Who was Bennelong Point named after?

Bennelong Point was named after Bennelong, an Eora man who became an important intermediary between Aboriginal Australians and the British colony.

In the early 1790s, Governor Arthur Phillip arranged for Bennelong to have a brick hut built on the point. The place subsequently became known by Bennelong's name. The headland is now internationally associated with the Sydney Opera House.

The site had several earlier names and identities. It was known to the Gadigal people as Tubowgule or Dubbagullee, and during the first years of British settlement it was temporarily called Cattle Point and Limeburners' Point. It was once a tidal island, later joined to the mainland through reclamation and construction work.

A common mix-up is to credit Phillip, Macquarie or Cook because all three are prominent figures in Sydney's colonial history. Phillip ordered the hut, but Bennelong—not the governor—gave the point its enduring colonial name. The nearby Opera House address therefore preserves the name of a significant, if complicated, historical figure.