Then & Now - West Circular Quay

This B&W image was made by Harold Cazneaux during 1931, as the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was in its final stages. The first of my colour images was made from the Cahill Walk, with the second being made from the railway station concourse (which is the level beloow the Cahill Walk).

In my book on the photography of Cazneaux (1878-1953), the historian, Philip Geeves, contends that the Cazneaux view of West Circular Quay appears to be "strangely uncluttered". In my colour images, the cluttering is mainly done by the bloody cruise ship. Ban the, Ban them all, I say. Opening up the length of the quay to pedestrians declutters, I feel. That street running along the quay towards the bridge, which is an extension of Pitt Street, has been closed off allowing pedestrian access down to the balaustrade of the Quay itself.

I promised more details on Brickfields Hill. They are coming, hopefully next week. There is so much reading to do, to verify facts, and then I realise I do not have just the right image to illustrate the point. Perhaps, I should instead cover flowers, and cafe chairs ...

Where do you go after you've been a hole in the ground?

Pyrmont could almost be symbolic of Australia at large! How so, I hear you gasp?

The first land grant was made in 1795. The next 100 years was spent carving swathes of yellow sandstone from all over the peninsula, to ship into the city to construct major public buildings. The century after that, the land and the waters were despoiled as its industrial waterfront was overwhelmed with wharves, shipbuilding yards, sugar factories and woolstores.

Now into its third century since European settlement, Pyrmont has sloughed off its industrial heritage, and struggled into a cloak of urban respectability.