Charles Henry Bertie (1875–1952) was the Sydneysider who made the city’s memory his day job. From 1909 he was the first librarian of the new Sydney Municipal Library, the man who turned a tired lending branch into an open-access civic library and, in 1918, opened Australia’s first public children’s lending library. By night and on weekends he was the Royal Australian Historical Society’s tireless lecturer and collector — the sort of enthusiast other enthusiasts wrote fan mail to.

His books and picture histories — Story of Old George Street, Old Colonial By-Ways, The Story of Sydney and related titles — taught generations to see vanished street walls and marketplaces. Editions and plate sources differ; the gallery below gathers historic Sydney views in the Bertie spirit rather than a page-for-page reprint of a single volume.

What Bertie gave Sydney was permission to care about the fine grain: the stocks on York Street, the old George Street shops, the by-ways before the wrecking ball. Scroll the pictures slowly. For the longer librarian biography, see the ADB entry.

 

The Story of Sydney - Charles Bertie

I find it very interesting when you start to read some of the accounts of Sydney & how it was begun & the people involved. From Bennelong & Barangaroo, Bugarabee, Pemulwuy, Cora Gooseberry, Just to name a few. 

It was a Hard Existence in the Beginning, These were Prisoners & Criminals who had been forced to sail halfway round the world to a Prison colony. Most would never see their Families or England or their home countries ever again. 

Old Sydney Town -

If you grew up in NSW in the 1970s–90s, Old Sydney Town may still live in your bones — the smell of woodsmoke, a redcoat yelling, a fake flogging with a dye-dipped whip. It was never under Circular Quay. It sat at Somersby on the Central Coast, an open-air recreation of early Sydney dreamed up by architect Frank Fox after a visit to Colonial Williamsburg, laid out from James Meehan’s 1807 map, and opened by Gough Whitlam on Australia Day 1975 before a crowd of about eleven thousand.

For nearly thirty years the park hired thatchers and blacksmiths, sailed replica craft on a fake Cove, and sold a version of 1788–1810 that Robert Hughes later needled as a theme park of punishment. Governments and banks poured money in; Warwick Amusements later leased then bought it; maintenance and crowds both thinned. The gates closed for good on 3 January 2003. Since then the acres have moonlighted as a film set, lost a hall to fire, and picked up National Trust interest — but they are not an archaeological dig of the Rocks.

This post is the memory of a day trip and a vanished attraction. Pair it with the real Macquarie Street and Rocks essays elsewhere on the blog when you want the fabric that actually survives.

 

Do People Remember Old Sydney Town. I Went there once as a kid and I've Never Forgotten It. It was pretty Amazing. 

 

Australian historical postcards

Before Instagram there were postcards — cheap colour (or hand-tinted) views you posted home with a thruppeny stamp and a “wish you were here.” Sydney’s tourist trade ran on them: Circular Quay, the Bridge going up, beach crowds, country towns, the odd bush scene. This gallery is tagged After Frank Walker — not a random Kerry dump.

Frank Walker (1861–1948) was the Sydneysider who turned local history into a lantern-slide roadshow. An RAHS stalwart, he pedalled tens of thousands of miles with a glass-plate camera, then lectured from the results. His negatives and slides still turn up in historical-society collections; later postcard reprints “after Walker” keep those views in circulation long after the original plates left the darkroom.

Read the cards as a conversation with vanished street walls and harbour edges, not as a claim that every number matches one Walker lecture night. For the broader postcard industry (Kerry, Valentine and the rest), the Powerhouse and NLA postcard holdings are the best references.

 

Australian Historical Postcards 

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

WINDMILL,
MOUNT GILEAD

ERECTED about 1808. This is the only existing Windmill in Australia, and was constructed long before iron was used in buildings, as the centre shaft, gear wheel and pinion are all of hardwood. It is situated between Campbelltown and Appin, about 5 miles from the latter town, to the right of the main road. In former times the mill was kept busy, night and day, converting the grain, which was grown in the district, into flour. Fashioned of cut and dressed stone, it is well and faithfully built, and even after the lapse of considerably over a century, is still firm and substantial, with little or no signs of decay

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

COMMISSARIAT STORES,
SYDNEY

COMMENCED by Governor Hunter in 1790, and completed during the latter part of Governor Macquarie's administration, these old Stores are an object of profound interest to present-day inhabitants of Sydney. Originally placed on the very edge of the water, goods were discharged into the Store direct from the vessels moored alongside. On the northern side will be found a number of initials on the stones composing the wall of the building, which were placed there by the convicts engaged in the work of construction. All the early views of Sydney show this building as a conspicuous feature in the landscape, and, as its shape and form have not changed in any way, it can readily be recognised. On the George-street front are the words "Erected 1820, L. Macquarie, Esq., Governor," surmounted by a crown, and the letters "G. R."

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – packet card, James R. Tyrrell, Sydney)

Australian Historical Postcards

THIS series of postcard views is from the collection of Photographs by Mr. Frank Walker (past president of the Australian Historical Society), who, for years past, has travelled the State in search of pictures bearing on Australian history. They comprise views of Early Buildings—Famous Roadside Inns—Relics of the Convict Days—and other Historical Views, which are unique in character, as many of the buildings depicted have since been demolished. To those interested in the Story of the Past and to all students of Australian History this collection will be worth preserving.

FIRST SERIES: HISTORIC BUILDINGS

Windmill, Mount Gilead

Military Barracks, Hartley Vale

Court House, Hartley

Experiment Cottage, Parramatta

Elizabeth Farm

Woodford House, Woodford

Court House, Windsor

D'Arcy Wentworth's Home, Homebush

"Martin's Folly," Faulconbridge

Commissariat Stores, Sydney

Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney

Mount York House, Hartley Vale

PRICE - ONE SHILLING per Packet of Twelve Cards

JAMES R. TYRRELL - 22 Castlereagh Street, Sydney

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

ST. JUDE'S CHURCH,
DURAL

THIS diminutive little building is situated on the Dural Road, near Castle Hill, and is practically unaltered since it was erected by convict labour upwards of 70 years ago. The curious narrow windows, rounded chancel, and quaint interior, never fail to awaken interest. As may be judged by the appearance of the building, it was evidently not constructed with an eye to possibly large congregations, barely a score of worshippers being able to avail themselves of the seating accommodation. It still retains the original shingle roof with which it was first invested, the shingles being procured from the surrounding forest, and are practically as sound as the day they were placed in position.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

OLD GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
WINDSOR

NO visitor to the old town of Windsor should depart without an inspection, however brief, of the old Government House, erected about the year 1790. It is unfortunately in a hopeless condition of ruin and neglect and the floors are dangerous to walk upon, but its great age and the fact that it played an important part in the lives and administration of more than one of our early Governors entitle it to some considerable distinction. Although not specially erected as a "Government House," being intended more for the accommodation of Government officials, it has always retained this title, and moreover was always made use of by Governor Macquarie during his frequent visits to Windsor. The internal fittings are all of cedar, in an excellent state of preservation, considering the lapse of time—upwards of 120 years—since the building was completed.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

RUINS OF OLD INN,
KELSO

THIS relic of the early days is possessed of considerable interest, because it represents one of the few remaining buildings on the site of the first town of Bathurst, at Kelso. Governor Macquarie founded the original town of Bathurst in May, 1815, and chose for its site the portion of ground on the east side of the river, now known as Kelso. Severe floods at a later stage of the town's career made it advisable to choose another site, and this was fixed upon at the opposite side of the Macquarie River, and so the present-day city was brought into existence. The old building shown in the illustration was first used as an hotel, and subsequently became a private dwelling.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

MACQUARIE HOUSE,
NEAR BATHURST

WHEN Lieutenant Lawson completed his work of exploration in company with his two companions, Blaxland and Wentworth, he was given a grant of land at Macquarie Plains, near Bathurst, and here he erected Macquarie House, which remained in the family for very many years. The estate was a very extensive one, and contained other buildings besides the one depicted, as well as commodious stabling accommodation. Here, in 1847, came Governor Fitzroy and his retinue on his official visit to Bathurst in that year, and remained the guest of Lieutenant Lawson for about ten days. There were great festivities, night and day, during the vice-regal visit; and, game being plentiful on the estate, shooting and fishing parties were organised. The old house is showing signs of wear and tear, and the crumbling walls cannot long hold together. The adjoining building, not shown in the view, is still habitable, and retains all the old characteristics of this large establishment on the Western Plains.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards, Second Series – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS—SECOND SERIES

"CALEY'S REPULSE"

THE discovery of the remains of this long-lost relic was made by a party of members of the Australian Historical Society in 1912, near Linden, on the Western Road. Long known in the history of this road as "Caley's Repulse"—so named by Governor Macquarie—many searches in the locality were made before success came. It was supposed to mark the passage of George Caley through these mountain solitudes in the year 1805. Later knowledge has revealed that Caley's route took him many miles away from this spot. Opinion is divided as to who is responsible for its construction, but it was probably the work of Quartermaster Hacking, of the Sirius, or probably the convict explorer, Wilson, may have placed it there to mark the termination of his journey westward. The Cairn has now been restored to something of its original condition and a suitable inscription affixed, recording some particulars of its history.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards, Second Series – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS—SECOND SERIES

SURVEYOR-GENERAL
HOTEL, BERRIMA

THE township of Berrima is fortunate in the possession of one of the best kept and most historic hotels in the State. Named in honour of Sir Thomas Mitchell, the then Surveyor-General, the building was in existence in his day, and is consequently over seventy years old. Its old-fashioned interior, cedar fittings, and general air of solidity and strength, are all peculiar to itself, and in the heyday of its career, when Berrima was an important town, it was the centre of life and bustle. The old coaches have gone for ever, the township has shrunk to small proportions, but the old Inn continues in the career of usefulness it began in those far-off days, and tourists who patronise it are always ready to listen to the stories of the past in which the building figures, or to witness, in the evidences around them, that in this peaceful and beautiful district there are chapters in Australian history which are worth investigating.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards, Second Series – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS—SECOND SERIES

BARNSTAPLE MANOR,
FIVE DOCK

ERECTED in the year 1838 by Mr. B. C. Rodd, this fine old residence, one of the first to be built in the locality, is a well-preserved specimen of early colonial architecture. Although its grounds are now considerably curtailed in area, owing to successive disposals of various portions of the estate, the old Manor House was originally surrounded by a fine garden, its stately avenue of pine trees being a landmark in the district. A curious feature of the building is a portion of the upper stone work, which is thickly encrusted with oyster shells, and the problem as to how the shells became fixed in this curious position was somewhat hard to understand until it became known that the stones were first of all immersed in the Parramatta River for a time, where they soon became covered with oyster shells, and in that condition were then worked into the building. The house is a replica of the old Manor House in Devonshire, of which county the Rodd family were natives.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards, Second Series – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS—SECOND SERIES

THE FIRST GREAT
WESTERN ROAD.

THIS view shows a part of the first Western Road, constructed by William Cox in 1814, where it crosses the range above Emu Plains. Here are still to be seen the heavy stone embankments which hold the track in place in its passage up the mountain, and the difficulties of early road users may readily be understood when a glance is taken at the steepness of the grade. Formerly it was a day's work for a team of sixteen bullocks, drawing a heavy dray, to negotiate the short mile and a half of road, there being seven turns or "Traverses" as they were called, at the steepest part of the hill. Although out of use for considerably over eighty years the road is still in fair order, a tribute to the excellence of early road construction.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

MILITARY BARRACKS,
HARTLEY VALE

DURING the construction of a road deviation from that leading from Mt. York, by Major Lockyer, long known as "Lockyer's Track," bands of convicts were employed on the main and branch roads; and this building, so far as tradition goes—for there is little authentic history concerning it—was used for the accommodation of the military guard. It is now in ruins, and the small cottage, which originally stood at right angles to it, though equally ruinous, shows a series of small oblong apartments, which could be for no other purpose but the confinement of prisoners and refractory soldiers. The building was once surrounded by a fine garden, traces of which can still be seen.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards, Second Series – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS—SECOND SERIES

OLD GOVERNMENT
HOUSE, GOSFORD

WHEN Governor Brisbane, who was a man of great scientific attainments, felt inclined for a rest from affairs of State, he was accustomed to repair to this fine old mansion on the shores of Brisbane Water, in the outskirts of the present town of Gosford. Here, secluded from the cares of office, and in company with his friend James Dunlop, the first Australian astronomer, the time passed all too quickly. The building was erected of solid stone in the early twenties. The magnificent pine trees by which it was shaded were a landmark for miles around, and are contemporary with the house. For many years past the house was in use as a Manse, and was only pulled down owing to the ravages of white ants, which had got into every portion of the building.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards, Second Series – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS—SECOND SERIES

"WELCOME INN,"
VALLEY HEIGHTS

UNDER the name of 'Wyoming,' a favourite Boarding Establishment, this interesting building was once a noted Inn on the main Western Road. It was erected in the late twenties, and is practically the same to-day as it was in the coaching days. There are many interesting stories connected with this old hostelry, but space forbids the mention of more than one. In 1847 Governor Fitzroy and party made an expedition across the Mountains, and his aide-de-camp, in the person of Lieut.-Colonel Mundy, writes of this building in his interesting work, entitled "Our Antipodes." Briefly, he mentions where the party at last reached this lonely little Inn, where a halt was made, and it was found that the innkeeper was an old soldier named James, who "rejoiced in a Waterloo medal, a pretty daughter and some excellent bottled beer."

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards, Second Series – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS—SECOND SERIES

OLD VICTORIA INN,
MT. VICTORIA

THIS fine old building, constructed of solid stone, was erected in the year 1839, as the date, deeply cut over the front entrance, testifies. It was originally one of the most important hostelries on the Western Road, and stands about half a mile below the old Victoria Pass. Here the daily coaches were accustomed to call on their journeys between Sydney and Bathurst, and there is in existence a picture of the building taken in the seventies, which shows the old road running close to the door of the establishment. A deep well, sunk in the solid rock to the depth of eighty feet, is an evidence of the early convict workers by whom the building was constructed. The house is now a private residence, in the occupation of Mr. J. W. Berghofer.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

MOUNT YORK HOUSE.

THIS building, originally known as "Collitts' Inn," is one of the most interesting on the Mountains. It is situated near the northern base of Mount York, and, as it stood on the old line of road to Bathurst, it derived some considerable trade from the traffic passing backwards and forwards. Here Governor Macquarie spent a night during his journey over the mountains in 1815, and the room he occupied is still pointed out to visitors. The date of erection is uncertain, but it must have been soon after the opening of the first Western Road in 1815, and was probably in existence some time before the official opening of [illegible] thoroughfare. When the Victoria Pass deviation was opened in 1832, the old road down Mount York was abandoned and trade gradually fell away until the old house became a private dwelling under the name of Mount York House, or Farm. The original shingles are still in their places, but a covering of corrugated iron conceals them from view, thus giving the impression that the building is not nearly so old as it really is.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

COURT HOUSE,
HARTLEY

IN the Thirties and Forties Hartley was a flourishing township, possessing nearly a dozen hotels, many stores and private dwellings, and a population of about 1000 persons. It became an important place and it was decided to hold regular Criminal Sessions here. This decision was responsible for the erection of the large stone building. There are cells in the interior with heavily barred windows, and substantial doors, reinforced by strong iron straps, wherein were confined many desperate characters, after sentence had been pronounced against them. The old building is now in the last stages of ruin and decay, and threatens, ere long, to tumble to pieces like many of the former structures in Hartley, whose remains are freely scattered on either side of the main road. When the railway was continued west of Mount Victoria, the road traffic fell off, and as Hartley was dependent upon this traffic for its existence, the township was gradually deserted, and the buildings soon fell to pieces.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

EXPERIMENT FARM

THIS old cottage stands on the site of the first Land Grant at Parramatta, known as "Experiment Farm." The building was erected about the year 1793 and is still in excellent preservation. The first settler who cultivated this land was named James Ruse, and his quaintly lettered tombstone in the Catholic graveyard at Campbelltown is one of the most interesting of our early monuments. Ruse was an ex-convict, who, by good conduct and industry, won the regard of Governor Phillip, and a grant of land was made to him as an experiment, which turned out most successful. The old building shown in the view was called "Experiment Cottage," but an earlier and less pretentious structure originally stood on the ground.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

"ELIZABETH FARM"

ANOTHER of the early historic buildings of Parramatta, built about 1793, and originally the home of John Macarthur, the founder of the wool industry. Like its contemporary, "Experiment Farm," it is substantially constructed, and is a beautifully cool dwelling in the summer time. From its verandah, Macarthur could watch his flocks feeding in the verdant fields surrounding the building, probably little dreaming of the immense future before the great industry which he was then initiating. Dr. Harris, another notable resident of Parramatta, resided in the building in later years, and the citizens of that historic town rightly value the possession of this interesting "link with the past."

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – repeat of image 3 (packet card))
Transcription above (same card as image 3).

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – repeat of image 4 (St. Jude's Church, Dural))
Transcription above (same card as image 4).

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – repeat of image 5 (Old Government House, Windsor))
Transcription above (same card as image 5).

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – repeat of image 6 (Ruins of Old Inn, Kelso))
Transcription above (same card as image 6).

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – repeat of image 7 (Macquarie House, near Bathurst))
Transcription above (same card as image 7).

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – repeat of image 8 ("Caley's Repulse"))
Transcription above (same card as image 8).

Transcription (Australian Historical Postcards – Historic Buildings (postcard text))

AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL POSTCARDS

WOODFORD HOUSE,
WOODFORD

FORMERLY a military station by the side of the Great Western Road, the older portion of Woodford House has seen many changes. This was erected in the late Twenties, and other portions were afterwards added. It was known in the Sixties as "Buss' Inn," and during the Gold Era was a place of considerable importance. It afterwards became a boarding establishment under successive proprietors, and latterly an academy for boys. The old building still retains something of its ancient appearance; and the many reminders of its early use—such as the iron-barred cell (now used as a store-room), the stone-flagged courtyard, and deep well (excavated by convict labour)—will always retain a certain interest for visitors.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS
[All Rights Reserved]

Brooksby sat on the Darling Point allotment that spilled east toward Lower Ocean Street — the edge that later reads as Double Bay’s Ocean Avenue rather than the Greenoaks Avenue ridge. Dictionary of Sydney places two solicitor-politicians here in the 1850s: Robert Ebenezer Johnson at Brooksby and James Norton at neighbouring Ecclesbourne. Johnson, named to the first New South Wales Legislative Council in 1856, made Brooksby his home until his death in 1866.

That is the civic heart of the house. Later it did quieter work as Mrs Robinson’s preparatory school for boys — one of those small eastern-suburbs academies that filled the big rooms when the original families moved on. A 1930s photograph in Woollahra’s local studies still shows tennis on the lawns at what the catalogue calls 45 Ocean Avenue, Double Bay. The mansion itself is gone to subdivision and flats; the name survives in the local-history file.

Walk from Greenoaks Avenue down toward Ocean Street and you are tracing the old estate edge: Mort’s Greenoaks (Bishopscourt) up the hill, Brooksby and Ecclesbourne on the eastern fall. Cross-link the Bishopscourt post for the Gothic neighbour; this page is the solicitor’s house on the Double Bay side of the same story. (And yes — fix the titles “Double Bay” while you are there.)

 

Brooksby - Darling Point - Near Greenoaks Avenue -  Lower Ocean St - Double Bay 

Brooksby was a mid 19th Century Mansion in Darling Point. It was built on the original Darling Point Allotment bounded on the east by Lower Ocean Street

Its most known resident was solicitor Robert Ebenezer Johnson, who lived there till his death in 1866. Johnson was amongst one of the first appointees to the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1856. 

Brooksby also served as Mrs Robinson's Preparatory school for Boys. 

Since then the house has been lost to subdivision & development. 

 

 

Historical Links And Resources - Houses and History In General 

Trove - National Library 























The Darling Point Society

At 66 Darling Point Road today you meet Winslow Gardens — a 1961 apartment block in the Chicago-school manner that took the name of the mansion it replaced. The original Winslow was one of those late-Victorian Darling Point residences that made the ridge feel like a private estate road. Dictionary of Sydney notes that politician and judge Sir Joseph George Long Innes bought the existing house in the last decades of the nineteenth century; he did not build it from scratch.

Innes (18341896) was solicitor-general and attorney-general under Parkes, then a Supreme Court judge from 1881 a Reibey grandson on his mother’s side, and the man who helped settle Chisholm House as the site for today’s GPO. After he died in England in October 1896, the house emptied into the sale rooms. The catalogue already on this post — Walter Bradley & Co., March 1897 — lists pictures, works of art and “very costly & elaborate household appointments for sale at Winslow. That is the mansion speaking in its own voice: not a street number yet, but a named house on Darling Point.

Next door at 68 stands The Swifts, the Tooth/Resch baronial pile — still there. Winslow is the neighbour that the strata age erased. When you walk past 66, read the apartment name as a memorial plaque: the gardens are new; the name is the old house’s last trick.

Winslow - 66 Darling Point Road - Darling Point

Transcription (Auction catalogue cover, Walter Bradley & Co., March 1897)

CATALOGUE
OF THE
Late SIR GEORGE INNES' [handwritten: (died Octr 1896)]
Pictures and Works of Art
AND
VERY COSTLY & ELABORATE
Household Appointments

FOR SALE AT
"Winslow," Darling Point
ON
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY,
7th & 8th MARCH,
AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK EACH DAY. [handwritten: (1897)]
Under Instructions from the Executrix in the Estate.

ON VIEW
TUESDAY, 6th MARCH,
10 A.M. TO 5 P.M.

WALTER BRADLEY & CO.,
Licensed Auctioneers & Valuators,
324 GEORGE STREET.

THE WOODHILL PRINTING WORKS, 127 YORK STREET, SYDNEY.

St Stephens Uniting Church - 197 Macquarie Street - Sydney

Opposite Parliament on Macquarie Street, St Stephen’s Uniting Church looks older than it is — Inter-War Gothic sandstone, tracery and a calm that belongs to a much earlier century. The architects were Finlay Munro junior and John Reid; Kell & Rigby built it in the mid-1930s after the foundation stone went down on 23 March 1934 and the new church was dedicated a year later to the day. It is State Heritage listed, one of only a handful of Inter-War Gothic churches left in the city.

The congregation is older than the walls. Sydney’s Presbyterians had already worn out several addresses — including the iron church and the Phillip Street St Stephen’s cleared when Martin Place punched east — before they landed here. They built on the footprint of Burdekin House (1842), once praised as among the finest private residences in Sydney; its demolition for the church became an early rallying point for the conservation lobby. In 1977 the parish entered the Uniting Church. The Hill, Norman & Beard organ (1934) still fills the place with pipe-work measured in the thousands.

This is not the Newtown St Stephen’s with the cemetery you may already know from this blog, and it is not a Barnet or Blacket job. Macquarie Street’s St Stephen’s is the 1930s Gothic that replaced a colonial mansion so the Presbyterians — later Uniting — could keep a city foothold when Martin Place erased their last church.

 

St Stephen's Uniting Church - 197 Macquarie St - Sydney 

St Stephens Is Built on The site of Burdekin house. The Congregation goes much further back  than the building itself, which was built in the 1935 - 1937. It is designed in the Inter War Gothic Style. 

The Organ  was built in 1934 by Hill, Norman And Beard. it Contains over 2,500 Pipes and 61 Stops.