coogee

The original Charles Kerry glass negative at the PhM - Mega zoomable - from.ph/28249

beachcomber australia Fabulous connection, thanks! Great to know the original is out there :)

Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons Is there a postmark or date on the other side of your postcard? It might help date the PhM photo. I think it is c.1905-10 from the "jaunty" typeface bottom right.

Where is this ?

I do not know where this is yet, but I have an idea that the bridge (which does not look like convict masonry to me) might be a railway bridge, due to the shallow gradient of the approaches and its apparent strange location half way down a hill away from the town. The church is fairly distinctive, as are all the pre-federation large houses. Blue Mountains?

It's interesting that the clouds were obviously put on the negative with someone's finger. They look very wrong, yet add to the depth of the photograph.

?Lennox Bridge, Lapstone, NSW

Its not the Lennox Bridge at Lapstone. Nothing like it at all. Its quite puzzling. I wonder if it could be down the back of Marrickville somewhere.

The dome to the left of shot looks like the roof of the Coogee Aquarium, which still stands at the northern end of the beach. This opened in Dec 1887 (23rd) according to "Randwick a Social History" published by Randwick Council in 1985. Another photo in the same book is dated c 1890 and shows the beach from the south with a similar amount of development (p 82)

zooming right in on the persistent URL version shows that the boxes along the road adjacent to the beach & the tram-line are fenced in plant boxes. presumably the start of the line of Norfolk Pine that lined the beach in later years?

Yes Speedy_MSD, I found a print of this image on the Coogee Chamber of Commerce website titled and dated "Coogee Beach, looking South, 1890" - members.optusnet.com.au/mons1/page6.htm .