Newcastle Harbour entrance - morning

Abstract

Photograph of Newcastle Harbour and Nobbys Head taken from a viewpoint in the central city area. Visible in the distance are a breakwater, a ship and a number of boats. The railway yards run along the waterfront beside Wharf Road, and steam from the railway station on Scott Street can be seen rising from beyond the foreground buildings. The clock tower belongs to the Newcastle Customs House, a building noted for its Italianate architectural style. It was built in the mid 1800s and has been occupied since 1877. The tower's features include a weather vane, a sphere and a bell-shaped cupola. Newcastle's significance for the collieries was as port of shipment for north New South Wales coal. Cazneaux printed this image from a photograph he took for one of the many projects assigned to him by the art firm of (Ure) Smith and (Harry) Julius. He and artist, Albert Collins (died 1951) created the illustrations for a souvenir volume for Abermain Seaham Collieries. In the book the picture's title is: Newcastle Harbour Entrance - Early Morning. The Archives image differs from that on page 61 by being differently cropped. Cropping was one of the techniques used by Pictorialist photographers like Cazneaux to create compositions that resembled artworks made in more traditional media. The print is in the Adelaide Steamship Company's collection because in 1905 the company acquired large interests in the Abermain Colliery (near Cessnock), the Seaham Colliery (near Newcastle) and the North Bulli Mine (near Wollongong) in order to secure its source of bunkering coal - a move that was to prove advantageous when the price of British steamering coal rose dramatically in 1908. The interests of the Abermain and Seaham collieries merged in 1922 and in 1931 a further merger created J. & A. Brown & Abermain Seaham. The Adelaide Steamship Company remained the mining company's largest shareholder.