Published Resources Details

Journal Article

Author
de Grijs, Richard; Jacob, Andrew P.
Title
Sydney's Scientific Beginnings: William Dawes' Observatories in Context
In
arXiv:2101.08974 [physics.hist-ph]
Imprint
Cornell University, 22 January 2021
Url
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2101.08974
Format
pdf
Contains
Image
Abstract

The voyage of the "First Fleet" from Britain to the new colony of New South Wales was not only a military enterprise, it also had a distinct scientific purpose. Britain's fifth Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, had selected William Dawes, a promising young Marine with a propensity for astronomical observations, as his protégé. Maskelyne convinced the British Board of Longitude to supply Dawes with a suite of state-of-the-art instruments and allow the young Marine to establish an observatory in the new settlement. The Astronomer Royal may have had a dual motivation, one driven by strategic national interests combined with a personal investment linked to the suggested re-appearance of a comet in the southern sky. With the unexpected assistance of the French Lapérouse expedition, between 1788 and 1791 Dawes established not one but two observatories within a kilometre of Sydney's present-day city centre. Motivated by persisting confusion in the literature, we explore the historical record to narrow down the precise location of Dawes' observatory. We conclude that the memorial plaque attached to Sydney Harbour Bridge indicates an incorrect location. Overwhelming contemporary evidence -- maps, charts and pictorial representations -- implies that Dawes' observatory was located on the northeastern tip of the promontory presently known as The Rocks (formerly Dawes' Point), with any remains having vanished during the construction of the Harbour Bridge.

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  • de Grijs, Richard; and Jacob, Andrew P., 'Sydney's scientific beginnings: William Dawes' observatories in context', Journal of astronomical history and heritage, 24 (1) (2021), 41-73. Details

EOAS ID: bib/ASBS18281.htm

This Edition: 2026 February - 1926 Centenaries
Kooyang - Gariwerd calendar - Late summer: late January to late March - season of eels
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"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260