In the case of Burrill Lake, the sea would have been up to 16 km further east than at present and the site would have been located within an inland environment drained by rivers, creeks and streams.

It is likely that many coastal Aboriginal sites of a similar age within the Sydney region have been submerged and/or destroyed by sea-level changes which have occurred in eastern Australia during the last 20,000 years.

In general terms, the majority of sites recorded within the Sydney Basin investigated to the present are dated to within the last 2,500 years that in most cases demonstrate Aboriginal exploitation of marine resources at the current sea levels.

By around 1,500 years ago the smaller backed forms appear (on available evidence) to have gone out of use and excavated site assemblages are characterised by quartz bi-polar artefacts and more opportunistic or undifferentiated small tools.

It is reasonable to assume that the many artefacts made by Aboriginal people from shell, bone or wood as observed at Contact were also used in the past but these materials have not survived in the archaeological record.

Prior to work completed over the last two decades, the majority of Aboriginal archaeological sites investigated were located south of Sydney and the Georges River.

[1] One of the earliest land grants in this area was made in 1824 to Captain Francis Marsh, who received 12 acres bounded by the present Botany and High Streets, Alison and Belmore Roads.

The village was isolated from Sydney by swamps and sandhills, and although a horse-bus was operated by a man named Grice from the late 1850s, the journey was more a test of nerves than a pleasure jaunt.

An even poorer group were the immigrants who existed on the periphery of Randwick in a place called Irishtown, in the area now known as The Spot, around the junction of St.Paul's Street and Perouse Road.

[1] A two-staged approach to the preparation of a Conservation Management Plan was agreed with the then NSW Heritage Office and Randwick City Council to guide the Prince Henry site Masterplan.

[1] The Prince Henry site contains a variety of buildings in an open landscape setting, as well as archaeological features and artefacts that provide evidence of its continuous use as a hospital for over 120 years.

Centred on Pine Avenue, it includes historic roads, cultural plantings, rock cuttings and outcrops, kerbs, retaining walls, spatial relationships between buildings and groups, and views within and beyond the precinct; Little Bay Beach, adjoining Headlands of Little Bay and Coastline, including coastal views and scenery; Former Male Lazaret site, including sandstone wall, sandstone drain/culvert and ornamental palm; A number of movable items relating to the cultural history of the hospital, particularly the history of medical treatment, technological development and nursing care on the site from 1881, have been collected within the PHHTNA Museum (Prince Henry Hospital Nursing and Medical Museum) and have been identified in the Museum Plan.

Historical archaeological evidence, including sandstone drains and road alignments, of the former Working Patients Dormitories, also continues to exist to the south of the Prince Henry site.

[1] This phase represents a period of growth that began after the then Board of Health unveiled plans for considerable expansion of the Coast Hospital, which was to include the construction of up to 20 new wards, each of which would contain 50 beds.

Thanks to Landcom's unique public benefit mandate, a plan has been developed which delivers innovative solutions to achieving density while maintaining amenity, beauty and social cohesion on a site both large and significant, yet also highly constrained.

The masterplan crafts a new residential and community precinct that seamlessly balances old and new, open space and built form, private and public uses, creating a rare showcase of sustainable coastal urban renewal.

The masterplan also provides major environmental benefits including: comprehensive site remediation; 9.2 hectares of parks and protected bushland; minimising urban runoff; repairing creek lines and riparian zones, and reusing rainwater for irrigation.

I therefore take this occasion to affirm the enduring relevance of public authorities such as Landcom and the Government Architect's Office in bringing "urban decency" to our cities, towns and suburbs, a role as significant today as when Francis Greenway made his first sketches 200 years ago.

In that spirit, I take great pleasure in conferring the 2008 Premier's Award on Landcom for the Prince Henry masterplan, a project of vision and integrity that will bring lasting credit to everyone associated with it.As at 14 July 2003, The Prince Henry site was the most important site for the treatment of infectious diseases in New South Wales from its inception in the 1880s, when, as the Coast Hospital, it became the first public hospital in New South Wales in the post-convict era.

The Prince Henry site is also important to many of the thousands of nurses, doctors and administrators who value their training and achievements at the hospital, which gained them a high reputation throughout New South Wales and Australia.

The site contains geological deposits attesting to physiographic, climatic and botanical conditions at a very early phase of the development of current coastal geography of eastern Australia.

The Prince Henry site has associations with a number of prominent administrators, public officials and benefactors, such as RJ Heffron and JE Delaney, FW Marks and H and C McIlrath, which is reflected in the naming of buildings after them.

A number of built elements and landscape features, such as the pine trees along Pine Avenue, the Memorial Clock Tower, the Water Tower, the War Memorial Chapel, the Flowers Wards, the Heffron and Delaney Buildings, rock cuttings, rock outcrops and regenerated bushland are landmark features in their own right and heighten the landmark qualities of the site.

The Prince Henry site is valued by community and cultural groups that feel regret about the loss of the hospital and are concerned that its spatial qualities and ambience should not be lost for themselves or future generations.

The geological gully-fill deposits and their relationships, especially within the Critical Exposure Area, have the potential to provide further detailed knowledge of near-coastal climate and vegetation of the middle Miocene Period.

The unique exposures need to be conserved for further study, in order to test and refine developing geological concepts concerning continental and indeed global earth processes of the period.

The site, through further analysis of documentary and physical evidence, including oral sources and archaeological investigation, has high potential to yield further substantial information about Aboriginal occupation from the prehistoric period to the present day.

The site has potential to contribute to research into the development of an important sector of the health community during the nineteenth century, particularly medical practices associated with the isolation and treatment of infectious diseases.

The Prince Henry site, through the nature and degree of its historic, aesthetic, social, significance, technical/research potential and rarity, provides ample evidence to represent the following key State themes: science; government and administration; health; education; death; and persons.

It satisfies all of the following inclusion guidelines, at State and Local levels: is a fine example of its type; has the potential characteristics of an important class or group of items; has attributes typical of a particular way of life, philosophy, custom, significant process, design, technique or activity; is a significant variation to a class of items; is part of a group, which collectively illustrates a representative type; is outstanding because of its setting, condition or size; and is outstanding because of its integrity of the esteem in which it is held.