Henry Head

Henry Head is a sandstone headland at La Perouse in south-eastern Sydney, within Kamay Botany Bay National Park. It marks the northern entrance to Botany Bay and is known for its coastal heath, dramatic cliffs and panoramic ocean views. The site contains the heritage-listed Henry Head Battery, built in the 1890s as part of Sydney's coastal defences, along with a historic lighthouse and walking tracks popular for sightseeing and whale watching.

Visitors can expect a rugged coastal headland with low heathland, sandstone cliffs and expansive views over Botany Bay, the Pacific Ocean and the Sydney coastline. The area is accessed via the Henry Head walking track (about 3.6 km return) leading to the abandoned Henry Head Battery with concrete gun emplacements, tunnels and the small Henry Head Lighthouse. The setting is natural and exposed with no shops, offering bushwalking, photography, birdwatching and seasonal whale watching.

Henry Head Battery was constructed between 1892 and 1895 as part of Sydney's coastal defence system to protect Botany Bay. It was later upgraded during the 1930s and World War II with additional gun emplacements, observation posts and tunnels. The battery is now heritage-listed and forms part of the historic military landscape of Kamay Botany Bay National Park alongside Bare Island Fort.

Located within Kamay Botany Bay National Park, the headland lies on the traditional lands of the Bidjigal and Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. The broader La Perouse and Botany Bay area holds Aboriginal cultural heritage and is also significant as the site of early European contact at Botany Bay. The headland and its historic structures are valued for their natural and heritage landscape.