Past Sydney

Sydney Harbour, 1850+, from Man O’ War Stairs

Manly Beach, c 1860

William Street, Sydney c 1889

Wynard Square, Sydney 1862

Wynard Square, 1879

Chinese market gardens that originally occupied all of Rushcutters Bay. These were cleared in the 1890s.

Houses on the corner of Cambridge Street and Glenmore Road, Rushcutters Bay, shown top right of the previous photograph.

Royal Arcade, Sydney, 1892

Bridge Street, Sydney, 1870 and 2009

Circular Quay, Sydney, 1920, 1962 and 2013

Traffic jam Hay Street, Sydney, 1930’s

The first Miss Australia, Beryl Mills, beside her new 1926 Studebaker President Sedan outside the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney

Queen Victoria Building, Sydney, 1890

Queen Victoria Building, Sydney, 1905

Queen Victoria Building, Sydney, central copper clad dome under construction.

George Street, Sydney, 1964

Bytes Bonus:

Beryl Mills (1907-1977) was an entrant in the inaugural 'Miss Australia' contest run by Smith’s Newspapers Ltd, owners of Smith’s Weekly and The Guardian.  After initial success as 'Miss Westralia', she entered and won the national competition in June 1926 in Sydney. Her winnings included 1000 pounds, two cars and a promotional tour of the United States. She was accompanied by her mother and Sir Frank Packer and was a guest of the Miss America pageant at Atlantic City.  In Sydney in 1928 she established the Beryl Mills Advertising Service before moving to Melbourne in the 1930s.  Beryl Mills returned to Sydney by 1941 and became librarian at Frank Packer's Consolidated Press Ltd. By now she had met an American, Major Leslie Garland Calder, whom she later married in the United States. She married journalist Francis Keith Davison on 19 March 1928 at St Michael's Anglican Church, Vaucluse, Sydney. They moved to Melbourne where daughter Judith was born in 1935.  Returning to Sydney in 1941 she met American, Major Leslie Garland Calder. They moved to the United States and married on 19 December 1946 in Virginia. She became a naturalised American and moved to Florida in her husband’s retirement. She died there at Punta Gorda on 13 July 1977.

Some more pics of the first Miss Australia: