Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Wrapped Coast, Little Bay,
One Million Square Feet
Sydney, Australia 1968-69

Coordinator: John Kaldor

Little Bay, property of Prince Henry Hospital, is located 14.5 kilometers (9 miles), southeast of the center of Sydney.

The South Pacific Ocean cliff-lined shore area that was wrapped is approximately 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) long, 46 to 244 meters (150 to 800 feet) wide, 26 meters (85 feet) high at the northern cliffs, and was at sea level at the southern sandy beach.

One million square feet (90,000 square meters) of erosion control fabric (synthetic woven fiber usually manufactured for agricultural purposes), were used for the wrapping. 56.3 kilometers (35 miles) of polypropylene rope, 1.5 centimeter (0.6 inch) diameter, tied the fabric to the rocks.

Ramset guns fired 25,000 charges of fasteners, threaded studs and clips to secure the rope to the rocks.

Major Ninian Melville, retired from the Army Corps of Engineers, was in charge of the climbers and workers at the site.

17,000 manpower hours, over a period of four weeks, were expended by 15 professional mountain climbers, 110 workers: architecture and art students from the University of Sydney and East Sydney Technical College, as well as a number of Australian artists and teachers. All climbers and workers were paid with the exception of eleven architecture students who refused to be paid.

The project was financed entirely by Christo and Jeanne-Claude through the sale of Christo’s original preparatory drawings, collages, scale models, early “Packages” and “Wrapped Objects” of the 1950’s and 1960’s and lithographs.

The artists do not accept sponsorships of any kind.

The coast remained wrapped for a period of ten weeks from October 28, 1969. Then all materials were removed and recycled, and the site was returned to its original condition.