Rushcutters Bay 1870

An awesome, rare pic, showing the toll gate on New South Head Road. Most of the main roads out of town had one - Oxford St, Anzac Pde, Broadway, etc - but very little photographic record remains of them.

Looking west toward the Cross, the spire on the hill is St John's at Darlinghurst; the large house to the right of it is the mansion 'Craigend'. As you can see, this is semi-rural with very humble cottages about, lots of fields, etc. It wouldn't be too long until a tram line is put through from Double Bay, then Sydney Stadium arrives just down on the left there, and the rest of the area fills.

Today -

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Welcome, this site is all about Sydney 'then and now'..

The pics: Do click to enlarge the old photos as I've restored most of them from their faded small originals, and the details you'll often see in them can give an awesome insight into how ordinary people, your and my ancestors, actually lived.

Then: Where nothing today remains of a 'Then' scene, the Google Street Views of the 'Now' location have been verified through old maps and the NSW government's SIXMaps.

Sources: Most of the old photos have been collected over many years through the now-defunct Picture Australia and the original sources lost, but almost all are now found through Trove; variously from the National Library, the State Libraries of NSW and Vic, and the National Archives. Some are also via Flickr, so if you know the source of any, do let me know and I will add the credit.

Me: I'm Ross, a major oldsydneyphile (that's a word, really - well, now it is anyway). I grew up here from the 60s. Originally, I made the site in 2006-2008, and restarted it in 2018 using the 'now' scenes supplied by Google Street View.

Rushcutters Bay 1870

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