WYNYARD SQUARE, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA c 1910.

This card from 1910 really interested me because of its 'familiarity'. As I go wandering around Sydney's tat shops I travel by bus and train and on foot. I gave up my car almost fifteen years ago. Returning home from the North Shore I go past this park in York Street. These days it has a different 'feel'. It is surrounded by high rise buildings and is used as a bus terminal for those heading north and by those coming to work in the city from the northern suburbs. Underground there is a railway line and station whose entrance is beneath an Art Deco building situated at the left of this photo ... in twenty years time!
Sydney is divided in two by its harbour. In 1910 there was no Harbour Bridge. This photo is looking north east and in twenty years time from this vantage point you would see the 'coat hanger'.

What you have is an historic site too!
Rum Rebellion!
John Dunmore Lang!

Title: Wynyard Square, Sydney, N.S.W.
Photographer: unknown
Publisher: Marlborough Series, Produced in Australia.
Year: c1910
Size: 14.1cm x 9cm (5½" x 3½")
Description: colour card by Marlborough with view " Wynyard Square, Sydney, N.S.W." looking north – used for a message. "Wynyard Square, Sydney, N.S.W." is printed at the bottom right hand side over the image in small black text.

Printed Description on reverse:
WYNYARD SQUARE is a charmingly situated reserve, within a stone’s throw of the G.P.O., in the heart of the city. Its lovely lawns are in striking contrast to the busy streets so near at hand. It is surrounded by magnificent warehouses and apartments. Band concerts are held here on certain nights during the summer months, and are keenly appreciated.

Content created:
21/05/1910
The handwritten text is dated May 21, 1910 in Corowa. (76.8 km west from Ettamogah) and signed M. King.
“Dear Maude
Just a postcard to thank you for the fruit which was very nice and kind of you to send them. I am sending you a small parcel with this postcard. Little Charles is quite well. Remember me to all. Remain your true friend.
M. King”

Recipient of letter:
Miss Maude Lankester
The postcard is addressed to “Dear Maude”

Materials: Paper, Ink

Associated place
Wynyard Square, Sydney, N.S.W. are depicted in the colour image on the postcard.

"Wynyard Park is bounded by York, Carrington, Margaret and Barrack streets. Between 1792 and 1818, military barracks were erected on the eastern, southern and western sides of the future park site, leaving a large open square in the centre. This became known as Barracks Square or the Parade Ground. It was from here that the New South Wales Corps marched to arrest Governor Bligh in 1808, an event later known as the Rum Rebellion.

In 1848 the new Victoria Barracks in Paddington were erected and the original barracks moved. The Wynyard land was subdivided for the construction of private dwellings and shops. Provision was made for a square to remain on the higher part of the former Barrack Square. It was named Wynyard Square after General Edward Buckley Wynyard, commander of the British forces in Australia from 1848 to 1853.

The square was dedicated as a recreation ground in 1875 and it was fenced and landscaped. Like similar squares in England, its use was confined to residents who held keys to the gates!

By 1907 however, the American trend of removing fences around parks had been copied here. During the 1880s a bus terminus was established for passengers from the southern suburbs. And so began the area's long association with public transport. The building of a railway station here was first suggested in 1881 but it was 1932 before Wynyard Station opened.

The square became a public park in 1887 and the following year a bandstand was erected in the centre of the park. In 1893 Canary Island palm trees were planted and a memorial statue to John Dunmore Lang was erected. Dr Lang, the controversial Presbyterian pioneer, had lived at Wynyard Square and was responsible for the erection of the Scots Church on its northern side. The statue was sculpted by Giovanni Fontana.

The ornate underground men's lavatory with a domed glass roof was built in 1912. It is similar to others at Hyde Park, Taylor Square and Macquarie Place. The park was almost completely dug up in 1925 to build the city circle rail line, with reconstruction beginning in 1933. From this time, the train station created a demand for bus parking which came to dominate the streets surrounding the park.
Major changes to Wynyard Park occurred in 1996 when a new entrance to Wynyard Station was built in the centre of the park. In 1998 a new restoration programme for the park began, including conservation of the statue and the men's lavatory.
In the 1920’s Wynyard Park and York Street, went through some changes seeing the construction of Wynyard’s underground station. Wynyard Station was opened in 1939; this connected the city railway to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Access to the station is via pedestrian subways from George, Hunter, Margaret and Jamieson Streets and via three escalators from York Street level, located in the open ground-floor vestibule of Railway House. Railway House is located on York Street, a beautiful Art Deco office building, along side the AWA Building radio tower also built in 1939, which at one point in time, used to be the tallest tower in the city. Not any more… "
http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/wynyard_park