I recently came across some 50+ yrs old photos, magazines and paper cuttings. Most of the photos were taken in the early 1930s and the printed material 1920 - 1957. Come with me on a trip down memory lane. For those that weren't born before WW2, it will have to be a somewhat imaginary trip.

• Remember when trucks only had 8 horse power.
  

• Then the motive power was doubled.
  

• Remember when the roads were softer than the wheels that ran on them. At Windsor.
  

• Remember when trucks sometimes needed a haircut.
  

• Remember when the cry "Smithy's here" brought everyone running.
  
  
  
  ^{From a Photo by Baden Mullaney}
  
• Remember Bert Hinkler's bi-plane.
  

• Remember before the red electrics, these ran everywhere, every 20 minutes. At Newtown.
  

• If Dad had only taken his box camera to Newtown 10 yrs earlier, it might have looked like this.
  

• Remember when Sydney got pollution-free electric public transport for the city. What happened to it?
  

• Remember when Pitt St. Sydney was a real street with trams as well.
  

• Remember when Anthony Hordern & Sons shop was the biggest in Sydney, covering half a city block from Pitt Street to George Street. Anthony Hordern opened his first shop 32 yrs before the first train ran from Sydney to Paramatta.
  

• Remember when Railway Square actually had rails in it.
  
  

• Remember when you could look down on Railway Square from the Railway Clock Tower.
  

• Remember when there wasn't any Railway Clock Tower.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}
  
• Remember when Trams were very airconditioned.
  

• Tram workers in front of the air-conditioned section of a tram. Notice the wooden slat seats.
  

• Trams resting in their lair, waiting for the next peak period.
  

• Remember when Trams ran up into the Central railway building.
  

• This is how they got there.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}
  
• Remember when Central Railway platforms had no overhead wires.
  

• Remember when Sydney had a war Museum (WW1). This can also be seen in the previous pix.
  
  When the National War Museum was built in Canberra, the contents of Sydney's Museum was transferred to Canberra.

• Remember when steam-engines only had 6 wheels.
  
  In 1937 this engine was converted to a steam crane and numbered 1076. It still exists at the NSWRTM at Thirlmere.

• Remember when the Cooks River railway bridge could lift up part of the rail-line to let the boats through.
  

• Remember the gauntlet track railway bridge over the Georges river at Como.
  
  
• On the Como bridge.
  
  
• The gauntlet track on the Mortdale side.
  
  ^{The above two images from Photos by William A Bayley.}
  The gauntlet track at the Como end.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}
  
• Remember when there was no Sydney Harbour bridge. The traffic crossed the harbour on non-tethered punts. That's Fort Denison (Pinchgut) dead in the centre of the background.
  
  
  
• Dual loading docks meant faster turn-around. Some punts were large, others smaller. There were six in all, the Barangaroo, the Bennelong, the Kamilaroi, the Karakara, the Kalang and the Koondooloo.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}
  
• The Sydney Harbour Bridge was but a gleam in Dr Bradfield's eye when this pix was taken. Koondooloo takes on yet another load of cars for the trip across the harbour in the 1920s.
  
    This punt, the "Koondooloo", had an interesting history. Built in 1924 in Scotland, she came out to Australia under her own steam. She was the largest of the car-ferries and worked in Sydney until replaced by the Bridge in 1932. It spent the time from 1936 to 1938 as a single deck showboat. In 1938 it had a second deck added and remained this way till 1943, when it was rebuilt as a powered barge. It then joined McArthur's Navy, flying the Stars & Stripes, carrying what ever was necessary round the shallow bays, inlets and islands of Papua/New Guinea in WW2. It survived the war and returned to Australia, working from 1950 as a car ferry on the Stockton run at Newcastle.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Graeme Andrews}
    Another punt, the "Kalang", was transformed into Sydney's premier triple-deck showboat and for a time shared the harbour with the smaller "Koondooloo". Subsequently the "Koondooloo" went to Newcastle and the "Kalang" had Sydney Harbour all to itself. Over the years patronage began to drop and the "Kalang" changed owners and was renamed "The Sydney Queen". Unfortunately the new name didn't bring in the customers and eventually it was retired. It sat forlornly tied up at the wharf until overseas interests purchased it along with the recently refurbished "Koondooloo".
  
  ^{From a Photo by Sydney Ferries Ltd}
    In Jan 1972 the "Sydney Queen" and the "Koondooloo" were being towed to the Phillipines. Both were temporarily moored in Trial bay, South West Rocks, on the north coast of New South Wales while enroute. Insufficient mooring ropes and a bad storm saw both break free and wash up on Main Beach. It was impossible to refloat them. Subsequently they were burnt to enable the engines to be removed for scrap. Rusting remnants of these unfortunate boats are still there.
  
  
  
  ^{The above three images from Photos by Graeme Andrews}
  

• Remember when the punt was too slow. We needed a harbour bridge. How did they get all that steel up there?
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}
  

  One of the four main support bearings. When the bridge is at maximum load, each bearing will be carrying 10,000 tons.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  One of two giant 570 ton creeper cranes which actually built the arches. After building each single section, they crawled on to it to build the next one.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  Sydney's floating crane "Titan" helps the creeper crane fix the first girders of the bridge in place. Sadly, the Titan met a similar fate to some of the punts. After having been sold to overseas interests, it was being towed to the new owners when, unfortunately, being somewhere off the coast opposite North West Rocks, it turned turtle and sank.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  In the next series of pix you can see the huge bunch of 128 steel cables, each 2&3/4inch dia and 1200ft long, holding back each of the partly-built arch-ends. I wonder how many times the engineer, who decided how big the cables had to be and how many, did his calculations. Remember there were no computers. Each cable was tested to 350tons, which was more than twice the expected load, so I guess he didn't trust his slide-rule too much.
  
  The cables are attached to the top chord of the arch by two large fish-plates.
  

  The cables leave the bridge, enter the 45° U shaped tunnel, come out the other side then go back up to the bridge.
  

  At the bottom of the 132ft deep U shaped cable tunnel. The cables run in greased grooves. There are 40,000 tons of rock above to hold down the 15000 ton half-arch.
  

  
  The crawler crane weaves its steel web with special rust resistant silicon steel, 30% stronger than normal mild steel.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Baden Mullaney}
  The North Shore Spans are in place but the restraining cables are yet to be fitted. The building on the right is part of the workshops where the bridge girders were fabricated.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  Inside the workshops, a pile of deck hangers wait to be called for.
  
  The Inspector checks one of the large fish-plates which will connect the cables to the Bridge.
  
  ^{From Photos by Unknown.}

  The North Shore arch is under way now that the cables are fitted.
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}
  The arch takes shape, even though all the individual pieces are dead straight.
  

  What a lunch-time view!
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  After completion, the two halves sat, just 3 ft apart, hanging on their support cables. When the wind blew hard enough, the two ends, of the 15000 ton half-arches, drifted back and forth approx 3 inches. It took phenomenal manufacturing accuracy to get the two half-arches aligned this well. Dr Bradfield is standing on a plank straddling the gap. With him is Lawrence Ennis, the large thick-set man standing on the tip of the left-hand arch, who had the responsibility of actually building the bridge. In the gap beneath the men you can see the 7ft long tapered registration pin which will make sure the arch ends fit perfectly. The photo was taken from the opposite side of the right-hand arch.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  After the cables had been slackened enough to close the gap, the creeper cranes filled in the remaining "v" shaped section above the join.   Milson's Point railway station is down near the water on the left. The Bridge girders were fabricated in the big buildings next to it on the site now partly occupied by Luna Park.
  
  ^{From a Photo in The Sydney Mail, August 1930}

  The cables have done their job.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  The arch now finished, the deck hanging commenced. Here the first of 21 girders, weighing 98 tons, is placed in position.
  
  ^{From a Photo in the Sydney Mail, October 1930.}

  And so the roadway in the sky, grows.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  A bird's eye view of hanging the deck.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Ted Hood}
  A closer look at the deck.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}
  The suspended roadway is almost finished. Deck girder No 21 is the only one left to hang.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}
  Two lions guard the view from Neutral Bay Heights of a bridge without pylons.
  
  ^{From a Photo in the Sydney Mail, 1931.}
  The pylons nearing completion.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown.}
  Not much more to do. Notice the low railing on the pedestrian walkway. What a wonderful view you must have had before a number of suicides forced the current high fence to be fitted.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}
  

  Load tests being carried out just before the hand-over from the builders. 7000 tons of steam locomotives would have plunged into the harbour had the test failed, but it didn't. The bridge passed with flying colours, placing a thrust of 44.1 million lbs on the Sydney sandstone on each side of the harbour. The combined weight of the steam-locos caused the deck to flex downwards just 3 inches.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  Finished at last. The Sydney Harbour Bridge finally became our Sydney Harbour Bridge.
  

  A tram coming off the Sydney end of the Bridge on opening day, 1932. Most people decided to walk across.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  Looking past the Western side of the Bridge towards the sea.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  Fort Denison protects the bridge from any Amarda that may come sailing up the harbour.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  Impressive from any angle.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  Impressive though it may be, the Bridge is put in perspective in this aerial photo of part of the 200 mile shoreline of our magnificent Sydney Harbour, looking Westward in the late afternoon.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}

  This is an infra-red view of Sydney and its Harbour from 4 miles up. Looking towards the East from above Parramatta.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Sydney Ferries Ltd}

• Remember the buses of the harbour.
  

• Remember when they were full. What would our current killjoy state govt say about this? Probably, "This is verboten."
  
  ^{From a Photo by Sam Hood}

• Remember when you paid your money to a little glass fronted booth and received one of these from the Port Jackson & Manly Steam Ship Company. You put it in the turnstiles and joined the throng waiting for the big Ferry to churn up the water as it was thrown into reverse while coming along side the wharf.
  

• Remember when the trip to Manly was an experience and you could lean over the inside rail, feel the heat and see the big marine steam-engine working. Listen to the wandering minstral playing rollicking tunes on an accordion. Or you could just sit outside and feel the seat vibrating to the slow beat of those big pistons while watching the bow-wave breaking just a few feet away.
  

• And sometimes those waves were BIG!
  
  ^{From a Photo by Bob Martin}

• Remember when you arrived at Manly, "Seven miles from Sydney, a hundred miles from care". That magical place of wharf fishing, bottled milk with a hole in its silver top for a drinking straw and the magnificient ocean beach with its continuous line of norfolk pines. You can also see in the photo a couple of Sydney's massive fleet of double-deckers. If you haven't already ridden in one then you've missed the bus. There's none left in general use.
  
  
  ^{From Photos by Unknown}

• Remember, while on a trip to Manly, you might even see a couple of these at Athol Bight. With the way the world's going maybe we should get a couple more.
  

  This beautiful ship was sunk in 1942 during WW2.

  HMAS Australia (II), though badly damaged in WW2, survived and went on to be part of the RAN fleet until decommissioned in 1955. This 10000 ton cruiser, with 8 x 8 inch guns, was built to replace HMAS Australia (I) (see below), after our "friends" the English, French and Americans decided it was too big and dangerous for Australians to have and forced us to take it 25 miles off Sydney Heads and scuttle it.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Ray Olsen}
  

  HMAS Australia (I), a 18700 ton battle-ship with 8 x 12 in guns and 44000 horse-power turbines, built in Oct 1911. The flagship of the Royal Australian Navy. After WW1, our "friends" the English, French and Americans decided this ship was too big and dangerous for Australians to have and forced us to take it 25 miles off Sydney Heads and scuttle it.
  
  ^{From a Photo by Unknown}
  

• Remember when you could cross Parramatta Rd without getting knocked over. This is Camperdown and the sign says "Wait Here for Tram".
  

• Remember when travelling to Melbourne meant riding on this.
  

• Remember when you got there you could ride a cable tram in Collins Street.
  

• Then on to Adelaide on this.
  
• Then to Glenelg on this high-speed American tram.
  
• Then to Terowie on this.
  
• And back to Sydney on this.
  

• Remember when travelling to Newcastle meant riding behind one of these.
  
• Across the original Hawkesbury River bridge.
  
• Like this.
  
• Past picturesque Mullet Creek.
  
  ^{From a Photo in the Sydney Mail, 1929.}
  
• And on to Newcastle with its formidable steel industry.
  
  
  ^{The above two images from Photos in the Sydney Mail, 1929.}
  
• Remember, during WW2, the big ships were conscripted to carry troops. Here is the Queen Mary dressed in grey, having a rest before it leaves Sydney Harbour. Only a handfull of people knew its destination, only the captain knew the route he was going to take. Just imagine this huge ship roaring along at 35knots, faster than the other warships on this page. Even faster than the current road speed limit on Sydneys roads. You could ride a surf board on its bow-wave.
  
• Here's the Queen Elizabeth taking its turn.
  

• Remember when Bennelong Point was called Fort Macquarie and this was there before the Sydney Opera House.
  

• Remember when Sydney's Pyrmont swing bridge was actually in use.
  
  
• Remember when Sydney's Glebe Island swing bridge was just a bridge. Photo taken from top of wheat silos.
  

• Remember when Sydney was the Number One city in Australia.
  
  ^{From a Photo in the Sydney Mail, 1929.}

   

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  All Photos, unless stated otherwise, were taken with various box-cameras and are from the late Fred Yates collection.
    ©  Gary Yates   Locofonic Recordings Australia   This page first written 30-9-2001 last updated 4-1-2006.