The Gap (Sydney)

Prior to European colonisation, The Gap was inhabited by the Birrabirragal Aboriginal clan, who were part of the coastal Darug people.

Pilots based at Camp Cove in Watsons Bay would meet ships at the entrance to Port Jackson in order to guide them safely into Sydney harbour.

[1] In 1871, a year after the official withdrawal of Imperial British forces, the headland around The Gap became a military garrison when work began to build coastal artillery emplacements to defend the Port of Sydney.

Other bodies amid cargo and wreckage were washed inside Sydney harbour with the incoming tide; many of the dead were naked and had been mutilated by sharks.

Northwards these rocks pass into the Hunter Valley sequence that is transitional between the Sydney Basin and New England Fold Belt.

It is composed of very pure silica grains and a small amount of the iron mineral siderite in varying proportions, bound with a clay matrix.

[10] As nutrients are scarce, plants which survive on The Gap cannot afford to lose leaves to herbivores so they defend their foliage with toxins.

Between 2008 and 2011, numerous measures have been implemented to dissuade those at risk of suicide, including security cameras to monitor the area, several purpose-built Lifeline counselling phone booths, and information boards from the Black Dog Institute and Beyond Blue.

People who have survived the jump have had severe consequences, including paralysis, organ damage, broken bones, and lifelong pain.

[12] On the afternoon of 20 April 1936, noted Australian diarist Meta Truscott recorded how she and her uncle, Christopher Dunne, witnessed a suicide at The Gap.

As the three watched a ship sail through the Sydney Heads, her uncle asked the man if he knew its name, to which Swivell replied, "The Nieuw Holland".

[18] In 2009, Don Ritchie, a former World War II Royal Australian Navy veteran and retired insurance agent, was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for preventing suicides at The Gap.

[19] From 1964, Ritchie saved 180 people from jumping from the cliffs by crossing the road from his property and engaging them in conversation, often beginning with the words, "Can I help you in some way?"