natural history in New South Wales. European/Asian heritage The North Head Quarantine Station is the oldest and most intact of the quarantine stations in Australia. It was always the pre-eminent place of quarantine among the colonies, both because of its early beginnings, and because it led in many of the advances in quarantine practice. The Station's function remained unchanged from 1828 to 1984 and all buildings and developments illustrate the changing social and scientific demands of quarantine during that period. The station was also central to the development of the colony of NSW's responses to local epidemics of infectious diseases. The history of the Quarantine Station, which is well illustrated by its buildings, sites, landscapes and the functions that took place there, interconnects with a number of key themes in NSW's history. The demands of quarantine, and the spotlight this cast on health standards, forced improvements in the conditions experienced by immigrants travelling to NSW, through the nineteenth century in particular. The procedures established for the quarantine of inbound shipping set the foundation for responding to the various local smallpox, plague and influenza epidemics up until the 1920s. The Quarantine Station also provided a safe haven to which the ill could be removed and treated. On a broader scale, the Quarantine Station dramatically demonstrates, in its development of arrangements to separate and deal differently with different classes and races of people, the changes in the social attitudes of the colony and State. This separation based on social status was most clearly evidenced by the barrier fences erected between the various class "compounds". The final transfer of the Quarantine Station to the State reflected the now-common pattern whereby land formerly reserved for special purposes, and protected from the development pressures of the urban areas surrounding them, became valued for the cultural and natural values they possessed and were re-gazetted for conservation purposes when no longer needed for their special purposes. Natural heritage Some of the earliest collections of marine specimens were made at Spring Cove and are now housed in the Australian Museum. These collections were made in the 1830s and therefore have significance in the natural history of Sydney Harbour. The Little Penguin population is the only remaining mainland population of this species in New South Wales. This is important to the natural history of this species. Continued survival of the Little Penguin is equally important to the future pattern