Coastal watch pre-Federation

When was the Watchtower built, commissioned by whom, and for what purpose?

The short answer is, we don’t know for sure. It is generally dated to the early 1820s and often associated with Colonial Governor Lachlan Macquarie (in office 1810-1821), despite a lack of evidence linking it to his public works program.

The earliest reference of the tower appeared in the Syndey Gazette on 20 March 1822, who published a sonnet celebrating the erection of a tablet at Inscription Point in Kurnell, commemorating Captain James Cook. The poet imagines what Cook and Banks would have seen when they were present; “here on this South Head / Should stand an English farm hut; and there / On yon North shore, a barrack tow’r should peer”. The line may suggest that a tower had already existed on the northern headland of Botany Bay by 1822.

A more direct description came from the French navy officer Hyacinthe de Bougainville, who visited Botany Bay in 1825 during his 1824-1826 circumnavigation. In his published journal he described: “three hundred paces away to the North one can glimpse through the trees a Gothic turret serving as a guardhouse for the small detachment tasked with watching over the bay. This tower seemed to have been erected expressly to watch over our future monument.”

This ‘future monument’ referred to a memorial to comte de La Pérouse, for which Bougainville would lay the foundation stone later that year. The expedition’s artist Touanne created the earliest visual representation of the tower in the background of a drawing that featured the La Perouse Monument.

The original purpose of the tower is also ambiguous. According to a letter dated December 1829 from Charles Wilson, Director of Public Works, the ‘octagon tower’ was erected ‘in lieu of huts for soldiers stationed there”. A corporal and several men were stationed there to “report vessels entering the harbour and to prevent smuggling”.

However, earlier that year when the Department of Public Works proposed to repair the tower, Governor Darling questioned, “for what purpose was this Tower originally intended?” The inquiry was referred to J. T. Campbell, Secretary to Governor Macquarie, Darling’s predecessor. Unaware of the tower’s existence, Campbell suggested two possibilities: it was either constructed as a military guard house or a monument in honour of Captain Cook and his crew. This record suggests that the Watchtower was unlikely to have been constructed or commissioned during Macquarie’s administration, given his secretary did not know of it.

In a much earlier account, convict artist Joseph Lycett noted a ‘small dwelling’, marking the spot of the French garden, that was used as “a look-out station, where two privates and a corporal are kept on duty, to give information of the arrival of any ship, which bad weather may drive into the bay, or which may enter by mistake instead of Sydney Harbour”. Historians of the Royal Australian Historical Society interpreted this as referring to the Watchtower. However, without a detailed physical description, is unclear whether this ‘small dwelling’ was indeed the tower in question.

The prevailing view today is that the Watchtower functioned as a coastal lookout and anti-smuggling post. It served as a work/living space. The upper-level bedroom was accessed by means of a ladder that could be drawn up at night, a precaution in a place known for its remoteness and isolation.

With the withdrawal of the military detachment around 1826, the Watchtower fell into dilapidation.  In 1829, the Department of Public Works called for the repair for it to function as the accommodation for a caretaker employed to look after the recently erected La Perouse Monument.

Botany Heads Provisional School

Following the Public Schools Act 1866, a group of people submitted an application to establish a school in Botany in July 1868.

Among the main movers was then customs officer Michael McDermott, who offered a large room in the tower, his family’s living room, as the classroom. Thus began the Botany Heads Provision School, later known as the La Perouse Public School. The governess of McDermott’s children, Delia O’Brien became the school’s first teacher. The pupils consisted mainly of children of local gardeners, fishermen and customs employees.

In 1873, the school moved from the customs office to an adjoining structure erected by McDermott. Around that time, the customs building was increasingly referred to as Delaperouse, foreshadowing the future name of the locality. The school formally closed in 1890 and reopened two years later as the La Perouse Public School and eventually moved to its current Yarra Road site.

A thin brochure titled A century of integrated schooling: a brief historical account of La Perouse School from its foundation in 1868 to 1940 provides a comprehensive account of the school history, from charming anecdotes such as textbooks being delivered to the old Sir Joseph Banks Hotel,and more troubling realities such as the issues of hygiene, teaching standards and unfair treatment of Aboriginal students.

In 1968, Joy Hruby developed the play, "A School Is Born", based on historical records loaned to her by the Education Department. Promotional materials for the production celebrated the school as the first State school to enrol Aboriginal children, and one newspaper advertisement claimed that descendants of King Billy and Queen Timbery were pupils at La Perouse and would be performing in the play.