Tamarama Beach amusement park
Photographer
William James Hall
(Australian, 1877 - 1951)
Date1887 - 1920
Object number00002150
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Bruce Stannard
DescriptionGlass plate negative by William Hall of the amusement park at Tamarama beach. The roller coaster staddling the beach was built in 1887 when the park was called the Bondi Aquarium.HistoryThe amusement park at Tamarama was opened in 1887, Sydney's first coastal amusement park, named The Bondi Aquarium its greatest attraction was a plunging roller coaster that dived and twisted over the beach. The amusement park was sold in 1906 to William Anderson who transformed the park, renaming it Wonderland City. Powered by its own steam plant, the amusement park featured an airship suspended over the bay and an elephant named Alice available for rides on the beach. After a few years of low crowds and poor revenue Wonderland City closed in 1911. In 1920, the NSW Government bought the area and proclaimed it Tamarama Park.
William Frederick Hall, a fingerprint expert at Long Bay Gaol, set up a photographic studio in Sydney in 1890. Hall, formerly a butcher from England, became a well-known photographer whose photographic career in Sydney spanned a number of decades. William James Hall (1877 – 1951), also a photographer was his son with Caroline Asimus, who was born on 11 May 1877 in Woolloomooloo, Sydney. William James Hall joined the business and took over its operations in 1902. He established Hall & Co in 1904. Hall married Alice Rosina Hopson on 14 August 1901 in Bowral.
Although neither the father nor the son were sailors, both developed a keen interest in sailing and sailing craft. During the late 1880 and early 1890s William Frederick Hall documented the weekend sailors and yachts of Sydney Harbour. William James Hall took over the tradition until the early 1930s capturing photographs from his motor boat. Each Monday, Hall would display photographs of weekend races on Sydney Harbour in the window of his studio at 20 Hunter Street.
Hall also ventured into other areas of photography, and is generally considered to have pioneered the art of livestock photography in Australia at the start of the 20th Century. Hall’s company, Hall & Co were also known for their aerial, landscape, portraiture, city and rural photography. Survived by his second wife, Edith Hannah Gilkes, Hall died on 26 August 1951.
A number of photographic studios were established by William F Hall and William J Hall. Known at different times as Hall studio, Hall & Co, W F Hall and Hall W the businesses were located variously at 7 Castlereagh Street, 39, 44 and 70 Hunter Street, 91 Phillip Street and 21 Blight Street in Sydney city from 1890 onwards.
SignificanceThe Hall collection provides an important pictorial record of recreational boating in Sydney Harbour, from the 1890s to the 1930s – from large racing and cruising yachts, to the many and varied skiffs jostling on the harbour, to the new phenomenon of motor boating in the early twentieth century . The collection also includes images of the many spectators and crowds who followed the sailing races.
