whom an estimated 572 died and were buried there. Description European/Asian cultural heritage North Head is situated at the entrance to Sydney Harbour. It is a huge sandstone bluff rising above sea level. At the time of settlement North Head was linked to the mainland by only a narrow sand spit that separated the harbour from the sea. Early depictions of North Head show the dramatic upheaval of the land form that sloped from the high cliffs on the eastern seaboard back to the protected waters of the harbour to the west. Today North Head appears as a natural extension of the Manly peninsula due to the filling of medium rise building development on the low-lying land of the present-day site of Manly and the mature vegetation through that urban development. The Quarantine Station is situated on the western side of North Head, on the natural amphitheatre of land centred on Quarantine beach. The site was originally designated as all the land with a radius of the beach. The area is fringed by a continuous tract of bushland on the north, south and eastern sides, and by the harbour on the western side. The curtilage for this Conservation Management Plan is the western side of North Head, which has the Quarantine Station as its core. In order to allow description and analysis of this study curtilage, five precincts have been delineated within the study curtilage as follows: the Quarantine Station Precinct; the Park Hill Precinct; the Spring Cove Precinct; the Quarantine [South] Precinct; and the Marine Precinct. In addition, where Quarantine Station-related sites occur beyond the briefed study area (such as within the Department of Defence-owned property), these sites are detailed following the "precinctual" discussion. Each of these precincts and related Quarantine Station sites are examined below. Within the physical overview of the buildings and site elements of the various precincts, the "description fields" have been used, as appropriate. Historical archaeology sites As a preamble to the precinct-specific overview, summary statements that relate to the historical inscriptions, the historical archaeology sites, and cultural landscape features for the study area have been informed by the 1985 and 1992 Conservation Plans 1 and 2, and by NPWS publications and other reports. The historical inscriptions Quarantine internees commenced a tradition of making inscriptions, including poems, initials, memorials and drawings, in the 1830s. This continued throughout the life of the Quarantine Station. Nineteenth and