Bennelong serves to celebrate The Sydney Opera House and its
extraordinary architecture by offering a culturally significant and
inspiring menu showcasing a most magnificent production of Australian
food and wine.
Sometime over 200 years ago, Bennelong Point was a tidal rock island
in the heart of the Gadigal lands. It has been said this was a location
for Aboriginal women to congregate on the rising tide, eat shellfish by
the fire and tell stories.
Bennelong Point is recorded as the
largest midden found in Australia. Sometime after British settlement,
these midden shells were burned and crushed to manufacture lime required
to build Government house.
Government House soon became a centre
for communication between Aborigines and colonists, mostly due to a man
called Bennelong who befriended Governor Phillip and was the first
Aboriginal person to live voluntarily in the settlement.
Bennelong
came from the Wangal clan on the southern side of the Parramatta River,
and was married to a woman by the name of Barangaroo. Bennelong, who
was a great dancer and mimic, became a figurehead for relations between
Aborigines and the colonists, and lived in a house built on
this harbour-point.
Bennelong Restaurant is built on a site
enriched with history of communal eating and telling stories. We invite
you to create your own story in one of the most recognisable buildings
in the world.
