Powerhouse Museum

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/

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. "

That is Regent St I think

Yes, I think I see the Mortuary Station in the distance.