CITY OF LYONS
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date24 February 1934
Object number00041625
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection
DescriptionCITY OF LYONS is shown anchored between No 1 and No 5 Athol Bight on Saturday afternoon, 24 February 1934. This image was captured from the 3.15pm ferry travelling between Circular Quay and Clifton via Taronga, Sydney.HistoryCITY OF LYONS was a British cargo ship of 7,063 tons built in 1926 by Swan Hunter WR at Wallsend and owned by the Hall Line, part of the Ellerman Lines. It made its last voyage from Chalna, Bangladesh to Dublin, Ireland in 1960 and was soon after sold for scrap.SignificanceThis photograph is part of the F G Wilkinson Photograph Collection, comprising more than 700 glass plate negatives of ships in Sydney Harbour between 1919 and 1936. The collection provides an extensive and well-documented coverage of the changing styles of shipping in the port of Sydney before the gradual decline of the coastal trade, and in a period which was probably the peak reached by commercial shipping in Australia. The backgrounds also reveal the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.