Sydney Airport (code YSSY, aka SYD) is located in Mascot, one of the southern suburbs of Sydney.

In 1921, the Commonwealth government purchased some land around Mascot to create a public airfield. Commercial operation as we now know it (well, sort of) began in 1924. In 1936, it was renamed Kingsford Smith Airport in honour of pioneer aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, who had died in an aviation accident the previous year.

The first paved runway was the (sort of) east to west one, 07/25. Later on, a north-south runway (which is now 16R/34L) was built to handle larger jets which started arriving in the 1960s. In 1989, development began on a parallel north-south runway (now 16L/34R).

Planespotters like to hang out around airports and watch the planes come and go. One place that the airport management provided for this is a patch of land that was previously informally used by plane spotters to the east of the main runway, and south of the east-west runway. One such plane spotter was the founder of the YSSY online bulletin board (many, many years ago), Bruce Shepherd. He died from cancer in 2005, and from then on (and possibly even before), the place was named Shep's Mound. In 2017, the airport created two raised mounds at the location, as well as building an undercover shelter for the right-hand side one.

The mound sits just underneath the photogenic air traffic control tower for the airport; officially, Sydney Control Tower Number 5. It can be seen marked by a pin in the centre of the map. That's where I took the shots for this gallery from.