View from today’s Fairlight Beach

By Martin Wale, 2007

Hornby and Macquarie lighthouses appear in near perfect alignment beyond Dobroyd Head, in this view from today’s Fairlight Beach. Left of centre is the flagstaff on Cannae Point and the buildings on the Quarantine Station. Nearby Spring Cove was first used for quarantine purposes in 1828, when the Bussorah Merchant was detained there after its passengers were found to be suffering from both smallpox and whooping cough. In 1832, responding to the European cholera epidemic, the governor of NSW set aside the whole of North Head for a permanent quarantine station, and so it remained for almost 150 years.