Sydney: A Biography by Louis Nowra

Author:Louis Nowra [Nowra, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NewSouth Publishing
Published: 2022-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

His Othello was thought remarkable, as was that of his Desdemona, played by the brilliant Fanny Cathcart in a performance that was ‘almost too painfully portrayed, and we suggest … that its fearful consummation should take place … out of sight’. Sydney’s excited hospitality was sometimes overwhelming; years later both Booth and Brooke would blame their alcoholism on their Antipodean tours.

The success of these stars saw more actors arrive from England, including the great tragedian Barry Sullivan, who played Macbeth at the new Theatre Royal. By now Sydneysiders, having seen many international stars, could compare them. Sullivan was thought to be ‘one of the best Macbeths of our time’, but as one exacting reviewer observed, ‘in the colloquy commencing I have done the deed; didst thou not hear a noise? we missed the hoarse whisper and impressive monotone employed with such thrilling effect by Mr Brooke’. Sullivan also had a talent for electrifying audiences with special effects. When he staged Faust, he arranged for bellringers at nearby St James’ church to ring a peal of bells at the right dramatic moment in the play, spooking the audience.

International visitors began to arrive to satiate their curiosity about the colony, and in 1858 The Stranger’s Guide to Sydney was published. The cheap, slim book was written for ‘those who have but a short time’ and it described four basic walks which would help the visitor take in much of Sydney, together with Hackney Coach, Omnibus and Steam Ferry timetables.

A more thorough and boastful guide, Handbook to Sydney and its Suburbs, a First Traveller’s Guide was published in 1868. It began, of course, with a description of the beauty of Port Jackson, and then went on to extol vistas and buildings that it thought would appeal to visitors. There was the attractive drive to South Head, ‘the old road hugging the seacoast, whilst the new one, studded with villas and gardens, skirts along the bays and inlets of the inner shore of the harbour’. If you wanted invigorating air, then Manly was the fashionable bathing place to visit. George Street, between Watermen’s Stairs and Barrack Street, was, compared to the rest of George Street, ‘of a very old-fashioned and decayed appearance, reminding one of some of the old seaport towns of England’. If you wanted some intellectual stimulus, then there was the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts in Pitt Street. Established in 1833, its library had 13 000 volumes, all Australian newspapers, plus many leading English ones.

Petty’s Hotel, on the corner of York, Clarence and Jamison streets, was ‘the first hotel for international visitors’. The two-storey building had a gorgeous ornate verandah, 40 bedrooms, and ‘a tastefully laid out garden … that gave all the appearance of a gentleman’s mansion’. The Handbook called it ‘one of the best in the colonies. The building is a credit to Sydney … The resort of the most distinguished visitors to Sydney, including English and French noblemen.’

For those who walked the streets of Sydney, there was the

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