Goat Island (Port Jackson)

Goat Island
Native name:
Memel; Me-Mel
Goat Island, viewed from Balls Head
Goat Island is located in Sydney
Goat Island
Goat Island
Location of Goat Island in Greater Sydney
Geography
LocationPort Jackson
Coordinates33°51′08″S 151°11′48″E / 33.8521°S 151.1966°E / -33.8521; 151.1966
Area5.4 ha (13 acres)
Length180 m (590 ft)
Width300 m (1000 ft)
Administration
Australia
Demographics
Population5
Goat Island
LocationPort Jackson, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Built1826–1994
ArchitectEdmund Blacket; Alexander Dawson (Colonial Magazine)
OwnerNSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Official nameGoat Island; Me-Mel (the eye)
TypeState heritage (landscape)
Designated2 April 1999
Reference no.989
TypeOther - Landscape - Cultural
CategoryLandscape - Cultural
The small ferry Me-Mel is named for Goat Island, but its route between Barangaroo and Blackwattle Bay does not take it by Goat Island.
Goat Island from Balmain

Goat Island is a heritage-listed island located in Port Jackson, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located northwest of the Sydney central business district, Goat Island is about 300m wide in a north/south direction and 180m long in an east/west direction; and covers an area of 5.4 hectares (13 acres).[1][2] Goat Island lies off the shores of the Sydney suburbs of Balmain and Millers Point, at the junction of Darling Harbour with the main channel of Sydney Harbour.

The island is a former gunpowder storage, arsenal, bacteriology station, shipyard, powder magazine, maintenance facility and accommodation and now interpretation centre and education facility. Over the years Goat Island has served as a quarry, convict stockade, explosives store, police station, fire station, boatyard and film set. Today the island forms part of the Sydney Harbour National Park. The built facilities on the island were designed by Edmund Blacket and Alexander Dawson and built from 1826 to 1994. Goat Island is also known as Memel or Me-Mel, meaning the eye. The property is owned by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.[3]

  1. ^ "GOAT ISLAND CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT PLAN" (PDF). Office of Environment & Heritage. p. 53. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  2. ^ Gilchrist, Catie (2014). "Goat Island". Dictionary of Sydney. Dictionary of Sydney Trust. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  3. ^ "Goat Island". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Department of Planning & Environment. H00989. Retrieved 2 June 2018. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under CC BY 4.0 licence.