mortco

From The Powerhouse Museum's "Photo Of The Day" blog: "If you look at the larger version of this image on Flickr you can see several signs have been placed on the building that reads ‘Many happy returns of the day’. You can clearly see a large group of people gathering out the front of the building and some of the ferries are full of passengers. What was so special about this day?"

Looks like it might be something about Mort & Co.? www.mortco.com.au/history.html "The name Mort & Co has been associated with Australia’s agricultural industries for decades. This link was first established in 1843 when Thomas Sutcliff Mort established Mort & Co as an auctioneering and brokering business specifically focusing on selling wool. This business developed and became a leading pastoral house before merging with R Goldsbrough & Co in 1888 to form Goldsbrough Mort & Co. Goldsbrough Mort & Co continued to grow, and in 1962 merged with Elder Smith & Co to form Elder Smith Goldsbrough Mort & Co Ltd. Consolidation continued, and in 1981 Elder Smith Goldsbrough Mort & Co Ltd merged with Henry Jones IXL to form Elders IXL which today trades as Elders. Charlie Mort, the proprietor of Mort & Co is a great-great-great nephew of Thomas and is proud of the mark that his ancestors have had on the Australian agricultural industry."

Info about the founder, Thomas Mort: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sutcliffe_Mort ... which says he apparently died in 1878, so it wasn't his birthday, if indeed this pic is from 1900 :)

I was wondering if it might have something to do with the ferries... and they just hung the note on the Mort & Co. building because it was right there ;) Not sure if a merger would be classified as a birthday, as such...

@ Powerhouse Museum Collection - the Justice and Police Museum is one corner south. Tweddle's Belmore Hotel "First & Last" as seen from the other direction: www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/2362703683/

That has to be the Mort & Co. warehouse at Circular Quay in the background. Cnr of Albert Alfred Street and Young Street (then known as Elizabeth Street North). From the shadows, about noon on a hot summers day. A lot of rubble around ... ?

beachcomber australia It has to be because it is. You're too damn good -

Wool Store, Circular Quay: Mort & Co. Ltd [SLNSW: d1_05334]

September 1902, from the banner on the Belmore (First & Last) Hotel advertising acts at the Tivoli theatre. A Trove search of "Nawn Wilton Tivoli" produced this from the SMH of Saturday 20/9/1902 - trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14507894 . I wonder if the photo was taken from the then-being-built Sydney Harbour Trust Building - www.flickr.com/photos/state-records-nsw/2715092837/ ? Wonderful photo and amazing to see such detail via the persistent URL Zoomify.

About twenty years later -

In the bottom RH corner of the OP, there is a verandah. I think this may be David Lynch's "Ship Inn Hotel" which was demolished sometime during 1901, allowing Tooths to build the new Ship Inn during 1902, 50m back on the corner of Alfred and Pitt Streets. The western side of this verandah can be seen in this undated image www.flickr.com/photos/state-records-nsw/8724829262/in/pho...

? slightly later...but not by much... www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/44899209431/in/ph... JUST FOR INTEREST: In the bottom rh corner we see the verandah on the old Ship Inn...which appears to have shared a common wall with the Change Alley building (NE cnr Pitt/Alfred Sts). The Change Alley building (built 1877) was demolished in ca. August/September 1901 to make way for the Pitt St tramway extension. I gather the adjoining yard, which then housed the Government weigh bridge, was also cleared at this time. A good portion of the old Ship Inn appears to have survived as a ruin until ca. March/April 1904, when it too was demolished... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237372089 - the Daily Telegraph, 4th September, 1901...item on the demolition of Change Alley. I'm not sure whether the writer had all the facts correct...the article indicates that the Ship Inn was then also being demolished...but if this were the case, then the demolition must have been incomplete...there are numerous newspaper items which indicate that the Ship Inn remained standing beyond this point and that it wasn't (completely) demolished until ca. March/April 1904... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14406015 - SMH, 27th August, 1901...SMH item re the demolition of Change Alley... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229295576 - the Australian Star, 22nd March, 1904...re the pending demolition of the old Ship Inn... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71471961 - Australian Town & Country Journal, 7th September, 1901...pic of Alfred St, showing Change Alley and the Ship Inn prior to the August/September 1901 demolitions... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165236417 - the Sydney Mail, 21st September, 1901...pic here of the Circular Quay side of the Ship Inn...this item also refers to the pending demolition of both Change Alley and the Ship Inn... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165190990/16808490 - Sydney Mail, 13th May, 1903...pic here which shows the Ship Inn (?and part of Change Alley) still standing...with the Harbour Trust Building under construction in the background (see pic on 1st page of link)... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/138764510 - the Australasian, 12th March, 1904...pic here also shows the Ship Inn still standing...with the ?now completed Harbour Trust Building behind...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165380561/17336718 - Sydney Mail, 31st December, 1902...similar pic of Circular Quay here...maybe earlier...