Sydney Opera House under Construction

Max voluntarily visited the construction site of the Opera House to record its construction from the late 1950s through to its completion in 1973. He was welcomed to do this by Danish Jorn Utzon, the primary architect of the building. In Max’s words (from transcript of 1975 interview with Hazel de Berg):

“As a labour of love, we began photographing this right from stage 1, or even when the old tram shed was there, and Ive got over 1,000 negatives in colour and black and white of its development. I met Joern Utzon many times and he was most co-operative in letting me on the site and just doing what I liked. I wish I had spent more time on it, especially in the latter period when Peter Hall took over hte design of hte interior and the glass walls, which both were major factors in the completion of the Opera House.”

The selection here captures the place of the construction, Bennelong Point, once a tramway depot from before any construction works all the way through to first concerts in 1973. As we do not have hi-res file for most of these images, a search of the archive is required, subject to copyright approval. So if you are interested in any of the following images, just make an enquiry on the contact form.