1980s Australia Sydney Opera House Harbour Bridge Night Polish Message Postcard
Front
Full-bleed colour night photographic postcard showing the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge floodlit against a black sky, viewed across the water of Sydney Harbour.
The Opera House occupies the centre and left of the frame, its interlocking shell roofs lit to a warm amber-orange, with the dark glazed window walls between them appearing black. The podium, forecourt and northern broadwalk below are picked out in strings of small warm lights, with the lower concourse windows glowing.
Behind and above rises the Sydney Harbour Bridge, its arch, vertical hangers and deck traced in vivid green floodlighting, with a line of white roadway lights along the span and a red aircraft warning light at the crown. The two massive sandstone pylons stand illuminated in pale amber at each end — one at the left beside the Opera House, one at the right — and the lights of Kirribilli and the north shore cluster faintly beneath the span.
The lower half of the image is filled by the still black water of the harbour, which returns the whole scene as long vertical shimmering reflections: bands of orange and gold beneath the Opera House, and broad columns of green and white beneath the bridge.
Back
Divided-back colour postcard on white stock printed in brown. The caption at the lower left reads:
OPERA HOUSE AND HARBOUR BRIDGE – the symbol of Sydney
230
Running vertically down the centre:
bartel photography p/l sydney tel (02) 389 8310
At the lower centre, the publisher’s logo — a stylised “b” enclosing a map of Australia — beside the word:
Copyright
At the upper right, within a ruled box:
Did you know — the world’s first Post Card was issued in Vienna on 1-10-1869 ©
The message, in blue ballpoint filling the left half and running across the card, is written in Polish:
Kochani list Wasz otrzymaliśmy ale odpiszę na niego po przyjeździe z Polski będzie miej ciekawszy a teraz chcę Was przeprosić że podałam Wam mylną wiadomość bo jeszcze nie mieliśmy biletów jak do Was pisałam. Otóż nie będziemy przejeżdżać przez Perth za co Was jeszcze raz przepraszam a tak chciałam z Wami porozmawiać. My lecimy Qantasem do Frankfurtu Sydney-Melburn-Syngapor-Bombai-Frankforcie przesiadka na polskie linie i do Warszawy tam będziemy w niedzielę 12:55. Dziękujemy za zaproszenie skorzystamy innym razem. Zostajcie z Bogiem. Kasia
Trenka jak coś się ciekaw to jest nasz telefon (02) 726-8126
(Translation: “Dear ones, we received your letter but I will reply to it after returning from Poland — it will be more interesting then. Now I want to apologise for giving you incorrect information, because we did not yet have tickets when I wrote to you. So we will not be passing through Perth, for which I apologise again, and I so wanted to talk with you. We are flying Qantas to Frankfurt: Sydney–Melbourne–Singapore–Bombay–Frankfurt, then transfer to Polish airlines and on to Warsaw, where we will be on Sunday at 12:55. Thank you for the invitation, we will take it up another time. Stay with God. Kasia.” A closing line gives the sender’s telephone number.)
At the upper right, written above the address:
3861963 (Marek)
The address panel reads:
Mrs Mr J. K. Olczak
6 Sutherland St.
The card bears no adhesive stamp or postmark, indicating it was enclosed or hand-delivered rather than posted.
Estimated Era
Circa 1980–1990, Australia. The Bartel Photography imprint with a six-digit Sydney telephone number, the bridge and Opera House floodlighting scheme, and the routing of the Qantas flight described in the message all point to the 1980s. The Opera House opened in 1973 and the bridge in 1932.
