bent

Or portrait -

trove.nla.gov.au/work/247410459 - Trove link to pic at PHM... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165003788/16888393 - Sydney Mail, 23rd August, 1905...item on the recently completed Colonial Sugar Refining Company Building...it was under construction for 17 months evidently. The pic that appears here looks to have been taken somewhat earlier than the Kerry & Co pic... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163987030 - Sydney Mail, 20th April, 1904...pic of the building under construction... trove.nla.gov.au/work/170931051 - an earlier Kerry & Co view... trove.nla.gov.au/work/188533262 - this NLA Fairfax pic shows a similar view...but in ca. early 1923...it shows the Union Bank (SE corner Pitt/Hunter Sts) post 1908 rebuild...with the additional storey and cupola, etc. It also shows the Empire Hotel being mutilated to become the Queensland National Bank...the traffic island garden in Bent St is also well established... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/164358254 - Sydney Mail, 2nd June, 1888...sketch of the Union Bank Building drawn prior to its construction... A key to the date here might be the work we see at the bottom left of frame...I suspect this is the construction of the garden plot that occupied the Bent/Young St traffic island, near the Metropole Hotel...but so far I haven't managed to find any reference to the construction of this garden in the digitised newspapers...

beautiful

che spettacolo :)

Earlier view - www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/2362660609/

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71390270/5335148# - this pic appeared in the Australian Town & Country Journal, 22nd September, 1900 (see pic top rhs on 2nd page of link)...it's unclear whether the pic had been taken recently...

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. PROPOSED NEW OFFICES. The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 21 November 1911, p. 5.:

Further consideration was given yesterday by the Public Works Committee to the proposal to erect new offices on the present site in Bridge-street for the Department of Public Instruction.
Mr. G. Kilminster, chief clerk, Department of Public Instruction, said he had been 40 years in the service. The oldest part of the present building was erected nearly 100 years ago, about 1813, he thought. The present building had been occupied by the department since 1881, when a removal there was made by the old Council of Education from Macquarie-street. The whole of the 24 rooms in the building were overcrowded, and there was congestion everywhere ...

- trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/15290649

Department of School Education - Laying foundation of new Public Instruction Offices:
Digital ID: 15051_a047_003981 (01/01/1912)
Digital ID: 15051_a047_003987 (01/09/1912)
Digital ID: 15051_a047_003972 (07/09/1912)

Two of the dates must be wrong ...

Public Instruction Offices, showing progress of new building (August 1913) - Call no.: Government Printing Office 1 - 17004, State Library of NSW.

pellethepoet I found the foundation stone laying to be 7/9/1912 ...

GoogleMapsStreetView (almost) - goo.gl/maps/165fH

The correct date for the laying of the foundation stone was Saturday 7 September, 1912 - PEEPS INTO HISTORY. EDUCATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES. FOUNDATION STONE LAYING. The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 9 September 1912, p. 8.:

"This is an historic spot."
Those words formed the keynote of more than one speech made at the laying of the foundation stone of the new building being erected for the State Education Department, at the corners of Bridge, Loftus, and Young streets on Saturday morning. The ceremony was performed by the Minister for Education, Mr. C. Carmichael, M.L.A. Among those present were Sir Normand MacLaurin, Professor David, Judge Backhouse, and many others. ...

- trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/15347525