Nelson Head Inner Lightouse - Nelson Bay New South Wales

Nelson Head Inner Lighthouse


Begore The First Permanant Inner Light Was Erected In 1872, There Were At Least 11 Shipwrecks Resulting In The Loss Of 37 Lives. The Wrecks Date Back To The "Cumberland:" I  1797.

The Government Gazette Of 1872 Promulgated Tat "From The 1st Apri 1872, A Harbour Light Will Be Exhibited On Nelson Head, Visible To A Distanver Of 8 To 10 Miles In Clear Weather... To Be A Guide To Vessels Coming To Nelson Bay."


The Light Was Mounted At Nelson Head On A Post, And Was The First Recorded Beacon Light In the Bay. It Is Possible That Other Navigational Markers Were Used Before 1872

Chinese Fisherman Were Reported To be Using The Bay As Early As 1800 Or Earlier.

The Argyle Cut - Argyle Street-Millers Point

THE ARGYLE CUT - THE ROCKS 

Do you go cut is a striking example of conflict public works. It was a colonial effort to overcome a challenging landscape, providing a more level crossing between the rocks and Millers point.

In 1843, convict labour was deployed to cut the roadway through the rocky peninsula. It was completed in 1959 with the use of explosives and council labour. Bridges over the cup were completed later.

The Uncle cup was also taken in the 1920s with the construction of the approaches to the Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Argyle Cut is A striking example of convict Public works. It was a Colonial effort to overcome a challenging Landscape, providing a more level crossing between The Rocks & Millers Point,

In 1843, convict labour was deployed to cut the roadway through the rocky peninsula. It was completed in 1859 with the use of explosives

Whenever I Happen To Pass The ARGYLE CUT I Always Think What An Amazing Piece Of Work It Is. Can You Imagine The Hundreds Of Comvicts All Chained Together In Chain Gangs. With Nothing More Than Blunt Picks Hitting The Sandstone. 

Walking Through The Cut You Just Can't Imagine Gravity Of Human Labour to Cut This Straight Out Of The Rock. 

Also Hard To Imagine The Bits Of Broken Sandstone Being Either Carried By Hand Or Using A Wheelbarrow Style Tool... 

Down To The Coastal Estuary Called Circular Quay And Tipped Into The Tidal Flat. The Reclaimed Land Has Added About 50 Metres To The Quay, And the Semi Circular Walls Were Built. 

When You See The Sandstone Sea Wall That Goes Right Around The Working Harbour From Millers Point, Dawes Point To Circular Quay And What Would Have Been Fort Macqaurie. 

"This Square Forms A Part Of An Area Of Old Sydney Called The Rocks, Once Famous As A Residential District And A Notorius Haunt Of Sailors. Argyle Street Was Named By governor Macquarie In 1810 After His Native Country. 

In The Cut Itself - High On The Wall There Is ThisNotice 

" Chas Moore -Mayor- 1867 - 1868

Above This Spot A Bridge Known AsThe  Princes Street Bridge Spanned The Original  Argyle Cut. As A Memorial Of The Bridge, The Above Stone, Which Formed Part Of It, Is Placed Where The Shadow Of The Bridge 

Royal Victoria Theatre

Sydney’s first large purpose-built theatre sat on the western side of Pitt Street between King and Market — Joseph Wyatt’s Royal Victoria, opened 26 March 1838 with a hotel in the front section. Locals called it the Victoria or the “Old Vic.” Architect Henry Robertson gave it a Georgian street front and a Regency auditorium seating about 1,900 (a deep pit under the dress circle, novel here), and Shakespeare’s Othello opened the house. Gas lighting followed in 1841.

For more than forty years it was a leading stage for drama, opera, pantomime, minstrelsy and touring stars — George Coppin’s Australian debut among them in 1843. Joseph Fowles’s Sydney in 1848 plates still show the Pitt Street elevation. On 22 July 1880 the uninsured theatre burned; the fire also took Hardie and Mitchell’s steam mill behind, and collapsing walls killed three men. It was not rebuilt.

Later the Pitt Street site cycled through auction rooms, cinema and retail. This post is site-and-memory history — the theatre itself is gone.

Joseph Fowles’s 1848 Sydney views document the city’s buildings and streetscapes, while this image records the interior of the Royal Victoria Theatre. The theatre was one of Sydney’s early performance venues, and the engraving preserves its galleries, boxes and decorated auditorium.

Pitt Street – 1848 – Joseph Fowles – Sydney

Pitt Street formed a central part of Sydney’s commercial district in the nineteenth century. Joseph Fowles’s 1848 illustrations record the buildings and businesses lining the street before later redevelopment changed the city centre. These elevations provide a valuable snapshot of colonial Sydney.

This 1848 view of Pitt Street, Sydney, is associated with Joseph Fowles and records the buildings lining the street in the colonial-era city. The illustrated elevations offer a detailed glimpse of Sydney’s commercial centre.

King Street – Sydney – 1848 – Joseph Fowles

Joseph Fowles’s 1848 Sydney street views record the built frontage of King Street, including shops, hotels and other commercial premises. The panorama presents the street as a continuous sequence of façades, documenting the scale and variety of central Sydney before later redevelopment.

George Street – Sydney – 1848 – Joseph Fowles

Fowles’s 1848 Sydney street view of George Street records the city’s principal commercial thoroughfare in detailed elevation, with the post office, shops and other premises identified along the frontage. The panorama preserves the scale and variety of the street’s buildings on both sides of the roadway.

George Street & Hunter Street - Sydney - 1848 - Joseph Fowles

George Street and Hunter Street meet in the centre of Sydney, close to the city’s early commercial heart. The 1848 streetscape shown here records buildings and businesses around the George Street corner. Joseph Fowles documented early Sydney views and buildings in his historical work, Sydney in 1848.

Lower George Street – 1848 – Joseph Fowles

Fowles’s 1848 view of Lower George Street records a dense frontage of shops, hotels and other premises along the waterfront-side street. The elevation also includes the site of the old gaol, showing how commercial buildings and civic landmarks appeared together in early Sydney.