The story of this place
The island was nicknamed 'Pinchgut' by convicts because they were marooned here with nothing but bread and water—hunger was the point. In 1796, Irish convict Francis Morgan murdered a man in Sydney and paid the ultimate price: he was hanged on Pinchgut and gibbeted, his rotting corpse displayed in a cage as a warning to others. Morgan's body became Sydney's first tourist attraction, with curious visitors rowing out to stare at the grim spectacle that haunted the harbour for months. Today, the 1 PM cannon still fires daily—a much friendlier reminder of the island's dark past.