City Section Survey Plans, 1833

This set of plans and the similar City Detail Sheets 1855 are both copies, drawn in the 1880s by draftsmen of the City Council, from the originals held by the NSW Department of Lands.

The original index maps to each series are in poor condition and have been replaced here with a newly drawn index for the 1833 series and an index redrawn in the 1960s for the 1855 series.

Description

This series consists of linen plan drawings of the 'city sections' of Sydney lying within the boundaries of the Metropolitan Sewerage District constituted under the Metropolitan Water & Sewerage Act 1880. This effectively comprised the area bounded by Port Jackson (N), Darling Harbour (W), Macquarie St and Hyde Park (E), and Liverpool St (S).

The sections are numbered 1-94, but there are fewer drawings because a few sheets contain two adjacent (but not necessarily numerically sequential) sections. The sheets vary in size from about A3 to about A0. The scale is 2 inches to 1 chain.

Details shown are: street alignments and names, parcels of land with details of the size of each parcel, survey lines, names of owners and usually the nature of the grant or basis of ownership. On some sheets colour has been used to indicate buildings although no details of construction or use are shown. Significant geographical features, such as the freshwater pond adjacent to Darling Harbour just north of Goulburn Street, are also occasionally indicated.

The drawings seem to have been prepared by the Council in 1880 or shortly afterwards. However they are based on a set or sets of drawings dated from the 1830s and seem to show details as they were at that time. There are occasional notations indicating subsequent changes in land ownership up to around 1865, and other marks that may represent later survey marks.

Some of the sheets bear notations indicating they are copies of surveys done during the 1830s, and others carry the (copied) signature "Robert Russell, Assist Town Surveyor 1835".