Watsons Bay & Sydney Harbour looking west

SSV/194

fonds

probably 1860s

Graphic Materials, Photographs

9661899

1 photographic print - on mount 9 x 18 cm - albumen, stereograph

Sydney Harbour Pilot Thomas Watson received a land grant at Watsons Bay in 1834, where he built a marine villa in the north eastern corner of what is now Robertson Park. He leased the house to Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur, a nephew of John MacArthur, and his wife Anna Maria, the daughter of Governor King, who named it Clovelly. In 1848 it was purchased by Henry Watson Parker (later Premier of NSW), whose wife Emily was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Macarthur. In 1860 Clovelly was sold to James Flood who rented it to (Sir) John Robertson (also a Premier of NSW) from 1864, who later purchased it. Untenanted for some years after Robertson's death in 1891, it was declared unfit for human habitation in 1902, and demolished in 1903.

Dunbar House was built by Richard Siddon in 1837. It has been variously used as a hotel, council chambers, a private zoo, the site of an open air cinema, and the Town Hall for Vaucluse Council which was disbanded in 1948. It then took on its role as a wedding and reception centre, initially called Fisherman's Lodge and subsequently renamed Dunbar House.

References:
Library correspondence file
Derricourt, Robin, Watsons Bay, Dictionary of Sydney, 2008, http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/watsons_bay (accessed 21 July 2021)

Stereograph photograph, mounted on blue card, by an unknown photographer, of the villas 'Clovelly' (middle ground at left), and further down the hill, Dunbar House, at Watsons Bay, looking west over Sydney Harbour. A man in a top hat stands in the foreground above the cliff face.

Out of copyright:
Rights and Restrictions Information:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Artist unknown.

On verso in ink: Watsons Bay & Sydney Harbour looking west