Below is a link that will take you to the site of 1943 aerial maps of Sydney. They are not GoogleEarth quality but remember they were taken over 70 years ago.
The site is not the easiest to navigate but basically you go to the basemaps window and select 1943 maps and go from there. They are in black and white and you move a slide to move the image forward in time to present day (colour)to see how much development has taken place. I found where I grew up in Hurlstone Park and could make out our backyard etc, Cooks river and creeks etc....great for nostalgia pretty fascinating IMHO..
Wow, thanks for that Denis. I grew up in Bankstown in the '50s and first half of the '60s and I've just wasted about an hour comparing now with then - even from 1943 to what I remember during my primary school years of 1959-62 there are massive changes. The house I grew up in is there in the 1943 image but was demolished a couple of years ago and a dual-occupancy residence has been squeezed onto the site. Looks like I'll be wasting a few more hours....
Cheers, Joe
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Hino Rainbow motorhome conversion towing a Daihatsu Terios
Joe - re Bankstown, in the early 60's my boss and I visited a "war room" under the ground adjacent to Bankstown Aerodrome during a joint exercise. From memory you entered via a door set into a mullock heap and down a lift to a series of rooms including one very large room with a big map of the Pacific on a table just like in the old wartime movies. Found out later it had been filled in and now a housing development. Security was slack back then as all we needed was a telex we were invited for a briefing...no passes just our black Commonwealth vehicle.
Sydney harbour is interesting with all the warships in Garden Island and ****atoo dock.
My memories of the Bankstown Bodgies and Widgies were that they were a pretty bad mob....the ones at Canterbury/Campsie were pretty tame really. Loved the Bodgie haircut!
Wow, thanks for that Denis. I grew up in Bankstown in the '50s and first half of the '60s and I've just wasted about an hour comparing now with then - even from 1943 to what I remember during my primary school years of 1959-62 there are massive changes. The house I grew up in is there in the 1943 image but was demolished a couple of years ago and a dual-occupancy residence has been squeezed onto the site. Looks like I'll be wasting a few more hours....
Cheers, Joe
I grew up in the Bankstown area too, Chester Hill to be precise, I later worked and owned Hi-Class dry cleaners at Yagoona, those were the days, train ride to Bankstown to swim in the pool, nights out at the old Capitol theatre...a small world eh!
