Powerhouse Museum

In 1899, in order to commemorate the landing of Cook, an area of 100.86 hectares was set apart and dedicated as a Public Recreation Reserve. I wonder if that is what they are celebrating.

It is the dedication of Captain Cook Reserve at the landing place in Kurnell.

The ceremony happened on Saturday 6 May 1899. The officials and guests arrived by steamers and were brought to the jetty "by the steam punt from Tom Ugly's Point, above which was carried a framework from which floated a variety of colours." (See link below)

A very full description including the speeches is in the Sydney Morning Herald the following Monday 8 May 1899 (page 4). It is an interesting read and really brings this photo to life - trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14213166

If this is a photo of the people attending the dedication party then somewhere amongst them is Joseph H. Carruthers, a great Australian who probably did more for Captain Cook than any other. It was thanks to his work that Kurnell was set aside for the public to enjoy. He likened it to Australia's "Plymouth Rock". Amongst his other work, he prompted the erection of the statue to Cook in London, near Admiralty Arch, and the 1928 Cook celebrations in Hawai'i.

Captain Cook Society There is another photo of the Monument, misnamed by the photographer Charles Kerry as La Perouse, at the same time -

Captain Cook Society J.H. Carruthers (as Minister for Lands) is listed as attending, and his full speech is quoted in the Trove link above.

" As the Plymouth Rock is the most sacred ground
to the Americans, so may this historic place, rich in
its traditions, be the one place in our island continent
more consecrated than another to the great man who
here first set foot upon our shores, and in his foresight
secured for the empire and its people a territory
unsurpassed in the whole universe. "

@ 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...

Photo c. 1914 ?

CBA started construction in 1911.

CBA started construction 1915; completed 1916; so, indeed, the vacant block is likely late 1914, early 1915 …

Building on SE cnr Pitt/Moore Sts demolished in ?April/May 1913... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15419883

I suspect the date is somewhere in the range late 1913-early 1914...the period when construction work on the new Commonwealth Bank building was in abeyance...

Kensington Chambers, the building that occupied the SE cnr of Pitt/Moore Sts was demolished in ca. April-June 1913...it appears to have been mostly demolished at the time of the foundation stone laying ceremony for the new Commonwealth Bank building, which took place on 14th May, 1913. Some excavation work for the new Commonwealth Bank building was completed by October 1913...but due to delays in the tendering process, the building contract wasn't awarded until November 1913 (to Phippard Bros)...the building work proper began in ca. February 1914...the new Commonwealth Bank building was more or less complete by mid 1916...the official opening took place on 22nd August, 1916...

See comments/links here
www.flickr.com/photos/193158484@N02/53698777267/