Penniedarling

The La Perouse Monument.
La Perouse was named after the French navigator Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (1741–88), who landed on the northern shore of Botany Bay west of Bare Island in January 1788 only days after the first fleet of convicts arrived in Australia.
The French stayed at Botany Bay for six weeks and built a stockade, observatory and a garden for fresh produce on what is now known as the La Perouse peninsula. After completing the building a longboat (to replace one lost in the attack in the Navigator Islands) and obtaining wood and water, the French departed for New Caledonia, Santa Cruz, the Solomons, and the Louisiades. Lapérouse wrote in his journals that he expected to be back in France by December 1788, but the two ships vanished. The last official sighting of the French expedition was in March 1788 when British lookouts stationed at the South Head of Port Jackson saw the expedition sail from Botany Bay. The French expedition was wrecked a short time later on the reefs of Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands during a cyclone sometime during April or May 1788, the circumstances remained a mystery for 40 years. Some of the mystery was solved in 1826 when items associated with the French ships were found on an island in the Santa Cruz group, with wreckage of the ships themselves discovered in 1964

 Custom's Tower.
The first building in the area was the round stone tower constructed in 1820-22 as accommodation for a small guard of soldiers stationed there to prevent smuggling, and the tower still stands today. By 1885, an Aboriginal reserve had been established in the suburb and a number of missions were operated in the area.

 La Perouse Museum
The Museum is located in the historic 1881-1882 Cable Station on the headland at La Perouse.  The building originally provided accommodation for Cable Station staff. At different periods it provided a home for nurses and soldiers. From 1944, it was a Salvation Army refuge for women and children.

 The Heads to Botany Bay.

 Bare Island with Captain Cook's landing site across the water on the right.
Read all about it HERE!



 We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Danny's Seafood, this is a photo of a sign which on the far right says... 'Official Elvis Pizza.....'  Enough to put off eating here really but my Seafood Pizza was absolutely delicious and David loved his Fish and Chips.

Frenchman's Beach was very popular on this beautiful day,  lots of swimmers and sun bathers.

 Frenchman's Beach.

 Scanning left from Frenchman's Beach you will find Mascot in the distance... We saw several planes coming in to land but could hardly hear them.

After a delightful day of wandering all around the old Prince Henry Hospital site and enjoying a delicious Lunch, then a wander around La Perouse, we say what we always say after a day like this...

'We must do this sort of thing more often!'    Taking ourselves out of our own area and discovering a part of Sydney we don't see every day... ' 

Yes we MUST!

Labels: La Perouse, Sydney