Sydney Harbour Bridge crowded with onlookers during the water and aerial display, 19 March 1932

The album consists of aerial photographs of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the morning of the opening day celebrations. It also includes aerial photographs of the official stands from where the opening ceremonies were performed, the procession of decorated floats, speed boat display immediately after the opening ceremony, the pilot boat Captain Cook (the first vessel to pass under the bridge after opening) and the famous monoplane 'Southern Crossing' flown by Kingsford Smith approaching Fort Denison. The National Library of Australia is the country's largest reference library. The Library holds the greatest collection in the world of material relating to Australia and the Australian people. It ranges from the earliest European works about the Great Southern Land to the most current publications. The collection includes all formats of material, from books and magazines to pictures, photographs, maps, sheet music, oral history recordings, manuscript papers, ephemera and much, much more! The Library also has considerable collections of general overseas and rare book materials, as well as world-class Asian and Pacific collections which augment the Australiana collections

Australia Royalty Free Stock Photo

Just an assorted steamships collection for research.

At age 20, while studying in Germany, Dutch student Anthony Fokker built his initial aircraft, the Spin (Spider) - to fly in his home country. In 1912, in Berlin, he founded Fokker Aeroplanbau and later, Fokker Aviatik GmbH. Fokker sold several Fokker Spin monoplanes to the German government and supplied the German Army in World War I. To allow machine gun firing through the arc of the propeller, Fokker developed a synchronization gear. Fokker Eindecker aircraft became the most feared aircraft over the western front, leading to a period of German air superiority. In 1919, Fokker returned to the Netherlands and founded Nederlandse Vliegtuigenfabriek near Amsterdam. He renamed the company to avoid using the Fokker brand because of his World War I involvement. After relocation, many Fokker C.I and C.IV military airplanes were delivered to Russia, Romania. Success came on the commercial market, too, with the development of the Fokker F.VII, a high-winged aircraft capable of taking on various types of engines. In the 1920s, Fokker became the world's largest aircraft manufacturer. His greatest success was the 1925 F.VIIa/3m trimotor passenger aircraft, which was used by 54 airline companies worldwide and captured 40% of the American market. Fokker continued to build military planes, delivering them to the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Foreign military customers eventually included Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Hungary, and Italy. In 1923, Anthony Fokker moved to the United States and established an American branch of his company, the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, which was renamed the Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America. In 1930, this company merged with General Motors Corporation. Soon, unhappy with GM management, Fokker resigned. On December 23, 1939, he died in New York City. In Europe, the Fokker factories were confiscated by the Germans. At the end of the war, the factories were completely stripped by the Germans and destroyed by Allied bombing. Post-World War II brought rebuilding to the company. A new factory was built next near Amsterdam in 1951. In 1958, the F-27 Friendship was introduced, Fokker's most successful postwar airliner, reaching almost 800 units sold. Fokker contributed to many European aircraft and satellite projects, as well as to the Ariane rocket.