Sydney had an elegance back then which it sure doesn't have today. What a shame, it was so beautiful and now it is so ugly.

The architecture is so remarkably British in style and form, if it wasn't for the more tropical flora scattered throughout the video, one could be forgiven for thinking it an Old World city.

My parents were born in the 1920s and this is a great insight into the world they were born into. My mother passed away last year and it is incredulous to imagine the changes she had witnessed over the course of her life.

It's great these film clips still exist and are shared with the world. Many thanks. - Larry, San Diego, California, USA.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for letting us know Larry.

@petersinclair3997

2 жыл бұрын

👍🇺🇸🇦🇺

Instantly recognisable as the city generations of my family have known and loved! So much of that vision from 1927 was still there for me to enjoy in the 60s and 70s. I was so amazed at how well the public transport systems were working back then - the ferries, the trams, the buses, the importance of Central Railway Station and Circular Quay.

Some of the finest images of Old Sydney I've seen. What a stunning city it was!

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the feedback.

What a brilliant film. Thanks so much for putting it up.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Our pleasure!

Funny looking at George Street we’ve come full circle with the light rail now running down it. Great old film thanks for sharing.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

Commonwealth Bank at 8:04 looks like the inspiration of all those tin money boxes I had as a kid.

@bethsheeba1198

2 жыл бұрын

It was and I have still got some.

@graemedurie9094

2 жыл бұрын

It was the source!

@James_Bowie

2 жыл бұрын

That's because it is.

@daveg2104

2 жыл бұрын

That's because it is the inspiration for the money boxes.

Wonderful. Particularly enjoy the people seen walking about in these films. I'm surprised how many substantial structures there were in 1927. Love these historical treasures of films. Thank you for preserving and sharing them.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

You're very welcome. We love sharing them and appreciate the feedback.

@danrobinson572

2 жыл бұрын

@@NFSAFilms great video thanks 🙏

I'm confident a time traveller from the 1920s could navigate around our city without a map today. So much of what is shown has been preserved. Just great!

The younger generation could do with watching these type of historical videos, might appreciate what a wonderful country we used to have... Great video, thanks for sharing.

@thevannmann

2 жыл бұрын

Behind those pretty building façades were people who supported the ill-treatment of the first nations people and held extremely xenophobic and conservative views. Great nation! /s This is not to mention all the scientific breakthroughs since. Life was probably quite shite for the average person. If anything it makes me appreciate life as it is now, minus the buildings that were knocked down with pretty exteriors.

@Rikk_Klaww777

2 жыл бұрын

More like "councils and developers" could watch this and think about putting in a planning permit..🤔😐😑

@louiseclifford5184

2 жыл бұрын

@@thevannmann I don’t think much has changed regarding our indigenous brothers and sisters not to mention our treatment of refugees and and general racism that still persists and rears it’s ugly head frequently

@stuartcole4845

2 жыл бұрын

@@thevannmann Yep, venture a few hundred metres east of the picturesque Botanical Gardens or Oxford Street featured in this film from the 1920s and you had the absolute squalor of the slums of Darlinghurst, Surry Hills, Woolloomooloo, and Kings Cross. Disease ridden alleyways infested with rats and other vermin, inhabited by drug dealers and addicts, prostitutes, drunks and of course the notorious Razor Gangs. Back when you could scarcely tell the difference between the gangsters and the police, a minor bacterial infection could be a death sentence and healthcare for the most part was only for those who could afford it. If you were unemployed your family went hungry because there was no social safety net, illiteracy was rampant due to poor education, with most people achieving only a few years of high school. If you were lucky enough, maybe you could find legitimate work down at the docks, with no minimum wage, long hours of back-breaking work and where having a workmate die on the job due to zero safety regulations was a common occurrence. Yep, the good ol’ days for sure. At least everybody was white I suppose and those that weren’t of British decent were treated like animals. /sarcasm

@sirsillybilly

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds like some cities outside Australia that have helped enrich our cuisine. “How good is the food “ !

Sydney looked much more advance 200 years ago then now... Those convicts back at d old days proved to be better architects, craftsmen and builders with their horses and carts than our morden day builders with their excavators, automatic cement maker, modern electrical tools... We modern people sucks

The worst scar ever made on the beautiful Sydney Harbour is the Cahill Expressway and these images prove it, completely mutilated the Quay. Such a stunning harbour back then made even greater with the Harbour bridge 5 years later. The style of the city is so much more elegant and peaceful back then. I remember catching the tram from Maroubra Beach into Elizabeth Street many times in the early 50s for the big trip to David Jones (Elizabeth St) and Farmers on Broadway always an adventure. I was sad as a young lad when they killed the trams in 57 the buses were nowhere near as reliable. Thanks heavens they developed good tunnel boring machines.

@jonahbock6605

2 жыл бұрын

What are you thoughts on the cities potential plan to demolish the Express way and have the Quay looking similar to what it did in this time? I would link a concept image but KZread won’t allow that

@sanctuaryism

2 жыл бұрын

would have been odd to remember a time before the freeway... taking all the back roads etc. yeah I can say the same thing for the M5 east and how it divided the suburbs in half.

My beautiful city.. love to see how Sydney has progressed over time

This great city deserves this valuable memory. Wonderful. Thank you.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Our pleasure!

@LHRTW

Жыл бұрын

@@NFSAFilmsno mention of Aborigine genocide

It's great to have these historical films to let us know what Sydney was like up to 100 years ago but it's sad that a lot of those beautiful buildings are now gone and we're stuck with replacements that are bland glass and steel buildings that have no character.

I teach Australian history at an catholic school in Sydney’s west. And often take the students on day trips around Sydney to show them aspects of early Sydney. And for those who have never seen this, if you are travelling along Liverpool road/ Hume hwy from Enfield to Liverpool, on the side of the road travelling west they still have the concrete markers that indicate how many km until you get to Liverpool,eg 20 km, 15, 10 and so on. They are small white concrete slabs around 1 m high and 50 cm wife. They have been there since the early 1900s.

@bert23337

9 ай бұрын

Thats amazing, I did not see any metric road signs in NSW until 1974. I will make sure I check next time I am on Hume Highway.

Beautiful in all its monochrome glory and the absence of an added on musical soundtrack is a blessing.

Thank you for uploading this video. In 6 years this film will be 100 years old. So much has changed in Sydney/Australia since then. I have only been in Australia for 20 years but footage like this makes me love Australia more even more. Thank you again :-D

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

I lived in Sydney in the 90s. I loved every minute of it. Still miss it.

Back when cities were beautiful, built from local materials, not alien concrete, glass or steel. We should demand a more human-scale, local architecture.

So much architectural cohesion. Beautiful!

Amazing to see how many buildings are still around. I also loved seeing the cabbage tree plams in the Botanic gardens and how how much they've grow in 100 years, I sit under them all the time on my lunch break.

@michaellewis5171

2 жыл бұрын

I studied geology in first year Uni - many years ago. We learnt about the seams of rocks forming the Sydney Basin. Wianamatta Shale, Hawkesbury Sandstone and Narrabeen rocks and shales - and lower. We went on a couple of field trips, north and south, and it was impressed on us the role of the Cabbage Tree palm as a marker between the Hawkesbury and Narrabeen layers. They pop out above Wollongong and going down to Narrabeen Lake and are luxuriant at Bilgola. Makes the drives more interesting.

It’s remarkable that despite some terrible losses in the 60’s to 80’s Sydney, unlike other major Australian cities, has preserved much of its unique heritage and is all the better for that. Virtually every important building featured in this film still exists though most overall street scenes are very different now. Sydney has always been my favourite Australian city and continues to be so.

What a beautiful city and the building structure is amazing. Especially how things were done back than without the technology we have these days.

How did they build those buildings back then? How did they place the large dome on the Queen Victoria building, presumably when they had no cranes?

@mrdino5101

Жыл бұрын

You are asking too many questions young man! We may have to put you into one of those mansion-like insane asylums.

Wow Sydney before the Bridge. .Great. Thanks for saving and sharing this.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Our pleasure!

This is pure magic. I've spent the last several years researching daily life in Sydney in winter 1926. To see this is phenomenal.

@peregrinemccauley5010

2 жыл бұрын

I know . Bloody marvelous . It wasn't that long ago . An eighty year life span is only 960 Months .

How did they build all of this?

@Lilnuker1337

2 жыл бұрын

I think you're asking it in a way of "how did they manage to build so many significant buildings and trams within a period of time from when Australia was founded?" Easy really. All of the sandstone/trachyte buildings we're seeing in the video were made from materials that were sourced locally from Sydney, and there were quite a lot of stonemasons walking around the place + a lot of manual labor jobs as well. There wasn't that much to do other than work and sleep, so you probably would've guessed people didn't really beat around the bush, because they couldn't afford to do so. Combine that with the knowledge that came from England, and you'll have yourself a nice city in no time.

@dopaminedreams1122

2 жыл бұрын

Irish slave labour

@kyrieeleison1905

Жыл бұрын

no idea... there are no pictures of it being built..

I work in Sydney CBD as a courier. I love this city it's my home. My heritage is Indonesian btw.

Thanks for this nicely preserved (or restored) film from 1927. That large open-top tourer that drives into almost all road scenes with the guy sitting in the rear seat would be lovely to have, and drive around Australia. Plenty of room for modern camping gear and the family, complete with dog.

Circular Quay without the Cahill Expressway "viaduct" looks so different!

Really interesting. I noticed the small newspaper booth in Martin Place is still in the same place today! Amazing, thanks for the upload.

Got a whole 16mm real in colour of the 56 olympics if the archives wants it. Sitting in a cupboard at home…taken by my grandfather. He was a cameraman in the airforce in ww2 Compared to today’s olyimpics it looks like a high school sports day..lol.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

We'd love to know more about that 16mm film! Please contact Richard.carter@nfsa.gov.au. Thanks.

These records are invaluable. Thank you

@NFSAFilms

Жыл бұрын

You're welcome. Thank you for letting us know.

I recognise most of these buildings, have worked in a couple in the same condition, and visited others, very little has changed at all! Thanks Governer Macquarie! I don't know what these other commenters are so negative about? Sydney's history remains! 🎉🤗👍

Awesome video

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Beautiful! Everything still highly recognisable

I do love the old buildings and they are all still standing to day

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Some are. Some not so much.

@morpheus2573

8 ай бұрын

@@NFSAFilmsMost buildings featured in this video ARE still standing. Name the ones that aren't.

@NFSAFilms

8 ай бұрын

Depends what you mean by "featured" perhaps. The T&G Building on Elizabeth St and the two next to it are gone. Circular Quay is significantly altered including the Goldsbrough building where the 1960s ANZ building now sits and most of the buildings on Oxford Street are no longer there. But yes many fine buildings remain.

My word, how different, and beautiful, Circular Quay looks without the bloody awful looking Cahill expressway in the background. Fascinating film though. Thanks.

I never knew that building was the old post office. I can see it from my apartment on Bridge St and am looking at it now as I write this comment! I love the ending with The Con. Such a beautiful and iconic musical establishment.

Thanks so much for your hard work that's gone into posting this treasure. Much appreciated.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Our pleasure!

@danrobinson572

2 жыл бұрын

@@NFSAFilms that video about the old house. What year was that made?

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

@@danrobinson572 1946.

Sydney is still the most beautiful city in the world.

@jamesfrench7299

7 ай бұрын

No bias there.

On 4:02 I can see huge, probably light-up, signage on the Town Hall building that reads "CHALIAPIN". I guess it might be related to Fedor Chaliapin's (a famous Russian bass singer) recitals in Sydney in August 1926

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Yes - those performances were at the Town Hall.

Lovely seeing our building with the trams going past at 5:17. Thank you!

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

You're welcome.

3:53 - Sydney Town Hall - The great Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin toured Australia in 1926 and gave a recital here - Sydney was on the world artistic map!

@AlphaGeekgirl

11 ай бұрын

When did they pull down the front of Sydney Townhall and build the steps as they are today?

@Elitist20

10 ай бұрын

@@AlphaGeekgirl 1934 - Town Hall Station underground had opened two years earlier (connecting to Sydney Harbour Bridge) and there's now an entrance to the station under the stairs.

Aah yes ! The good old days... I remember them well .

Sydney is a gorgeous city, I never get sick of it. Working in Kurnell I imagine captain Cook landing there and planning the next step 🤩

Brilliant thanks for sharing from a Sydneysider

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

Breathtaking even in black and white. I hope saint Mary's cathedral and the governors house are still standing. Gorgeous. We need to go back to building like this instead of brick boxes and glass towers. I feel we've messed things up along the way.

@fishnchips8132

Жыл бұрын

they do look magnificent, but Sydney's stone buildings are cold, dark & damp in winter & they're not really suitable for the climate.

@fishnchips8132

Жыл бұрын

Gothic & satanic I've heard

@safstar0184

Жыл бұрын

You will never build these buildings again like they r.

@thomaselliott573

Жыл бұрын

thank goodness they are still there and entirely suited to their place architecturally and geographically

I'm supposed to believe society has progressed..

"Pioneers' Camp" is very good. Very tactful.

This is fantastic. What a brilliant snapshot in a great city’s history. Where did it all go wrong?!

@jonnies

2 жыл бұрын

It didn’t. Stop catastrophising everything.

@thomaskember3412

2 жыл бұрын

Too many skyscrapers have turned Sydney into a mini New York.

@eginb

2 жыл бұрын

It became too expensive to live in, still beautiful though.

@LittleJohnaton

2 жыл бұрын

Sad isn't it :(

I would love to have seen the Garden Palace survive into the 20th Century at the least. That was probably the best of the lot with Sydney. Even grander than Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building

5:35 Oxford street was certainly more busy in those days than it is now

Wild to me that so much of the old architecture remains!

@jamesfrench7299

7 ай бұрын

So much was lost. Only a fraction exists, Sydney is a money grubber town.

Charming sites and incredible people

Sydney was x it's a beautiful City...I LOVE it...have a lots of good times in 30 years when I used to live there.❤❤❤❤

We should give thanks to the astonishing architects , stone masons, artisans and builders whose wonderful legacy has been largely preserved, for us to enjoy. I will certainly will when I move to Glebe from living most of my life in FNQ. Good to read also, that some teachers are exposing students to their architectural heritage. Les Griffiths

Good to see these rarely seen films. No sign of the Harbour Bridge or construction under way so this may have been filmed prior to the 28 July 1923 bridge construction start. Unless that was not considered scenic enough.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

The film is dated 1927 and some of the footage in there confirms this date - some footage may have been shot earlier. It would be interesting to know how much of the bridge was constructed at that 1927 stage. Also interesting, as you say, that no mention of it is made though.

Wonderful insight into Sydneys past. As an urban/Australian history enthusiast it's so interesting to see what buildings from this era still remain. The work NFSA and sites like Mirror Sydney and Past Lives of a Near Future do is amazing! I was wondering if you fellows had any footage providing a look at the firearms culture of Australia prior to 1996? It's one of a few topics I can't find a lot of information on.

@MisanthropyAnD123

2 жыл бұрын

'It's one of a few topics I can't find a lot of information on'. Yes, it was intended this way.

Love this so much. Makes me miss Sydney

Thoroughly enjoyed this

Here I was trying to turn up my volume haha. How good would've it been to hear the hustle and bustle! Crazy to think this was almost 100 years ago. I wonder when they removed the old light rail system. It's back now.. should've just kept it!

Lucky there were no mobile phones back then! Imagine the accidents with pedestrians. :)

Fantastic

Love it. thank you

Wow! Love the footages

many thanks

Another great piece of historical footage. These make great resources for my history teaching. Thank you.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Our pleasure! Glad they are useful to you and thanks for letting us know.

there seem to be a lot more people in the city moving about, just hoping on to trams and walking about.

This is incredible

Really enjoyable to see Sydney before it became overdeveloped. Let’s hope the Quay can be returned to its former glory. By the way it might be worth putting 1927 somewhere in the title rather than just City of Sydney.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you. We publish the title as it exists on the film. The date is in the description along with other credit information.

It's amazing that 100 years later everything is almost the same...like time has frozen...except for the dusty roads :)

@davechristian7543

2 жыл бұрын

IDK about that my-friend. i think its very different indeed.

@kayseek1248

2 жыл бұрын

Go out to the suburbs and it’s an entirely different story.

I'm very proud that I'm able to say that I've lived in Sydney (Elizabeth Bay) probably would try to move there again the future.

Does the archive have any footage of the Trocadero dance hall? That was such an important part of the city in the 40 and 50s....

I love that the street urchins at 10:29 are wearing authentic urchin caps. On a serious note: I remember the Goldsborough Mort building at the Quay from the 1960's - I suppose it's long gone?

Ahhh Sydney! You’ve come a long way, baby!

Some extraordinary buildings in their day.......The local Sydney sandstone unfortunately had some durability issues over the years

Sydney used to be beautiful. Now it's full of bland glass box skyscrapers, casting huge shadows in their wake. Successive governments and councils have failed this city

@EndTikTokandTwitter

Жыл бұрын

Imo the skyscrapers there today are pretty low-key considering Sydney’s size. Some of them are bland and unnecessary but we’re lucky they haven’t torn entire parts of the city down and replaced it with dense apartment towers like what happened to many similarly sized US cities

@AlphaGeekgirl

11 ай бұрын

In every single shot in this video, the streets look pretty much the same (I know because I have lived and worked in the CBD since the 70s) and the majority of the buildings are still standing today almost 100 years later. The only eyesore that’s not in this video is the Cahill Expressway above circular Quay?

@HarryMollyNut

11 ай бұрын

No the people have failed. Where was the protesters?

@ttiroam7743

10 ай бұрын

I work in the city everyday, the harbour, the buildings,the people ARE BEAUTIFUL.

@bert23337

9 ай бұрын

There used to be so many shops too, there is now only a small fraction of what there used to be before the move to the suburbs and the demolition of so much of the city. At least The Rocks was saved, thanks Jack Munday.

01:35 Captain Cook: "I've dropped my tray." Captain Phillip: "It's on the floor over there."

I love Sydney

Thanks NFSA.

Those were the days when real men could pla and build sturdy and appealing buildings that could stand the test of time. Since then, idiots have torn many of them down, citing progress.

I wish they can do before and after shots of these locations. I know other major cities have done the same

Such a shame they got rid of the trams

@leeanucha

2 жыл бұрын

I know. What a bad decision.

@DavidDel88

2 жыл бұрын

They’re back

@alixgeo

2 жыл бұрын

We have got them back now through the city! :)

@jamesfrench7299

7 ай бұрын

That hideously costly split line can't be compared to the comprehensive system that used to go everywhere within thy inner ring.

Contains unseen footage of Sydney trams, including M 738, at Town Hall from 4:02. This was built as a touring car but here is in ordinary service to Millers Point. It was a fully open car of 6, and 2 half, entrances. There were only 2 built. Not only are there few pictures of an M but those previously known, are posed. This is a revelation which I have notified to the Sydney Tramway Facebook Group. There is one other truly special and extremely rare clip and that is of the 1812 Government Stores at west Circular Quay. The camera pans along the George St facade. There are other scenes which have special meaning - that is they tell a story if you know a few, specialised facts. I'll leave a sort of cliff hanger. The scene from Hyde Park and Oxford and Liverpool Sts, corner at 5:35. It's to do with the new variety of transport options.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Wow thanks for sharing that information. We love it when knowledgable people are able to provide this kind of detail. Thank you. As for the cliffhanger..... Is it the buses?

@michaellewis5171

2 жыл бұрын

@@NFSAFilms Yes. They remind me of insects flitting about. The Government noticed that the unregulated - and very convenient - when business was brisk - but not prevalent late at night, buses were denting their income from the trams. The Lang Government in 1930, legislated the independent buses out of business, bought the largest company and created the Government buses we know today. So the neat little white White buses became Government owned - and quickly inadequate - leading to many decades of double decker buses.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Fascinating history - thank you. It looked like a busy, and somewhat chaotic, intersection at the time.

@kindred3259

2 жыл бұрын

That's amazing. Is there a museum in Sydney where we can learn and admire this type of history =D

@michaellewis5171

2 жыл бұрын

@@kindred3259 The Sydney Tramway Museum has a very comprehensive collection of both running and stationary Sydney (and other) trams and photo displays. It is right next to Loftus Station and reopens this Wednesday 3rd November - then every Sunday and Wednesday.

Are there any plans to colourize and restore this old footage? I think it'd be fantastic to see ^_^

@frodo322

2 жыл бұрын

You can’t colorize this! That’d be like destroying it. The purpose of this is to restore it. Colorizing black and white doesn’t work, it looks too fake imo.

Does anyone know the building @ 3:35 I can’t place it.

is there any footage of pyrmont, glebe, ultimo? thanks

@zoeydeu2261

2 жыл бұрын

Agreed, would love to see Broadway!

Those days were much better than today

@pagnol5509

2 жыл бұрын

Yes WWI &WW2 shortly after, and the Great Depression were a breeze.

@godfreypigott

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah right - wouldn't you have just loved to have been continually breathing in all that industrial smoke. It would have been a hellhole.

Very cool

The Art Gallery is a great place to visit as is the Botanical gardens....have the flying foxes migrated elsewhere yet?

How good was public transport? Straight off the quick turn around ferries to continuous trams! Back in the day when Governments supported the working class.

It’s nice they kept a lot of the old buildings like the QVB the old architecture is nice. I wonder if removing the trams was a good or bad decision tho? I think trams worked out good for Melbourne?

The trams went and then came back.

@melissabarrett9750

2 жыл бұрын

and the new ones are garbage.

@davechristian7543

2 жыл бұрын

@@melissabarrett9750 agree

@ic9135

2 жыл бұрын

@@melissabarrett9750 cmon now the new ones aren't that bad

@dopaminedreams1122

2 жыл бұрын

@@ic9135 they are literally slower than buses

Would this have been shot on 16mm film? The aspect ratio seems unusual. Is it possible to visit the NFSA?

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

Shot on 35mm nitrate film. Basically a 4:3 aspect ratio. 1.33:1 - Silent Full Frame. Now scanned at 4K. Because of the current Covid-19 situation the NFSA in Canberra is currently closed to the public following directives from the ACT Government. We are scheduled to reopen from Friday 5 November.

@blokeabouttown2490

2 жыл бұрын

@@NFSAFilms Thank you for the reply, it must be an amazing job to archive and preserve these old films. Hopefully I can visit the NFSA in the new year and annoy you guys with lots of questions.

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

We look forward to seeing you.

Full of Antiquitech leftovers from the last reset…

@col2959

2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely

@malcolmcanning9553

2 жыл бұрын

Who's John Galt

@NFSAFilms

2 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/oXmAla1tZdy9hdo.html

Imagine our city if all the tram lines weren't ripped out!!! Funny how we are putting it back in with light rail..