Little Bay 2036

The significance of Little Bay as a location predates colonisation. Histories merge in this locality as a place of healing, tranquillity and reflection.

Established by the Europeans in 1881, because of an outbreak of smallpox in greater Sydney. The government needed a hospital in a remote location and Little Bay provided this - isolated but not ‘too far’ from the general Sydney population. A substantial tract of Crown Land was allocated at Little Bay for the purposes of an isolation hospital. The Coast Hospital, as it was first known, was born. It is important to note that there were already a substantial number of Aboriginal patients being treated in a nearby location as smallpox decimated the Aboriginal peoples in the first years of the colony. Little Bay had been a place of significance for tens of thousands of years prior to colonisation.

Little Bay, because of its isolation, was chosen to quarantine patients with infectious diseases. The first leprosy patients were admitted in 1883. Other diseases that appear in the registers of patients included typhoid fever, bubonic plague, influenza, scarlet fever, venereal disease, diphtheria, whooping cough and hepatitis. The Little Bay Cemetery, located near the coastline close to St Michael’s Golf Course, was established to take those that died at the hospital. It is important to note that there are also First Nations peoples buried in this location. A published listing of burials is being supplemented by volunteers who are currently working to use new technologies and data to expand the data documenting the burials in this location.

With the outbreak of World War One a surge of new buildings was constructed at The Coast Hospital. The new wards were quickly full of returning service personnel suffering contagious diseases. In 1934, the hospital was renamed The Prince Henry Hospital in honour of the Duke of Gloucester, then visiting Australia. The hospital continued in the post war era with legendary superintendent Dr Cecil Walters, the long-standing authority on infectious diseases, still in charge of the hospital until his retirement in the 1960s. Dr Walters Park in Chifley is named in honour of his service to the hospital and community.

Prince Henry site was repurposed in the 1990s into luxury coastal accommodation. The Prince Henry Nursing and Medical Museum tells the story of the hospital days. Other former hospital wards also provide venues for the community to come together. The new Coast Community Centre is perched on the clifftops commanding the best view of the ‘Wrapped Coast’.

Wrapped Coast Little Bay, 1969

The other most significant fun fact about Little Bay’s history is its iconic status as the venue for the first Kaldor Public Arts Project. Ahead of his time, businessman and arts philanthropist John Kaldor AO, commissioned Christo and Jeanne-Claude to create an art installation wrapping the coastline at Little Bay. The result can be seen in the video links below. At the time it caused quite a stir in sleepy Sydney of 1969. Little Bay coastline was covered in a plastic woven fabric called ‘Sarlon’. Sydney siders came to watch and marvel on the cliff tops. Local Artist Eileen Slarke has immortalised this artistic moment in time with her installation ‘framing’ the view that she shared with her art students. In 1969, she piled them into her VW and took them to witness this once in a lifetime event. Little Bay was firmly placed on the world stage by this event and it was the springboard for a lifetime of philanthropic endeavours by Kaldor that continue to this day.