Drawings Of The Sydney Eastern Suburbs In Colonial Times

These pages come from the sketchbook of an artist whose name I don't know. Whoever they were, they spent the years 1909 to 1913 wandering the harbour foreshores and the eastern suburbs with a pencil and a box of watercolours. Most pages carry a place and a date in the artist's own hand – Point Piper, Double Bay, Bellevue Hill, Billyard Avenue at Elizabeth Bay, Vaucluse, Watsons Bay, The Gap and South Head, and Coogee. A few stray across the water to Dawes Point, Balls Head and the entrance to Mosman's Bay, and there's one memory sketch of Jervis Bay.

What I love about them are the little notes to self. The artist reminds themselves to “put the bluey distance” into a view from the rocks at South Head. Another page records a tree that was cut down within three hours by someone with a long ladder, who carted the branches away. These aren't colonial drawings – they're from just after Federation – but they show a Sydney that's gone now: road-making between Bellevue Hill and Rose Bay, sailing boats off Fort Denison, and open headlands where there are houses today.

I've kept the artist's own captions and dates, with a few spellings tidied up. Where a page had no caption I've left it blank.

Related posts on this blog: Tiranna – 17 Billyard Avenue – Elizabeth Bay · Elizabeth Bay House

Watsons Bay, Sydney, 1905 – postcard (Powerhouse Museum collection)
Image: Powerhouse Museum collection – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source

Double Bay from Darling Point, c. 1900 – Tyrrell Photographic Collection (Powerhouse Museum)
Image: Powerhouse Museum collection – via Wikimedia Commons (no known copyright restrictions). Source

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Drawings Of The Sydney Eastern Suburbs & Harbour – An Unknown Artist's Sketchbook – 1909–1913

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Sitting Near Elizabeth Bay

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Rozelle Bay

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On Road - Near Bellevue Hill 7th February 1909

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This is The Next Headland Next To The Northern Head Of Coogee Bay

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Double Bay - 14th February 1909

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Fort Denison From Point Piper 8th January 1909

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Looking Towards Clark Island From Vaucluse

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View From Double Bay Looking North East

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Looking Out To The Ocean Somewhere From South Head

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From Near Elizabeth Bay - View Looking North At 5.30pm 16th October 1913

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Rushcutters Bay

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1 - Sunset From 97 Victoria Street 25th August 1912 2 - From Coogee North Side Looking To South Coogee 30th October 1913

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1 - Memory Sketch - Jervis Bay 2 - Bellevue Hill Looking North 12th April 1912

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Looking Towards Lighthouse At South Head 14th March 1912

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16th February 1912

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21st November 1911

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Near Vaucluse 19th September 1911

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From Near South Head Cemetery 30th January 1911

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1. From Rocks Near South Head This Is A Lot Further Off Than Sketch. See Detail & Put The Bluey Distance & Less More Flat In Surfaces Of Rocks in Distance 9th December 1910 2 - From Rocks Near South Head 9th December 1910

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Tree Cut Within 3 Hours Who Had Long Ladder & Took Away The Cut Branches 9th August 1911

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Peep Between Trees - Billyard Avenue - Elizabeth Bay

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At South Head

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The Gap - Looking Down South Head Road In Distance 9th October 1910

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This Is Billyard Avenue Looking East 2nd November 1912 - 4pm

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The Heads At 4pm

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1 - Sketch of The Road In Bellevue Hill to South Head Road - Looking North At 4pm 12th September 1910

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Sea Calm - Freshwater Point Saturday 20th July 1910

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1 - Fort Denison 2 - Eastern Bay Somewhere Near South Head

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1 - Between Bellevue Hill & Rose Bay - Road Making 6th April 1910 2 - Fort Denison From Potts Point View From Watson's Bay 5th April 1910

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Mr B's Garden ?? 2nd April 1910

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Looks Like The Swimming Pool at Either Bronte Or Bondi Beach

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From Dawes Point

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Point Piper 16th November 1909

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Rose Bay 11th November 1909

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1 - Looking Towards Parramatta River From Dawes Point. Ship Is Passing Near Goat Island 9th November 1909

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1. Balls Head Looking West 4.30pm From Near Blues Point 27th October 1909 2 - 16th February 1909

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Near Point Piper 20th October 1909

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Near Point Piper 5th October 1909

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Point Piper 23rd September 1909

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12th August 1909

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View Of Fort Denison From Potts Point

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1 - Bellevue Hill 17th July 1909 2 - Near Watsons Bay Towards South Head 22nd July 1909

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Entrance To Mosman's Bay 10th July 1909

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1 - 10th July 1909 2 - 7th July 1909

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Assorted Demolished Mansions In Sydney & Surrounds

This is a grab-bag of newspaper clippings I've come across about Sydney's big old houses and what became of them. Some were cut up into rooms, some were stripped, and a lot were simply pulled down. Between the wars the grand family homes of the harbourside suburbs were worth more as land than as houses, and the clippings show it.

In 1937 “Grantham” at Potts Point – once Granthamville, and before that Dangar Castle, standing on Judge-Advocate John Wylde's 1822 grant – was sold for demolition for £530. The Daily Telegraph in 1939 counted how few Sydney homes were still worth £20,000, and mentions that Edgecliff House, the old Terry home, had already gone. There's also a 1931 story from the Kyogle Examiner about thieves stripping a mansion at Onion's Point, Hunters Hill. And from The Age in 1946, homeless ex-servicemen move into a 20-room mansion at Kings Cross. At the other end of the scale, the Daily Standard in 1935 found 30 people living in one house at Paddington.

Related posts on this blog: Demolished Sydney · Demolished Buildings Of Sydney · Tusculum Part 2 – 1–3 Manning Street – Potts Point

“Merioola”, Edgecliff Road, Woollahra, c. 1860–1870 – built in 1859 by John Edye Manning and since demolished (Manning family album, State Library of NSW)
Image: Unknown photographer, Manning family album (State Library of NSW) – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source

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Assorted Demolished Mansions In Sydney & Surrounds

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30 Live In One House – Atrocious Overcrowding In Sydney
The Daily Standard – Tuesday 1st October 1935 – Page 2

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Few Sydney Homes Worth £20,000
The Daily Telegraph – Sunday 26th November 1939 – Page 7

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Historic Home Sold For Demolition
The Sydney Morning Herald – Saturday 16th January 1937 – Page 18

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Homeless Occupy Sydney Mansion
The Age – Friday 22nd March 1946 – Page 8

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Work Of Thieves – Mansion Demolished
Kyogle Examiner – Tuesday 22nd December 1931 – Page 1

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City No Bed Of Roses - Sydney In 1832 - The Dowlings - Newcastle Sun - Saturday 4th April 1936 - Page 2

Walter E. Bethel wrote this piece for the Newcastle Sun in April 1936, looking back at Sydney in 1832 through the Dowling family. Sir James Dowling (1787–1844) came out as a judge of the Supreme Court and became the second Chief Justice of New South Wales, serving from 1837 until his death in 1844. The article says he had been offered a post in Dominica and chose New South Wales instead – “no bed of roses”, as it turned out.

Bethel walks us around the Darlinghurst Hill and Old Woolloomooloo of the day, taking in Brougham Lodge and Craigend, Sir Thomas Mitchell's house. South Dowling Street is named after the judge. I've linked my Craigend post and J. Arthur Dowling's paper on Potts Point and Darling Point below, as they go well with this one.

Related posts on this blog: Craigend – Darlinghurst – Demolished 1922 · Potts Point, Darling Point And Neighbourhood – J Arthur Dowling

Sir James Dowling, second Chief Justice of New South Wales – by Henry Samuel Sadd, c. 1850s (National Library of Australia)
Image: Henry Samuel Sadd (National Library of Australia) – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source

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City No Bed Of Roses – Sydney In 1832 – The Dowlings
Newcastle Sun – Saturday 4th April 1936 – Page 2

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Glimpses Of Vanishing Old Sydney - Sydney Mail - Wednesday 25th September 1912 - Page 8

In September 1912 the Sydney Mail ran a page of pen sketches of corners of the old town that were disappearing even then, drawn by Miss E. Bell-Brown (that's my best reading of the name in the paper). Most of them are around The Rocks and Millers Point, much of which the Government resumed after the plague of 1900.

The sketches take in 32 Miles Buildings in Cumberland Street, where the text says Sir Edmund Barton lived as a boy; an old archway and an alley off Bettington Street; houses in Kent Street; No. 99 Cumberland Street; and a cottage down at Woolloomooloo. The text of the article comes first, followed by the six sketches.

Related posts on this blog: Cumberland Place – The Rocks · The Rocks – Sydney

Cumberland Place, The Rocks, c. 1900 – Tyrrell Photographic Collection (Powerhouse Museum)
Image: Powerhouse Museum collection – via Wikimedia Commons (no known copyright restrictions). Source

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Glimpses Of Vanishing Old Sydney
Sydney Mail – Wednesday 25th September 1912 – Page 8

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The Sketches

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