Colonialism is yet to adopt cool fire burns custodians of Country have used for millennia.
Photo: Michael Mangold 6/8/2014
Better known as 10 Terminal because of the eponymous transport regiment which occupied it up until 1999.
Photo: Michael Mangold 24/8/2014
Imagine the buzz at meal times in Dining Room 1 from the early 1940s on, and the outrage at the public information meeting here on 26 November 2013 where a developer presented a proposal to commandeer the whole 10 Terminal complex.
Photo: Michael Mangold 16/7/2020
My family's company Loves Data was founded here in 2008 in two suites at this end of the verandah.
Photo: Michael Mangold 19/8/2021
Community engagement and digital media were features of the campaigning against the proposed private aged care facility.
Photo: Michael Mangold 16/11/2014
Proposals for privatisation and / or any exclusive use of public parkland by special interest groups get people power pumping.
Photo: Michael Mangold 16/11/2014
Unprecedented protest march through Mosman streets by people young and old taking action to protect the public parkland on Middle Head.
Photo: Michael Mangold 16/11/2014
Linda Bergin OAM drew on her background in IT to mount a successful iPad petition on Balmoral Beach.
Photo: Michael Mangold 21/9/2014
Dr Peter Jones AM, a pioneer of computing networks in Australia and a founding member of HPG, campaigned (despite his pain) until shortly before he died in 2016, against the ‘sacrilege’ of the massive private aged care facility proposed for Middle Head.
Photo: 21/9/2014
Defending Middle Head - A Short History published 2021, by Kevin O’Brien, is a good read and very informative. He is in the unique position of being an expert on artillery and former Harbour Trust Board member.
Photo: Michael Mangold 19/8/2021
Having stolen it forcibly from its custodians the colonisers moved quickly to defend it, in the end from property developers.
Photo: Michael Mangold 4/8/2020
A training camp task of the 21st Construction Regiment in 1951 was to construct a sports oval. The Oval continues to its role in Defence with Black Hawk helicopter landings and bootcamps for troops. A proposal in 2017 by football clubs to install plastic grass was rejected on environmental and exclusive use grounds.
Photo: Michael Mangold 28/8/2014
On Tuesday 9 December 2014, 12 months into the campaign to ‘Save Middle Head’ from the private development of the heritage listed 10 Terminal building and public parkland into an aged care facility, the Harbour Trust Board Meeting in Public was overwhelmed with protesters.
Photo: Michael Mangold 9/12/14
The Chair of the Harbour Trust at the Board Meeting in Public on Tuesday 9 December 2014, was Ms Anthea Tinney.
Photo: Michael Mangold 9/12/2014
The Independent Review of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust 2019-21 by the Australian Government, was initiated by The Hon Sussan Ley, Minister for the Environment.
Photo: Michael Mangold 18/2/2020
The Hon Sussan Ley, Minister for the Environment, spoke and took questions from the floor at the Independent Review of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust public consultation session in Sydney.
Photo: Michael Mangold 18/2/2020
Representatives from institutions and community organisations, and individuals from across Sydney, advocated for heritage conservation and public parklands, and were adamant Harbour Trust lands must remain under Australian Government management.
Middle Head belongs to Country, its natural, indigenous, military and community heritage links Sydney to its past, present and future. It’s a benchmark and asset for city life in the Anthropocene Era of Climate Change. It deserves respect.
The global pandemic has highlighted the essential nature of fresh air and open space to local community health. It is also being used as a lever of entitlement by people who believe this gives them and their cohorts the right to do whatever they like in it and with it.
It’s easy to visualise indigenous people launching their canoes here and harvesting seafood in step with marine ecology. The Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS) facilities at Chowder Bay are dedicated to Sydney Harbour’s marine environment.
The rich military heritage of sheds at Middle Heads dates from the 1880s is associated with various storage and workshop facilities to support artillery infrastructure and skills development at the NSW School of Gunnery.
While sport organisations and special activity interest groups, often backed by commercial interests, lobby for so-called ‘spare land’ on Middle Head for their exclusive use the data shows the most cost effective, efficient and flexible use of public parkland is passive recreation.
The presence of this sandstone bench in Headland Park, Georges Heights, Middle Head, is testimony to the extraordinary efforts of Don Goodsir OAM (1937-2010). His leading role in the Headland Preservation Group’s campaign to save Middle Head continues to inform Harbour Trust decision making.
This platform facing east and overlooking Sydney Harbour is the work of former and founding Harbour Trust Executive Director Geoff Bailey. ANZAC Day dawn services are held here.