Once known as Goat Island, Me-Mel is the biggest island in Sydney Harbour, while also being one of the richest historical sites in the harbour city.
Me-Mel, meaning ‘eye’ in Gadigal language, carries deep spiritual significance for Sydney’s First Nations people. With a history that dates back more than 10,000 years, and having once been home to famed Indigenous couple Bennelong and Barangaroo of the Eora Nation, this ancient island is situated north of Darling Harbour and lies just across the water from Barangaroo Reserve.
This island was a central part of the Boora Bira creation story. Me-Mel was known as the great eel spirit that created Sydney Harbour, with the site being described as the “cultural sacrament of the Eora” and “the dreaming place of Sydney” by the CEO of the Aboriginal Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, Nathan Moran. As of late, this uninhabited site has been making headlines for being one of the most significant land hand-backs in Sydney, with the NSW state government currently deep in the process of returning the island to permanent Indigenous traditional ownership.
On top of its rich Indigenous history, Me-Mal was taken over in the earliest days of the colony as a penal settlement for some of the colony’s worst convicts. It was also a naval arsenal in the late 1820s, and was then transformed into a sandstone quarry manned by gangs of convicts in 1831. One working convict, Charles Anderson – aka ‘the tattooed seaman’ – was apparently publicly chained to a rock on Goat Island for two years and fed with a pole (yikes).
The island was then used as a water police station, an ammunitions artillery and a laboratory up until 1900, when all explosives were removed. It is also speculated that it was used as a bacteriology station, for investigation of the outbreak of the bubonic plague in the nearby Rocks district.
Just like the rest of Sydney and Australia, it’s clear that this island's story is continuing to be rewritten.
