Powerhouse Museum

Is this the corner of George and Market St, where Myer is now?

At the intersection of George and Barrack Streets and Martin Place. I had no idea David Jones was ever there.

A few minutes EARLIER than this photo - www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/2376884726/

See also www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/4067190284/

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Sydney's older buildings and structures. , and we'd love to have this added to the group!

@ PhMC - WOOLLOOMOOLOO (and the Persistent URL too). No big deal except it is not showing up in tags and searches.

The 'Gulf of Guinea' steam ship in the background first came to Sydney on 26 December 1888, There is a very full description in the SMH of 27/12/1888 - trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13708685?searchTerm=gulf of guinea .

The SS Mariposa was a regular visitor to Sydney from San Francisco, and Sarah Bernhardt sailed on her in August 1891 ( trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13834586?searchTerm=sarah bernhardt mariposa ). She even considered BUYING the ship for a world tour - trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13837128?searchTerm=sarah bernhardt mariposa .

Searching for 'Mariposa Gulf of Guinea' in Trove, it came up with this list of ships in harbour on Monday 19/9/1892 . Could this be the date of this photo? Or is that too simple? trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13879595?searchTerm=gulf of guinea mariposa

Well done beachcomberaustralia.

Good information about the ships. And great spotting of the Blue Peter flag.

What do you think the substantial building on the horizon at the left of the Blue Peter is? I'm thinking it may be the rear of Sydney Hospital, but I'm not sure.

The date you have identified on which both ships were in the bay, Monday 19 September 1892 is a very good possibility as the date of this photograph. However it cannot yet be taken as definitive because of the problems with Optical Character Recognition with the text of the old newspapers in the National Library of Australia's Trove database.

You search mainly works on the OCR derived text which is displayed in the left hand side window at the link you have given. As you would have also noticed, much in that text ("Electronically Translated Text") box is scrambled googledegook.

If in another shipping notice in the Sydney Morning Herald or another newspaper the two ships are also noted as being in the bay at the same time, but one of the names is not correctly "electronically translated" then it would not have shown up in your search.

So we cannot yet say that is the date. But it may be.

Many wonderfully dedicated people are working online to correct the text, so the searches are becoming more accurate and complete every day:

trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/hallOfFame

I've also written a little about this problem with the Optical Character Recognition on my blog here:

lifeasdaddy.typepad.com/lifeasdaddy/2009/10/should-the-na...

On another note, Mariposa was also used later for another ship which plied the trade to Australia, e.g. here:

www.powerhousemuseum.com/imageservices/index.php/2009/08/...

and here:

BobMeade, thanks for taking the time to explain the problems with OCR technology - I have taken note to be cautious, but what a terrific and easy tool for research it will be when reliable.

It took me a while to find out, but the "substantial building on the horizon" (see note) is the then recently completed (1891) Australian Club on the SW corner of Bent and Macquarie Streets. See -


Yes, there are many photos of the later Mariposa (Spanish for butterfly) on flickr and elsewhere, but there is also another picture of this ship, at the same Cowper Wharf from the opposite direction, by our old mate Henry King, -

There is an 1888 online interactive map of Woolloomooloo, which lists the names of the occupiers and the owner (Brown) of the terrace houses in the foreground. From left to right they were: Hide, Becket, Jenkins, McSanley, McMillan in Nos.24 - 16 Duke Street. I wonder if they were still there in 1892?
www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.map-raa31-s2-sd&rgn...

Just going on the two garden plots seen here in the foreground, the date range has to be 1907-13...the City Council built the gardens in 1907...a tramway building (not seen here) was erected on the smaller triangular plot in ca. November 1913.

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/142945425 - the Australasian [Melbourne], 17th June, 1911...the pic of the garden plots that appears here looks to be somewhat later (see pic bottom rhs)...

The two garden plots were built on the site of the Ship Inn and an adjacent yard...the adjacent yard occupied the smaller triangular allotment. The Ship Inn was demolished in ca. March/April 1904. I suspect the Change Alley building also occupied part of the plot closest to the camera. Change Alley was demolished in ca. August/September 1901 to make way for the Pitt St tramway extension...

- this ca. 1891-93 SANSW pic shows Change Alley and the Ship Inn and also the adjoining yard as they then appeared...

The two allotments on which the gardens were built were evidently leased to the City Council by the Railways Department in 1907...the City Council appear to have built the garden plots by the end of 1907. The Railways Department resumed ?both plots in 1913...and then erected a tramways building on the smaller triangular plot in ca. November 1913...the initial tramways building was a basic rectangular structure...in subsequent years it was added to and became more elaborate...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/115231796 - Evening News, 30th April, 1907...re preliminary work being carried out prior to the construction of the garden on the site formerly occupied by the Ship Inn...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/238058729 - Daily Telegraph, 30th April, 1907...slightly more info on the proposed garden...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229923580 - the Australian Star, 20th April, 1908...brief mention of the garden...which must have been planted some time previously...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229672730 - the Sun, 28th August, 1913...background on the City Council lease of the garden plots...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/238900687 - the Daily Telegraph, 11th September, 1913...one of numerous objections to the erection of the tramway building on the Circular Quay reserve garden plots

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15463958 - SMH, 8th November, 1913...brief item which indicates that the construction of the tramways building was then in progress...

- this 1920s SANSW pic shows the tramways building as it then appeared...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71590526 - the Australian Town & Country Journal, 20th March, 1907...the stereoscope pic of Circular Quay that appears here shows the Paragon Hotel addition...this is the first pic I've found that shows the addition...there were a number of additions made to the Paragon Hotel over the years...substantial additions/renovations were also evidently made in 1910...

- the Paragon Hotel addition doesn't appear in this other PHM pic taken in ca. September-October 1902...

Another date marker I've overlooked are the suspension wires for the tramway overhead electrical wires...the suspension wire system replaced the tramway 'T' poles in 1908...so that puts the date range at 1908-13...