As the asset managers for the Sydney Harbour Tunnel Ventia are stakeholders in our local harbour community and have a duty of care for stewardship of the harbours adjacent natural and cultural heritage.

Part of our stewardship includes heritage interpretation which involves raising awareness about the cultural values of around Sydney Harbour, inviting involvement in heritage enhancement, promoting visitation, and facilitating participation in intangible cultural heritage. 

Learn

Find out about the cultural heritage sites around Sydney Harbour Tunnel Find out about it's history, significance, and how to visit it.

About Cammeraygal Nation

• The Cammeraygal clan are the traditional custodians of Sydney’s north shore.
  
• Giba gunyahs are rock shelters, places where the Cammeraygal people would sleep, eat and tell stories.
  
• Engravings such as the Balls Head Whale were carved as a part of sacred cultural ceremonies and routinely maintained for future generations.
  
• Middens are shell and bone mounds formed over generations in places where aboriginal people would cook and eat. Examples of this can be seen on Berry Island in North Sydney, an important place for the Cammeraygal where they would fish, hunt and camp. Axe grindings can also be found at this site.
  
• There are no extant members of the Cammeraygal Nation.

About Gadigal Nation

• The Gadigal clan of the Eora Nation are the traditional custodians of the land that is now metropolitan Sydney.
• Gadi meaning grasstree and gal meaning men, the Gadigal are the men of the grasstree. The grasstree is highly valued by the Gadigal, due to its many uses.
• Sydney Cove or Warrane was a fishing spot, where Gadigal men would spear fish and women would line fish. It is also the site of the first meeting between the Gadigal and Europeans. 
• Woccanmagully is the Gadigal name for Farm Cove and the land that is now the Royal Botanical Gardens. The waters in this area were an important hunting and fishing place, as well as a site of ceremony and ritual.

Royal Botanic Garden

• Sydney’s royal botanic garden was originally the site of Australia’s ‘First Farm’, developed by the convicts who had arrived with the First Fleet.
• The land was later converted to public parkland in 1810.
• Was the site of Australia’s first zoo in 1862.
• Was renamed the Royal Botanic Gardens in 1959 to signify the arrival of Queen Elizabeth II to Australia, after her landing in Farm Cove.
• The oldest existing structure in the gardens is the Macquarie Wall, which was built in 1816.
• It is the second oldest botanic garden in the southern hemisphere.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

• The Sydney Harbour Bridge began construction in 1923 and finished in 1932.
  
• Dr JCC Bradfield was the chief engineer of Sydney Harbour Bridge and oversaw the design and construction.
• The bridge was mainly constructed with steel and granite, and provided employment for thousands of people during the Great Depression.
• It is an International Historic Civil Engineers Landmark.

No 1 Wharf Walsh Bay – Millers Point

• The wharves in Walsh Bay were important ports through the 19^th and into the 20^th century, used for shipping, cargo handling and other maritime activities.
• After decades of neglect, they were redeveloped in the 80’s and 90’s into a new arts precinct.
• Wharf 1 is now the home of the Sydney Theatre Company.