Zollner’s Galvanized Iron Works’ Darling Harbour, Sydney.

Rare engraving of Zollner’s galvanizing works at Darling Harbour, Sydney.

At the time of settlement of Europeans part of the site was submerged and part of Cockle Bay. Dickson arrived in the colony in 1813 with the first steam engine in Australia. He chose land near the southern end of Cockle Bay to build his mill. This was a three story stone building completed in 1815, although his land grant was not formalised until 1831. He began by grinding corn then diversified into soap making, brewing and salting beef. Soon afterwards he built a pier and dammed part of Cockle Bay to keep out seawater and build up a reservoir of fresh water for his steam engine, from small freshwater streams which emptied into the south-eastern end of Cockle Bay. Dixon St is named for John Dickson and Pier St is named after the pier he built there. In 1826 the area was renamed Darling Harbour. By 1829 building had reached the shoreline, and to make better use of his land grant, reclamation began about this time. Between 1831 and 1836 a large mill or warehouse had been built on the reclaimed area. Dickson tried to sell the property in 1833 prior to his departure to England the following year, but was unsuccessful, he died in 1843 and the site was leased to a number of tenants until the 1860s. Up until his death he maintained control over the site, exercised through his nephew-in-law, Thomas Barker, who was also an apprentice to Dickson at the Mill. The occupants of the site in the 1830s are unknown, but the buildings were leased by a number of tenants throughout the 1840s. In 1844 the Sydney Salting Works ran a boiling down works for a short time until council regulations forced them to move elsewhere. Several of the buildings were used as store houses, Joseph Grose the brewer, may have had a warehouse and Henry Fisher leased the site in 1842-43 for storing wine. Little is known about the site’s usage between 1844 and 1854, however archaeological evidence suggests that it was used for making and bottling soda water. About this time Dickson’s dam and pier were demolished and the area reclaimed and built up. In 1868 Simon Zollner took over the lease and established one of the first galvanising works in Australia.

From the original edition of the Town & Country Journal.