Museums of History NSW - State Archives Collection

Is that the top of the onion tower mid-right balustrade? If so it would make the photo after 1891 (?).

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/51979177@N02] Yes, this photo is definitely pre-tower, what with the angle of the dangle - and also the lack of the 1891 Metropole Hotel tower in the background.

Surely, circa 1881, when first stage was completed; second (southern) stage, with tower, built 1880-1892 …

Philip Cohen Unfortunately, "Plastic Transport"'s account and comments are deleted from Flickr, which make nonsense out of many of these old threads. He did some serious research on the various statues which filled the niches in the Lands Department Building, including when each was installed. I can't remember what he posted above.
But the Mort statue in the foreground was unveiled in 1883, so the photo is after that - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sutcliffe_Mort#Death_and_legacy

And six years ago (!) we did not have the luxury of Google Maps and streetview at this location. The photographer was near this angle and up several storeys - goo.gl/maps/dC6QduYTtDhZbxQUA

Wonderful very old photo.

I don't know if this is relevant, but the Sydney Morning Herald for Thursday 24 November 1870 had an article about the need and responsibility for insurance of wool bales stored in these warehouses. trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13208517

Later by Charles Kerry -

Spot the differences! -

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/108197538 - the Evening News, 12th September, 1877...per this item, a new warehouse/store was built in the gap between the Talbot Stores and the building next right in 1877...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/70592536 - the Australian Town & Country Journal, 24th June, 1876...this illustration shows the gap still there...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/70457651 - the Australian Town & Country Journal, 12th February, 1870..two of the Blackwall Stores were extensively damaged by fire in February 1870...but they appear to have been rebuilt within 6 months or so...

14 years later...I spent a few days trying to establish the construction dates of the stores seen here...there's a little bit more info available on-line now...but not much...

The Blackwall Stores were owned by entrepreneur and political figure Edward Flood (1805-1888)...all the other stores seen here appear to have been owned by George Talbot (1802-89) and his son Paul (?1826-87)...both Flood and the Talbots ran stevedoring and wool pressing operations...they weren't wool brokers (the guys who bought and sold wool)...their main business involved pressing wool into smaller bales so it took up less space and then loading it onto the wool clippers...at the time pressing wool ('dumping') was something of a specialist operation and only a relatively few establishments had the large hydraulic presses which were required...

Edward Flood's Blackwall Stores were built between ca. November 1863 and mid 1865...

The first part of Talbots' stores (north of the Moore's Stairs passageway) appears to have been built in the later 1850s (completed by ca. 1858)...the second part (south of the passageway) appears to have been built in ca. 1863. I'm less certain re the next building...but it appears to have been built for the Talbots in ca 1867-68. From 1872 thru to the later 1870s it was used as a bond store and known as the New Bond.

I've put links to my various sources here
www.flickr.com/photos/193158484@N02/53810270223/
www.flickr.com/photos/193158484@N02/53810660685/

Love it

Believed to be the same cottage as the one at right:
back cover illustration from Relics of Old Colonial Days: A Book of Drawings by Sydney Ure Smith (Sydney: James R. Tyrrell, 1914).
from In & Around The Rocks compiled by Joanne Coleman (Sydney : View Productions, 1984), p. 98.

My SELAND family were living in 63 Gloucester St, The Rocks at the time this photo was taken :-)