The collection consists of photographic material in the form of glass lantern slides, glass plate negatives and positive prints that document the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from 1923 to 1932.

Reverend E.F.N. (Frank) Cash (1887-1964) was the Rector of Christ Church, Lavender Bay, and an amateur photographer. He was granted permission to access the construction site, and took several hundred photographs of the Bridge as it was being built, from start to finish.

His unusual access resulted in many striking images of the process of joining the two sides, and views of the pre-World War II city of Sydney skyline and harbour. The impact of the construction on the local community is demonstrated in images of the destruction of houses in North Sydney to make way for the Bridge. Cash’s photographs also portray the working conditions of the time, showing construction workers using little or no safety equipment.

Cash’s photographs also display his skill in capturing elegant and aesthetically pleasing images.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is recognised around the world and has iconic status in the Australian popular imagination, as well as being, for its time, a world-class engineering feat. Cash’s photographs depict the Bridge as not only a component of the built environment, linking both sides of Sydney Harbour, but also as an architectural development that permanently changed the shape of the community on the North Shore. Its impact on the location population cannot be fully understood without Cash’s images of the destruction of houses, which in turn informs a deeper understanding of life in Australia in the 1920s and 1930s.