Mrs Macquarie's Chair, Sandstone bench in The Domain, Sydney, Australia.
Mrs Macquarie's Chair is an exposed sandstone rock on the Yurong Point peninsula, hand-cut by convicts in 1810 into a stepped bench for Elizabeth Macquarie. Above the seat, a rough slab is engraved with a text recording Mrs Macquarie's Road, completed on 13 June 1816. The bench faces north-east toward Fort Denison and the Tasman Sea.
Convicts hand-carved the bench from exposed sandstone in 1810 for Elizabeth Macquarie, wife of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. The road above it, running from the original Government House to the point, was built between 1813 and 1818 on the Governor's instruction; its stone inscription gives a length of 3 miles and 377 yards and completion on 13 June 1816. Only the Macquarie Culvert survives of the original road.
The peninsula is Yurong Point to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and the site lies within The Domain beside the Royal Botanic Gardens. The name Mrs Macquarie's Point recalls Elizabeth Macquarie, wife of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who was known to visit and sit enjoying the harbour views.
The chair is reached on foot through The Domain or the Royal Botanic Gardens, at the tip of Mrs Macquarie's Point. The carved seat faces north-east toward Fort Denison and the Tasman Sea, while the lookout behind it opens to the north-west for the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The sandstone steps and slab sit on open ground with no shelter.
An inscription above the bench records the exact length of the connecting road as 3 miles and 377 yards, completed on 13 June 1816. This precise measurement reveals how important this link was to early city development.
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