The Shark Arm Murders.

In 1935, the just-captured tiger shark put on display in the nearby aquarium vomited up a human arm, leading to a sensational murder investigation known as the Shark Arm Murders.

Has a shark ever looked as guilty as this one? This is a case to sink your teeth into.

1961

In 1961, the Sydney Domain baths were a popular swimming spot by day but were housed by all kinds of derelicts at night.

It was here on a cold June night in 1961 that a serial killer named “The Sydney
Mutilator” first emerged in Sydney.   Part of The Sydney Mutilator’s modus operandi was to dispose of a victim’s body part at different points around the Sydney Harbour.

Mary Bryant

Mary Bryant was a convict transported to Australia who, in 1791, orchestrated a daring escape from the penal colony at Sydney Cove with her husband, two children, and seven other convicts. They seized a small boat and navigated over 3,000 miles through treacherous waters to Timor.

Although they initially passed themselves off as shipwreck survivors, their true identities were eventually discovered, leading to their recapture and return to England.

Fellow escapee James Martin would go on to chronicle his Memorandums, of which the account of this voyage has been recently published as "Memorandums by James Martin: An Astonishing Escape from Early New South Wales".

Cockatoo Island.

Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour was used as a prison where convicts were put to work building military fortifications.

Established in 1839 as a penal establishment, it was part of the colonial government's strategy to manage and reform convicts. The island's prisoners were tasked with constructing their own prison buildings and various infrastructure projects, including shipbuilding yards, a massive dry dock, and fortifications designed to protect Sydney from potential naval attacks.

Lawyer.

Brian Alexander was last seen on December 21, 1981. His car was found abandoned at The Gap 12 days later, just days before he was due to give evidence before a royal commission.

He was rumoured to have unfortunately close ties to the man (Mr Big?) who was later identified as the head of the infamous Mr Asia Drug Syndicate who was the man who gave the order to murder a pair of drug couriers.

His believed fate was re-enacted in a 1995 TV miniseries titled Blue Murder. For legal reasons, the broadcast was delayed in NSW by six years.

A twice-convicted murderer alleged in his autobiography that Alexander was taken out of the Harbour to Sydney Heads, tied to an old stove, and dumped over the side of the boat. The body has never been found.

1857.

The Dunbar shipwreck, one of Australia's most tragic maritime disasters, occurred on the night of August 20, 1857. The Dunbar was making its way into Sydney Harbour from England, carrying 122 passengers, crew, and valuable cargo.

Near the end of its three-month voyage, the ship encountered a fierce storm with heavy rain and high winds, greatly reducing visibility.

As the ship approached the entrance to Sydney Harbour, the captain mistook the Gap, a notorious rocky cliff at the entrance of the harbour, for the harbour's entrance itself.

The ship was driven onto the rocks and violently broke apart. Tragically, all but one of the people aboard perished. The sole survivor was a crewman named James Johnson, who clung to the rocky cliffs until he was rescued the next day.

James Johnson went on to become the lighthouse keeper at Nobbys Head, Newcastle, and, in a strange twist of fate, was instrumental in rescuing the sole survivor of the Cawarra, which was wrecked in 1866. James Johnson lived to the age of 78.

Midget Submarines.

Three Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney Harbour in 1942.

They were launched from a group of five larger submarines waiting off of the Sydney Heads. All three midget submarines were lost, with two of them destroyed before they could fire their torpedoes. Their mission was to destroy carriers, battleships or cruisers if the opportunity allowed.

One of the submarines is still beneath the surface and was only located in 2006. It remains standing upright on the seabed and has been placed in a 500m exclusion zone. 

Murder.

John Newman bashed a man to death in 1796.

He would be hung in chains for four years on Pinchgut Island, once imaginatively known as Rock Island but today known as Fort Denison.

Pinchgut Island's early claim to fame was as a place of punishment for the living. Convicts were chained up and left with meagre rations of bread and water for long periods of time, leaving them open to the elements.

Today, scholarly debate rages furiously about the naming of Pinchgut Island. We will stick with the dictionary definitions of "Pinchgut", which depending on your choice of a dictionary, means "a miserly person who starves himself or others" or "someone who does not give other people enough food".

But we'll give the final word to an 1826 wag who wrote a tongue-in-cheek letter to a Sydney newspaper proposing the island be renamed to Pinchgood Island, owing to its effects, because there is where men were pinched into goodness.

Wollstonecraft.

Wollstonecraft is the famous family name that connects to gothic horror literature and resided on the banks of Sydney Harbour. The suburb of Wollstonecraft in Sydney is named after Edward Wollstonecraft, who was the husband of the pioneering writer Mary Wollstonecraft and the father of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is responsible for writing the gothic horror classic "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus". Although Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley herself never lived in Sydney, the connection through the suburb name ties the legacy of her family to Sydney Harbour. Frankenstein is renowned for its exploration of the darker side of human nature.

To understand Aboriginal culture and facilitate communication.

Bennelong, a significant figure in the early history of the British colony in New South Wales, was kidnapped in 1789 on the orders of Governor Arthur Phillip. The primary reason for his abduction was to help the British understand Aboriginal culture and facilitate communication.

Following his capture, Bennelong was held in the governor’s house, where he initially responded to his captivity by attempting to escape multiple times.

After five months, he escaped but later returned voluntarily to negotiate peace between his people and the settlers. Upon returning, Bennelong lived in a hut on what is now the site of the Sydney Opera House.  His relationship with the British evolved, and he became a trusted advisor to the governor, allowing him to act as an intermediary.

In 1792, Governor Arthur Phillip took him to England and presented him to King George III.  Bennelong would return to Sydney in 1795, and after a further five years, he relocated from Sydney Cove to Kissing Point(now called Putney) and became the leader of a 100-strong clan living along the Parramatta River.

He would see out his final days living in the orchard of the friendly brewer James Squire before passing away in 1813.

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There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.— Joseph Brodsky