works

What a magnificent photo - full of history - the Rozelle railway yards, with 17 + 2 sidings! - the truss bridges for the Darling Harbour Goods Railway over Whites Creek, but the more familiar trusses over Johnston St. / The Crescent apparently not yet built - White Bay Hotel - White Bay Power Station, with tapered smokestacks, much shorter than the current ones - a toastrack tram heading north on Victoria Road near Maney St. - the Callan Park tower - the Catherine Street and Balmain Road bridges over the Darling Harbour Goods Line - a railway roundhouse! - but most puzzling, the ornate stone wall and decorative gatehouse at extreme left; wonder what that's all about?

Kevin Eadie The Abattoirs

I think this from St Phillips Church tower looking NW, hence the height. Not from Observatory Hill as described in the Persistent URL. Most of the features, including the Australian Gas Light Company (AGL) gasometer, show up on the 1890 John Sands map - www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.map-rm1280-s1-sd&rg...

I agree with 'beachcomberaustralia' - definitely from St Philip's Tower. Interesting that the AGL site is still controversial in 2011 - over who has to pay for the cleanup before Barangaroo can proceed!

Second thoughts (17 months later) - it might have been from the Grosvenor Hotel at the end of Grosvenor Street , or Charlotte Street on this better 1895 map (interactive) - www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.map-rm3443-sd&rgn=0...

Charles Pickering was commissioned to photograph public works for the government architect James Barnet in 1870. The photographs themselves were intended for display at the London Exhibition of 1873; Pickering was previously engaged as the official photographer to the Metropolitan Intercolonial Exhibition of 1870. Photographers such as Charles Nettleton and the firm of Cox & Luckin were given similiar commissions in Melbourne as photography played an increasingly important role in the work of government departments. (The collection is on the State Libray of N.S.W. database. This database has a facility to view photographs in a high quality resolution which is really the best way to view the photographs - because of size constraints I will post a link to the high resolution version beneath each photograph).