Susannah Place Museum, The Rocks

During the week I had a fascinating trip back in time to Susannah Place in The Rocks.

Susannah Place was one of the original homes in the area that has now been preserved for historical purposes thanks to luck and timing. 

The original owners were obviously decent landlords who maintained the terraces over a long period time, including adding appropriate modern sanitation and lighting, which saved them from demolition during the bubonic plague of 1900, when hundreds of other homes around them (without proper sanitation) were pulled down to prevent the spread of the disease. 

They escaped the clearing that then occurred in the 1920's to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge. And they also escaped the NSW Governments plans to completely redevelop The Rocks in the 1970's thanks to one long-standing tenant who stayed on until 1990. By then, Sydney-siders had learnt to be proud their colonial, convict history and The Rocks had become a Sydney icon. The governments wholesale development plans met with lots of opposition which allowed for the preservation of small pockets of old Sydney.

From the website, we learn that Susannah Place is a

terrace of four houses built by Irish immigrants in 1844. For nearly 150 years these small houses with tiny backyards, basement kitchens and outside wash houses were home to more than 100 families. Against a backdrop of the working harbour and growing city, their everyday lives played out. Remarkably, Susannah Place survived largely unchanged through the slum clearances and redevelopments of the past century, and today tells the stories of the people and families who called this place and this neighbourhood home.

I highly recommend you visit the website, to read and listen to more of the stories about the families who lived here. And if you're ever in Sydney, especially if you stay at the nearby Youth Hostel, then plan to visit Susannah Place, as it is right behind The Big Dig...which is another story, for another day.

The one hour tour begins in the shop, where the old corner store once operated.

Grant was the entertaining, knowledgeable guide who led my small group.

For anyone who grew up watching The Sullivans (like I did), you would know that the corner shop was the hub of every small community. It's were the neighbours gathered to gossip, catch up on news and socialise...as well as to buy their flour, tea and soap.

Unfortunately due to the decaying state of the internal wallpaper and walls, no photography is allowed inside any of the terraces. For now, the state of disrepair is part of the fascinating story of these homes. At some point though, a more active renovation will need to be considered, as the disrepair moves from being an interesting, documented historical record to unsafe for humans to walk through.

All the rooms have been refurnished differently to reflect the different eras and different families that lived there. I loved all the stories that our guide had to tell. It was a step back in time that also connected me to many of the stories that my mum and nan told me over the years about their early lives. Although they were in rural NSW, their homes and daily experiences were very similar to many of the ones I heard in Susannah Place.

As you can see, I loved the old buildings - their textures, colours and angles. I also loved the juxtaposition of the newer, modern buildings around them.

Naturally, this is but a very brief history of this pocket of land. 

Indigenous history goes back thousands of generations and it will always be a shame that these oral stories are now mostly lost to us all.

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot.

Jack's Story Growing Up in Balmain by John Thomson

This slim little self-published memoir has become an instant best seller in Balmain. Our local Indy book shop can barely keep up with demand and Jack has to stagger his book signing sessions to avoid writers cramp!

Jack's Story is a collection of vignettes as remembered by Jack, a local Balmain resident since 1927.

He has grouped his recollections together loosely in chronological order and scattered a few old family photos into the mix. The addition of of a few old photos of Balmain from the public archives gives the book particular interest for anyone currently living in Balmain, or for anyone with a connection to Jack and his extended family.

Jack's Story is the kind of book you want to have in your pocket as you walk the local streets.

You want to check the addresses, parks and corner shops mentioned throughout to see what it looks like now and to try and picture what it looked like when Jack was growing up.

I got so carried away one weekend, that I tracked down all the houses he mentioned that he had lived in at one point or another.

11 Ann Street

I imagine that some of these homes have barely changed their external features at all since Jack lived there, whereas others would be changed beyond Jack's wildest imaginings!

25 Vincent Street

66 Short Street

12 Grove Street

13 Grove Street

Jack's parents were married in the Presbyterian Church in Campbell St (below) in February 1927.

Jack married Marcia in August 1954 in St John's Church (below) just around the corner from where they lived their entire married life in Cove St.

Cove Street

Looking down Thomas Street into Grove Street

Corner of Rowntree and Cameron Streets - one of the areas that still gives a hint of what old Balmain may have looked like in Jack's youth.

White Bay Cruise Terminal

One of the pleasures of summer are the longer daylight hours, perfect for evening walks as the day cools down (hopefully!)

This week I finally did the walk into the White Bay Cruise Terminal.

I'm fascinated by the changing urban landscape.

Our needs change and we make our lived environment change along with us.

White Bay began life as mud flats, but because of it's deep waters, it soon became ideal for the early settlers to turn the area into one primarily used by container ships.

The before and now photos (below) of Stephen St show how White Bay has changed since the land was reclaimed.
As an aside, why do we say the land was reclaimed? What right has the land got over the water? It was never there before, it was extra land created by man to make more space for man. It's curious that sense of ownership and entitlement that creeps in simply by the choice of words.

Anyway, back to Stephen St.
You can see how steeply the road slopes down to the waters edge and the ferry stop.
140 yrs later, the road stops at the last house. A park runs along the right hand side of the photo.
And the water's edge is about another 100m further away.

Stephen Street Ferry Wharf c. 1880 (Mitchell Library)

Stephen Street today - the road now ends suddenly at a fence which overlooks the reclaimed land of White Bay.

John Booth's saw mill existed in this area from the 1850's to 1902.

It's hard to imagine the noise, smell and dust that the residents lived with at this time.

I now live just behind where this mill used to stand.

J. Booth & co. Steam saw mill and joinery works 1880 (image source)

Today White Bay is home to the Cruise Terminal.

In building the new facility (which opened in 2013), due homage was payed to previous incarnations.

Old train tracks were kept in place and some of the old sleepers were retained to use in the parking areas and a huge ship propeller is now a sculptural centrepiece at the entrance.

Many of the local residents are unhappy with the noise of the cruise ships, but given what was there, I'd rather the generator hum of a large ship and party noise as it pulls out, to the incessant noise, smell and dust of previous industries.

Looking back up to Stephen St & standing where the ferry wharf once was.

Before the land was reclaimed, White Bay looked a little like this (below).

You can see the various wharves jutting out into what is now land.

Soap factories, coal (for the power station at the bottom of the picture) and mills dominated the landscape.

And now it looks like this....

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot.

Sydney Observatory

From my Top 10 Sydney Eyewitness Guide:

"The 1858 Italiante building was converted into a museum of astronomy in 1988. The Tower's time-ball still drops daily at 1pm, while a cannon is fired simultaneously from Fort Denison."

"Lieutenant Willam Dawes established Australia's first observatory on the point that now bears his name. In 1790 he earned Governor Philip's displeasure when he refused to join a reprisal attack against Aborigines. His refrusal sprand from a relationship with an Eora woman, Patyegarang. Dawes' journals detail his converstaions with Patyegarang and document the vocabulary and grammer of the Eora. Dawes was shipped out in 1791 and spent years campaigning against slavery in the west Indies."

I've always thought it was such a shame that men of cultural sensitivity like Dawes were not encouraged to stay in the colony during the early years. Our troubled history with the Aborigines may have proceeded quite differently if men like dawes were in charge, or had a say.

In 1797 a windmill was built on the hill above the first settlement. This was the highest point of land in the early colony consisting of a rocky, steep ridge. The windmill deteriorated quickly - the canvas sails were stolen, a storm damaged the machinery and by 1800 the foundations were crumbling. The area was named Windmill Hill, but now the surrounding Millers Point is the only reminder of this earlier history.

View from atop the Observatory looking towards Balmain.

In 1803 the name of the hill changed to Fort Philip. Governor Hunter built a fort to defend the new settlement against a possible attack by the French and also from rebellious convicts.

The fort was never required. The eastern wall of the fort was converted to a signal station in 1825. Flags were used to send messages to ships in the harbour and to the signal station on the South Head of the harbour.

(wikipedia)

By the 1830's the sandstone cliffs at the bottom of Observatory Hill were being cut into to make way for the shipping industry developing in Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour.

Mortimer Lewis (colonial arcitect 1835 - 1849) began building a proper signal station on the site in 1848.

A few years later, Governor Denison agreed to build a full observatory next to the signal station.

The first official astronomer was William Scott, appointed in 1856.

His new observatory, was designed by William Weaver (during his time as colonial architect 1854-56) but built by his successor Alexander Dawson (1856 - 62). 

It was completed in 1858.

The southern dome contains an equatorial refracting telescope, installed in 1874 to observe the Transit of Venus. The dome is made from a Muntz metal - a copper-zinc alloy and sits atop an octagonal tower.

 The time-ball was the new Observatory's most important feature.

The only change to the ball since it's first use on the 5th June 1858, is the motor that now mechanises the raising of the ball in preparation for the 1pm drop.

I took a brief video of the time-ball dropping but, I can't seem to make it work here.

Inside the south dome

The north dome was added in 1878 to allow for a view of the eastern sky.

It now houses a modern computer controlled 40cm reflecting mirror telescope.

"Observatory Park: Given its location beside the southern approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, this small park below the Observatory is surprisingly peaceful. It offers great views of the working harbour. Near the bandstand is a memorial to the Australians who served in the South African War (1899-1902)."

The Museum of Applied Arts and Science website is here.

The Gadigal peoples were the original inhabitants of the area around Observatory Hill, Millers Point and Dawes Point. They co-existed with the European invaders in this area, that became known as the Rocks, until about 1840.

In 1788, it was estimated that about 1500 Aborigines lived in the area, but more than half probably died after the 1789 smallpox epidemic.

View of the Parramatta River from Observatory Hill in 1789 (image courtesy Australian National Maritime Museum)

View of Sydney from North Sydney by Conrad Martens 1841 (courtesy State Library NSW)

View of Millers Point and Darling Harbour c. 1870 (image courtesy of State Library NSW)

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot