Goat Island - Aboriginal Name Me-Mel
About Goat Island
Goat Island was known by the Gadigal people as Me-mel. At one stage it was inhabited by Bennelong and his wife Barangaroo, two of the Aboriginal inhabitants at the time the Europeans arrived in 1788.
Since European settlement the island has seen various uses. First it was a convict worksite and quarry. In 1836 The Queens Magazine was built by convicts as the main gunpowder storage facility for Sydney. Since then it has been the first water Police base, as well as a base for a water fire brigade. More recently it has been used as a sight for filming (TV series water Rats and TV film Panic at Rock Island) and for concerts (Foo fighters and Kings of Leon).
There are regular group tours to the island, see NPWS website. The islands 'Heritage' tour includes a visit to Queen's Gunpowder Magazine that was built by convicts and see the quarry and 'Bony' Anderson's couch. A night tour introduces tourists to the island's colourful and grisly past.
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