The obelisk is the earliest surviving public monument of Australia`s colonisation. It is supposedly erected on the site where Governor Phillip raised the Union Jack in 1788.
Designed by Francis Greenway and erected in 1818, the large sandstone structure functioned as the zero point for the measurement of early roads in New South Wales. The obelisk was instrumental as a surveying device used for Sydney`s earliest roads as part of the Governor and Mrs Macquarie`s civic improvements.