Sue Sacker - Manly Councillor
Press Release on 31-1-2000

Words on Quarantine Station

Look out from the Manly ferry across to North Head and you will see some beautiful old wooden buildings set in the windswept Sydney Harbour National Park. These are part of the oldest, largest, most intact quarantine station in the World.   

If the State Government and a hotel developer have their way, our Quarantine Station will soon be privatized and developed into a hotel complex. 

This is no way to treat a place of such significance to our nation. 

Built to protect Sydney from disease, thousands of immigrants stayed at the isolated site, sometimes for months.  Over 500 people died there and are buried in its three cemeteries. 

The site is unique – rich in Aboriginal history, unspoiled bushland, endangered flora and fauna and a key part of our immigrant heritage.  Thousands of people enjoy visiting it each year and learning about our history and heritage. 

Government argues that it can’t afford to maintain sites like this, and ignores community efforts to persuade them of their importance.  

Our natural and built heritage, our harbour foreshores and our national parks should remain in public ownership and management, free from privatization, safe for future generations.  

When places like Quarantine Station pass into private control they are lost to us forever.