4 Things You Must Know About the Architecture of the World's Most Facing Coastal Cities

The Opera House stands on Bennelong Point, a headland on the southern shore of the harbour, just to the east of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The site was originally known as Cattle Point and was later named in honor of Bennelong, an Aboriginal man who acted as an intermediary between the local Indigenous population and the first British colonists. A small dwelling once occupied by Bennelong was located here. Fort Macquarie was later constructed on the point in 1821 and remained until its demolition in 1902. The impetus for an opera house came in 1947 from Eugene Goossens, then the resident conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, who highlighted the need for a dedicated performance venue for the city's symphony, opera, and chamber music ensembles. The New South Wales government, aspiring to position Sydney as an international cultural hub, approved the project. In 1954, it formed the Opera House Committee, which subsequently selected Bennelong Point as the ideal location.