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.
Dr John Cade was educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne, graduating with honours in Medicine in 1934. The son of a physician who worked as a superintendant at several mental hospitals, Dr Cade joined St Vincent’s Hospital as a Resident Medical Officer in 1935 and the Royal Children’s Hospital in 1936. Later that year…
Here’s an idyllic, family scene, isn’t it? A little boy or a little girl crawling into his or her’s grandparents laps, cuddling them while the old folks whisper sweet things into their ears and tickle them and give them cuddles……eventually, that little boy or little girl asks: “Nanna…Papa…what was things like when you were my…
Doing their bit for the boys who did theirs. Within days of the declaration of war in August 1914 a vast civilian “army” of voluntary workers began to mobilise to support the war effort. The Australian Red Cross was first off the mark. Soon hundreds of local groups were established across Australia to support particular…
The hospital began life as an asylum for destitute children In 1920 the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, was visiting Australia. On his itinerary was a hospital in Randwick that had once housed destitute children but had recently been converted to a military hospital. Photo shows the Prince of Wales, later King Edward …
Before the digital age and the internet, the cinema was a major part of Australia’s social life. On Saturday nights in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, everyone went — or tried to go — to “the pictures”. For the children of that era, the weekly matinee at the local cinema was the highlight of the…
Nu-Dry, your Mechanical Laundress Clothes dryer and Automatic rinser.The turn of a tap and your clothes are rinsed and ready for the line in three minutes.No electricity. No Gas. No gears. Operates from a water tap and lasts a lifetime. Their instruction book reads . . . Your Greatest Problem is answered, Mrs. Housewife! Yes,…
