Where are we, and what’s changed? Please send your suggestions to history@glebesociety.org.au

See the answer to last month’s mystery photo.

And the answer is… (December 2022 Bulletin)

John Lagerlow, Karin Kolbe and Tanya Dus recognised the view, no doubt taken from the University Hotel on the corner of Glebe Point Rd, as Broadway looking towards Central.

Victoria Park is on the right with the Lansdowne Hotel just visible through the trees. Pedestrians wander across the road to board the trams. There is a single horse-drawn cart and no traffic lights.

The photo is undated but is probably the early 1930s. Bottom left foreground are hoardings in front of the site of the Presbyterian Church, relocated to Bridge Rd in 1927.

There are few motor cars but huge billboards point to the future. Union Motor Spirit announced its arrival in Sydney in 1928 with full-page newspaper ads and a convoy of trucks, fitted with pumps and signs, which drove around the city streets. The product was endorsed by pioneer aviator Charles Kingsford-Smith. The Vacuum Oil Company began advertising its Plume ‘appotenic’ fuel in 1929.

‘Aunt Mary’s’ remains as a ghost sign on the wall of today’s Australian Performing Arts Grammar School.