Over time, Sydney and the surrounding areas have been host to a range of businesses, from the large industrial to the smaller and perhaps quirkier. In fact, once Sydney even had it’s own ostrich farm!

Joseph Barracluff was born in Lincolnshire and in 1884 he and his wife Jane immigrated to Australia. He soon established a business selling feathers in Elizabeth Street, opposite the Devonshire Street Cemetery (now Central Station). In 1889 the Barracluff’s purchased a property in South Head in order to start producing their own feathers for hats, boas, fans and other ladies fashion. Feathers were not their only product though. Ostrich eggs were also highly prized and many were finely carved and mounted in silver to be used as beautiful home ornaments.

Barracluff’s Ostrich Farm was one of the earliest feather producing businesses in Australia, and was Australia’s ‘show ostrich farm’ for many years. In fact, so high profile was the business that in 1901 the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Work (who became King George V and Queen Mary) visited during their royal tour of Australia. The duchess was presented with a grand ostrich feather fan with a gold base and enormous ostrich feathers (up to 68 centimetres long it is reported) and after the visit the farm was even allowed to use the words ‘Under Royal Patronage’ to describe the business. They also advertised their feathers as ‘By Special Appointment To His Excellency The Governor General and His Excellency The Governor Of New South Wales’.

Joseph Barracluff died in 1918, and following his death the business slowly declined. The land where the ostrich farm once thrived was subdivided and sold in 1925.