PORT LYTTELTON of London

Photographer Frederick Garner Wilkinson (1901-1975)

Date15 March 1924

Object number00042245

NameGlass plate negative

MediumEmulsion on glass

Dimensions83 x 108 x 2 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum collection

Terms

DescriptionFrederick Wilkinson took this photograph from Cremorne Point of the Commonwealth and Dominion Line PORT LYTTELTON anchored in Athol Bight (near Bradleys Head), Sydney on Saturday afternoon 15 March 1924. Three weeks earlier, PORT LYTTELTON was bound for Hobart when it went aground at the mouth of the Tamar River, Tasmania. The steamer was eventually floated, and after temporary repairs at Beauty Point, left for Sydney in early February to be docked for repairs.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.