building A), Silvester Fuller (Building B), and SJB (Building C). Two existing heritage buildings on the site were retained: the Gallipoli Memorial Club (Building G, refurbished by Lippmann Partnership) and Hinchcliff House (Building H, refurbished by Carter Williamson Architects). The public domain of Quay Quarter Lanes was coordinated by ASPECT Studios. Apart from one ceiling zone in Building A set aside for art by Studio Bright, the site was designed without an area for an artwork to exist.
In order to make sense of this complex site, with its limited art opportunities, a series of five artwork elements was conceived and installed. Located separately, these elements come together to create one narrative. In this way, the overall installation will slowly reveal itself as people become familiar with the site, the individual elements are noticed and the larger story is understood. As such, the artwork elements are intended as a collective and cannot exist independently of each other.
The story of Arabanoo has been chosen as the central narrative. Arabanoo was captured on 31 December 1788 following instructions from Governor Arthur Phillip, and imprisoned on the site under Governor Phillip’s orders. On 18 May 1789 – less than five months later – he sadly passed away from galgalla and was buried in an unknown location in the grounds of Government House Gardens.
Arabanoo was active in the colony for such a short period of time that little is known about him. The most descriptive texts come from Watkin Tench, David Collins and John Hunter, all officers of the First Fleet. Arabanoo’s story is the story of the first sustained engagement between the two cultures, making Arabanoo highly significant in the history of this nation. Not only are his experiences a universal metaphor for what Aboriginal people experienced with the arrival of the British but he was also the first Eora man to be abducted by the British. As a captive, he provided the colonists with their first insights into Aboriginal cultural knowledge. Larissa Behrendt sees Arabanoo as:
a figure who has been too lost in the tide of history but his legacy should be a symbol of strength and resilience. His fate is a reminder that we must hold on to our culture, our values, our humanity. We must not become what others think we are or what they try to turn us into. We survive and thrive and love and laugh and this is the greatest victory of our people.
The few vignettes we have of this significant man demonstrate Aboriginal values, including his affection for children and animals; his pride, which was offended when jokes were made at his expense; and his gut-wrenching reaction to the horrific impact of smallpox on his people. Tench wrote of his character, stating that:
the gentleness and humanity of his disposition frequently displayed themselves: when our children, stimulated by wanton curiosity, used to flock around him, he never failed to fondle them, and, if he were eating at the time, constantly offered them the choicest part of his fare.