page_title: Millers Point & Dawes Point Village Precinct
section_title: Twentieth century: bubonic plague and government resumption
hierarchical_section_title: Millers Point & Dawes Point Village Precinct / History / Twentieth century: bubonic plague and government resumption
caption_attribution_description: Constuction of Munns St bridge over Hickson Road, Millers Point Dated: c. 1 January 1911 Digital ID: 9856_a017_A017000010 Rights: www.records.nsw.gov.au/about-us/rights-and-permissions We'd love to hear from you if you use our photos. Many other photos in our collection are available to view and browse on our website using Photo Investigator.
context_page_description: The Millers Point & Dawes Point Village Precinct is a heritage-listed retail shops that support harbour functions, office and urban residences located at Upper Fort Street, in the inner city Sydney suburb of Millers Point and Dawes Point in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1788 to. It is also known as Millers Point, Goodye, Leightons Point, Jack the Millers Point, 'Dawes Point, Tar-ra, Parish St Philip, Flagstaff Hill, Cockle Bay Point, the Point and Fort Street. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 28 November 2003. The precinct was formerly home to industrial buildings and urban residences.
context_section_description: An outbreak of bubonic plague in mid-January 1900 afforded the government ample justification for taking control of the Sydney waterfront and nearby areas. Although alerted to the presence of plague in other Australian ports, ship and wharf-owners opted to minimise the risk to the industry and their profits by disposing of dead rats found on the wharves into the harbour. Recommendations for rat-proofing of ships were ignored, and the lethargic response of both City Council and the Department of Health failed to alleviate the situation. Millers Point, due to its close association with the maritime industry, was identified as an area of high risk. Local and state agencies repeatedly came into conflict during a programme of quarantining, cleansing and disinfecting at-risk areas. Wharf activities were effectively suspended, with many labourers and shipping employees detained in quarantine zones.
  Wholesale resumption of large portions of the foreshore and Millers Point was heavily criticised, with detractors citing the plague as a convenient excuse to allow the government to "seiz[e] a political opportunity." Private ownership of the foreshore areas and wharves in the nineteenth century had effectively prevented government intervention in shipping interests; resumption enabled the redevelopment and modernisation of shipping facilities. A second benefit of government control was to clear the way for the eventual construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, necessitating the destruction of Dawes Battery. The Sydney Harbour Trust, established in October 1900, was intended to modernise the commercial waterfront, and held responsibility for administration of wharf facilities as well as control of housing in resumed areas. Initially, this area comprised the waterfront, together with 37 factories, workshops and offices, 32 shops or combined shops and dwellings, five pubs and 29 houses.
  Demolition of properties was ordered between the back of Kent Street and Munn Street, Wentworth, Clyde and Hart Street were razed and much of the housing on the original Jack the Millers Point was demolished. On the south side of Windmill Street, similar activities were carried out after being recorded for posterity by the Department of Public Works. Those residential premises demolished during the plague epidemic were not rebuilt or replaced, further aggravating the already strained conditions between government and the City Council. Further acquisition of property on the part of the Sydney Harbour Trust resulted in a total of 803 properties, which included 401 residential dwellings, 82 shops, 23 pubs, and 45 factories and workshops. Seventy-one properties were condemned, and the remainder was rented, with the state acting as landlord. Proposed plans for the construction of tenements in Millers Point were indefinitely postponed, as the Trust's primary interest lay in the redevelopment of the Port of Sydney, brought about through wharf regeneration and road construction. Hickson Road was one outcome of this policy, which witnessed the destruction of entire streetscapes of Millers Point. Radical redevelopment included work on Dalgety's wharf, and the creation of the Walsh Bay finger wharves between Dawes and Millers Point.
  Some provision for worker housing was implemented in 1908 with 22 flats constructed in Dalgety Road, followed by both residential and commercial premises, built predominantly between 1908-1915 by the Trust and Public Works Department. Both old and new housing was tenanted by people whose lives were bound up with the wharves, also allowing the Trust to maintain its own work force. In essence, Millers Point became a "company town." Other developments initiated by the Sydney Harbour Trust were four combined shops and dwellings at Argyle Street in 1905, 72 flats at High Street (1910–17), four shops at the corner of Argyle and High Streets, and 12 residential dwellings at Munn Street. The Public works Department also provided 32 model houses on Windmill Street, and along Gloucester and on the east side of Lower Fort and Upper Fort Streets. 
caption: A view of the Dawes Point and Millers Point precinct in 1911, showing houses and the construction of the Munn Street bridge, with the Sydney Observatory in the background.
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