Lot Essay
Assembled for the Hon. E.W. O'Sullivan, Minsiter of Public Works, this album comprises images of the more attractive scenes of The Rocks during and after the whitewashing, several of which include figures.
The outbreak of bubonic plague in Sydney in 1900, which centred on the waterside dock area and old tenement suburbs of The Rocks, prompted a costly, concerted and much-publicised clean up by the Government. Photographic documentation of the cleaning away of accumulated rubbish in the crowded row houses and whitewashing of unsanitary conditions revealed appalling areas of the Government's lack of firm control of public health matters.
John Degotardi was the son of the well-known printer and photographer of the same name (1823-1888) who had predicted the future role of photography in publications as early as 1861. Degotardi Snr. worked from 1874 for the New South Wales Government Printing Office in the photolithographic and photographic branch and has been identified as the photographer of the official record of the cleansing operations.
These photographs were not produced for general sale to the public and copies are rare outside government archives. The only known copies of this series are in the collections of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and The Sydney Cove Authority, however both are incomplete and there is some variation with regard to images included.
The outbreak of bubonic plague in Sydney in 1900, which centred on the waterside dock area and old tenement suburbs of The Rocks, prompted a costly, concerted and much-publicised clean up by the Government. Photographic documentation of the cleaning away of accumulated rubbish in the crowded row houses and whitewashing of unsanitary conditions revealed appalling areas of the Government's lack of firm control of public health matters.
John Degotardi was the son of the well-known printer and photographer of the same name (1823-1888) who had predicted the future role of photography in publications as early as 1861. Degotardi Snr. worked from 1874 for the New South Wales Government Printing Office in the photolithographic and photographic branch and has been identified as the photographer of the official record of the cleansing operations.
These photographs were not produced for general sale to the public and copies are rare outside government archives. The only known copies of this series are in the collections of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and The Sydney Cove Authority, however both are incomplete and there is some variation with regard to images included.