Title: Tubowgule: A Sydney Opera House History

Author: Melissa-Jane Fogarty, illustrated by Dylan Finney

Genre: History

Publisher: Lothian

Published: 26^th March 2025

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 32

Price: $24.99

Synopsis: A fascinating and inclusive history of one of Australia’s greatest landmarks, the Sydney Opera House, and the land on which it is built.

This is the story of Tubowgule.

The Sydney Opera House is an Australian icon, and a building recognised all around the world, but the land on which it stands has a long history. We step back in time to when Tubowgule was a ceremonial place for the Gadi people, and we follow along as the land is claimed by the colonisers and then takes on various forms and uses before it comes back around again as a place to gather and share song, dance and culture.

The first book in an Indigenous history series about Australia’s most iconic landmarks.

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For many years, Australian history, geography, science and culture has been taught as starting in 1788. But in recent years, there have been books written by Indigenous authors that bring the history prior to colonisation to light. Where the various Indigenous nations, cultures and languages that existed are incorporated alongside British history of Australia. Because it isn’t that easy to separate them, as everyone who has lived here has contributed to the history and culture, and evolution of Australia.

Hachette has a new series of picture books coming out called Our Lands. The first book, Tubowgule, is about the Sydney Opera House and the land it is on, and how it has changed over the centuries – from the Gadi people living on country and what they called it, what it meant to them, to what happened after 1788. What was built there before the Opera House was imagined – from how the Gadi people first lived on the land, its role as Cattle Point in 1788 and around the same time as Limeburner’s point, Bennelong (or Banalong) and his cottage when it was named Bennelong Point, its evolution into Fort Macquarie, Fort Macquarie Tram Shed and finally, what we now know as Sydney Opera House in 1975.

The life of Sydney Opera House and the land it is on – Tubowgule – has been varied throughout history. It has had many names, because everyone who has used it has had their own name, their own use, their own experience for it. But perhaps the most important use throughout the land’s 60,000-year history has been community and coming together. Which throughout history, has meant different things to different people and groups. The long history is part of everything and everyone the land has hosted, everything that led to the Sydney Opera House. It is a history that people out there may not be aware of beyond the names or moments they have learned about in school. So this book has brought everyone together to celebrate and learn about this history. Stories and books that bring known and unknown history together give a fuller story. They give a better understanding of the lands and now, when readers go to  Sydney and see the Sydney Opera House, they can imagine this history, and learn more about it. It is a privilege to be able to learn about these things that were never taught when I was at school so openly, and in such a wonderful book by two fabulous local creators, Melissa-Jane Fogarty, whom I know through a local group, and artist Dylan Finney. Dylan’s illustrations are detailed and informative, telling the visual parts of the story alongside Melissa’s prose that tells the story in an easy-to-understand way, with pronunciation guides for Dharug words like Tubowgule.

This is a lovely educational book that takes readers through the journey of Tubowgule and its eventual home as the site of the Sydney Opera House. It gives readers just enough information to learn, but to then go off and discover more about what is mentioned in the book for themselves. It is one that I can see being used in a variety of educational contexts for all age groups.