Monthly Archives: December 2017

Mrs Macquarie’s Chair

Lady Macquarie's Chair Front

This week, with New Year just around the corner, it seemed the perfect time to share this image taken in the vicinity of a prime location for watching fire works. Yet although Mrs Macquarie’s Chair is well known as a tourist destination, many people little spare a thought for the history of this iconic location.

Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, which is also sometimes known as Lady Macquarie’s Chair, is the site of one of the best vantage points of the harbour. In fact, it is renowned as one of the best views in Sydney. The extraordinary view down the harbour is indeed the reason behind the historic background to the area. In 1810, convict labour was used to carve a solid rock outcrop into a chair for, as the name suggests, Lady Elizabeth Macquarie.

Elizabeth Macquarie was the wife of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, the governor of the colony between 1810 and 1821. According to local folklore Lady Macquarie enjoyed watching the busy harbour and the ships coming and going. Reputably, her favourite vantage site was what became known as Lady Macquarie’s Chair, and the chair itself was carved to provide her a more comfortable place to watch the goings on of the busy harbour.

Christmas Hold To The Light Postcards

This week, with Christmas just around the corner, it seemed the perfect time to share these two amazing Christmas postcards. Throughout the year, The Past Present has showcased a wide range of postcard images, all of which have been pictorial cards showcasing iconic Australian places and scenes, often of Sydney and surrounds. Yet postcards come in wide range of themes, and they were produced with an amazing range of different techniques.

The postcards above and below are known as ‘hold to the light’ cards. When held flat on the table, they show a day time scene, but when held up to the light, the scene magically changes to show illuminated windows and a frosty nighttime scene. First appearing in approximately 1898 in Berlin, hold to the light postcards seem to have been produced first by the Wolf Hagelberg company. In fact, sometimes they are even known as Hagelberg Design Cards.

The Hagelberg cards were mainly produced using a die cut technique, which is what the cards above use to create the amazing effect. The basic design would be printed using chromolitho or collotype processes, just like everyday postcards which we all know so well. Then, a specially created forme, which had the areas which needed to be die cut marked on it, would be laid over the card and the areas which were to be illuminated would be punched out using the forme as a template.  Another, address side, would be printed separately and between the two pieces another sheet of paper would be placed. Often this sheet was yellow. When the three layers were glued together, the card was complete, and could be held to the light to create the amazing Day to Night effect.

Merry Christmas from The Past Present!

 

Queen Victoria Markets

Queen Victoria Market (QVB) Sydney Front

This week, with Christmas fast approaching and many people visiting various shopping centres and more exclusive stores in search of that perfect gift, it seemed the perfect opportunity to share this amazing image of the Queen Victoria Markets. The Queen Victoria Markets, which are more commonly known as the QVB, are one of Sydney’s more exclusive shopping precincts, and also one of Sydney’s most iconic buildings. Yet this amazing building was almost lost!

Before the QVB which we see today, there was an older produce market on the site, but in the 1890s, Sydney was suffering from an economic depression. Many people were without work, and the Government was looking for a project to employ out of work craftsmen and labourers alike. The elaborate new market design provided the perfect opportunity. With its beautiful stonework, glass roof areas, large copper domes, stunning stained glass windows, ornate wrought iron balustrades, patterned floor tiles and even statues, there was work for huge numbers of people, both skilled and unskilled.

The completed building was not always a shopping precinct though. Over the ensuing decades it saw many different occupants, including commercial stores, but also a library, concert hall and once, it was even used a municipal offices! By the 1950s though, the building was in need of restoration, and the government planned to replace the grand old building with a carpark! In 1982 though, after much public debate and campaigning,  the building was saved with the council agreeing to lease the building for 99 years to Malaysian company, Ipoh Garden Berhad. The company restored the beautiful building and today it is a popular and exclusive shopping centre.

Picnic Grounds on the Parramatta River

Picnic Grounds Paramatta River Front

With the weather heating up and the holidays almost upon us, it is the perfect season for a waterfront picnic with family and friends, and indeed over the coming weeks many such picnics will be planned. The image above, from a postcard dated about 1910, is an idyllic if a little mysterious view of what was clearly once a popular picnic venue on the Parramatta River. With its muted colouring, and blue water and sandy beach, it seems the perfect venue for a family picnic, yet the exact location of the photo is unknown.

Picnicking has long been a popular way to while away a few hours, enjoying beautiful scenery and a tasty al fresco meal. In fact, the first known picnic’s took place all the way back in the Medieval times! Yet early picnics were vastly different to the picnics many of us enjoy today. Many early picnics were an evolution of elaborate and remarkably formal outdoor feasts and celebrations, and they were closely associated with hunting gatherings. Far from spreading a rug on the ground and enjoying a simple meal, they often took place at formally set tables and included sumptuous foods, many of which were served hot!

Then, in the 17th and 18th century the picnic began to evolve. Instead of being a formal meal, they began to be something a little like the American idea of a ‘pot luck’, with all of the participants bringing a dish to share. In fact, that was what the word picnic actually meant! By the 1860s though the meaning had changed again, with the word picnic meaning to eat outdoors. It was this late 19th century era when picnics also began to become popular, not just for wealthy people, but for all classes. Even the seminal cookbook, Mrs Beeton’s, provided ideas on how to host a picnic, and what sorts of food would be needed.

Of course, if picnicking was becoming a popular pastime, places to enjoy such picnics were also becoming necessary. Although many Australian’s were happy to enjoy an informal picnic at the beach or in the bush, others preferred established picnic grounds, like the one pictured above. These picnic areas often included other basic amenities, like toilets, tables and running water, which made them popular destinations.

The question is – where is the picnic ground featured in the postcard above actually located, and does it still exist?

Glades Bay

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The image above is a beautiful snapshot of a time and place, and indeed way of life unfamiliar to many Sydneysiders. Gladesville, famous for the Gladesville Bridge, is a place which many locals will know well, yet the nearby Glades Bay, featured in the image above, is far less familiar.

Glades Bay, like Gladesville, is named after John Glade, an ex-convict and early land owner in the area. Yet it is the culture of swimming in the area which plays the most important role in our history. As early as the 1850s, school boys and men alike used the Parramatta River for swimming. Women however found it much more difficult to swim in the fresh, salty water as they were only permitted to swim in enclosures and bathing sheds where they were far removed from the prying eyes of men.

As early as 1877 Ryde Council began to discuss the idea of building public swimming baths, and in 1887 the necessity for an enclosed swimming area was highlighted when a man was killed by a shark near Ryde Wharf. Yet building public baths was expensive and it wasn’t until the early 1900s that swimming baths began to be built. Yet once the construction of baths began, more were quickly constructed along the Parramatta River. The Glades Bay Baths were constructed in 1909.