The boat shed at the bottom of Hilly Street, looking towards Green Point, taken from the top of Montgomery’s Palace Hotel c1920s. The Mortlake-Putney Punt now crosses the Parramatta River from this spot. Nearby is a small beach, known as Fairmile Cove, where naval boats were assembled during World War II.
In the middle distance is Green Point, previously called Bachelor’s Point, which was refurbished in 2019 and renamed Wangal Reserve, in recognition of the traditional owners whose lands stretched along the southern shore of the Parramatta River (Burramattagal) from Blackwattle Bay to Silverwater.
At the northern end of the reserve was a community dance hall, a popular venue on a Saturday night. In the distance can be seen the Dutch-style gatehouse marking the entrance to “Rivendell”, formerly Thomas Walker Hospital, completed in 1893 by Dame Eadith Walker in memory of her father.
In the opposite direction, taken from the same vantage point is Tennyson Road, formerly Wharf Road and once part of Burwood Road that snaked its way across country to link with the current Burwood Road. At the top of the hill the AGL works can be made out with one of its gasholders visible on the left.
Cows can be seen grazing near the tramway about halfway up the hill. The village of Mortake is scattered about with houses and a few stores well-spaced out. Many of the workers at the gas works came to work on the tram that ran between Enfield and Mortlake via Burwood.
Rev. Robert Samuel McKee Pickup, MC, ED Robert Pickup was born in Auburn on 30 December 1888. His early education was at Auburn Public School and thereafter at Baptist College in Parkville Victoria. He graduated from there in 1914 and was ordained into the ministry. When war broke out, Robert returned to Sydney where he…
Fourteen miles up the harbour from the ocean entrance at Sydney stand two bridges that are the access route over the Parramatta River from Concord to Ryde. One, a railway bridge, was opened in 1886 as part of the construction of the Main Northern railway line. It was a lattice truss bridge designed by John Whitton, the Chief Engineer…
Came across this poem on Facebook. It was written by Kathleen O’Mara in 1869, reprinted during 1919 Pandemic. It is Timeless…. And people stayed at homeAnd read booksAnd listenedAnd they restedAnd did exercisesAnd made art and playedAnd learned new ways of beingAnd stopped and listened more deeplySomeone meditated, someone prayedSomeone met their shadowAnd people began…
We’d like to share with you a couple of items from David Sansome’s talk at our map unveiling. The photograph, circa 1900, is of Parramatta Road, Five Dock. The 8-mile signpost can be seen on the left of the pole. As one of our guests informed us, it is close to the intersection…
Leslie Kenneth Garfield Browning, MC and Bar When war broke out in August 1914 the Australian Naval and Military Expedition Force was hurriedly assembled and dispatched to New Guinea to seize control of the German colony. After limited resistance, the German forces surrendered and the expeditionary force returned to Australia leaving a small detachment to…
There is no doubt that almost every Australian family was affected by World War One in some way or another. One sad fact that came out of the war was the intense hatred of Germans that emerged together with all things German. The German families who emigrated to Australia and were happily living their lives,…
