Description

The original drawing for this aquatint, now lost, was most likely produced in the colony by the convicted artist Thomas Watling in about 1800 and re drawn by Edward Dayes for the London engraver Francis Jukes. It is a distant view of Sydney taken from the western side of the cove (from Dawes Point looking eastward), on the rocky foreshore just below Dawes Battery. The view swings from Government House and its gardens on the left, past government buildings (the Store House, Commissary’s Office, Judge Advocate’s and Surveyor General’s houses, etc). The two rows of houses heading diagonally south in the centre are lining Pitt’s Row (now Pitt Street).

On the eastern foreshore, below Pitt’s Row, Governor King can be seen driving towards the Tank Stream in his coach. The tanks which gave the stream its name are visible just above the ship in dry dock in the mid foreground. The ship in dry dock in the middle foreground is the brig Portland, laid down by Governor Hunter in 1797 but not launched until 1816 and renamed as the Henrietta Elizabeth. The bell tower for the naval dockyard is visible above the ship and on the hill to the right is the clock tower.