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Kia ora!

Detail from 'The town of Sydney in New South Wales' showing Māori chiefs, c1821 by Major James Taylor, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (V1/ca.1821/5 DETAIL])   New Zealand and New South Wales were once one colony, but on 3 May 1841…

Living Language: Country, Culture, Community

Dawes' notebooks on display in the Living Language exhibition at the State Library of New South Wales As part of the UNESCO International Year of Indigenous Languages, there's a fascinating exhibition on right now at the State Library of New South…

James Dunk, Bedlam at Botany Bay

James Dunk, Bedlam at Botany Bay NewSouth Books, 2019, 244 pp. (plus notes, select bibliography and index), ISBN: 9781742236179, p/bk, AUS$34.99   Looking at the great corpus of works that exist on Australia's colonial history, there are so many available to inspire (and…

Convict travels

These leaves are held by the State Library of NSW and were among a store taken by Mary Bryant when she escaped and which she gave to James Boswell. The plant is Smilax glyciphylla, commonly known as wild sarsaparilla; "a small…

The right to vote

Maybanke Wolstenholme (later Anderson) c1890. By Mitchell & Co. From the collection of the State Library of New South Wales, SPF P1/A, Mitchell Library With the NSW election this weekend, we thought we would take a look at the history of…