Market Street 1875

For many years cartoonist Ken Maynard featured the Ettamogah Pub in the pages of the Australasian Post. The pub was a wooden structure with angles that were anything other than 90 degrees. There are now 3 recreations in Australia.

I was put in mind of the Ettamogah Pub when I saw a picture of weatherboard buildings at the corner of Market Street and Clarence Street, Sydney in 1875:

(Click on photo to enlarge).

What is also interesting is the text that accompanied the photograph:

This photograph accompanied a scathing Government report into the city’s sewerage system.

Of these dwellings, it said,

‘Any one who may be curious to know how long Colonial timber will last, until, by the combined action of the elements, white ants, and other sources of destruction, it becomes triturated into powder, can satisfy their curiosity by ascertaining the date on which these houses were constructed. The corner house is occupied and used as a butcher's shop; it is a filthy stinking place...’

I looked up triturate and found that it means to grind or rub into a fine powder.

This is how the same intersection looks today: