pickering

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/

Wonderful panorama dated January 1871 (see note). I think the photo was originally made for an album sent to the Colonial Office in London, showing the achievements in NSW. That went into the National Archives UK who have also posted their version on Flickr, which happily includes all the ships' names! See - And the three individual photos which make up the panorama -

It should be relatively simple to find out which day in January 1871 this was using Trove. About 10 or 11am by the warehouse shadows on the right!

Hmm - That's not going to work. All the named ships were at Circular Quay wharfs on the 20th and 27th January 1871, ie for at least a week. See these excellent SMH alphabetical lists of "Vessels in Harbour" - 20 Jan 1871 - trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13216860 27 Jan 1871 - trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13218966 And all the ships except 'Chance' were there the previous week - 13 Jan 1871 - trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/13221911

beachcomber australia Well aren't I glad I posted this pic. Thanks for identifying the connection, its so great we can name all the vessels so accurately! The SLNSW has the same photograph, attributed to Charles Percy Pickering. It's not cropped & looks like it has the ships names pencilled beneath.

Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons I had a feeling it was by Charles Pickering, or at least attributed to him. He was probably under the direction of James Barnet, the NSW Colonial Architect. The date "Jan 1871" on this version makes it extra special! I wonder where the original glass plate negatives are? Probably buried in State Records NSW Series 4481 with completely odd titles ...

By Charles Pickering, according to acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=442753 (no. 130). On the SLNSW version you can just make out the writing "C. Pickering N.S.W. Photographer Brickfield Hill" on the side of the wagon - acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/album/ItemViewer.aspx?itemid=823409&am...

Another version dated 1870 and rectangular from the Government Printing Office - acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=168272#

... and via The National Archives UK -