About Scotland Island

For years the Island was a well-kept secret.. The privacy, the seclusion and the sheer undefiled tranquillity of the place were deemed too precious to publicise.

Times have changed. Most Sydneysiders have at least heard of the Island now. But most would be unaware of its special historical significance. Historians believe that, since Pitt Water was the first official name announced by Governor Phillip in Australia, Scot Island (as Phillip called it) was most likely the second.

Phillip had been in Port Jackson for only six weeks before he decided to explore the northern coastline by longboat and cutter to look for the “broken land” about which Captain Cook had written 18 years earlier

His search led him to Broken Bay and the smaller, serene arm of this large bay, which, he reported, was “the finest piece of water which I ever saw and which I honoured with the name of Pitt Water. It would contain the navy of Great Britain.” Within Pitt Water he also found Scot Island, the 52-hectare jewel in the south of the estuary.

In 1809, Governor Macquarie deeded Scotland Island to a pardoned convict named Andrew Thompson for a leasing fee of three shillings a year. But Thompson was to die tragically only eight months later and, apart from a brief period of shipbuilding and salt works, development on the Island was sparse. Building began slowly in the early 1900s, mainly on the waterfront.

Today, apart from the virtually uninhabited and much smaller islands in Sydney Harbour, there is probably no settled island so convenient to a large city in Australia. At its closest point it is only about 400 metres from the mainland at Church Point but the “moat” of surrounding water ensures a healthy and relaxing freedom from motor traffic, pollution and city noise.