Eric Riddler

@eriddler

Art and photography tragic from Wallumedegal Country (Western Sydney)

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Eric Riddler@eriddler· 11d

Found slide: An Olympic pole vaulter trains at the Olympic Village, West Heidelberg, Naarm Melbourne, 1956 [photographer unknown]

On a slightly overcast day, a pole vaulting athlete wearing a casual dark tank top and white shorts with dark lining, clears a high crossbar, feet high in the air

Eric Riddler@eriddler· 24d

In celebration of the centenary of public transport in Kamberri Canberra, here’s a 2024 photo I took of one of Clem Cummings’s iconic bus shelters, in Haig Park, which have now been sheltering the city’s bus commuters for slightly more than half the local bus service has been in operation…

A rounded concrete bus shelter, painted cream with an orange fibreglass window frame (the actual windows have long since gone), stands on the side of a road, with a fenced-off blue excavator working on a new pathway through the parkland behind it

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Jun 26

About the same age as Sooty and from a similar background: apparently a local runaway turned communal cat, then part of our household, this blue-eyed Himalayan cat was more adventurous but age caught up with him: farewell Blue

A portrait of a Himalayan cat; blue-eyed with dark brown face and ears contrasting with the rest of his cream coloured fur; sitting in front of shrubbery

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Jun 21

Much needed night out to see Yve Blake’s ‘Mackenzie’ (or, as we theatrical types know it, ‘The SPop Play’) at Bell Shakespeare’s Nutshell… full of sound and fury, signifying… quite a lot, actually…

A grey bearded man wearing a cap, with the song title “City Girl”, standing in front of a poster for the play “Mackenzie”… a twenty-first century pop culture adaptation of The Scottish Play

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Jun 16

Found slide: Looking north along Elizabeth Street and Hyde Park, Warrane Sydney, from the furniture branch of Mark Foy’s department store, September 1944. Photo by a visiting member of the US service personnel stationed in the South Pacific

Alt text: Looking out from a department store window, about six storeys up, along a busy street and landscaped park on a sunny, if slightly misty or smoggy, spring morning in wartime Sydney. The left side of the street is lined with early twentieth century office buildings (only a few of the buildings partly visible in the background are still standing). Several trams and cars run along the street: a parked car at left has a gas bag fitted on its roof due to petrol rationing. Passengers are boarding a tram at a stop in the lower left, while a track repair crew work behind it, possibly extending the safety zone as petrol rationing increases passenger numbers. There are relatively few people in the park: the shadows suggest that lunch hour is still an hour or so away. Besides trees, the south-eastern edge of the park is marked with an obelisk-shaped ventilation shaft in the middle distance and the blocky brick entrance to Museum underground railway station at lower right

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Jun 16

Weaned under our house by a neighbour’s cat about 18 years ago, adopted by the street as a collective pet after his owner left, too man-shy for that to continue, our cat from lockdown onwards: from a tough beginning to a beloved pet: farewell “Sooty” (his communal pet name stuck), circa 2008-2026

A black cat, with yellow eyes and grey and brown fur tones, looks back from a balcony rail as the sun sets over the garden behind him

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Jun 9

100 years ago: on 10 June 1926, the Brisbane Limited left Sydney, bound for Wallangarra, where a narrow gauge train was to take the passengers on to Brisbane. Tragically, as the train passed Aberdeen at around 9:50 pm, a wooden viaduct collapsed under the train. Photo by my grandfather

A slightly warped nineteen-twenties photographic print of the wreckage of two railway carriages, as the rescue team begins to bring the ladders down. Sightseers are starting to join the clean up effort, under the watchful eye of a uniformed man; probably a railway official rather than a police officer; at left. Among the people standing in front of him, a woman in a conspicuously stylish combination of a fur overcoat and chequered cap: she was possibly one of the troupe of J C Williamson actors, on their way for a planned season of the play ‘Katja’, who had fortunately survived in one of the worst damaged carriages with only a few injuries

Eric Riddler@eriddler· May 31

A trio of black and white film photos from today’s visit to the University of Sydney, Gadigal Country: Suspended studies; No Stopping Information; Shadow of a Gargoyle

Looking at a multi-storey bridge linking two academic buildings, with chairs and desks for studying sort of suspended in the air

Two signs, “No Stopping” and “Information”, outside the Power Institute of Art and Visual Culture

The shadow of a gothic revival academic building is cast upon the grid-patterned wall of a mid twentieth century modern lecture theatre. Above the castellated pediments, the silhouette of a gargoyle stands out

Eric Riddler@eriddler· May 31

While “Will you still need me?” and “Will you still feed me?” are both valid points, I feel that “Will you still offer emotional support when The Verlaines’ ‘Death and The Maiden’ turns 50, when I’m 64?” is the deal breaker…

A black and white film close up of New South Wales Government bus fleet number, 2033, a 1948-built Leyland OPD2 double decker, with disembarking passengers reflected in the freshly polished paint

Eric Riddler@eriddler· May 15

Found slides: Pen-blwydd hapus i’r Rheilffordd Talyllyn yn 75 oed! Happy 75th preservation anniversary Talyllyn Railway! A trip from Tywyn Wharf to Abergynolwyn on the Talyllyn Railway, Cymru Wales, 1957. Photos by Graham J Habbin

At Tywyn Wharf (then Towyn Wharf) Station at the western end of the Talyllyn Railway, steam locomotive 4, the Edward Thomas, prepares to run around a collection of narrow gauge open and enclosed carriages, in order to carry summer holiday passengers to Abergynolwyn. The driver is in the cabin at right, the guard at the other end of platform at left, while halfway along the train a man dressed in black appears to be signalling something to the driver; possibly an all-clear to let him know it’s safe to proceed

Looking east at Abergynolwyn Station as the first passengers arrive for the journey back to Tywyn Wharf. A family are waiting near the slate station building while a railway employee walks along the platform

Looking east, again, towards Abergynolwyn Station as passengers start to settle into the open carriages. The Edward Thomas is at the front, while the trees around the station and hills in the background frame the scene

A view of the platform at Abergynolwyn Station, looking west, with the train now almost ready for its return journey. The open carriages are full of holidaymakers in summer clothes; and quite a few hats and cloth caps. Another passenger is boarding one of the enclosed carriages towards the end of the platform, with another man, possibly the railway employee seen in the earlier slide, partially visible at right. Meanwhile, in the shadows beyond the platform, two children are looking at the locomotive

Eric Riddler@eriddler· May 4

This week is the fortieth anniversary of my first efforts with 35mm photography (the big anniversary of my photography is a few months away): Anthony Hordern’s store from outside Ashwood’s; and the AWA Tower from outside Red Eye, Sydney, 8 May 1986; street corner in Ermington, 7 May 1986

Looking upwards towards an Edwardian department store from under a shop awning covered in old posters. The department store building is in decrepit condition (most of the building had already been demolished). A modern brutalist office tower can be seen in the background

A nineteen thirties communication tower/lookout/art deco landmark is silhouetted against an overcast sky, while a nearby crane works over a building site between two older city buildings. A curved concrete structure frames the top of the photograph

A suburban street corner in mid nineteen eighties Sydney, with mid century bungalows with well tended gardens on either side (both have recently been demolished). In the distance the hill leading to Top Ryde looms over the railway and road bridges across the Parramatta River

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Apr 24

Found slide: Two Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force personnel passing statues and poppies on their way back to the underground RAAF operations room in a disused railway tunnel under the Botanic Gardens, Warrane Sydney, September 1943. Photo by US Army Sgt C E Stannard

On a sunny day, two women in dark navy uniforms, in the left background, have just climbed a stairway in a public garden. They are passing two white marble statues, heading towards a path lined with white, orange and yellow poppies. On the horizon behind the statues, the South Head Lighthouse can just be seen

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Apr 12

Kewpie doll display at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show, Wangal Country

A close up photograph of a kewpie doll, wearing a green tulle skirt with Star-shaped sequins and a yellow feather in her hair, with glimpses of other dolls in blue and pink tulle on either side. The sun is shining through the feather. In the left background, part of the booth’s “Kewpie Doll” sign, in white text on a crimson background, can be seen. In the right background a flag is silhouetted behind a grove of trees. During the closing ceremony at the Sydney Olympic Games, a bit more than a quarter of a century ago but only a few hundred metres to the left of this scene, a giant kewpie doll danced across the arena to the rhythm of John Paul Young’s classic song “Love is in the Air”

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Apr 6

Found slide: Looking from a garden bed outside the Parnell Rose Garden towards Waitematā Harbour, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, January 1947. Photo by William F Herlikofer

On a partly cloudy day, a long bed of red flowers, lined by a low wall of volcanic stones on the left and a grassy slope on the right, divides two roads: Gladstone Road, heading downhill towards a leftwards bend, and a park road, along a plateau heading towards a rightwards bend. Gladstone Road is lined with telegraph poles and wooden fences, with a car park at the bend. The park road turns past a grove of pōhutukawa trees, with late summer blossoms just visible among the dark green leaves. In the background, two freighters are sailing out of Waitematā Harbour, past the Devonport Naval Base on the north shore. At left, a pilot boat is heading towards the city’s waterfront, passing two flying boats moored in Mechanics Bay

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Mar 16

Found slides: For the 70th anniversary of Naarm Melbourne’s Harris Trains: Following a seven car Harris set, led by 504M, as it passes through the Jolimont rail yards into Flinders Street Station, June 1956. Photos, taken from the top of the SEC Building, by John W Smith

Looking across the Jolimont rail yards as a blue and yellow Harris set passes a Red and Grey Tait set in the midst of the Jolimont marshalling yards. Most of the trains are the older Taits and ‘Dogboxes’ but another Harris set can be seen glinting among them just left of centre in the background. Further in the background there is traffic on Wellington Parade, passing Fitzroy Gardens and the massive Cliveden mansion in East Melbourne, while the suburb of Jolimont behind the marshalling yards bustles with Italianate townhouses and art deco flats. In the lower left we can see the platforms of Princes Bridge Station, lined with billboards

The Harris set is about to pass under Swanston Street as it approaches Flinders Street Station, whose dome looms on the right side of the image. A pedestrian on Swanston Street is passing below the dome, along a poster-lined parapet. In the background we can see the eastern end of some of Flinders Street Station’s platforms, with some red-painted works cars on the sidings. Strings of light bulbs line the dome: these photos were taken at the same time as the Flinders Street Station clock tower slide I posted a while back, in which a working crew could be seen hanging new lights in anticipation of the imminent Olympic Games. The train’s ultimate destination is illegible but is most likely Broadmeadows

Harris car 504M pulling into Flinders Street Station (I can’t tell which platform… maybe platform six?). Most of the waiting passengers are still seated but some are walking along the platform and a family group at right are standing in front of the seated passengers. A similar, if slightly less busy, tableau appears on the next platform in the background. In the foreground there are some visible signs of the main station building: a parapet at left and what appears to be a pair of Edwardian ventilation shafts at right

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Mar 15

“If I told him once, I told him a thousand times, ‘Don’t go, Julie!’ I said, ‘It’s the Ides of March, beware already!’…” 2,060 years on, an appropriate day to see ‘Julius Caesar’ by Bell Shakespeare at the Sydney Opera House [additional dialogue in this post by Wayne and Shuster]

A pair of posters promoting a season of William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ by Bell Shakespeare. On the left we can see portraits of the cast and creatives, on the right the main promotional image of a lean and hungry Leon Ford as Cassius

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Feb 24

On 23 February 1976, AC/DC, the Rats of Tobruk Pipe band and an Australian Broadcasting Commission film crew set off down Swanston Street… we salute you… Found slide: Swanston Street, Naarm Melbourne, looking north from Collins Street, circa March 1976 (photographer unknown)

A vertically oriented streetscape of early to mid twentieth century office buildings on a sunny day. A white-helmeted traffic police officer moves aside as traffic passes by, while a W2 class tram, heading for East Brighton, waits in the background. A sign on a yellow-painted traffic light pole indicates that we are looking at Swanston Street

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Feb 23

Found slide: St Kilda Road, Naarm Melbourne, looking south from from the Linlithgow Avenue intersection, January 1947. Photo by William F Herlikofer

On a sunny summer’s day, looking down a wide road with two avenues of trees dividing the main central section from the side access lanes. The traffic is light, mainly contemporary cars and trucks, with a much older car coming into the frame from the side road at left. In the left background, between the old car and a Brunswick green lamppost, a woman dressed in black is walking in the direction of the Shrine of Remembrance, hidden behind the trees and statue immediately in front of the photographer

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Feb 19

Early morning reflections on a cloudy day, Cook + Phillip Park, Warrane Sydney

Looking down at an ornamental pool in a city park, with the reflections of trees and a cloudy sky distorted by the ripples on the surface and the low light slowing the camera’s speed

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Feb 16

Looking back at my February 1996 visit to Naarm Melbourne and I just realised that these 1966-era posters I saw, outside Glenferrie Station on Valentine’s Day, were about the same age as my photo is now…

Looking up at an Edwardian arcade roof, where a group of torn posters; advertising gigs by mid nineteen-sixties Australian rock and pop acts, including The Masters Apprentices, The Templars, Normie Rowe and the Playboys and Tony Worsley, the latter two playing at the Balwyn Youth Centre; have recently been uncovered by the removal of a billboard

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Feb 15

Table tennis table by Popp at UNSW Art & Design

An outdoors table tennis table standing on a concrete-tiled quadrangle. The table is painted black with the outlines of flowers with yellow seed heads and white petals, signed ‘M’. There are racquets at each end, the nearest racquet is accompanied by a ball and a cardboard sign saying where to get a new ball if required

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Feb 8

Pigeon in the City Extra restaurant at Circular Quay

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Feb 1

Early morning West Ryde vibes, Wallumedegal Country, Western Sydney, January 2026

Looking through the downward angled safety fence of a ramp leading to a footbridge, brightly lit on a dark pre-dawn morning, towards a level safety fence along a railway platform, with an orange sign in the background indicating that this is West Ryde station

On another dark, pre-dawn morning, the glare from a pair of red railway signal lights flares into the camera. In the lower left background, several more red lights indicate a nearby set of railway points

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Feb 1

A quiet moment during my last ever ride on the V sets in the Blue Mountains, Gundungurra and Dharug Country, a few weeks ago

Alt text: The sunlight through a train window lights up a corner of the mauve vinyl seat opposite the photographer. The view outside the slightly scratched window is limited to shadowy plants on the rocky face of a cutting in the sandstone

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Jan 24

Triple J Hottest 100 2025: 2 Keli Holiday, ‘Dancing2’ youtu.be/HUdb0OecLqg

A screenshot of the artwork for Keli Holiday’s ‘Dancing2’ above its second place in the Triple J Hottest One Hundred Twenty-Twenty-Five

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Jan 24

Triple J Hottest 100 2025: 10: Ball Park Music, ‘Please Don’t Move To Melbourne’ youtu.be/24tCRxpsTpg

A screen cap showing the artwork for Ball Park Music’s ‘Please Don’t Move To Melbourne’ above its place at number ten on the Triple J Hottest One Hundred Twenty-Twenty-Five

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Jan 20

Found slide: Hand operated paddle boats on the Nerang River, near Jubilee Bridge, Main Beach, Kombumerri Country, Gold Coast, 1955. Photo by a member of the Down or Tyler families

Looking across a river estuary on a clear day. There are two small paddle boats on the water, under a narrow concrete bridge, carrying cars; both about twenty years old at the time; and pedestrians between the town centre of Southport; out of frame to the left; and its Main Beach; also out of frame, to the right. The bushland and sand dunes of South Stradbroke Island are just visible along the horizon

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Jan 18

Happy 51st anniversary @triple_j ! Found slide: Looking towards the intersection of outside the Sydney Town Hall, Gadigal Country, circa September 1976. At lower right the radio 2 Double Jay (later Triple J) van is turning from George Street into Druitt Street [photographer unknown]

A view from the window of a sandstone building (the window ledge is just visible at lower left), towards a busy city intersection. The traffic is dominated by buses and taxis, including a rather oddly shaped experimental bus, known as “Mr Whippy” because it reminded Sydneysiders of that company’s ice cream trucks of the time, waiting at the lights. At lower right, a brightly coloured van, decorated with musical notes and the slogan “2 Double Jay: 1540”, promotes the then Australian Broadcasting Commission’s recently launched youth radio station

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Jan 9

Found slide: 79 years ago: Two views of Martin Place, Warrane Sydney, 10 January 1947, looking westward towards the Cenotaph and Elizabeth Street respectively. Photos by a visiting American tourist

A 1947 view towards the Sydney Cenotaph, outside the General Post Office in Martin Place, showing a streetscape of Edwardian and Art Deco office blocks and hotels. The traffic is light for a Friday morning: in the right distance a barrier is just visible at the George Street end, preparing for the City’s official farewell to the outgoing Australian Governor-General, the Duke of Gloucester, held at the Cenotaph later that day. The blue sky in the background is partially obscured by coal soot from the nearby Pyrmont Power Station

A 1947 view of the corner of Martin Place and Elizabeth Street, featuring a pair double decker buses, in Sydney’s pre war red and cream livery, one, in the centre, leaving on a 300 service to Erskineville, via Macdonaldtown Station, the other, at the left, being inspected by the conductor at the terminus beside the vacant block left by the then relatively recent demolition of St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church for the eastern extension of Martin Place (later the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Sydney office)

Eric Riddler@eriddler· Dec 31

The last morning of 2025 as the clouds drift in, Wallumedegal Country