Thursday, November 13, 2008

Steam tram at 'The Loop' (Bonney St). Click to enlarge.

Steam Tram at "The Loop" (Russell Ave, Rocky Point Rd).

"The Loop" at Sans Souci. Rocky Point Road from Bonanza Pde looking south.

Steam tram at the Loop.


Bonanza Pde shops - later quadruplified to include Mr Brokenshire's pharmacy.

Crowds at The Loop, Bonney Street

Detail of Loop crowd

Church of England, Sandringham Street and Rocky Pt Rd.

Sans Souci Post Office, Myers Street.

Rocky Point Road near Alice Street looking south.

Sans Souci Public School - from south-west.

Sans Souci Public School. Rocky Point Rd opposite Griffith St.

Sans Souci School (detail)

Calm day on Kogarah Bay. From Bonney St wharf.

Kogarah Bay towards St Kilda Point (Vista Street).

Kogarah Bay at low tide.

Kogarah Bay near Bonney Street.

Low tide at Taren Point.

Sans Souci public baths early 20th century. Water Street and Rocky Point Road. Click to enlarge.







Fair day at Sandringham Beach (detail).


Fair day at Sandringham Beach.

Sandringham Hotel. Fair day.

Fair day at Sandringham Beach.


Fair day at Sandringham Beach

Sandringham Beach near Vanstone Parade.

Mrs Brokenshire (?) close-up on Sandringham Beach.


Family stroll on Sandringham Beach at low tide.

Family stroll on Sandringham Beach

Family stroll on Sandringham Beach.

Fair Day: Sandringham Beach. 6 Norfolk Island Pines.

Same trees in about 1970. Taken from the same pier.


Princes "Highway" at Blakehurst near Tom Uglys Point.

Tom Ugly's Ferry. Now Princes Hwy, Blakehurst (going towards Sylvania - enlarged).


The punt, Tom Ugly's Point.

Sans Souci ferry.

Sans Souci ferry - 'Rocky Point'.


Caption says Sandringham Beach but probably Rocky Point at Riverside Drive.


Motor car at Ramsgate Road intersection with Rocky Point Road.

Ramsgate Road tram from Sans Souci at Ramsgate 'Shopping Centre'.


Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Note about these photographs of the St George area in Sydney's south (near Botany Bay).

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These photographs have come from a number of sources. Joe Brokenshire was the pharmacist in Rocky Point Road near Bonanza Parade where he and his family probably lived upstairs. He was sent to Broken Hill to take a pictorial record of the 'Great Strike' in 1917. After his return he evidently walked or drove to a number of interesting vantage points nearby with his camera and took these marvellous photographs. These included the Bonney Street wharf, Sandringham Beach, Rocky Point, Sans Souci School, Sand Souci swimming baths, Taren Point, Tom Uglys Point and Kurnell.

The glass slides were numbered 1 to 42 on the left with a hand-written title lower middle and the photographer's monogram 'JB' to the right. Three of the photos were un-numbered (Kogarah Shops; Sans Souci Public School - number cannot be read; Sandringham Fairground with tents) while 13 of the 42 are missing from this compilation.

There may have been a couple of other shots of Kogarah shopping centre but one of the lads who found the cache in the rubbish (in The Promenade, Sans Souci) kept this one with him, leaving the rest with my father Dr John Byrne of 197 Rocky Point Road, Ramsgate to print off before duly returning them to the father of the discoverer. Apparently they were neighbours of the 80 year old granddaughter of Mr Brokenshire.

A series of the enlargements adorned John Byrne's surgery, library and waiting room from about 1970 until his retirement around 1998. Some of the other photographs on this site were taken by a Mr Warton of Kogarah. Other have come down to us anonymously. Some are of such high quality that they can be enlarged over 100 times and still retain clarity of even the most distant and modest detail. It is a marvellous 'time-machine' revealing a window into a past era of the area where I was raised. I hope others enjoy viewing them as much as I did preparing them.