Unexpected Opening
Seattle's skyline continues to evolve year after year...after year. This image was captured by means of sheer serendipity. I was on my way home from a photo assignment in the suburbs this same evening, and happened to drive through the Mount Baker neighborhood while en route. The violet clouds above and the silhouetted outline of the Olympic Mountains along the horizon created a pocket of open sky with a predominantly orange hue. The contrast was mesmerizing, so I had to stop Sydney (that's my car's name) and capture the moment before it was gone. Probably the most eye-catching item in the image is the brightly illuminated construction of the city's next skyscraper, The Mark, which will serve as both an office tower and luxury hotel. The Mark will be the 5th tallest building in Seattle upon completion later this year. TIA OFFICIAL WEBSITE / VUE ATYPIQUE / TIA TWITTER / TIA OFFICIAL BLOG / TIA INSTAGRAM
Gladesville Bridge (Sydney, Australia)
The Gladesville Bridge, completed in 1964, connects the suburbs of Gladesville, which is located on the northern bank of the Parramatta River, and Drummoyne, which is located on its southern and eastern sides. Europeans first settled in this part of Sydney soon after landfall at Sydney Cove, when Crown grants of thirty-acre lots were made in the vicinity of Gladesville in the 1790s to encourage agricultural pursuits to the area. Two of the first grantees were John Doody and Ann Benson. Gladesville is named for convict John Glade, who arrived to the colony in 1791. Glade prospered soon after his arrival, and by 1802 owned 60 acres in the district (encompassing earlier land grants to Doody and Benson). In 1836, Glade received an additional Crown grant of 50 acres between Glades Bay and Looking Glass Bay (including Gladesville Point). In the late 1830s, a limited number of settlers were attracted to the area by the employment opportunities associated with the establishment of the Tarban Creek Asylum in 1837. The future suburb of Gladesville remained isolated and rural until the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1856, William Whaley Billyard purchased and subdivided the early land grants to Doody, Benson and Glade into large urban building blocks; this subdivision was known as the Gladesville Estate. Billyard promoted land in the Gladesville Estate as suitable for 'gentlemen's residences' and sold blocks on which he had built villas to wealthier settlers of the colony of NSW. Billyard erected a wharf at Gladesville on the Parramatta River to provide better access to Sydney, and therefore to ensure the sale of land from his estate. This wharf was connected to the Great North Road (now Victoria Road) via Wharf Road, which was also built under instruction from Billyard. In 1881, a bridge was built across the Parramatta River between Drummoyne and Huntleys Point (Gladesville), thereby connecting Gladesville to the rest of Sydney. The first Gladesville Bridge was a 'two lane swing span iron bridge' to the south west of the present Gladesville Bridge. The introduction of tram services to the area in the 1880s meant that both Gladesville, and Drummoyne were increasingly populated from this time. Drummoyne lies on the eastern side of the Parramatta River from Gladesville, and was also an agricultural district in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By 1806, land grants to members of the NSW Corps were cancelled and 1,500 acres of land was granted to surgeon John Harris; this land grant was known as Five Dock Farm and encompassed the future suburbs of Five Dock, Drummoyne, Chiswick and Abbotsford. Harris sold Five Dock Farm in 1836, and the following year the estate was subdivided for sale into 30- and 60-acre lots. In 1853, merchant William Wright purchased land in area, and named the suburb Drummoyne after his family home in Scotland. From the 1860s onwards, local residents agitated for Drummoyne to be connected to Sydney by direct road. By 1882, the Iron Cove bridge between Drummoyne and Rozelle had been completed, which encouraged further subdivision and settlement to the area (as did the Gladesville Bridge to the north). By the 1890s, Drummoyne was being serviced by regular ferry services and a public tram system, encouraging further suburban development. Five Dock and Drummoyne were amalgamated to form the Municipality of Drummoyne in 1902 (the Municipal district of Five Dock, including Drummoyne, had been incorporated in 1871). By the 1950s, traffic along the original (1881) Gladesville Bridge was becoming congested, commuters complaining of long delays in crossing the bridge. Clearly a new bridge was needed to alleviate traffic build up. In 1959, the Department of Main Roads (DMR) let the contract to build a 'six-lane high level concrete arch bridge over the Parramatta River' to the partnership of Reed & Mallik Ltd (Engineers, Salisbury, England) and Stuart Bros (Builders, Sydney, Australia). The new Gladesville Bridge was built to a design by the engineering firm of Messrs. G Maunsell & Partners (London, England). The Gladesville Bridge, described as one of the 'most spectacular of replacement bridges built in the Sydney', was officially opened on 2 October 1964 by Her Royal Highness Princess Marina of Kent and the Hon P D Hills MLA, Deputy Premier, Minister for Local Government and Minister for Highways. The bridge was opened to traffic on 24 October 1964. At the time of its construction, the Gladesville Bridge was the longest reinforced concrete arch span in the world. The new Gladesville Bridge was constructed as part of a program of works undertaken by the DMR in the 1960s to provide a series of freeway systems out of Sydney. The new bridge was to form part of a proposed North Western Freeway leading from Newcastle to the centre of Sydney via the inner city suburbs of Glebe and Annandale. It was one of three projected freeways leading out of the city. The North Western freeway was intended to replace the Five Bridges route (which also included Pyrmont Bridge, Glebe Island Bridge, Iron Cove Bridge and Fig Tree Bridge). By the early 1970s, protests about the route of the proposed freeway through some of Sydney's inner city suburbs (such as Glebe and Annandale) meant that the DMR's plan was never realised. Gladesville Bridge was one of three bridges constructed along this proposed route; the other bridges were the Tarban Creek and Fig Tree Bridges, and as such are vestiges of the DMR's unrealised plans. The DMR regularly inspected the bridge from the time of its completion (1964), until at least the early 1970s. DMR records indicate that divers inspected parts of the bridge exposed to water (namely the submerged abutments and thrust blocks) every 6 months from December 1965, to check for spalling in the reinforced concrete and for marine growth. It is unclear whether these inspections continue to be carried out, however, oral history testimony from engineers involved with its construction suggest that the bridge has not been rigorously maintained in recent times, with complaints about condition of the concrete (discolouration and spalling). The roadway of Gladesville Bridge was widened in the 1970s, in order to allow for greater traffic flow over the bridge, and along the heavily trafficked route of Victoria Road. The roadway of the bridge was increased from six lanes to eight, taking in some of the width of pedestrian walkways on either side. At the time of inspection in August 2004, the Gladesville Bridge was in sound structural condition. Source: New South Wales Heritage Register.
Getting To Work
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Sunset from Observatory Hill || Sydney {Explore 67, 2015/09/09}
A quiet park right in the middle of the Rocks/Miller Point in Sydney. There was a conjunction of Mars/Jupiter and Venus just after sunset. The strange tower on the right was to be a foreground counterpart to the conjunction but as you can see the weather didn't cooperate with the clouds covering it all. To the right is the Sydney Harbour Control Tower. Not a lot of information online but with the creation of the Barangaroo district, it will be pulled down. Some suggestions were to make it a restaurant or bungee jumping site but to no avail. Some call it "The Pill" as it controls all the shipping berths in Sydney Harbour. The tower has been an 87-metre high landmark at Barangaroo since 1974, when it was installed to control berths in the harbour. It was closed in 2011 when vessel control services were moved to Port Botany. The tower will be replaced with a "interpretive historical display" focusing on maritime history and Millers Point www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-harbour-control-tower-at-barang... Some history of the park at www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/sydneys-history/people-...
Tumut. The now disused railway station. The branch line from Gundagai reached the town in 1903.
Tumut. The town nestles along the Tumut River, a tributary of the Murrumbidgee which it joins in Gundagai. It begins about 40 kms from Mt Kosciusko in Kosciusko National Park and it has three dam/reservoirs along it as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme hydroelectric power generation system. Tumut has over 800 mm of rain yearly. Hamilton Hume discovered the Tumut River in 1824 and the first white squatter Benjamin Warby arrived in 1828 at Darbalara although he and the ones who followed him only became licensed leaseholders from 1839. They included George and William Shelley of Been (Tumut Plains) station. Shelley senior was a missionary and they are credited with making sure there were no Aboriginal deaths or massacres near Tumut. More settles arrived in the 1840s when land leasing was legal. A courthouse was established in 1845. The town was laid out in 1848 and a police constable was appointed. But by 1856 few buildings were more than mere slab huts. The first Post Office in 1849 operated from the Courthouse. Like Gundagai the original town site moved up the hill after the 1852 Tumut River floods. In 1860 thousands passed through the small town on their way to the goldfields at Kiandra (1859) in the Snowy Mountains and later to Adelong on the plains. Tumut emerged as a solid town. With gold came bushrangers and Ned Kelly’s brother operated in this district in the 1870s. By 1866 there were eleven hotels in the town and the town population was around 400; in 1887 Tumut became a municipality; and in 1903 the branch railway line from Gundagai reached the town. Dairying and forestry became major district industries in the 20th century and the Tumut River became a major site for hydroelectric power. Blowering Dam was built just above the town with Tumut 1, 2 and 3 power stations on the Tumut River. In autumn the Lombardy Poplars along the Tumut River display great colour. They were planted in 1861. More autumn colour can be found in the Avenue of Elms which leads to the racecourse, thus it is not surprising that Tumut established the Festival of the Falling Leaf in the 1950s. Tumut was one of the many sites considered for the National Capital by a Royal Commission but Canberra was finally selected for that. Tumut was selected by the House of Representatives in 1904 but then replaced by Bombala and then the Senate replaced it with Dalgety. But the NSW parliament refused to cede land around Dalgety so four years later after much politicking a site near Yass was finally approved. All places considered had to have good flat land, a good water supply and be further than 100 miles from Sydney.
Tumut. Worte Cottage. Built around 1890 with red brick walls and yellow brick quoins, a bay window and very decorative barge boards on the gables. Very pretty.
Tumut. The town nestles along the Tumut River, a tributary of the Murrumbidgee which it joins in Gundagai. It begins about 40 kms from Mt Kosciusko in Kosciusko National Park and it has three dam/reservoirs along it as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme hydroelectric power generation system. Tumut has over 800 mm of rain yearly. Hamilton Hume discovered the Tumut River in 1824 and the first white squatter Benjamin Warby arrived in 1828 at Darbalara although he and the ones who followed him only became licensed leaseholders from 1839. They included George and William Shelley of Been (Tumut Plains) station. Shelley senior was a missionary and they are credited with making sure there were no Aboriginal deaths or massacres near Tumut. More settles arrived in the 1840s when land leasing was legal. A courthouse was established in 1845. The town was laid out in 1848 and a police constable was appointed. But by 1856 few buildings were more than mere slab huts. The first Post Office in 1849 operated from the Courthouse. Like Gundagai the original town site moved up the hill after the 1852 Tumut River floods. In 1860 thousands passed through the small town on their way to the goldfields at Kiandra (1859) in the Snowy Mountains and later to Adelong on the plains. Tumut emerged as a solid town. With gold came bushrangers and Ned Kelly’s brother operated in this district in the 1870s. By 1866 there were eleven hotels in the town and the town population was around 400; in 1887 Tumut became a municipality; and in 1903 the branch railway line from Gundagai reached the town. Dairying and forestry became major district industries in the 20th century and the Tumut River became a major site for hydroelectric power. Blowering Dam was built just above the town with Tumut 1, 2 and 3 power stations on the Tumut River. In autumn the Lombardy Poplars along the Tumut River display great colour. They were planted in 1861. More autumn colour can be found in the Avenue of Elms which leads to the racecourse, thus it is not surprising that Tumut established the Festival of the Falling Leaf in the 1950s. Tumut was one of the many sites considered for the National Capital by a Royal Commission but Canberra was finally selected for that. Tumut was selected by the House of Representatives in 1904 but then replaced by Bombala and then the Senate replaced it with Dalgety. But the NSW parliament refused to cede land around Dalgety so four years later after much politicking a site near Yass was finally approved. All places considered had to have good flat land, a good water supply and be further than 100 miles from Sydney. Worte’s cottage. Polychromatic red brick with yellow brick quoins. Decorative fretwork on barge boards. Pretty bay window. Street facing gable. Built around 1890.
Northgate Vickers Vimy Reserve where pioneering aviators Ross and Keith Smith terminated their England/Australia flight in 1920. South Australia
The Vickers Vimy G-EAOU aircraft was flown from England to Australia in 1919 by Ross Smith and Keith Smith, South Australian born pilots. For some time the aircraft was placed at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra: however it is now enclosed in this protective pavilion located at the Smith brothers’ home town. Sir Ross Macpherson Smith KBE, MC & Bar, DFC & Two Bars, AFC was an Australian aviator. He and his brother, Sir Keith Macpherson Smith, were the first pilots to fly from England to Australia, in 1919. The brothers were born on 20 December 1890 in Adelaide, and on 4 December 1892 at Semaphore, Adelaide, sons of Scottish-born Andrew Bell Smith, station manager, and his wife Jessie, née Macpherson, born in Western Australia. In 1897 Andrew Smith became the manager of the Mutooroo Pastoral Co. and Mutooroo station, a property of some 3000 sq. miles (7700 km²). Both Keith and Ross were educated at Queen's School, Adelaide (as boarders), and for two years at Warriston School, Moffat, Scotland, their father's birthplace. Ross Smith had served in the cadets and the militia before World War One when he left Australia as a sergeant with the 3rd Light Horse Regiment in October 1914: he was at Gallipoli the following year. He was later commissioned and was at the battle of Romani (in the Sinai) in August 1916. The next year he volunteered for the Australian Flying Corps. Flying with No 1 Squadron AFC, Smith took part in attacks, aerial photography missions, and bombing raids on Turkish forces. On one occasion he landed in the face of the enemy to rescue a downed comrade. During his extensive war service he was twice awarded the Military Cross, received the Distinguished Flying Cross three times, as well as the Air Force Cross. A gifted flyer, Smith became experienced in flying his squadron’s twin-engined Handley Page 0/400 bomber: on occasion Lawrence of Arabia was his passenger. While still with the flying corps, he made pioneering flights from Cairo to Calcutta, and from Calcutta to Timor. On 12 November 1919, assisted by his brother Keith and two mechanics, Wally Shiers and Jim Bennett, he set out to fly from England to Australia in a large Vickers Vimy bomber. It was an epic 28 day flight, completed at an average speed of 137 kilometres per hour, but not without mishap. On their arrival, the pioneering flyers were welcomed home as national heroes. The brothers were knighted. Their mechanics were commissioned and awarded Bars to their Air Force Medals. The £10,000 reward offered by the South Australian Government was divided into four equal shares. In a Vickers Vimy (a type similar to the 0/400 bomber), supplied by the manufacturer, and with Keith as assistant pilot and navigator and accompanied by two mechanics, the attempt began from Hounslow, England, on 12 November 1919. Flying conditions were very poor and most hazardous until they reached Basra on 22 November. From Basra to Delhi, a distance of 1600 miles (2575 km), they spent 25½ hours in the air out of 54. A poor landing-area at Singora and torrential rain almost brought disaster on 3 December. Disaster again almost came at Sourabaya where the aircraft was bogged and had to take off from an improvised airstrip made of bamboo mats. By 9 December, however, they were at Timor, only 350 miles (563 km) from Darwin. The crossing was made next day and at 3.50 p.m. on 10 December they landed in Darwin. The distance covered in this epic flight was 11,340 miles (18,250 km). It took just under 28 days with an actual flying time of 135 hours at an average speed of 85 mph (137 kmph). SIR ROSS SMITH'S ARRIVAL According to the latest official information Sir Ross Smith and his party are expected to arrive in Adelaide on Thursday afternoon next, assuming that the overhaul of the aeroplane proves to be satisfactory. After the aviators have flown over the metropolitan area, including Malvern, Hawthorn, Unley, Henley Beach, Port Adelaide, Woodville, Norwood, and Goodwood, they will soar above soar above Gilberton and Prospect, and thence proceed to the Northfield aerodrome, escorted by whatever aeroplanes may be able to meet them. At the aerodrome they will be met by their parents and the official party, including the members of the Welcome Committee—the Premier (Hon A H Peake), who is Chairman, the Lord Mayor of Adelaide (Mr F B Moulden), the District Commandant (Brig-Gen Antill CB CMG), the Director of the Tourist Bureau (Mr V H Ryan), the secretary of the committee, and the secretary of the Aero Club (Captain Matthews). The Premier has asked that the time of the arrival of the aviators shall be as nearly as possible 2.30pm. The District Commandant, with the aid of the police and members of the Australian Army Reserve, will keep the enclosure at Northfield clear. After the greeting and formal introductions there the party will proceed to the city. From St Peter’s Cathedral they will be escorted by mounted police, and on arriving at Parliament House, where the Returned Soldiers' Association Band will be in attendance, addresses of welcome will be delivered by the Lieutenant-Governor (Sir George Murray) and the Premier. In the evening Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith will be entertained by their old comrades of the 3rd Light Horse at the Town Hall: on the following day there will be a civic reception by the Lord Mayor. The Welcome Committee desires particularly to warn the public against the danger of crowding the enclosure at Northfield, and points out that the machine will not come to a full stop immediately it reaches the ground. [Ref: Journal (Adelaide) 13-3-1920] SIR ROSS SMITH IN ADELAIDE Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith were given a civic reception this morning. The Lord Mayor (Mr F B Moulden) said that in the Smith family there were three sons, and all enlisted: in the Shiers family six sons, and five enlisted, while the other mechanic, Sergeant Bennett, was an only son. The Lord Mayor handed to Sir Ross Smith an address of welcome and congratulations from the inhabitants of the Northern Territory. [Ref: Argus (Melbourne) 25-3-1920] ROUND of FESTIVITIES Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith spent a quiet morning, although the telephone to their home has been ringing almost continuously with messages of congratulation from friends and strangers. They spent yesterday afternoon inspecting the Vickers-Vimy at Northfield, where a military picket of 12 men is posted to protect the machine. This afternoon the aviators are being entertained by the Commonwealth Club. A tremendous crowd was present, and the reception to the guests lasted for several minutes. Tonight their friends are giving them a private dance in a large city hall. Mr F B Moulden, the Lord Mayor is arranging a party in their honour at the Town Hall on Monday. On Saturday afternoon Sir Ross Smith will lay the foundation stone of the War Chapel at St Peter's Church, Glenelg. Sir Keith Smith goes to the races on that day. [Ref: Herald (Melbourne) 25-3-1920] THE ROSS SMITH SEASON The Adelaide Town Hall has been too limited in capacity for intending patrons, many of whom have been unable to gain admission to hear the story and see the films of “The Great Flight”. The programme is divided into two sections, the first being from Darwin to Adelaide, photographed from the Vickers-Vimy by Captain Frank Hurley. In the second half Sir Ross Smith relates his experiences in racy vein between the 'story' with screen illustrations. No one returning to Adelaide has ever been given a more enthusiastic ovation than Sir Ross Smith received on Monday night. [Ref: Register 10-5-1920] Sir Ross Smith will make his final appearance in Adelaide at the St Peters Town Hall, on Thursday night prior to leaving on Friday for Tasmania. The story of the flight will be told for the last time in South Australia, and as Sir Keith and Sir Ross will be leaving for England early in August there is no likely return visit of the flight pictures in Adelaide. The plan of reserve seats [is] at Dorling’s Sweet Shop, next to the Town Hall, St Peters. [Ref: Daily Herald 26-5-1920] SHY AUSTRALIA FLIERS. Two rather shy-looking young men, bronzed and smiling (states The London Daily Mail of February 24), yesterday received endless congratulations from unknown people, autographed menu cards, and made two speeches— “more dangerous” they said, 'than flying to Australia’. They were Sir Ross Smith and his brother, Sir Keith Smith— both of Adelaide— who flew to Australia in 1919 and were entertained at luncheon yesterday by the Overseas Club and Patriotic League at The Hyde Park Hotel. Memories of their romantic 11,000 miles journey were recalled when they spoke. With hardly a reference to their difficulties, both of them spoke in the first breath of their two mechanics, and avowed they would never have “got through” without them. When Sir Keith Smith mentioned his father and mother, who were waiting for them in their own home at the end of the journey, applause drowned the rest of the sentence. Major-Gen Seely, who presided, recalled that the Air Ministry classified the day on which the brothers left England (November 12 1919) as “Class 5” which meant it was totally unfit for flying. [Ref: Register 5-4-1921] ROSS SMITH MEMORIAL. THE UNVEILING ON SATURDAY The Ross Smith Memorial in Creswell Gardens perpetuates a nation's admiration for South Australia's "most distinguished son," as the Lieutenant-Governor termed Sir Ross Smith on Saturday. As the Lieutenant-Governor (Sir George Murray) was unveiling the memorial, the drone of circling aeroplanes recalled the deeds with which Sir Ross Smith won distinction as the first Australian air pilot in Palestine during the war, and carried the thoughts of the spectators back to the 12,000 miles pioneer flight with which the Smith brothers and their mechanics placed the seal of achievement on an audacious ambition. With the face of Sir Ross Smith's figure to the rising sun, the statue is placed between the pathway to the Adelaide Oval entrance and the bank of the Torrens. To a large crowd of people the Lieutenant-Governor told how Sir Ross Smith had his mind turned to aviation from the time he landed in Egypt, and how he became the most famous pilot and observer in the East. His was the only aeroplane to take part in Lord Allenby's triumphal march into Cairo after the war. In a letter to his mother during the war he spoke of the joy he would experience in flying straight to Australia to take Mr P Waite for a flight to Mutooroo Station, probably the germ of the famous enterprise. Dr A A Lendon related Sir Ross Smith's desire, expressed to his mother during his last visit to Adelaide, that a monument to the Third Light Horse should occupy the place chosen for his own. The doctor went on to point out how fitting it was that the Ross Smith memorial should be placed there, and associated that gallant corps with it. Sir George Murray was also filling the position of Lieutenant-Governor when Sir Ross Smith reached Adelaide after the flight, and at the time the aviator was killed while preparing for a flight around the world and his performance of the ceremony on Saturday was a natural completion of such notable coincidences. The time of the ceremony was an inconvenient one, but the crowd which assembled testified to the place Sir Ross Smith occupied in public esteem. At the conclusion of the ceremony there was a general movement inward to inspect the statuary, admiration of which was openly expressed. A guard of honour was provided by Queen's School, the present pupils of which were thus linked with a former scholar, whose name has become imperishable. [Ref: Register 12-12-1927] Flight of 1922 The next proposal, to fly round the world in a Vickers Viking amphibian, ended in disaster. Both brothers travelled to England to prepare for the trip and on 13 April 1922, while Ross and his long-serving crew member Bennett were test flying the aircraft at Weybridge near London, it spun into the ground from 1000 feet (305 m), killing both. Keith, who arrived late for the test flight witnessed the accident. The flight was abandoned. The bodies of Sir Ross Smith and Lieutenant Bennett were brought home to Australia. SIR ROSS SMITH BODY TAKEN TO ADELAIDE Wednesday—The Commonwealth liner ‘Largs Bay’ has brought home the bodies of Sir Ross Smith and Lieutenant Bennett. Sir Keith Smith was present at the Outer Harbor to watch the landing of the casket containing his brother's remains. Both bodies were conveyed from London in the forward hold of the vessel, but were kept separate from the cargo. The casket holding the embalmed body of Sir Ross Smith was encased in a lead coffin, on the outside of which was a wooden case to prevent damage. Both coffins were under the direct care of the ship’s officers. There was a large gathering on the wharf when the ship's siren gave a salute as the casket was lifted from the hold. As it came into the view of the crowd, draped with the Australian flag, every head was bared, and silence prevailed as it was lowered to the wharf. A band of sailors from the ship bore the coffin to the conveyance which was to take it to St Peter's Cathedral. The first floral tribute to the dead hero from this State was a bunch of red geraniums, which was put on the coffin as a mark of respect from the sailors at the Outer Harbor. The flags on all the vessels and buildings at the harbor were at half-mast. No ceremony was attached to the conveyance to Adelaide of the coffin. After it had been removed from the case it was transferred to a hearse and was taken to the cathedral. Although the public had been notified that there would be no admission to the cathedral until three o'clock in the afternoon a number of people had collected in the vicinity. The Dean of Adelaide met a small official procession at the cathedral gates. Inside the building the precentor (Dr Milne) and Archdeacon Bussell preceded the coffin to a position between the choir stalls, where trestles had been placed to receive it. The coffin is of oak, lead lined and sealed, and bears the following inscription: "Captain Sir Ross Macpherson Smith, KBE, MC, DFC, AFC died at Brooklands, 13th April, 1923 aged 29 years." Nearly 30 airmen will participate in the funeral. [Ref: Recorder (Port Pirie) 15-6-1922] THE LATE SIR ROSS SMITH FUNERAL IN ADELAÏDE TODAY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ATTEND Adelaide. Thursday. General Leane represented Lord Forster, the Governor-General, at the late Sir Ross Smith's funeral in Adelaide today. Thousands of people viewed the body lying in state at the Cathedral yesterday, and thousands watched the funeral procession today The city was deserted. The public offices, business places, and hotels were closed. The Town Hall bells were tolled, and flags were at half-mast. Mr Bickersteth, headmaster at St. Peter's College, delivered a brief address. Seventy Australian airmen participated. An aircraft trailer was used to carry the coffin and another carried the flowers. The firing party at the graveside consisted of 40 men. Three military aeroplanes flew over the route as the procession was making its way to the cemetery. The interment was in the North-road cemetery, the grave being dug in a plot of green lawn close to the entrance of the picturesque little chapel. [Ref: Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) 15-6-1922] LAID TO REST SIR ROSS SMITH'S FUNERAL The remains of Sir Ross Macpherson Smith, aviator and soldier, were laid to rest this afternoon in soil of his beloved homeland. Enormous crowds of sorrowing people assembled in the vicinity of St. Peter's Cathedral and thronged the route to the North Road Anglican Cemetery, desiring to pay a last tribute of respect to the memory of the illustrious airman. At the Cathedral the solemn service of mourning was held, immediately after which the body was borne from the edifice by members of the Royal Australian Flying Corps and placed on an aeroplane trailer at the head of the State Funeral cortege, which was of unprecedented dimensions. From an early hour this morning a continuous procession of thousands of people filed quietly and sadly past the body as it lay in state in the Cathedral, draped with the British colours and guarded by members of the RAFC with arms reversed. At the Cathedral the service, which was of a most impressive character, was conducted by Dean Young, and was attended by Mr and Mrs Andrew Smith, parents of Sir Ross Smith, and also by Mr and Mrs John Fordyce, of Melbourne (uncle and aunt of the deceased), and Sir Keith Smith and Lieutenant W Shiers, who flew with Sir Ross and Lieutenant Bennett to Australia in the Vickers Vimy. There was a fine muster of Sir Ross Smith's former comrades in the Third Light Horse, and other branches of the AIF. We are not unmindful of his comrade, Lieutenant Bennett, who died with him, and whose body is to be laid to rest on Saturday, in Melbourne. [Ref: Daily Telegraph (Sydney) 16-6-1922]
Tumut. The fast flowing Tumut River in the middle of the dry Australian summer.
Tumut. Bridging the Tumut River, a tributary of the Murrumbidgee which it joins in Gundagai, this pretty foothills town nestles as the base of Kosciusko National Park. The Tumut River rises about 40 kms from Mt Kosciusko and it has three dam/reservoirs along it as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme hydroelectric power generation system. Whilst Tumut has over 800 mm of rain yearly. Hamilton Hume discovered the Tumut River in 1824 and the first white squatter Benjamin Warby arrived in 1828 at Darbalara although he and the ones who followed him only became licensed leaseholders from 1839. They included George and William Shelley of Been (Tumut Plains) station. Shelley senior was a missionary and they are credited with making sure there were no Aboriginal deaths or massacres near Tumut. More settles arrived in the 1840s when land leasing was legal. A courthouse was established in 1845. The town was laid out in 1848 and a police constable was appointed. But by 1856 few buildings were more than mere slab huts. The first Post Office in 1849 operated from the Courthouse. Like Gundagai the original town site moved up the hill after the 1852 Tumut River floods. In 1860 thousands passed through the small town on their way to the goldfields at Kiandra (1859) in the Snowy Mountains and later to Adelong on the plains. Tumut emerged as a solid town. With gold came bushrangers and Ned Kelly’s brother operated in this district in the 1870s. By 1866 there were eleven hotels in the town and the town population was around 400; in 1887 Tumut became a municipality; and in 1903 the branch railway line from Gundagai reached the town. Dairying and forestry became major district industries in the 20th century and the Tumut River became a major site for hydroelectric power stations during the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Blowering Dam was built just above the town. Tumut 1, 2 and 3 power stations were also built on the Tumut River. In autumn the Lombardy Poplars along the Tumut River display great colour. They were planted in 1861. More autumn colour can be found in the Avenue of Elms which leads to the racecourse, thus it is not surprising that Tumut established the Festival of the Falling Leaf in the 1950s. Tumut was one of the many sites considered for the National Capital but Canberra was finally selected for that. A Royal Commission looked at Tumut’s suitability as the national capital. Tumut was selected by the House of Representatives in 1904 but then replaced by Bombala and then the Senate replaced it with Dalgety. But the NSW parliament refused to cede land around Dalgety so four years later after much politicking a site near Yass was finally approved. Like all places considered it had to have good flat land, a good water supply and be further than 100 miles from Sydney but still in NSW.
Tumut. Modern apostles stained glass window in the Tumut Anglican Church. The church opened in 1878.
Tumut. The town nestles along the Tumut River, a tributary of the Murrumbidgee which it joins in Gundagai. It begins about 40 kms from Mt Kosciusko in Kosciusko National Park and it has three dam/reservoirs along it as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme hydroelectric power generation system. Tumut has over 800 mm of rain yearly. Hamilton Hume discovered the Tumut River in 1824 and the first white squatter Benjamin Warby arrived in 1828 at Darbalara although he and the ones who followed him only became licensed leaseholders from 1839. They included George and William Shelley of Been (Tumut Plains) station. Shelley senior was a missionary and they are credited with making sure there were no Aboriginal deaths or massacres near Tumut. More settles arrived in the 1840s when land leasing was legal. A courthouse was established in 1845. The town was laid out in 1848 and a police constable was appointed. But by 1856 few buildings were more than mere slab huts. The first Post Office in 1849 operated from the Courthouse. Like Gundagai the original town site moved up the hill after the 1852 Tumut River floods. In 1860 thousands passed through the small town on their way to the goldfields at Kiandra (1859) in the Snowy Mountains and later to Adelong on the plains. Tumut emerged as a solid town. With gold came bushrangers and Ned Kelly’s brother operated in this district in the 1870s. By 1866 there were eleven hotels in the town and the town population was around 400; in 1887 Tumut became a municipality; and in 1903 the branch railway line from Gundagai reached the town. Dairying and forestry became major district industries in the 20th century and the Tumut River became a major site for hydroelectric power. Blowering Dam was built just above the town with Tumut 1, 2 and 3 power stations on the Tumut River. In autumn the Lombardy Poplars along the Tumut River display great colour. They were planted in 1861. More autumn colour can be found in the Avenue of Elms which leads to the racecourse, thus it is not surprising that Tumut established the Festival of the Falling Leaf in the 1950s. Tumut was one of the many sites considered for the National Capital by a Royal Commission but Canberra was finally selected for that. Tumut was selected by the House of Representatives in 1904 but then replaced by Bombala and then the Senate replaced it with Dalgety. But the NSW parliament refused to cede land around Dalgety so four years later after much politicking a site near Yass was finally approved. All places considered had to have good flat land, a good water supply and be further than 100 miles from Sydney.
Hunts Creek Falls
Nikon D800 | Nikon 16-35mm f/4 | B+W CPL | ND4 After a torrential rain overnight, I thought of driving to this falls which is 10 minutes from where I live at the Hills districts in North West Sydney.
Albury. The Wesleyan Methodist Church. Opened in 1875. Change of use. Now part of the Albury Police Station.
Albury. New South Wales was settled by whites in 1788 but it was 1824 before the first white explorer Hamilton Hume and William Hovell and their party of eight men ventured to this region of NSW. They reported favourably on what they saw in this region especially the fast flowing river which Hume named after his father. Later in 1830 Charles Sturt when he left the Murrumbidgee thought he had discovered a new river and he named it the Murray River after his friend in the British Colonial Office, Sir George Murray, Secretary of the Colonies. The first pastoralist to arrive in the district was Charles Ebden in 1835 who took out runs each side of the river which he named Bonegilla and Mungabareena. Wodonga station was then taken up in 1836. Major Mitchell visited the district on his Australia Felix expedition of 1836. But the first man to reside in the Albury district was Robert Brown who did that in 1836. Brown saw the “crossing place” as a business opportunity so he opened a store and around 1840 he got a license to operate an inn at the spot. In 1842 Brown and his wife occupied the Hume Inn which the hostelry was called. Browns Inn later was renamed the Turkish Inn after Brown moved to a pastoral property in 1845. Earlier in 1838 the government sent a surveyor to the spot and he surveyed a town and named it Albury after a village in Kent. Town lots were sold in October 1839 with all being sold. One was sold on to Robert Brown in 1841 which was when he built his Hume Inn hotel. Further town lots were sold in 1840 and 1843. A government report noted that there were 65 people in Albury by 1845. Once the first flourmill was built in 1846 local farmers began to grow wheat but Albury was still a settlement rather than a town as it had no schools, no churches, etc. A post service to Albury from Sydney began in 1847 with an unofficial post office in a store. As the town emerged this was moved to the first Post Office in 1861. This was later replaced by the grand structure that graces the city now. It was built in 1877 and the Telegraph Station (now the Murray Conservatorium of Music) in 1886. Court sessions began in 1847 with the stone courthouse being erected in 1860. The main street Dean Street began to appear like a major town streetscape. The first Catholic Church was built in 1858 but was replaced with the current much grander stone structure in 1872. The well-known architect Edmund Blacket designed the Albury Anglican Church which was erected in 1857. A few years later it was replaced by a new church in 1876 which incorporated one wall and the tower base of the 1857 church. The adjoining two storey rectory was completed in 1870. The first public hospital opened in Albury in 1861 and the town by then had several fine banks, grand hotels, general stores and a town school. The first National School opened in 1850 and was then relocated to Olive Street in 1861. Today that is the campus of Albury High School and the third Albury Public School opened in 1892 in David Street. Part of the reason or the growth of Albury in the mid-1850s was the arrival of the first paddle steamers from Goolwa and Milang in South Australia. They brought foodstuffs and grain for the gold mining centres of Beechworth and Yackandandah etc. But this was also the time when large pastoral estates gave way to surveyed land for farmers and agriculturists. The population of the hinterland began to increase and Albury became the regional town for goods and services. 1856 was the year the Albury published its first newspaper and throughout this period conflict emerged with Victoria (created as a separate colony in 1851) over customs and border tariffs. 1856 was also the year in which NSW politician Henry Parkes spoke of Albury as a future federal capital. The Albury Mechanics Institute was formed in 1858 and Albury was declared a municipality in 1859 with its first mayor. By the mid-1860s the town had several doctors, solicitors, teachers, brewers, manufacturers, millers, drapers, butchers, saddlers and all the occupations expected of a large sized country town on its way to becoming a regional city. The arrival of the railway from Sydney added further to the economic development of Albury. The Victorian rail line had reached Wodonga in 1873 but the NSW line from Sydney did not reach Albury until 1880. The grand Italianate style railway station opened in 1881. A wooden rail bridge was completed a cross the Murray in 1883(replaced by an iron one in 1884) and a through service, albeit with a change of trains and rail gauge at Albury, became possible. To accommodate two trains for a change over the platform at Albury is especially long. Passengers also had to go through a Customs inspection at Albury until federation in 1901. The first passenger train with no change of gauge travelled between Sydney and Melbourne in 1962 drawn by diesel engines instead of steam trains. Present day Albury is a city of many fine buildings. These include Bonegilla house in Kiewa Street which is heritage listed by NSW authorities. It took its name from a district along the Murray River outside of Wodonga. The house was built in 1857 in a typically Georgian style when it was on the edge of Albury. It was built for David Bowen-Jones. From 1880 to 1900 it was the residence of Arthur Phillips the manager of the Commercial Bank in Albury and it was around this time( about 1880) that the cast iron lacework and verandas were added to make it more Australian in appearance! In later years land attached to the house was sold off as town blocks in 1900 and again in 1938. After the Phillips sold the house in 1900 its ownership changed quite frequently until it was auctioned off in 1938. The Red Cross then operated Bonegilla during World War Two as a hostel for wives visiting husbands at the Bonegilla Military hospital outside Albury. After the Second World War it became the local Young Women’s Christian Association hostel. In more recent years it has been privately owned and restored. (After World War Two the named Bonegilla was used for the migrant hostel operated at the location of Bonegilla.) Opposite Bonegilla is another grand Albury house named Bellvue. It was built a bit later than Bonegilla but is too a great example of a 19th century mansion. A bit further along Kiewa Street is the imposing Albury High School. It was founded in 1920 and this magnificent building opened in 1928 at a cost of over £26,000. The current Albury Public School was built in David Street in 1892 with the then latest federation style architecture- red bricks, fancy moulded bricks, gables etc. but with classical style pilasters against the walls. Back in the Main Street you can see a number of outstanding Art Deco style commercial buildings including the AMP Society building erected in 1940 and the T & G Insurance building also erected in 1940. A twenty minute walk from here will take you to 607 Lindsay Avenue where you can see a superb Art Deco style two storey residence with the addition of some 1950s modern style curves and steel framed windows. That house was built in 1949 and is a gem. The other area for Art Deco structures is amazing War memorial tower on a Western Hill at the end of the Main Street. This is a memorial to those who served during World War One. When the city was considering a memorial they thought of the public square beside the Town Hall in Dean Street. But a visitor, Charles Reade from Adelaide who had designed Colonel Lights Gardens as a model garden city, suggested the top of Western Hill which is completely aligned with Dean Street. The memorial is 100 feet high which means it is 300 feet above Dean Street. It is Art Deco in style, designed by architect Louis Harrison, as is the public toilet block near the War Memorial. Both were opened in 1925 with the foundation stone being laid in 1924 as a centenary marker for the explorers Hume and Hovell who came here in 1824.
British Columbia / B.C. Postal History - 16 / 17 May 1909 - Vancouver, B.C. to MOUNT TOLMIE, B.C. (split ring / broken circle cancel / postmark)
- from 1908 "Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada" - MOUNT TOLMIE, a post settlement in Nanaimo District, B.C., 3 miles from the city of Victoria, on the Esquimau & Nanaimo and Victoria & Sydney Railways. - from "1909 Waugh Directory of Vancouver Island" - MOUNT TOLMIE - a suburb of Victoria lying to the northwest of the city. The Post Office is on Cedar Hill Road, near the Cross Road. Dairy farming and fruit growing are the main industries. (from - Wrigley's 1918 British Columbia directory) - MOUNT TOLMIE - a post office in the northeast suburbs of Victoria, distant 1 mile from business centre. (from - Wrigley's 1922 British Columbia directory) - MOUNT TOLMIE - a sub post office one mile from Victoria. Norman D. Shaw - Postmaster From - Mount Tolmie District circa 1925. (as remembered by Jack Merrett - January, 2006) - Three small grocery shops serviced the area and occasionally a unique truck brought out groceries from town. I do not remember whose truck it was, either Kirkham's or Copas & Young's. The unique feature was that the truck wheels were chain driven rather than by a drive shaft. Two of the stores were on Cedar Hill Cross Road and the third was in the old stage stop on Cedar Hill Road between Cedar Hill Cross Road and Church Street. It was also the district Post Office as the only part having postal delivery was that adjacent to the street car line. In addition there was a car repair garage and gas pump at the corner of Lansdowne and Shelbourne and a gas pump farther north at Cedar Hill Cross Road at Hunter's store. Adjacent to the store [Hunters] was a butcher shop. Intermittently both barber and shoe repair shops operated in the vicinity of that corner. LINK to the complete article - mtca.ca/Graphics/historyreview.pdf Mount Tolmie Post Office was located on Cedar Hill Road just south of Cedar Hill Cross Road, in the house of Norman Shaw. The Shaws ran the post office until the Rural Route system was established. All the people from the Gordon Head district picked up their mail at Mount Tolmie Post Office. LINK to a photo - Post Master Norman D. Shaw outside Mount Tolmie Post Office - saanich.accesstomemory.org/uploads/r/null/3/f/1/3f10c43c5... The Mount Tolmie Post Office was established - 1 December 1892 - it became Victoria Sub Office Mount Tolmie - 1 June 1946. / MOUNT - TOLMIE / MY 17 / 09 / B.C / - split ring receiver - this split ring hammer was proofed - 16 December 1892 - (RF C). Message on postcard reads - 15 May - Dear Ernest, I received your post card. Thank you - Don't you think this is a pretty place? I was up here about 2 weeks ago. Give my love to the girls. M. Russell Addressed to: Mr. Ernest Fawcett, / Mount Tolmie / Victoria, B.C. Unable to confirm who Ernest Fawcett was - it could have been Albert Edward Fawcett (b. December 1865 - d. 13 March 1942) who lived at 515 Gorge Road in Victoria, B.C. (he was a druggist and than a carpenter) - his wife was Margaret Fawcett and they had several daughters. - sent from - / VANCOUVER / 2 / MAY 16 / 09 / B.C. / - cds cancel
Flat tree (Ficus rubiginosa)
Port Jackson Fig at Port Jackson (Ficus rubiginosa). Battersea Park, Abbotsford, New South Wales. A thin set of roots, hugging the local sandstone. Despite being a park tree, it is likely to be a naturally occurring plant. They often start growing in the cracks of the sandstone as a lithophyte. The Hawkesbury sandstone is commonly seen around Sydney. It formed in the Triassic, and produces soils of poor quality. These sedimentary deposits originated in the western districts of New South Wales, from around the Broken Hill area. Sydney is placed at where a river delta once existed. The river delta was a huge area, similar to the Nile and Ganges deltas of today. At the time, this entire area was close to the south pole. So say the scientists with the theory of continental drift. The rock is mostly quartz with varying degrees of iron, giving the colours of grey, brown, white, yellow, orange and red.
Mount Barker. The facade of the Sisters of Mercy convent built around 1902 when they established Saint Scholastica's convent school. This is now Saint Francis de Sales College.
Mount Barker. At the time of European settlements Mount Barker had around 300 Aboriginal people from the Peramargk tribe living in the township area but by 1884 they were reported as being extinct. They had suffered from their loss of land, their food supplies and their cultural spiritual base as well as from European diseases. Some moved away to live on missions. The first European to sight Mount Barker was Captain Charles Sturt on his epic voyage down the Murray in February 1830. He mistook Mt Barker for Mt Lofty sighted and named in 1802 by Captain Matthew Flinders. This mistake was corrected by the explorations of Captain Collet Barker in April 1831 when he officially recorded the error in his journals. Captain Sturt changed to name of the mountain to Barker after Barker’s unfortunate death and disappearance near Encounter Bay. By 1838 herds of livestock began to arrive at Mt Barker from NSW on their way to Adelaide. Mt Barker was an ideal place for stock to recover their condition after their long walk from Sydney as there was ample grass and water there. By the end of 1838 settlers were attempting squat on the land with no legal claim to it but this was averted by the Special Surveys Act of 1838 which allowed the wealthy to pay £4,000 for a survey of 4,000 acres in a site of their choosing. Consequently the first Special Survey in SA was the Mt Barker survey of January 1839 for Dutton, Finniss and MacFarlane. These three envisaged an absentee landlord system like in England with tenant farmers on the land growing wheat. That system continued in parts of Mt Barker until around 1880. From the start wheat was a viable crop with tenant, and freehold farmers who had purchased some of the government sections, sold in 80 acre lots. By early 1840 Mt Barker township was laid out by the owners of the Special Survey and some of their 4,000 acres was also put up for sale. By 1845 Mt Barker had a Courthouse, police station, a steam flourmill run by John Dunn, an inn and some houses. By 1851 it had a second hotel, a Presbyterian and a Wesleyan church from 1850. Other churches followed in later years including the current Dunn Memorial Methodist Church in 1883, the Catholic Church from 1911( there had been an earlier one from 1850 on the other side of the railway line), and the Anglican Church from 1856 with its rectory from 1901. Robert Barr Smith of Auchendarroch had contributed to the cost of the rectory in 1901. Other significant structures in the growing town were the second Courthouse built in 1865, the original Post Office built in 1860, Daw’s Butcher Shop erected in 1884 and the early National Bank built in 1866. In the 1850s Mt Barker established its own district council, 1853, and the Courier newspaper in 1880, a brewery, two local iron works and foundries for agricultural equipment and wrought iron lace work, and a tannery which processed skins from as far away as Broken Hill. Then after 1889 when Amos Howard discovered subterranean clover at Blakiston and a way of extracting the seeds the local agriculture shifted from wheat growing to pasture improvement for dairy cattle. Mt Barker began producing butter. Into the twentieth century the town also had smallgoods works, and a small industry round the subterranean clover seeds and machines to extract the seeds. One local “industrialists” became the social and political leader of Mt Barker and that was John Dunn the flourmill. He had his mansion the Laurels built around 1860on a rise overlooking the town. The mansion even had its own chapel plus extensive gardens and servants’ quarters. Today it is used for a retirement village. At the other end of town Robert Barr Smith of Torrens Park house bought the old Oakfield Hotel site in 1878 and created his summer retreat there which he gave a good Scottish name to - Auchendarroch. The new house cost £10,200 and was designed by architect John Grainger. Joanna Barr Smith another fortune decorating the house especially with William Morris fabrics and wallpapers. In 1922 the Trustees of the Memorial Hospital in North Adelaide purchased the house as a convalescent hospital. During World War Two the Red Cross used it for the same purpose. More recently it has been converted into a cinema complex and function centre by Wallis Cinemas. It is still a grand house in the French Empire style with many classical features and Victorian architectural exuberance.
Albury. The Colonial Mutual Insurance building. Art Deco style. Built in the 1930s.
Albury. New South Wales was settled by whites in 1788 but it was 1824 before the first white explorer Hamilton Hume and William Hovell and their party of eight men ventured to this region of NSW. They reported favourably on what they saw in this region especially the fast flowing river which Hume named after his father. Later in 1830 Charles Sturt when he left the Murrumbidgee thought he had discovered a new river and he named it the Murray River after his friend in the British Colonial Office, Sir George Murray, Secretary of the Colonies. The first pastoralist to arrive in the district was Charles Ebden in 1835 who took out runs each side of the river which he named Bonegilla and Mungabareena. Wodonga station was then taken up in 1836. Major Mitchell visited the district on his Australia Felix expedition of 1836. But the first man to reside in the Albury district was Robert Brown who did that in 1836. Brown saw the “crossing place” as a business opportunity so he opened a store and around 1840 he got a license to operate an inn at the spot. In 1842 Brown and his wife occupied the Hume Inn which the hostelry was called. Browns Inn later was renamed the Turkish Inn after Brown moved to a pastoral property in 1845. Earlier in 1838 the government sent a surveyor to the spot and he surveyed a town and named it Albury after a village in Kent. Town lots were sold in October 1839 with all being sold. One was sold on to Robert Brown in 1841 which was when he built his Hume Inn hotel. Further town lots were sold in 1840 and 1843. A government report noted that there were 65 people in Albury by 1845. Once the first flourmill was built in 1846 local farmers began to grow wheat but Albury was still a settlement rather than a town as it had no schools, no churches, etc. A post service to Albury from Sydney began in 1847 with an unofficial post office in a store. As the town emerged this was moved to the first Post Office in 1861. This was later replaced by the grand structure that graces the city now. It was built in 1877 and the Telegraph Station (now the Murray Conservatorium of Music) in 1886. Court sessions began in 1847 with the stone courthouse being erected in 1860. The main street Dean Street began to appear like a major town streetscape. The first Catholic Church was built in 1858 but was replaced with the current much grander stone structure in 1872. The well-known architect Edmund Blacket designed the Albury Anglican Church which was erected in 1857. A few years later it was replaced by a new church in 1876 which incorporated one wall and the tower base of the 1857 church. The adjoining two storey rectory was completed in 1870. The first public hospital opened in Albury in 1861 and the town by then had several fine banks, grand hotels, general stores and a town school. The first National School opened in 1850 and was then relocated to Olive Street in 1861. Today that is the campus of Albury High School and the third Albury Public School opened in 1892 in David Street. Part of the reason or the growth of Albury in the mid-1850s was the arrival of the first paddle steamers from Goolwa and Milang in South Australia. They brought foodstuffs and grain for the gold mining centres of Beechworth and Yackandandah etc. But this was also the time when large pastoral estates gave way to surveyed land for farmers and agriculturists. The population of the hinterland began to increase and Albury became the regional town for goods and services. 1856 was the year the Albury published its first newspaper and throughout this period conflict emerged with Victoria (created as a separate colony in 1851) over customs and border tariffs. 1856 was also the year in which NSW politician Henry Parkes spoke of Albury as a future federal capital. The Albury Mechanics Institute was formed in 1858 and Albury was declared a municipality in 1859 with its first mayor. By the mid-1860s the town had several doctors, solicitors, teachers, brewers, manufacturers, millers, drapers, butchers, saddlers and all the occupations expected of a large sized country town on its way to becoming a regional city. The arrival of the railway from Sydney added further to the economic development of Albury. The Victorian rail line had reached Wodonga in 1873 but the NSW line from Sydney did not reach Albury until 1880. The grand Italianate style railway station opened in 1881. A wooden rail bridge was completed a cross the Murray in 1883(replaced by an iron one in 1884) and a through service, albeit with a change of trains and rail gauge at Albury, became possible. To accommodate two trains for a change over the platform at Albury is especially long. Passengers also had to go through a Customs inspection at Albury until federation in 1901. The first passenger train with no change of gauge travelled between Sydney and Melbourne in 1962 drawn by diesel engines instead of steam trains. Present day Albury is a city of many fine buildings. These include Bonegilla house in Kiewa Street which is heritage listed by NSW authorities. It took its name from a district along the Murray River outside of Wodonga. The house was built in 1857 in a typically Georgian style when it was on the edge of Albury. It was built for David Bowen-Jones. From 1880 to 1900 it was the residence of Arthur Phillips the manager of the Commercial Bank in Albury and it was around this time( about 1880) that the cast iron lacework and verandas were added to make it more Australian in appearance! In later years land attached to the house was sold off as town blocks in 1900 and again in 1938. After the Phillips sold the house in 1900 its ownership changed quite frequently until it was auctioned off in 1938. The Red Cross then operated Bonegilla during World War Two as a hostel for wives visiting husbands at the Bonegilla Military hospital outside Albury. After the Second World War it became the local Young Women’s Christian Association hostel. In more recent years it has been privately owned and restored. (After World War Two the named Bonegilla was used for the migrant hostel operated at the location of Bonegilla.) Opposite Bonegilla is another grand Albury house named Bellvue. It was built a bit later than Bonegilla but is too a great example of a 19th century mansion. A bit further along Kiewa Street is the imposing Albury High School. It was founded in 1920 and this magnificent building opened in 1928 at a cost of over £26,000. The current Albury Public School was built in David Street in 1892 with the then latest federation style architecture- red bricks, fancy moulded bricks, gables etc. but with classical style pilasters against the walls. Back in the Main Street you can see a number of outstanding Art Deco style commercial buildings including the AMP Society building erected in 1940 and the T & G Insurance building also erected in 1940. A twenty minute walk from here will take you to 607 Lindsay Avenue where you can see a superb Art Deco style two storey residence with the addition of some 1950s modern style curves and steel framed windows. That house was built in 1949 and is a gem. The other area for Art Deco structures is amazing War memorial tower on a Western Hill at the end of the Main Street. This is a memorial to those who served during World War One. When the city was considering a memorial they thought of the public square beside the Town Hall in Dean Street. But a visitor, Charles Reade from Adelaide who had designed Colonel Lights Gardens as a model garden city, suggested the top of Western Hill which is completely aligned with Dean Street. The memorial is 100 feet high which means it is 300 feet above Dean Street. It is Art Deco in style, designed by architect Louis Harrison, as is the public toilet block near the War Memorial. Both were opened in 1925 with the foundation stone being laid in 1924 as a centenary marker for the explorers Hume and Hovell who came here in 1824.
Jerilderie. The old 1884 built railway station. The line from Wagga came through and on to Tocumwal to take railway trade away from northern areas of Victoria. Designed by John Whitton.
A brief history of railways in New South Wales. It all began with the calling of a public meeting to consider the issue of building railways in 1846. Lines were being considered to Windsor, Bathurst and Goulburn. It proposed the American solution to railway building – government grants of land along the proposed line but with an added bonus of a government guarantee of 6% per annum on the first £100,000 of capital and a government grant of cash. In 1848 the Sydney Tramroad and Railway Company was formed. After some delays work began in 1850 but by 1851 not much had happened and the company wanted a further £150,000 which was granted for a line only from Sydney to Parramatta. In 1855 the line was finally completed with the first train to Parramatta in September 1855. The line was only completed with substantial government investment and in 1856 the government decided to take over the railway and have it run by three government Commissioners. In 1861 parliament authorised lines to Campbelltown and Goulbourn, another to Bathurst across the Blue Mountains and a third from Newcastle to Murrurundi in the Hunter Valley. The line from Newcastle to Maitland opened in 1857. Westwards to Bathurst. At the end of 1860, with the royalties from gold mining the government had completed lines from Sydney to Penrith and Richmond; to Picton in the south; and from Maitland to Morpeth. The biggest engineering challenges were still ahead of the railways department – crossing the Blue Mountains to Bathurst and climbing into the Southern Highlands to reach Goulburn. The problems of crossing the Blue Mountain ridges were immense and two zig zag railway sections near Lithgow were eventually approved and several major viaducts. They line was completed to Wentworth Falls in 1867 and it was 1875 before the railway line reached Kelso across the Macquarie River from Bathurst. The official opening into Bathurst was in April 1876. The 1870s were a decade of significant railway expansion and new lines. At one stage there was even a proposal to have a direct rai link to South Australia from Cootamundra westwards to Pooncarie on the River Darling and then across the SA border near Renmark. That never eventuated. But a link to Queensland was pursued more vigorously and completed as was a line to Albury with a link to Melbourne. Southwards to Goulburn and Albury. A main truck railway line to the South was important to peon up the Western Slopes of NSW in the 1870s. The rail head was settled at Picton in 1863 and with tunnels it was extended into the Highlands to Mittagong in 1867. It was quickly pushed on to Goulburn reaching there in 1869. It was important to extend this line south to Albury to prevent the Victorian railways taking more trade from the Riverina Districts. The Goulburn to Yass section was finished in 1876. It was extended to Wagga Wagga in 1878 but the line did not cross the Murrumbidgee River into Wagga Wagga until 1879. From here the line pushed onwards to Albury where the railway opened in February 1881. It was June 1883 before the River Murray was bridged and a connection was made with the line to Melbourne. Northwards to Newcastle and beyond. Newcastle was a rail terminal like Sydney with the first line to Maitland completed in 1857.This line was eventually extended to Muswellbrook in 1869 and on to Aberdeen in 1870 and Scone in 1871. Murrurundi was reached in 1872. Work began on pushing the line north through Quirindi to Tamworth in 1874 with it being completed in 1878. From here the railway was extended towards the Queensland border and the northern tablelands. The first section with steep gradients reached Uralla in 1882 and Armidale in 1883. In 1884 the railway reached Glen Innes and then Tenterfield. The Queensland border was reached in January 1888 linking up with the Queensland railway system. Queensland railways had extended their lines to Wallangarra which is across the border from Jennings in NSW. But there was no connection to Brisbane from Sydney as there was no connection between Sydney and Newcastle. Linking Sydney and Newcastle. It was Premier Sir Henry Parkes who appropriate funds for a railway northwards from Sydney with the first stage to the Hawkesbury River and a section southwards from Hamilton just outside of Newcastle to Gosford. The line to the Hawksbury River was completed in 1887 and that to Gosford in 1888. The 3,000 feet wide (914 metres) stretch of the Hawkesbury River were still to be spanned by a railway. A competition called for engineering designs and the contract was let to an American company. Despite difficulties the bridge was completed in May 1889 with piers deeper than those of any other bridge and it was largest bridge of its kind in Australia and the third largest in the world at that time. It was a milestone in Australian railway history as it provided a rail link from Sydney to Brisbane via Wallangarra and this service was already linked with the line from Sydney to Albury and Melbourne and Adelaide and Melbourne had been the first colonial capital cities linked by rail in January 1887. So now there was railway link from Adelaide to Brisbane (1,789 miles or2, 8880 kilometres) albeit with many changes of gauge along the way and with no coordinated railway timetable for such a service. But this 1889 bridge was not stable enough for bigger and heavier trains and a new bridge was constructed across the Hawkesbury River between 1939 and 1946. The North Coast line. A new coastal line from Newcastle/Maitland to Taree and Gloucester opened in 1913 before reaching Wauchope in 1915. This lien was extended to Coffs Harbour and South Grafton in 1915. Earlier a railway line had headed south from Murwillumbah to Lismore. It was constructed in 1894 but extended to Lismore and Casino in 1903 and northwards to Tweed Heads at the same time. The section from Casino to Grafton opened in 1905 but it did not cross the Clarence River. This was not bridged until 1932. A branch line was built to Kyogle from Casino in 1910 and this was linked to a new line to Brisbane in 1930 which necessitated a rail spiral and a long tunnel across the border between the two rail systems to get the rail tracks up into the Great Dividing Range. A through train service was not possible until the Clarence River was bridged by rail in 1932. The introduction of the Brisbane Limited train via Casino and Kyogle reduced the train travel time from Sydney to Brisbane via Wallangarra by six hours. The service ended at South Brisbane until 1986 when it was rerouted to Brisbane Roma Street railway station. The Brisbane Limited train between Sydney and Brisbane ceased in 1990 when it was replaced with an XPT service. The line from Casino to Murwillumbah closed in 2004. Extensions to the main truck lines. By 1900 most major towns and cities of New South Wales had a railway service. The 1880s and the 1890s were decades of considerable railway expansion. •The urge to get a railway to the Darling River at Bourke branched out from Bathurst firstly to Orange and then on to Dubbo in 1881. The north western line reached Bourke in 1885. From Nyngan a line was built to Cobar. • The discovery of silver, lead and zinc in the Barrier Ranges near the South Australian border spurred the growth of Broken Hill but it was not linked to Sydney by train until 1927. Earlier a railway had been built from Broken Hill to Menindee in 1919. Then the links were made between Parkes and Condobolin and Roto to Menindee in 1927. The air conditioned Silver City Comet train began the service between Sydney and Broken Hill in 1937. •New lines in the Riverina were designed to stop the leakage of trade across the River Murray to the Victorian railways. A line from Wagga wagga reached Narrandera in 1881 and Hay on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in 1882. •A branch line from Cootamundra to Gundagai was completed in 1886 and later extended to Tumut in 1903. Another line which stretched from Cootamundra to Temora opened in 1893. The Temora line was extended to Lake Cargelligo in 1917. Also from Temora the line went west to Griffith in 1916 and on to Hillston in 1923. It was then joined with the Broken Hill line at Roto in 1926 to provide alternative routes to the west. •A new southern coast line opened to Wollongong and North Kiama in 1887. The section from Kiama to Bomaderry on the outskirts of Nowra opened in 1893. •Over a few years a north western railway branched from the New England railway at Werris Creek. The first section to Gunnedah opened in 1879 and the second section to Narrabri opened in 1884. The line reached Moree in 1897. The line extended to the Queensland border at Mungindi in 1914.
Hills District Sunrise.
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Hawkesbury sandstone
Hawkesbury sandstone at Freshwater Beach. The fern is the Japanese Holly Fern (Cyrtomium falcatum), a weed which populates most of the seaside areas of Sydney. The beach is the first beach north of the more famous beach at Manly. The sandstone is a relic from the triassic. Sedimentary deposits which originated in the western districts of New South Wales, from around the Broken Hill area. The river delta was a huge area, similar to the Nile and Ganges deltas of today. At the time, this entire area was close to the south pole. So say the scientists with the theory of continental drift. The rock is mostly quartz with varying degrees of iron, giving the colours of yellow, orange and red. Wind weathering produces interesting patterns. The rock breaks down to create a most infertile soil. This sandstone is the most often seen rock type in the Sydney area.
Hills District
so i am really liking this camera / lens combo.
Observatory Hill pano || Sydney
Observatory Hill is a quiet park right in the middle of the Rocks/Miller Point in Sydney. There was a conjunction of Mars/Jupiter and Venus just after sunset. The conjunction was't visible as you can see the weather didn't cooperate. This pano looking north with the bridge to the right, then Luna Park on the water and the North Sydney business district (where I work) on the hill. The foreground is the counterpoint being the historic Rocks district. The Garrison Church (lower right), also known as Holy Trinity in Millers Point, Sydney was the first military church built in colonial Australia. It continues as an active Anglican church, now in a joint parish with St Philip's Church, part of the Diocese of Sydney. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrison_Church_(Sydney) To the left is the Sydney Harbour Control Tower. Not a lot of information online but with the creation of the Barangaroo district, it will be pulled down. Some suggestions were to make it a restaurant or bungee jumping site but to no avail. Some call it "The Pill" as it controls all the shipping berths in Sydney Harbour. The tower has been an 87-metre high landmark at Barangaroo since 1974, when it was installed to control berths in the harbour. It was closed in 2011 when vessel control services were moved to Port Botany. The tower will be replaced with a "interpretive historical display" focusing on maritime history and Millers Point www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-harbour-control-tower-at-barang... Some history of the park at www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/sydneys-history/people-...
When The Sun Drops Down || NEPEAN RIVER
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rhyspopephotography Twitter: twitter.com/#!/rhyspope So many photos of this place, but at different times of day and at different times of the year, this place blooms new opportunity... Yarramundi is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Yarramundi is located 69 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Hawkesbury. The suburb is named after Yarramundi, an Indigenous Australian of the Boorooberongal clan of the Darug people. He was a garadyi or 'doctor' and was called by Europeans 'the chief of the Richmond Tribe'. This area was previously known as Kearns Retreat.
A Changed Landscape || HAT HILL || BLACKHEATH
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rhyspopephotography Twitter: twitter.com/#!/rhyspope This shot taken a few days after the fires had moved through the area in Blackheath in October. Blackheath is an Australian suburb located near the highest point of the Blue Mountains, between Katoomba and Mount Victoria in New South Wales. The town has an approximate altitude of 1,065 metres (3,494 ft) AHD and is located approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) west north-west of the Sydney central business district, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) north-west of Katoomba and approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) south-east of Lithgow. At the 2011 Census, Blackheath had a population of 4,353 people. The area around Blackheath contains some of the most spectacular views in the Blue Mountains, including those over the Grose Valley from Evans Lookout and Govetts Leap in the east, and the lesser-known vista of the Megalong Valley from Hargraves Lookout in the west, past the tiny hamlet of Shipley.
Tumut. All Saints Anglican church and spire. Architect Edmund Blacket. Started 1875 completed 1878. Tower added 1881. Note dark bricks used for patterns on the walls.
Tumut. The town nestles along the Tumut River, a tributary of the Murrumbidgee which it joins in Gundagai. It begins about 40 kms from Mt Kosciusko in Kosciusko National Park and it has three dam/reservoirs along it as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme hydroelectric power generation system. Tumut has over 800 mm of rain yearly. Hamilton Hume discovered the Tumut River in 1824 and the first white squatter Benjamin Warby arrived in 1828 at Darbalara although he and the ones who followed him only became licensed leaseholders from 1839. They included George and William Shelley of Been (Tumut Plains) station. Shelley senior was a missionary and they are credited with making sure there were no Aboriginal deaths or massacres near Tumut. More settles arrived in the 1840s when land leasing was legal. A courthouse was established in 1845. The town was laid out in 1848 and a police constable was appointed. But by 1856 few buildings were more than mere slab huts. The first Post Office in 1849 operated from the Courthouse. Like Gundagai the original town site moved up the hill after the 1852 Tumut River floods. In 1860 thousands passed through the small town on their way to the goldfields at Kiandra (1859) in the Snowy Mountains and later to Adelong on the plains. Tumut emerged as a solid town. With gold came bushrangers and Ned Kelly’s brother operated in this district in the 1870s. By 1866 there were eleven hotels in the town and the town population was around 400; in 1887 Tumut became a municipality; and in 1903 the branch railway line from Gundagai reached the town. Dairying and forestry became major district industries in the 20th century and the Tumut River became a major site for hydroelectric power. Blowering Dam was built just above the town with Tumut 1, 2 and 3 power stations on the Tumut River. In autumn the Lombardy Poplars along the Tumut River display great colour. They were planted in 1861. More autumn colour can be found in the Avenue of Elms which leads to the racecourse, thus it is not surprising that Tumut established the Festival of the Falling Leaf in the 1950s. Tumut was one of the many sites considered for the National Capital by a Royal Commission but Canberra was finally selected for that. Tumut was selected by the House of Representatives in 1904 but then replaced by Bombala and then the Senate replaced it with Dalgety. But the NSW parliament refused to cede land around Dalgety so four years later after much politicking a site near Yass was finally approved. All places considered had to have good flat land, a good water supply and be further than 100 miles from Sydney. the Anglican Church. A church barn was built in 1857 and this grand church was designed by architect Edmund Blacket who designed the Carcoar Church, the University of Sydney quadrangle etc. It was started in 1875 and completed in 1878. Note the dark brick work patterns beneath the quadruple façade windows. Tower completed in 1881. Have a look inside too.
Koala Park
West Pennant Hills - a suburb in the Hills District of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is sad to hear bad news about the park. When we visited in 2013 it was well kept. We did not see any neglect of animals. "The Koala Park Sanctuary was built in the 1920s and opened in October 1930 by the owner Noel Burnet. He established the sanctuary because he was concerned at the large number of koalas being killed for the fur trade, and hunting of the animal would ultimately lead to its extinction. He spent the remainder of his life dedicated to researching and preserving the animals habitat." The park has 10 acres and 24 animal species. In 2010 the park owners were accused of for neglect and abuse of animal's. A court hearing due on February 2, 2016 will determine the fate of the business and the animals it keeps. (Wikipedia)
Dreaming Of A Sunset || YARRAMUNDI
This is another image taken at sunset over the Hawkesbury River at Yarramundi =========================================================== Yarramundi is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Yarramundi is located 69 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Hawkesbury. The suburb is named after Yarramundi, an Indigenous Australian of the Boorooberongal clan of the Darug people. He was a garadyi or 'doctor' and was called by Europeans 'the chief of the Richmond Tribe'. This area was previously known as Kearns Retreat.
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