The Old Moore Park Zoo – Sydney's First Zoo at Billy Goat Swamp – 1884 to 1916

Before Taronga, before the ferry ride and the harbour views, Sydney's zoo sat on a swampy patch of Moore Park beside the Randwick tram line. For 32 years, from 1884 to 1916, families came out to the "Zoo" at Billy Goat Swamp to ride Jessie the elephant, watch the lions fed at four o'clock and picnic by the lake. Then the whole lot packed up and moved to Mosman, and two high schools went up on the site. If you know where to look, a couple of old bear pits are still there.

I've already written the bigger story of the move and of Taronga itself in my post Taronga Zoo – From Moore Park to Bradleys Head, including Jessie's famous night walk through the city streets in 1916. This page stays at Moore Park. It's about the old zoo itself: who started it, what was there, what a day out looked like, why it fell out of favour, and what's left of it now.

A lion resting on the floorboards of its den at the Zoo, Moore Park. Photo by Henry King from the Tyrrell Collection. Powerhouse Museum, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Swamp on the Sydney Common

Moore Park started life as part of the 1,000 acres Governor Lachlan Macquarie set aside in 1811 as common pasture for the town. According to the Sydney High School history site, it takes its name from Charles Moore, Mayor of Sydney from 1867 to 1869, who fought to keep the Common as parkland for the people. The Sydney Common, later called Moore Park, was dedicated on 5 October 1866. I've written more on that in my posts on the Sydney Common and the Moore Park Trust legislation, linked at the bottom of this page.

One low, wet corner of it, alongside what was then Randwick Road and is now Anzac Parade, was known as Billy Goat Swamp (some sources write it as Billygoat Swamp). That was the patch that became the zoo.

Moore Park and Surry Hills from the Moore Park entrance gates, around 1875, a few years before the zoo arrived. American & Australasian Photographic Company, State Library of NSW, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Charles Moore, the mayor Moore Park is named after. J. Roarty, CC BY-SA 3.0 AU, via Wikimedia Commons

The Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1879

The zoo grew out of a society that, to begin with, didn't really want a zoo at all. The circular calling its first meeting on 24 March 1879 described a "Society for the acclimatisation of song birds and useful game". Museums of History NSW puts its aim as the "introduction and acclimatisation of song birds and game". The Society bought game birds and let them go, and it imported and farmed fish, brown trout among them. It even bred English perch in one of Moore Park's ornamental lakes.

Two names were on that first circular. One was Walter Bradley, who came to be known as the founder of the zoo. The Dictionary of Sydney describes Bradley as an auctioneer who arrived in Sydney with little money, built his own business and went on to sit in the NSW Legislative Assembly and to serve as an alderman and Mayor of Randwick.

Walter Bradley, remembered as the founder of the zoo, from The Bulletin of 31 July 1880. Unknown engraver, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

It didn't take long for some members to set their sights on a proper zoological garden. The Sydney High School history says that in June 1879, after a request to the Mayor of Sydney, Billy Goat Swamp was granted to the Society. Other sources put the grant later (more on that below). Either way, the starting site was 7 acres. Work began in July 1880, and by 1882 the ground had been levelled and planted and "a considerable lake" formed. The buildings, aviaries and other works had cost £1,119 8s 10d by then, and there were still more aviaries and proper animal houses to come.

Centennial Parklands credits Charles Moore, Director of the Botanic Gardens and a member of the Society, with laying out the Zoological Gardens. He had looked after a small menagerie at the Botanic Gardens and soon moved its birds across to Moore Park. And yes, that's a different Charles Moore from the mayor the park is named after. Two Charles Moores, one park. It's enough to confuse anyone.

Charles Moore (1820–1905), Director of the Botanic Gardens, who laid out the Zoological Gardens. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Opening Day and Growing Up, 1883–1900

The animals started arriving before the public did. The birds and the first elephant moved in during 1883, and the zoo officially opened to the public in 1884. The Dictionary of Sydney, Centennial Parklands and the Sydney High history all give 1884. By 1887 it was described as being in a "very thriving condition".

The ground grew with it. Museums of History NSW says the lease went from 7 acres to 12.5 acres in 1881. Another small addition in 1905 took it to about 15 acres, and in August 1906 the City Council extended the lease for another 14 years.

Layout and buildings

Nobody has left a neat map I could find online, but you can put the place together from the old descriptions. The main entrance faced Randwick Road (now Anzac Parade), and one bear pit took pride of place in the embankment by the gate. Inside were lawns, terraces and flower gardens running down to an ornamental lake with weeping willows, water plants and goldfish. There were aviaries, animal houses and dens for the big cats, an elephant shed, refreshment rooms, and shelters for picnics. An advertisement from around 1901 boasted of "TWO POLAR BEARS swimming and diving in their new house".

The bear pits were round, sunken enclosures. To amuse the crowds, the bears had to climb poles set in the middle of each pit, and there's some evidence of balls and swings too. Their dinner was a thick soup of meat, pollard and grain with potatoes, turnips or cabbage in season, boiled for hours. The pits were open, and that was too tempting for some visitors. In 1892 a few youths are said to have dropped in a hollowed-out cork holding a lolly ringed with pins. Luckily it didn't work.

Kangaroos and wallabies in their yard at the Zoo, Moore Park, from the Tyrrell Collection glass plates. Henry King, Powerhouse Museum (Tyrrell Collection), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Jumbo, Jessie and the Elephant Rides

Every zoo of the day wanted an elephant. It drew the crowds and it earned money from rides. Moore Park ended 1883 with two. Jumbo, a male given to the Society by the King of Siam, landed at Circular Quay on 12 July 1883 and was named after Barnum's famous African elephant. Jessie, bought from the Calcutta Zoological Society, landed at Millers Point on 30 November 1883, aged about eight. She came with two keepers whose names were reported as Parbuck and Eliback. The plan was to cart her to Moore Park in a van, but she walked straight back out "before the doors could be fastened, brandishing [her] trunk and looking rather put out". Once settled, she was found "quietly munching sugar cane" in her new shed.

The two elephants got through about 100 pounds of hay a day, and they paid for it. In 1891 the "two penny" elephant rides alone brought in more than £680, which works out to around 81,600 riders. Riders climbed steps to a platform and sat on bench seats on either side of a howdah. Parbuck showed reporters how a keeper got up: one foot on her trunk, an ear in each hand, and Jessie gave a gentle hoist. By 1916 the price was down to a penny a ride, and over six months that year Jessie carried more than 35,000 people for £146 15s.

The elephants worked off the clock as well. In 1894 the Society let the theatre firm Williamson and Musgrove hire one for the play "Round the World in Eighty Days". A 1912 newspaper piece quoted on the Sydney High history site said that whenever there was "really hard pulling or lifting to be done", Jessie was brought out, with "the strength of several horses". She became such a fixture that a cheeky person was said to have "more hide than Jessie".

Jessie's later life, her 1916 walk to the harbour and her death at Taronga in 1939 are all in my Taronga post.

A Day at the Zoo

By the 1890s the zoo was one of the big days out of late-Victorian Sydney, and it had to compete hard for the crowds. An advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald of 2 January 1901 (as quoted on the Sydney High history site) gives you the flavour:

THE BEST, THE CHEAPEST and by far the most amusing and instructive place to go to is the "ZOO." By far the BEST PLACE FOR PICNICS is decidedly the "ZOO" with its well-kept Lawns, Terraces, and Flower Gardens, with its Pretty Lake and Weeping Willows ... PARENTS SHOULD TAKE THEIR CHILDREN TO THE "ZOO," TO SEE THE "WILD MAN OF THE WOODS," or the ORANG-OUTANG OF BORNEO ... At 4pm THE LIONS, TIGERS, LEOPARDS, and PUMAS WILL BE FED, AND AT 4.30 THE PELICANS ... ADMISSION TO THE GARDENS, 6d; Children, 3d. The Randwick and Coogee Trams stop at the Gates.

The same ad listed bears, hyenas, jackals and dingoes, along with ostriches, emus, cassowaries, a flock of flamingos, swans, parrots, eagles, vultures and songbirds. Museums of History NSW adds the orangutan, a polar bear and "cages full" of lions, tigers and leopards.

There was music too. On a Saturday afternoon in December 1883, the Herald reported, "Jumbo as usual was kept fully employed" while a band played "choice selections of music at intervals". On Christmas Day 1900 the lawns were full of family parties, plus plenty of soldiers from the camp at the Agricultural Society's Ground next door. Fetes were held in the grounds. In 1913 the Girls Realm Guild of Sydney Girls' High School ran a Zoological Fete there, eight years before the school moved onto the very same ground.

The entrance to the Association Ground (now the SCG) around 1900. The zoo was a near neighbour of the cricket ground and the Agricultural Society's showground at Moore Park. Powerhouse Museum (Tyrrell Collection), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Quong Tart's refreshment rooms

If you wanted a cuppa, you'd have been served by one of Sydney's best-known businessmen. According to the Sydney High history site, Quong Tart, the Chinese-born tea merchant and restaurateur, ran the zoo's refreshment rooms during the 1880s and 1890s.

Mei Quong Tart, tea merchant and restaurateur, around 1885. He ran the zoo's refreshment rooms in the 1880s and 1890s. Unknown artist, State Library of NSW, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sundays and free entry

Not everyone liked the fun. Around the turn of the century there was plenty of agitation over Sunday observance. In 1906 one man tried, and failed, to take the zoo's board to court under the Sunday Observance Act, an old English law from the time of George III that was still in force in NSW. Over its 32 years the zoo took in about 7,500,000 visitors. Many of them got in free or for a nominal charge on Sundays, and schoolchildren always had free run of the collection.

Floods, Drought and the Plague, 1900–1902

The turn of the century was rough on the zoo. In 1900 a burst water main in Cleveland Street flooded the place, which isn't much of a surprise on a site called Billy Goat Swamp. A drought followed in 1901. Then in April 1902 bubonic plague turned up among the animals and the zoo was shut.

The Sydney High history says 25 animals died, but only five were actually diagnosed with plague. The heavy disinfecting afterwards was thought to have killed most of the rest. The rats were suspected of carrying it in from the city tip nearby, on land that's now part of the Moore Park golf course. A lot had to be burned. The zoo reopened on 18 August 1902, after about four months shut.

Cleaning a Sydney street in the plague quarantine area, 1900. Two years later the plague reached the animals at Moore Park. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rat catching during the Sydney plague outbreak. Rats from the Moore Park tip were blamed for bringing plague into the zoo. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Albert Sherbourne Le Souef Takes Charge

In April 1903 the Society brought in a new secretary, which at that time meant the zoo's director. He was Albert Sherbourne Le Souef, then 26. He came from a real zoo dynasty. His father, Albert Alexander Cochrane Le Souef, ran the Melbourne zoo. One brother, Dudley, followed him there, and another, Ernest, ran the Perth zoo. Sherbourne had trained at the Melbourne Veterinary College, been secretary of the Zoological and Acclimatization Society of Victoria from 1897, and been made assistant director in Melbourne when his father died in 1902.

What he found at Moore Park wasn't pretty. The Australian Dictionary of Biography calls the gardens "cramped", "dirty and noisy" and "clearly inadequate". The Le Souef family archives guide describes the site as "hopelessly inadequate; cramped and filthy, surrounded by trams and obsolete enclosure".

Sherbourne ran Moore Park from 1903 until 1916 and then became the first director of Taronga, staying until 1939 (the ADB says he retired in 1940). He married Mary Emily Louise Greaves in Sydney on 22 April 1908.

Dudley Le Souef, director of the Melbourne zoo and Sherbourne's elder brother. It was Dudley who suggested the name Taronga. Sears' Studios, State Library of Victoria, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

"Mean and Unhealthy Grounds": Why Moore Park Had to Go

The zoo was popular, but it was badly sited. Museums of History NSW sums it up: it flooded, it was dusty and windswept, and the trams and traffic beside it were noisy. Critics also pointed to animals kept in small barred cages and concrete-floored enclosures, often with little sunlight. The Sydney High history adds that by 1910 it was clearly too open, too close to the city tip, and that the cages didn't match new thinking about how animals should be kept. It was also too small. Its 15 acres looked poor next to Melbourne's 50 and Perth's 40.

In 1907 (the ADB's date; Museums of History NSW says 1908) Le Souef and Dr Robert Todd went to Europe and came home taken with Carl Hagenbeck's park in Hamburg. Hagenbeck kept animals behind hidden moats and fake rock instead of bars.

The big-cat ravine at Carl Hagenbeck's Tierpark in Hamburg, on a postcard from December 1907, the same year Le Souef and Todd toured Europe. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Carl Hagenbeck, whose bar-less zoo at Hamburg inspired the move away from Moore Park. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Plenty of new sites were floated, including Long Bay, Maroubra, Little Coogee Bay, Bondi, Vaucluse, Tempe and others. Le Souef also opposed the government's purchase of Wentworth Park for the zoo. In July 1911 the Society's president, Charles Hedley, called the "mean and unhealthy grounds" at Moore Park "not worthy of this wealthy State, of this great city". The site at Bradleys Head in Mosman won out, preparations began in August 1912, and the rest of that story is in my Taronga post.

Closing Time, 1916

Through 1916 the animals were moved across the harbour by road and boat. When the Taronga trustees took over the staff and the collection in July 1916, Centennial Parklands says there were about 177 animals and 329 birds. The Sydney High history says 177 animals and 339 birds. Jessie left through the Moore Park gates in the early hours of Sunday 24 September 1916. Taronga was officially opened on 7 October 1916.

The Sydney High history notes the zoo closed about four years before the Society's lease ran out.

Troops marching along Randwick Road (now Anzac Parade) on 18 August 1914. The zoo's main gate was on this road, and the move to Taronga happened in the middle of the war. Australian National Maritime Museum, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

From Zoo to Schoolyard

The empty site was dedicated to Sydney Girls' High School in November 1919. The girls had outgrown their old two-storey Francis Greenway building in Elizabeth Street, which was cramped and noisy with traffic. The school says that when they moved in 1921 they were "overwhelmed by the amount of space, the grass, trees and the quiet". The school's own photo of the first lunch hour is dated 20 July 1921.

The girls' old school in Elizabeth Street, around 1898. They swapped it for the old zoo grounds in 1921. State Archives and Records NSW, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The old school building from the Castlereagh Street side in March 1922, a year after the girls left for Moore Park. The site later became David Jones. State Records NSW, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The boys followed in 1928, into buildings designed by George McRae, the architect of the Queen Victoria Building. The two schools still share the old zoo ground, with "the Flat", a low-lying common area, between them. The Sydney High history says the ornamental ponds were filled in by 1929, though the low ground still floods now and then.

Sydney Boys High School at Moore Park in 2007, on the old zoo ground. J Bar, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Sydney Boys High School, Moore Park. Laurence McGrath (uploaded by Jirrupin), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What's Left Today: The Bear Pits

Apart from the odd flood, the only reminders of the old zoo are the two bear pits, one in each school. The Dictionary of Sydney notes the original bear pit can still be seen beside Anzac Parade. Sydney Girls High says its "historic Bear Pit" still stands in the "Lowers" as a link between the school and the old zoo.

The pits have had a funny second life. The Sydney High history lists them being used to punish naughty girls, to finish homework, to store maintenance gear and old furniture, and more recently as a prefects' study. When a new building was planned at the boys' school in the late 1960s, headmaster Murray Callaghan talked the government into keeping their bear pit. It's now the centrepiece of the courtyard in the Sir Charles McDonald Building, opened in 1972.

Both pits sit inside working school grounds, so they're not open to the public.

Moore Park Road and Anzac Parade in 1934, by Sam Hood. By then the old Randwick Road had been renamed and the high schools stood on the old zoo ground. Sam Hood, State Library of NSW, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Moore Park gates on Anzac Parade, 2007. The zoo's main gate was on this road, then called Randwick Road. J Bar, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• 1811 – Governor Macquarie sets aside 1,000 acres as the Sydney Common.
• 5 October 1866 – The Sydney Common (later Moore Park) is dedicated.
• 24 March 1879 – First meeting of what becomes the Zoological Society of NSW; Walter Bradley is one of the two names on the circular.
• June 1879 – Billy Goat Swamp granted to the Society (Sydney High history; others say 1883).
• July 1880 – Work starts on the zoological garden.
• 1881 – Lease increased from 7 to 12.5 acres (Museums of History NSW).
• 12 July 1883 – Jumbo, gift of the King of Siam, lands at Circular Quay.
• 30 November 1883 – Jessie arrives from Calcutta.
• 1884 – The Zoological Gardens open to the public.
• 1891 – Elephant rides earn more than £680; Sydney Girls High's bear pit dated to this year by the school.
• 1894 – An elephant is hired out for "Round the World in Eighty Days".
• 1900 – Burst Cleveland Street water main floods the zoo.
• April–18 August 1902 – Zoo closed after plague among the animals.
• April 1903 – Albert Sherbourne Le Souef becomes secretary (director).
• 1905 – Site grows to about 15 acres.
• August 1906 – Lease extended 14 years; Sunday Observance case fails.
• 1907/1908 – Le Souef and Dr Robert Todd tour European zoos.
• July 1911 – Charles Hedley calls Moore Park "mean and unhealthy grounds".
• August 1912 – Preparations begin at the Mosman site.
• 1913 – Sydney Girls High's Zoological Fete held in the grounds.
• July 1916 – Taronga trustees take over the staff and animals.
• 24 September 1916 – Jessie walks out of Moore Park for the last time.
• 7 October 1916 – Taronga Zoological Park officially opens.
• November 1919 – Site dedicated for Sydney Girls High School.
• 1921 – Sydney Girls High moves in.
• 1928 – Sydney Boys High moves in.
• 1929 – Old ornamental ponds filled in by this year.
• 1972 – Sir Charles McDonald Building opens around the boys' bear pit.

Where the Sources Disagree

• When the land was granted. The Sydney High history says Billy Goat Swamp was granted in June 1879. Centennial Parklands says the City Council granted the 7 acres in 1883. Museums of History NSW says the lease grew to 12.5 acres in 1881, so a grant before that seems more likely.
• How big the zoo got. Museums of History NSW, Centennial Parklands and the Sydney High history all say about 15 acres by 1905. The Le Souef family archives guide calls it a 17-acre site.
• Which animals caught the plague. Centennial Parklands says kangaroos. Museums of History NSW says wallabies. The Sydney High history says 25 animals died but only five were diagnosed with plague.
• How old the bear pits are. The Sydney High history says at least one pit dates from 1883, with the side steps added soon after. Sydney Girls High says its bear pit was built in 1891.
• How many birds moved. Centennial Parklands says 329 birds; the Sydney High history says 339. Both say 177 animals.
• When it closed. Most sources say 1916. The Dictionary of Sydney entry gives 1917.
• Le Souef's European tour. The ADB and the Le Souef archives guide say 1907. Museums of History NSW says 1908.
• When Le Souef left Taronga. Several sources give 1939; the ADB says he retired in 1940.
• The price of a ride. The 1891 rides were "two penny" (Sydney High history). By 1916 Museums of History NSW says a penny a ride.
• The two Charles Moores. The Sydney High history says the park is named after Charles Moore, Mayor of Sydney 1867–69. Centennial Parklands says Charles Moore of the Botanic Gardens laid out the zoo. They're two different men, and it's easy to mix them up.

My Earlier Posts

• Taronga Zoo – From Moore Park to Bradleys Head
• The Sydney Common – Moore Parklands
• Moore Park Trust Legislation
• Flinders Street – Taylor Square to Moore Park – Darlinghurst
• Sydney Centennial – 1888 – A Coming of Age
• Centennial Park – Sydney – New South Wales
• Centennial Park and Queens Park – Sydney

Sources

• High History and Heritage (Sydney High School), "History of the Moore Park Zoo": history.sydneyhigh.school/nodes/view/410. Quotes the SMH, 24 December 1883, 26 December 1900 and 2 January 1901.
• Museums of History NSW, "The story of how to move a zoo": mhnsw.au. Cites J. H. Prince, The First One Hundred Years of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW 1879–1979 (1979), and "For the people", SMH, 21 July 1911.
• Museums of History NSW, "Jessie the elephant": mhnsw.au
• Centennial Parklands, "Moore Park Zoo's colourful history" (2018): centennialparklands.com.au
• Dictionary of Sydney, "Zoological Gardens Moore Park" and "Bradley, Walter": dictionaryofsydney.org
• A. Dunbavin Butcher, "Le Souef, Albert Sherbourne (1877–1951)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 10, 1986: adb.anu.edu.au
• Le Souëf Family Archives Guide to Records, "005 – Albert Sherbourne Le Souëf", University of Melbourne: austehc.unimelb.edu.au
• Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, "Le Souef, Albert Sherbourne": eoas.info
• Sydney Girls High School, "History of Sydney Girls High School": sydneygirl-h.schools.nsw.gov.au
• Wikipedia, "Sydney Boys High School" and "Sydney Girls High School": en.wikipedia.org
• Images: Wikimedia Commons, from the Powerhouse Museum (Tyrrell Collection), State Library of NSW, State Library of Victoria, State Archives and Records NSW, Australian National Maritime Museum and individual photographers, as credited under each picture.

Taronga Zoo – From Moore Park to Bradleys Head

Most Sydneysiders have caught the ferry across to Taronga at least once, usually as a kid with a packed lunch, and we all know the view from the top of the hill. What a lot of people don't know is that the zoo started life on the other side of the harbour, on a swampy patch of Moore Park where Sydney Boys High and Sydney Girls High stand today. In 1916, in the middle of the Great War, the whole lot was packed up and moved. Lions, bears, monkeys, kangaroos, hundreds of birds and one very large elephant named Jessie all made the trip across Sydney to a new home on the bush slopes of Bradleys Head at Mosman.

This page follows the story from the start. It begins with the Zoological Society and the old Moore Park zoo, then the 1916 move and Jessie's early morning walk through the city, the opening of Taronga Zoological Park on 7 October 1916, and the years since. Those years brought gorillas and pandas, the Sky Safari, the open-range zoo at Dubbo and the conservation work Taronga is known for today. There's a timeline near the end, some notes on visiting, and the full list of sources at the bottom.

A lion at the old Zoological Gardens, Moore Park. Glass plate negative from the Tyrrell collection. Kerry & Co / Powerhouse Museum Collection, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The Zoological Society and Billy Goat Swamp

It all goes back to 1879, when the NSW Zoological Society was formed. It later became the Royal Zoological Society of NSW. Animals weren't the first thing on its mind. Its early aim was the "introduction and acclimatisation of song birds and game", which was a very colonial idea of making the bush feel more like England. Before long, though, the members turned to something more ambitious: a proper public zoological garden for Sydney.

The City Council gave the Society a patch of Moore Park known, not very grandly, as Billy Goat Swamp. The sources tell this part slightly differently. Museums of History NSW says the Society leased 7 acres and that this was increased to 12.5 acres in 1881. Centennial Parklands says Council granted the 7 acres in 1883. Either way, the zoo began on about seven acres in Moore Park and grew from there.

Charles Moore, Director of the Botanic Gardens and a member of the Society, laid out the grounds. He had been looking after a small menagerie at the Botanic Gardens, and he moved those birds across to the new zoo. Animals started arriving in 1883, and the Zoological Gardens at Moore Park opened to the public in 1884. It was Sydney's first public zoo.

Two elephants: Jumbo and Jessie

Every self-respecting zoo of the time wanted an elephant. An elephant drew the crowds, and the rides brought in the money. By the end of 1883 Moore Park had two of them, and it's worth getting them straight because people mix them up all the time.

The first was a male, a gift from the King of Siam, who arrived in July 1883. He was named Jumbo, after the famous African elephant in P. T. Barnum's circus. The second was a female bought from the Calcutta Zoological Society. She arrived in Sydney on 30 November 1883 aboard the steamer Newcomen, which tied up at the Central Wharf at Millers Point, along with a number of mongooses. Two keepers, or mahouts, came with her. The papers gave their names as Parbuck and Eliback. Her name was Jessie, and she's the one who became a Sydney legend.

Getting her from the wharf to Moore Park didn't go to plan. The keepers meant to take her up in a van, but no sooner was she coaxed inside than she "walked out again before the doors could be fastened, brandishing [her] trunk and looking rather put out". They got her there in the end, and she was soon "quietly munching sugar cane" in a shed made ready for her.

Nobody really knew how old Jessie was. The Daily Telegraph of 1 December 1883 gave her age as "sweet seventeen". Museums of History NSW says she was believed to be about eight when she arrived. When she died in 1939 the Sydney Morning Herald called her 77, which would fit neither. The honest answer is that her age was a guess from the start.

What everyone did agree on was her temperament. Jessie was gentle and would "lie down, roll over, and do a great many other things at the word of command". People climbed steps to a platform and sat on a howdah, a saddle with bench seats on either side. Parbuck showed the crowds how a keeper mounted her the traditional way, with a foot on her trunk and a hand on each ear while Jessie gave a gentle hoist. She was so well known that "more hide than Jessie" became Sydney slang for a cheeky or brazen person.

Life at the Moore Park zoo

By the early 1900s Moore Park was a proper day out. There were refreshment rooms, gardens, picnic shelters, music and animal rides. There was an orangutan, a polar bear, "cages full" of lions, tigers and leopards, plus bears, dingoes, hyenas, a flock of flamingos, emus and songbirds. Kerry & Co's photographers came by with their big glass-plate cameras, which is why lovely portraits like the lion at the top of this page survive.

The site had real problems, though. It lived up to its old name and flooded. It was dusty and windswept, and the trams and traffic rattling past were noisy. In 1902 bubonic plague was found among the animals and the zoo closed for four months. Museums of History NSW says it was the wallabies, Centennial Parklands says kangaroos, and buildings were burnt and many animals lost. The zoo grew to 15 acres in 1905, and in August 1906 the Council extended the lease for another 14 years, but it had clearly outgrown the place.

Attitudes were changing too. People were starting to object to animals kept in small barred cages on concrete floors with little sun. When the Society's president, Charles Hedley, later made the case for a new zoo, he called the Moore Park grounds "mean and unhealthy" and "not worthy of this wealthy State, of this great city".

A new idea: a zoo without bars

The man who changed everything was Albert Sherbourne Le Souef. He was appointed secretary of the Zoological Society in 1903, a job that was really the zoo director's role. Le Souef was young and full of ideas. In 1908 he and Dr Robert Todd went on a world tour of zoos and came home inspired by Carl Hagenbeck's zoo at Hamburg. There the animals lived in open-air enclosures without bars, kept apart from visitors by moats and ditches instead of cages. Le Souef wanted the same for Sydney.

Choosing Bradleys Head

Plenty of sites were put forward. The list included Long Bay, Upper Lane Cove, Harris Park, Tempe, Little Coogee Bay, Rockdale, Queens Park, Maroubra, Bondi and Vaucluse. Le Souef had his heart set on Bradleys Head, on the northern side of the harbour. It had bushland, rocky slopes, harbour views, and the city was only a short ferry ride away.

In 1911 Acting Premier William Holman announced the government's policy of "preserving the foreshores of Sydney Harbour for the people". At that same event Charles Hedley put the case for part of Mosman's Ashton Park to be set aside for a new zoo. It worked. In 1912 the site was chosen and more than 40 acres were reserved. Wikipedia gives the grant as 43 acres (17 hectares), with a further 9 acres added in 1916. It was all handed to a new body, the Taronga Zoological Park Trust.

What does "Taronga" mean?

Taronga is an Aboriginal word, usually given as meaning "beautiful view". You'll find that meaning on Wikipedia and on Taronga's own material. Some sources say "water view" instead, and some link the word to the Cammeraygal people, the traditional owners of the Mosman side of the harbour. I couldn't find a primary source that settles it, so I'll just say it's usually translated as "beautiful view". Anyone who has stood at the top gate and looked back at the city will agree it fits.

The view that gave the place its name: Sydney Harbour from Taronga Park, about 1920. Government Printing Office / State Library of New South Wales, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Building the new zoo

Taronga was planned around the land rather than flattening it. The enclosures were built from natural and artificial rock to keep as much of the bushland as possible. The seal ponds even had imitation ice floes. Le Souef made plasticine models and worked out how wide the moats had to be from how far each animal could leap. As he put it, there would be "nothing between the public and the animal but air space".

As each enclosure was finished, animals were put in to test it. The rhesus monkeys happily obliged by escaping, so the walls were built higher. One of the earliest features still standing is the Rustic Bridge, opened in 1915 over a natural gully. Its stone-studded walls were meant to look like an Italian grotto.

1916: How to move a zoo

Now to the part I most wanted to tell: the move. It happened over about six months in 1916, at the height of the First World War. Hundreds of animals and birds left the old cages at Moore Park and were walked, carted or carried through the streets to the harbour, then ferried across to Taronga. The newspapers called it a "miniature Noah's Ark".

Sydneysiders certainly noticed. One report described "mournful yells from hyenas, angry roars from lions and tigers, good-humored snorts from gigantic elephants hauling a veritable menagerie of wild beasts confined in cages" disturbing "the early morning serenity of Sydney streets". Centennial Parklands says Moore Park closed in July 1916, when the Taronga trustees took over all the staff and animals, believed to be 177 animals and 329 birds. By the end of 1916 Taronga held 228 mammals, 552 birds and 64 reptiles.

Jessie's walk across Sydney

The star of the move was Jessie. At around 4 tons (over 4,000 kilograms) she was by far the biggest animal to make the trip, and she did most of it on foot.

In the early hours of Sunday 24 September 1916, Jessie walked out of the Moore Park gates for the last time. Her home of more than 30 years was behind her. With her were three keepers, led by the head keeper, Mr Miller, and behind them in a car came Dr Robert Todd, one of the Taronga trustees. They led her along Dowling, Flinders, Bourke, Woolloomooloo and Palmer streets, across the Domain and down Macquarie Street to Bennelong Point, where the Opera House stands today.

It wasn't easy on her. Her feet got sore on the hard road, and she grew nervous in places, but "a pat on the shoulder, or a reassuring grip on her ear" kept her going through the narrow streets and over the tram lines. Along the way a horse pulling a milk cart took one look at her and bolted. You can only imagine the milkman's face.

At Bennelong Point a vehicle ferry, a punt, was waiting. This is where I want to be clear, because the story often gets muddled. Jessie wasn't lifted in a crate or towed on a barge. She walked on board the vehicle ferry herself. The Evening News of 25 September 1916 reported:

"With hardly any hesitation, Jessie walked on to the punt, and ran her trunk over the outer gate, as if inquiring whether she would remove the obstacle. A word from her keeper, and she stood as still as a rock during the trip down the harbour."

The trip took about 35 minutes. Two photographs of that morning survive, and they're my favourite pictures on this page. In the first, Jessie stands on the deck with her keepers in their caps and coats beside her.

Jessie standing on the deck of the vehicle ferry with her keepers on the trip across the harbour to Taronga, September 1916. Unknown photographer (Mosman Library), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Getting off was the tense bit. The pontoon at Taronga dipped alarmingly under her weight, but her keepers talked her through it and "she finally tip-toed across the pontoon and on to the wharf". By 7 am she'd been shown into her new home, an elephant house built to look like an Indian temple.

Jessie coming off the vehicular ferry on her way into the new zoo, 1916. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

One small warning about these pictures. The caption on one of them on Wikimedia Commons says Jessie was "a gift from the King of Siam". She wasn't. That was Jumbo. Jessie was bought from the Calcutta Zoological Society. It's an easy mix-up, and it shows how the two elephants have blurred together in Sydney's memory.

The elephant house at Taronga in 1916, built to look like an Indian temple. This was Jessie's new home. Royal Australian Historical Society, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

NSW State Archives holds more than 100 glass-plate negatives of the final days of Moore Park and the early years of Taronga, and they've been digitised. Museums of History NSW used them in the "How to Move a Zoo" exhibition at the Museum of Sydney from 20 November 2021 to 24 April 2022. Many of the best pictures of the animals in transit are in that collection rather than on Wikimedia Commons, so I've listed where to find them in the sources.

The opening of Taronga Zoological Park

Before the official opening, the government offered every schoolchild in metropolitan Sydney a free day at the new zoo. It was partly advertising, but it also gave families a bit of joy in a grim wartime year. Between 100,000 and 120,000 children, with their mothers and little brothers and sisters, came over the following months. One reporter watched them charge up the hill, "spilling peanuts as they ran in a wild contest to reach the monkey cages first". He compared the scramble, in the way people did in 1916, to the charge up the hillside at Gallipoli.

The official opening came on 7 October 1916, when Premier William Holman opened Taronga Zoological Park before a crowd of invited guests. Taronga puts the attendance at about 1,200.

The official opening of the zoo, October 1916. Royal Australian Historical Society, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The entrance to Taronga Zoological Park in its first year, 1916. Government Printing Office / State Library of New South Wales, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Getting there by ferry

From the very beginning the ferry was the way to get to Taronga, and it still is. Ferries brought crowds straight from Circular Quay to the wharf below the zoo. One of the photos below shows the ferry Kirawa at the zoo wharf in October 1916, the month the zoo opened. Families walked up the hill from the water, and later generations caught the tram or bus to the top gate.

The ferry Kirawa tied up at the zoo wharf in October 1916, the month Taronga opened. Unknown photographer (NSW State Archives), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Crowds arriving at Taronga Park, around 1916. Sam Hood / State Library of New South Wales, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The early years

Jessie went straight back to work at Taronga, giving rides to generations of Sydney kids. She'd already been a hard worker at Moore Park. In six months of 1916 her rides there brought in £146 15s, about $15,000 in today's money, and she carried more than 35,000 people at a penny a ride. At Taronga the rides carried on for decades.

Elephant rides at Taronga in 1917. A penny a ride kept the zoo going for years. Royal Australian Historical Society, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Other attractions came along. The Aquarium opened in 1929 and quickly became one of the most popular parts of the zoo. The old photos show refreshment rooms, lawns and picnic spots, and Taronga became the place Sydney families went on a fine weekend.

Goodbye, Jessie

Jessie died at Taronga on Tuesday 26 September 1939, almost 56 years after she first came ashore at Millers Point. Sydney was genuinely sad to lose her. The next day the Sydney Morning Herald ran a photograph from her last birthday party and noted that more than 1,500,000 children had ridden on her back. That's a lot of happy kids from one gentle old elephant.

Sir Edward Hallstrom and King Kong

In 1941 Sir Edward Hallstrom was appointed a trustee, and he launched a review of exhibit design and animal welfare. In 1956 an Act of Parliament made the Taronga Zoological Park Trust a body corporate, which let it run more like a business.

Then in 1959 came Australia's first gorilla. Five-year-old "King Kong" arrived from California and moved into a purpose-built "Gorilla Villa". He was a sensation, and attendance went up 26 per cent to 914,000 in 1959–60.

Not every idea of that era aged well. In 1964 the seal pool was converted to hold dolphins, to compete with the marine parks of the day. Taronga's own history admits the dolphins did badly, with an average lifespan of less than a year.

A new era: from entertainment to conservation

The big turning point came in 1967. A critical review set Taronga on a new path, with scientific conservation, education and preservation taking priority over entertainment. New exhibits designed to hide the buildings in the landscape followed: the Platypus House (1968), the walk-through Rainforest Aviary (1970) and the Nocturnal House (1972), plus new waterholes.

The 1970s brought the zoo's first master plan (1970) and its first dedicated veterinary building (1971). Volunteers started in 1974, and the Education Centre and Friendship Farm opened in 1976. That same year the elephant rides and the merry-go-round stopped, and so did the miniature train and the monkey circus. For anyone who grew up riding an elephant at Taronga, that was the end of an era. It was the right call, though, and it marked the new focus on animal welfare. A new Seal Theatre opened in 1979, with the seals showing natural behaviours instead of tricks.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo

Bradleys Head is beautiful but steep and cramped, and big plains animals like elephants and antelope need room. As far back as 1965 Sir Edward Hallstrom wrote to the government about land for a "Living Zoo". Taronga's director Ronald Strahan took up the idea, and in 1972 the government announced Australia's first full-scale open-range zoo on an old World War II army camp just outside Dubbo.

Western Plains Zoo opened on 28 February 1977. It was officially opened by the NSW Governor, Sir Roden Cutler, and cost about $2.8 million. It was the first zoo built in Australia in 60 years, the first since Taronga itself, and the first designed on open-range lines, with concealed moats instead of fences. Today it's Taronga Western Plains Zoo, and you can drive, cycle or walk its 5-kilometre circuit.

The 1980s: Sky Safari and pandas

In 1982 Taronga imported thirteen Przewalski's horses for a breeding program, at a time when the species was close to extinction. The Australian Registry of Wildlife Health was founded at the zoo in 1985.

1987 was a big year. The Taronga Aerial Cabin Ride opened to carry visitors from the wharf up the steep hill to the top of the zoo. We came to know it as the Sky Safari. The same year a breeding program for the greater bilby began, and five joeys were born in its first six months.

Then for the Bicentenary in 1988, China lent Australia two giant pandas, and Taronga had them for a season. Taronga's own figures say 623,390 people came to see the pair in just three months. In 1989 Taronga became a founding member of the International Rhino Foundation, and it opened the first conservation and research centre in any Australasian zoo.

A zoo for a new century

In 2000 a 12-year, $250 million master plan began, with most of the money going to Taronga. The Backyard to Bush precinct opened in April 2003. Also in 2003, Taronga became the second zoo in Australia to breed the platypus.

The biggest and most argued-over project was bringing elephants back. Under the plan Taronga took five Asian elephants from Thailand for breeding and conservation. Activists in Thailand blockaded the trucks taking them to Bangkok's airport on 5 June 2006, but the elephants came anyway and moved into the Wild Asia precinct, which had opened in July 2005, in November 2006. At 3.04 am on 4 July 2009, Thong Dee gave birth to Luk Chai, the first elephant calf born in Australia. A second calf, Pathi Harn, whose name means "miracle", was born on 10 March 2010, two days after the zoo had announced he was probably dead. The Great Southern Oceans marine precinct opened in April 2008, and the same year the two zoos became Taronga Conservation Society Australia.

The elephant chapter at Bradleys Head has since closed. The last two elephants at Taronga Sydney, Pak Boon and Tang Mo, left in April 2025 for Monarto Safari Park in South Australia. Their old exhibit became the Rhino Reserve. Its first resident is Hari, a greater one-horned rhinoceros born at Dubbo in October 2021 and moved to Sydney in December 2025, who shares it with three water buffalo.

One hundred years

Taronga turned 100 in 2016 and celebrated with a parade through the city streets, a nice echo of Jessie's walk a century earlier. The 160-seat Centenary Theatre opened, and the zoo made a ten-year commitment to ten "Legacy Species": the bilby, koala, marine turtles, platypus, regent honeyeater and southern corroboree frog at home, and the Sumatran elephant, rhinoceros and tiger, sun bear and Sunda pangolin overseas.

More new precincts followed. Tiger Trek opened in August 2017. The Taronga Institute of Science and Learning, known as "The Hive" for its honeycomb design, was officially opened on 16 October 2018 by Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The Wildlife Retreat, where you can stay overnight, opened in October 2019, and the African Savannah precinct followed in June 2020. In August 2021 the lioness Maya gave birth to five cubs, the first lion litter at the zoo in 18 years. The Nura Diya Australia precinct opened in 2023, and the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Centre in June 2024.

Bushfires, lockdowns and a lion scare

During the Black Summer fires of 2019–20, Taronga staff treated injured wildlife and gave displaced animals a safe place. When COVID closed both zoos, Taronga launched Taronga TV online. In 2021 ten greater bilbies bred at Dubbo were released into Sturt National Park, more than a century after bilbies were declared extinct in NSW.

Then there was the morning of 2 November 2022. At 6.40 am five lions, a male and four cubs, got out of their main enclosure through a hole in a fence. None got past the secondary fence, nobody was hurt, and the lions were back in their enclosure that morning, with one cub tranquillised. It made headlines around the world, but it never came close to being a disaster.

The Sky Safari: gone and coming back

The Sky Safari gondolas over the zoo, 2006. The first cable car ran from 1987 to January 2023. Simon_sees, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Sky Safari was updated in 2000 and gave us more than 30 years of gondola rides over the giraffes with the harbour spread out behind them. It closed on 31 January 2023 at the end of its working life. A $105 million replacement was approved by the NSW Government despite local objections about taller pylons, tree removal and harbour views. Sydney Zoo even lodged an objection on competition grounds. On 23 April 2026 Taronga announced that construction had begun. The new Sky Safari keeps the original 900-metre route, its bigger gondolas will take prams, wheelchairs and groups of up to ten, and a new lower station will link it better with the ferry wharf. Taronga is aiming for a late 2027 reopening, while other reports give 2027–28, and the zoo stays open during the works.

Conservation at Taronga today

The zoo that started out showing off lions in cages is now mostly about keeping species alive in the wild. A few recent examples from Taronga's own news in 2026:

• Northern corroboree frogs: In May 2026 about 700 Taronga-bred frogs were released into Brindabella National Park, the largest release of the species yet. The insurance population at Taronga was set up in 2010 and holds about 370 adult frogs.
• Southern corroboree frogs: In June 2026, marking 20 years of work on the species, Taronga released 1,450 eggs into Kosciuszko National Park.
• Christmas Island blue-tailed skinks: These skinks died out in the wild. In 2010 Parks Australia rescued 66 of them, and some went to Taronga. In September 2026, 123 skinks from Taronga travelled by air, road and sea to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands for a release of 545 skinks onto Horsburgh Island.
• Regent honeyeaters: Taronga has worked on their recovery for more than 20 years. It has released more than 200 birds and helped plant over 30,000 trees in the Capertee Valley.
• Sanctuary One: Taronga's third site is a 3,050-hectare property on the North West Slopes of NSW, where it is restoring box-gum woodland.

Taronga Sydney now covers about 28 hectares and holds more than 5,000 animals of around 350 species. A new Taronga Wildlife Hospital, built on the old reptile house site, is due in 2027 to care for the zoo's own animals and for wildlife from across NSW.

Taronga Zoo ferry wharf in 2019. The ferry is still the best way to arrive. Mitch Ames, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• 1879 – NSW Zoological Society formed.
• 1883 – Moore Park land (Billy Goat Swamp) granted. Jumbo arrives in July, and Jessie on 30 November aboard the Newcomen.
• 1884 – Zoological Gardens at Moore Park open to the public.
• 1902 – Bubonic plague in the animals closes the zoo for four months.
• 1903 – Albert Sherbourne Le Souef appointed secretary.
• 1905–06 – Site grows to 15 acres, and the lease is extended for 14 years.
• 1908 – Le Souef and Dr Robert Todd tour the world's zoos, including Hagenbeck's at Hamburg.
• 1911 – Charles Hedley argues for a zoo in Ashton Park, Mosman.
• 1912 – Bradleys Head site chosen and more than 40 acres set aside.
• 1915 – Rustic Bridge opens.
• 1916 – Moore Park closes in July and the animals move over the year. Jessie crosses the harbour on 24 September, and Premier Holman opens Taronga on 7 October.
• 1921 and 1928 – Sydney Girls High and Sydney Boys High built on the old zoo site.
• 1929 – Aquarium opens.
• 1939 – Jessie dies on 26 September.
• 1941 – Sir Edward Hallstrom appointed trustee.
• 1959 – King Kong, Australia's first gorilla, arrives.
• 1967 – Review turns the zoo towards conservation and education.
• 1968–72 – Platypus House, Rainforest Aviary and Nocturnal House built.
• 1976 – Elephant rides end, and the Education Centre and Friendship Farm open.
• 1977 – Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo, opens on 28 February.
• 1987 – Aerial Cabin Ride (Sky Safari) opens.
• 1988 – Bicentennial giant pandas visit.
• 2000 – $250 million master plan begins.
• 2006 – Asian elephants arrive from Thailand.
• 2008 – Great Southern Oceans opens, and the zoos become Taronga Conservation Society Australia.
• 2009 – Luk Chai, the first elephant born in Australia, arrives on 4 July.
• 2016 – Centenary, with a city parade and the Legacy Species commitment.
• 2018 – Institute of Science and Learning opens on 16 October.
• 2022 – Lion scare on 2 November.
• 2023 – Sky Safari retires on 31 January, and Nura Diya Australia opens.
• 2025 – Last elephants leave for Monarto in April, and Hari the rhino arrives in December.
• 2026 – New Sky Safari construction starts in April, alongside record frog and skink releases.

Visiting today

Do it the old way and catch the ferry from Circular Quay. It takes about 12 minutes to Taronga Zoo wharf, the same trip Jessie made in 1916, though she was on her feet the whole way. While the Sky Safari is being rebuilt you'll be walking up from the lower entrance, so wear good shoes because it's a steep hill. Buses also run to the top entrance: route 100 from the QVB, and route 238 from Balmoral, which links both entrances. Opening hours change with the seasons (9.30 am to 4.30 pm in winter and 9.30 am to 5 pm from September to April at last check), so look at taronga.org.au before you go.

If you want to see where it all began, walk up to the high schools on Moore Park. The remains of the old bear pit can still be seen within the grounds of Sydney Girls High. It's not open to the public, so check before you go. And if you're heading west, Taronga Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo is a cracking day out, with lots of room for the big animals.

Related posts on this blog

• Centennial Park And Queens Park – Sydney
• Sydney Trams – From Horse Trams to Light Rail
• Boronia House – Military Road – Mosman – NSW
• NSW Blue Plaques – Lower North Shore
• History Of Dubbo – New South Wales
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney

Sources

• Museums of History NSW (Anna), "The story of how to move a zoo": mhnsw.au/stories/general/story-how-move-zoo/. Cites: "Shifting an elephant", Evening News, 25 September 1916, p. 4; "Sydney's new zoo", The Leader (Melbourne), 7 October 1916, p. 51; "For the people", SMH, 21 July 1911, p. 6; "The old zoo and the new", SMH, 14 October 1916, p. 7; "100,000 children", SMH, 12 September 1916, p. 8; Taronga Zoological Park Trust Annual Report 1916; J. H. Prince, The First One Hundred Years of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW 1879–1979 (1979).
• Museums of History NSW, "Jessie the elephant": mhnsw.au/stories/general/jessie-elephant/
• Museums of History NSW, "Taronga Zoo" archives guide: mhnsw.au/guides/taronga-zoo/
• Museums of History NSW, "How to Move a Zoo" exhibition, Museum of Sydney, 2021–22: mhnsw.au/whats-on/exhibitions/how-move-zoo/
• "Arrival of the elephant for the zoological gardens" (1883), Trove: nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239270227
• Word Histories, "'more hide than Jessie': meaning and origin", quoting the Daily Telegraph, 1 December 1883, and the SMH, 27 September 1939: wordhistories.net/2021/02/10/more-hide-than-jessie/
• Centennial Parklands, "Moore Park Zoo's colourful history" (2018): centennialparklands.com.au
• City of Sydney Archives, "Zoological Gardens, Moore Park": archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1941760
• Taronga Conservation Society Australia, "Taronga History – Our Story": taronga.org.au/about/our-history
• Taronga media release, "Construction set to take off for Taronga's beloved Sky Safari", 23 April 2026: taronga.org.au
• Taronga media release, "Record Release of 842 Critically Endangered Corroboree Frogs in NSW", 18 May 2026: taronga.org.au
• Taronga media release, "Marking Taronga's 20 Years on the Frontline for one of Australia's Rarest Frogs", 19 June 2026: taronga.org.au
• Taronga media release, "Back from the brink of extinction – the great Christmas Island blue-tailed skink comeback", 21 September 2026: taronga.org.au
• Taronga, "Acting locally for global impact" (Sanctuary One), 22 May 2026: taronga.org.au
• Wikipedia, "Taronga Zoo Sydney": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taronga_Zoo_Sydney
• Wikipedia, "Taronga Western Plains Zoo": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taronga_Western_Plains_Zoo
• Daily Liberal (Dubbo), "Taronga Western Plains Zoo turns 40", 2017: dailyliberal.com.au
• NSW Department of Education, "Western Plains Zoo Dubbo – Locational factors": sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au
• NSW State Archives Collection: glass-plate negatives of Moore Park Zoo and early Taronga (see the MHNSW guide above).
• Images: Wikimedia Commons, from the State Library of NSW, the Royal Australian Historical Society, the Powerhouse Museum (Tyrrell Collection), NSW State Archives, Mosman Library and individual photographers, as credited under each picture.

 

Flinders Street - Taylor Square To Moore Park  - Darlinghurst - New South Wales 

Flinders Street runs south-east from Taylor Square toward Moore Park / Anzac Parade, forming the Darlinghurst–Surry Hills edge of the old South Head Road junction. Taylor Square itself was created in 1907–08 when widening of Oxford Street demolished corner hotels and the fruit mart at Bourke / Flinders / Oxford; the new civic space was named for Lord Mayor Allen Taylor, champion of early-twentieth-century street widenings. Mortimer Lewis’s Greek Revival Darlinghurst Courthouse (early 1840s) still anchors the sandstone civic presence on the square, with the former gaol complex behind.

Along Flinders Street, large estates such as Melrose (corner Flinders and Albion; demolished 1902) once faced the ridge villas and churches; later terraces, pubs including the Flinders Hotel (South Dowling corner), and tram-era commercial fabric filled the corridor. Further Flinders Street widening (c.1917–19) and, much later, the Eastern Distributor (opened 1999) again remade traffic and erased some corner buildings. The street remains a parade and transport hinge between Oxford Street and the parklands.

Images here walk Flinders Street from Taylor Square toward Moore Park — caption estates, hotels and square views carefully.

“Melrose” - This Magnificent Estate Was On The Cornr Of Flinders Street And Albion Street, & Sat Directly across From St Johns. 

It Was Demolished In 1902

The Back Lane Of “Melrose” On Flinders Street 

Taylor Square 

Wow. Looks like One big roundabout. Really hard I couldn’t make a tonne of them and some of the traffic could go under to the east and some of them could’ve gone down backstreet but that’s neither here nor there now I guess it would’ve wrecked Busbys all of it still runs along Oxford Street to Hyde Park

The Flinders Hotel. 

Corner of Flinders Street and South Dowling Street. Now there is nothing there it’s all been demolished that when they were making the Eastern distributor