Friday September 12, 2008
Images of Mosman from the State Records archive
First tram in operation to Balmoral. 29 May 1922.
The State Records Authority of NSW has some great photos of Mosman on Flickr, the worldwide photo community website. Have a look at their photostream.
By uploading some of these images to Flickr we aim to highlight our photographic collection and hope that you might be able to join us in identifying unknown scenes, people and places by tagging and commenting on our photostream.
It’s an impressive collection!
We hold tens of thousands of archival photos from the late 19th Century to the present, capturing life in New South Wales in much of its richness and diversity. The original formats of these images vary widely, from glass plates and lantern slides to 35mm negatives, colour transparencies and prints.
Our digitisation program aims to bring many of these ‘hidden’ images to light.
Here are some other Mosman photos in their Flickr photostream:
- House boats moored in Pearl Bay, Mosman
- Building The Spit Bridge, 1924
- Trams on the Mosman and Spit Junction Line
- The Spit at Middle Harbour, Mosman, 1908
- Musgrave Street wharf, c.1900
- View of Bradleys Head Lighthouse showing the Sydney Harbour Trust work boat ‘Aurora’ in the background
- The ‘Queen Mary’ from Bradleys Head, c.1940
Their own online collection of more than 5,500 images can be accessed using the Photo Investigator service.
Monday August 25, 2008
Vande and Rose Noble Potteries of Mosman
Mosman Library has been collecting unique pieces of pottery made by two commercial potteries that flourished in Mosman during the 1950s and 1960s.
These potteries called Vande and Rose Noble were small but successful operations producing souvenir ware to cater for the booming tourist industry in post-war Australia. In 2002 Mosman Library held the first public exhibition of Vande and Rose Noble pottery.
The collecting initiative has resulted in the Mosman Local Studies Collection having over 60 significant examples that are representative of the ceramics produced by Vande and Rose Noble.
Currently a number of Vande pieces from the Library’s collection are on loan to the Australian National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour for Trash or Treasure? Souvenirs of Travel, an exhibition that examines collecting travel memorabilia.
Trash or Treasure? Souvenirs of Travel will be on view until May 2009.
Friday February 1, 2008
Postcards from Mosman's past
We recently came across some historic postcards of Mosman’s Bay and Clifton Gardens on the photo sharing website Flickr. They date from the beginning of the last century, roughly 1900 to 1920.
The Mosman’s Bay set features views of the Harbour, its ferries and houses, the wharf at the bottom of Avenue Road and the footbridge across what is today Reid Park.
In the Clifton Gardens set you see the ‘The Clifton Arms’ at Chowder Bay, the first licensed hotel in Mosman, and the very popular ‘pleasure grounds’ that incorporated the Marine Hotel with its dance hall, wharf, pool and accommodation, ‘unsurpassed in the Southern Hemisphere’. The hotel was demolished in 1967. You can also see the Submarine Mining Depot, now accessible to the public.
Wednesday January 30, 2008
The hospital on the hill
This image is from a photo album owned by Margaret Holmes. It is reproduced here with her kind permission. It was taken at the 21st Australian Auxiliary Hospital by her father, the doctor and Army Medical Corps commanding officer at the time (1918), Lieut. Col. W.H. Read. We know nothing more about these two than the caption on the photo.
Georges Heights, here in Mosman, was home to the third largest military hospital in Australia. But who was here? What was life like in the hospital on the hill? Can you help?
Tuesday November 6, 2007
Man shortage in Mosman?
A new study of 25-34 year old singles by statistician Bernard Salt based on the 2006 census figures showed Mosman had more available women than men, with just 85 blokes for every 100 single sheilas.
- Sydney Morning Herald, 21 October 2007
How else has your community changed over the past 5 years?
The Mosman Community Profile has been updated with results from the 2006 Census.
The Community Profile is an excellent resource for the business community, students, researchers and the community in general.
It enables detailed analysis of the changes to the Mosman community over a 15 year period, as it presents statistics from the 2006, 2001, 1996 and 1991 censuses in table and graph format.
The Profile shows that there have been no significant changes to the composition of the Mosman community over the past five years.
The population has increased by 2.9% to 26,236.
20.5% of the population is aged between 0 and 17, and 21.0% is aged 60 years and over. The largest changes in age structure were in the age groups 60 to 69 (+645) and 85 and over (+121 persons).
View the Mosman Community Profile.
Tuesday October 16, 2007
Walking in the footsteps of the Curlew Camp artists
Mosman's Bay - Tom Roberts, 1894 - New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale NSW
The Spring 2007 newsletter (PDF 2Mb) from the Heritage Office and Heritage Council of NSW has a feature story on the Curlew Camp Artists’ Walk in Mosman that opened earlier this year.
Friday October 12, 2007
Colleen Godsell and the million dollar barn
Over a five year fund raising frenzy, Colleen Godsell raised more than one million dollars to preserve the Mosman scout hall which otherwise would have become yet another block of townhouses in the harbourside suburb.
But Colleen’s steely resolve in the many battles with governments and other authorities has meant the home of Australia’s oldest scouting troupe – known as the “The Barn” – has been fully restored and is back on the community assets list. This is the story of a woman who firmly believes in preservation of our heritage.
ABC Sydney has Colleen Godsell’s story.
Friday September 14, 2007
Can you tell us anything about this photo?
This black and white photograph was found in the Mosman Library Local Studies Photograph Collection. Unfortunately we do not have any information available about this image and would appreciate help in identifying the location.
We would also be interested to know anything about the artillery gun in the photograph. Was it used during the First World War or the Second World War? Would it have been used by Australian troops?
A larger version of the photo is available here at Mosman Library’s Flickr account.
If you have any information please leave a comment or email library@mosman.nsw.gov.au
Monday September 3, 2007
What's the history of your house?
Mosman Library recently updated its free brochure entitled Mosman House Hunt – a guide to searching the history of a house in Mosman.
It suggests some resources that’ll help you answer questions like How old is my house? Did my house have a name? Was my house designed by an architect? Are there any photographs of my house? Who lived in my house?
You can view the brochure online at www.mosman.nsw.gov.au/library/local-studies/house-hunt
Tuesday June 19, 2007
Mosman's Built Heritage
Mosman Council has produced four short programs about architecture in Mosman with well-known architectural historian Robert Irving OAM.
Whether you are planning to carry out building work, or own a heritage property, or are just interested in Mosman’s beautiful buildings and landscape, you will enjoy and learn from viewing Mosman’s Built Heritage.
The four part presentation can be viewed online.
See Mosman’s Built Heritage on Mosman Council’s website or go to Google Video:
- What do we value about Mosman’s Heritage?
- Mosman’s Federation Past
- Mosman Between The Wars
- Today’s Buildings: Tomorrow’s Heritage
You can also download the programs to your hard drive to view later.
Mosman’s Built Heritage is also available on DVD from Mosman Council for $8.95.