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Sydney then and now : In search of Willoughby Falls

Image 1.  Willoughby Falls, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection.

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Image 2. Willoughby Falls by Charles Kerry Studio uploaded to Flickr by the Powerhouse Museum.

The Powerhouse Museum has posted two images on Flickr from the Tyrrell Collection which are identified in their caption as being Willoughby Falls. Both images are by the Charles Kerry Studio.  Willoughby is a suburb of Sydney.

Image 3. View of a waterfall from the Phillips glass plate negative collection held by the Powerhouse Museum

Recently another image of a waterfall was added to Flickr by the Powerhouse Museum, this time from the Phillips collection, but without any identifying caption. Comparing the three images, that is the two known photographs of Willoughby Falls and the third unidentifed falls, I thought it likely that the third photograph too was of the Willoughby Falls.  See some discussion of my reasons in the Flickr comments section here.

But how to confirm this?

Someone has tagged Image 1 on Flickr with "primrose park", and a Google search for primrose park willoughby falls leads to this page from North Sydney Council which states,

"Primrose Park was originally occupied by the Cammeraygal people.

The Willoughby Falls area in the western gully was a favourite picnic spot in the early days of white settlement."

That page also leads to "Primrose Park - North Sydney Harbour Foreshore Bushwalk Guide" which contains a map with a clearly marked waterfall.

Checking it on Google Maps I see the geotagging on flickr by the Powerhouse Museum has also linked through to Google Maps which by clicking through links directly to the old-time image of Willoughby Falls in the Tyrrell collection.

A field trip is required.

Primrose Park is built on reclaimed land and the waterfall is in the north-west corner of the park shown here

(Image 4)

the remnants of the North Sydney sewage treatment plant can be seen in the middle distance.  The sewage works were completed in 1899 to service North Sydney parts of Willougby and Mosman.  It closed in the late 1920s.

As far as I can make out from online sources, the Sewage works employed a number of different methods for treatment and or discharge over the years of operation.

This must have involved some works on the course of the Willoughby Falls and its run-off creek because some human intervention has created a U-shaped channel at the bottom, pictured here:

(Image 5)

Notably, there is an aqueduct in the middle distance supported by two reinforced concrete columns which are plain with Doric capitals shown closer here:

(Image 6)

But, to the falls.  In Summer, the flow of water down the falls was only a trickle, but the form and geometry of the rocks could be seen here:

(Image 7)

Looks nothing like the Images 1, 2, & 3, eh?

It seemed to me that some of the very large rock forms visible in Image 7 were so large that they were neither the result of construction rock blasting, nor would they have moved there in the past 100 years given the generally stable geology of the area.

Let's approach it from another direction.  From the top.

Grafton Street, Cremorne runs above the top of the north-west edge of Primrose Park, and is about 70 metres above the area where I took the photograph Image 7.

Google Street view shows the outlook from Grafton Street to above Willoughby Falls here.

 

View Larger Map

The concrete apron you see between the edge of the road and the fence is directly above Willoughby falls, and gives some idea of the major construction works which have been undertaken in the immediate area over the years.

 

So,I went to the fence, looked down and could see the top of Willoughby Falls:

(Image 8)

Due to the point of view, the photograph does not adequately convey the distances involved.  The sandstone ledge you see at the bottom of Image 8 is about 1.5 metres below the camera.  The next green coloured sandstone ledge above it in Image 8 is about 3 metres below the camera.

 

The pool of water in the middle of Image 8 is about 20 metres below the camera.

Due to the near vertical drops on either side of the upper falls I was unable (unwilling) to get a front view of the upper falls for comparison with Images 1, 2, & 3.

Perhaps someone else will be more intrepid.

 

 

 

The Sydney Observatory. A great place for a family visit.

On Saturday we took a trip to the Sydney Observatory which is now a museum of astronomy and a division of the Powerhouse Museum .  Edward's cousins went there for a tour last week and told him about looking at the Sun through the big telescope.  He was keen.  It would also give me the opportunity to take some photos for my Sydney then and now ... photographic project.

We knew that the first tour would start at 11am, so Saturday at 10.20am was a good time to look for a parking spot in Upper Fort Street, and we got the closest public parking space to the Observatory.

I took a couple of important photographs for my project and then we went inside and read out some of the informational plaques to Edward along the way.

This one explains the time ball.

 

We went inside to the reception desk and booked ourselves into the 11am tour.  Usually the fee is $7 for adults and $5 for children (from 4 to 15 years) but because we are members of a museum with reciprocal visiting rights at the Powerhouse Museum, for us it was FREE!  

Then we entered and walked through the other parts of the Observatory viewing the range of exhibits.  These included historic astronomical  instruments including telescopes and orreries and explanations of some of the principles of optics.Here's the transit circle:

 

  Ed got a lot out of pressing the buttons on the interactive exhibits.  We also walked through the gardens and admired the outstanding views afforded by the position of Observatory Hill.

 

Then it was time for the 3-D movie show and the telescope viewing.

The movies on show were Bigger than Big and After Stars   both produced by Swinburne's Space Works.

The old-school 3-D glasses were obligatory, and wearing them added to the fascination for Ed.

Movies over and our knowledge of some facets of astronomy enriched, it was off to some telescope viewing led by our guide, Lisa.  We ascended the narrow stairs to the southern dome and saw the auspiciously named Meade LX200 EMC telescope.  I think this one is a 16-inch model, which is actually the same as used in the Meade company's own observatory.

 

 

Lisa mounted a small ladder and started to manually turn the wheel to open the dome.  You'll see here too a view of the cover on the end of the telescope.  Whilst I'm sure it is of the highest quality, it does look as though it was made by Playschool presenters out of cardboard and sticky tape.

 

 

We did not actually use the 16- inch telescope, we used a parrallel smaller telescope fitted with a filter. The filter on the telescope permitted direct viewing of the Sun, which would otherwise cause blinding to the viewer.  I can't show the view through the eyepiece, but I can give you a good view of the bridge framed by the dome aperture.

A tour of the  grounds of the Observatory Hill reserve even revealed a war memorial of which I had been unaware.  This one for the New South Wales contingent to the South African (Boer) War.

It includes this small artillery piece which was manufactured by Fried. Krupp in 1896 at Essen.

 

 

 

The visit to the Observatory sparked plenty of questions from Edward about black holes, pulsars and stars so today we borrowed some books on astronomy from the library.  Edward got straight down to reading them when we got home.

 

 

 

 

Here's the heritage listing for the Sydney Observatory which gives some good detail about the history of the buildings.
 

Sydney then and now: Sydney Observatory

Sydney Observatory, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection.

I could not get to the same position as the original photographer because that place is now in the air above the Cahill Expressway Loop.

This is the best I could do today wihtout a crane and a suspension cage:

and here is a view of the building unobscured by the trees:

The Sydney Observatory  is now part of the Powerhouse Museum.  Today we checked out the observatory, did the tour, and looked through the telescope and I'll blog more about that visit soon.

Sydney then and now: Scots Presbyterian Church and Assembly Hall

This 1930 photograph is in the Tyrrell Collection of the Powerhouse Museum, by an unknown photographer. 

Paula Bray blogged about it here.

Paula wanted to know if I could take a comparison shot, so here's one I took today:

The Heritage listing for the building can be found here, although it is out of date, as it does not include the recent complete redevelopment of the interior of the Church combined with the addition of an apartment development within, behind and above the Church which can be seen in this photograph behind the facade.

I have been to a service in this Church since the redevelopment, and it's really beautiful.

Sydney then and now: North Sydney Post Office

This image is from State Records NSW ( Digital ID: 4346_a020_a020000128.jpg.)

You can check it here at State Records NSW's photo investigator archive or here at their Flickr photos.  Used here with permission.

 

The photograph is undated.

Here is my January 2009 view:

Now, let's see how far we get trying to date the first photograph.

At State Records NSW, the photograph comes from Series No: 4346, images which date between 1880 and 1940.

The obvious difference between the two photographs is the addition of the clock tower.

Now, the building is probably listed under the Heritage Act, NSW.

So let's check the NSW Heritage listings.  There we find the post office was constructed between 1885 - 1889.  We also find this important information,  

"... and 1889 when construction of the Post Office was finished. The office was ready for occupation on 31 January 1889, with the cost of the Post Office section being £4500. A clock was installed over the front entrance to the Office, later being transferred into a new tower. The clock tower was built over the entrance in 1895 at a cost of £965, with the clock being installed in July 1900."

Therefore, the photograph was taken between 31 January 1889 and 1895 inclusive.

Sydney then and now: The Corso, Manly

The Corso, Manly, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection.

And my photograph taken on 31 December, 2008:

2009 - The International Year of Astronomy

Cassiopeia A: Chandra Discovers Relativistic Pinball Machine, originally uploaded by Smithsonian Institution.

Happy New Year my friends.

This photograph of Cassiopeia A is from "NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Comlumbia on July 23, 1999."

So it's a visually spectacular introduction to the International Year of Astronomy.

Closer to home, I commend the website and blog of the Sydney Observatory.

For old school stuff, I've got an especially soft spot for the Sydney Observatory's Historic Letters Blog.

NASA also has a pretty cool site featuring the IYA here.

Sydney then and now: Manly

Here's a view of Manly from Kangaroo Hill looking south taken by Henry King taken some time between 1891 and 1909:

The photograph is from the Powerhouse Museum's Tyrrell Photographic Collection and may be viewed on Flickr here and at the museum's website here.

 

Here's the view I took today:

 

I've dated the top photograph as having been taken between 1891 and 1909 because St. Mary's Catholic Church had a development history which included the nave being built in 1891 and the 1909 Blessing of the Sanctuary, Sacristy and transepts after they were added.  (ref. here ) The nave of the church may be seen in the right middle distance of the top photograph, without the later additions.

The front view of the church looked like this today:

 

Paula Bray at the Powerhouse Museum was wondering where the top photograph by Henry King was taken.  I've tracked it down to Kangaroo Park, off Kangaroo Street on top of a natural rock escarpment near the statue of a kangaroo 

Here's the Google Map and the marker "A" shows the precise spot from which I took  my photograph:

View Larger Map

and here's the well weathered statue of a kangaroo which was erected in 1856:

 

That thing on the head of the kangaroo is a red Santa hat.  The statue was erected by Henry Gilbert in 1856.

Installation of 'Monet & the Impressionists' exhibition

Installation of 'Monet & the Impressionists' exhibition, originally uploaded by Art Gallery of NSW.

Some of you will be going along to view the Monet exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Here are some behind the scenes photographs of the paintings being hung.

Reef gold from Star of Hope mine, 1871-1875

 

Some mighty big lumps of gold.

 

B.O. Holtermann (2nd from left), Richard Ormsby Kerr (centre) and Beyers (2nd from right), with reef gold from Star of Hope mine, 1871-1875 / American & Australasian Photographic Company, originally uploaded by State Library of New South Wales.

Some mighty big lumps of gold.