fitzroy

*****

Wonderful image !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mighty romantic

So, who has identified and dated this photo ? Why does this ship have an extensive superstructure which looks entirely different to the two other, authentic, photos of the french corvette Dupleix, which was notable in the Japanese upheavals around 1868 ?

This is not the French corvette Dupleix at all. It is not a warship. Note the extensive wooden superstructure. It is completely different to the photographs of the warship Dupleix. There have been at least 4 commercial ships called Dupleix. If the ship depicted in this photo is called Dupleix, then it is probably the steamship Dupleix, of 1400 tons, which operated between Sydney and Noumea regularly between 1883 and 1888, at which time it was advertised for sale by its owners, the compagnie des messageries maritimes, in Sydney.[ SMH 21 April 1888]. Another ship called Dupleix also operated between Sydney and Noumea in the mid 1920's, it might even be that one.

excellent presentation

The photographer Beaufoy Merlin's own description of this photo is well worth a read - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/70480518 Edit - the article includes an engraving of this photo.

"This is the first ironclad that has been docked in the Southern hemisphere ..." and it was a tight fit - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/162655942

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Sydney's Inner West, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

Looks like a tram line in the centre of the road but no sign of the cable trough, so this may be Darling St prior to the installation of the cable tram.

So a horse drawn tram?

My vote goes to this being Alfred Street, Milson's Point. Not Balmain as in the title. See Persistent URL. But I can't see the "GPO Tower visible across the harbour". I can see Government House, and (?) St Marks Darling Point steeple.

I agree - this probably isn't Balmain. The shop on the corner looks right, but if so there should probably be a street on the right corresponding with a street on the right. And most of the buildings down the street appear to be shops, whereas the surviving buildings down Darling Street near the wharf are mostly terraces and houses.