The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
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Armed with such terrible weapons
Plate VI, Cambridge, O.P., ‘On Some New Genera and Species of Araneidea’, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, XIX (Fourth Series) (1877) Today Sydney-siders take for granted that our local spiders, in particular the Sydney funnel-web, are dangerous and to be…
An excellent establishment
Australian Medical Journal Vol 1 No 4, 2 November 1846, p46, via Trove City living in Sydney in the early part of the 19th century could be dangerous and insalubrious, especially for the poor. Adult hospitalisations were dominated by the complaints…
Sydney's secret wartime research
Testing the Anti-G suit in a centrifuge designed for the purpose. Courtesy Australian War Memorial (AWM 042662) This week on 2SER Breakfast, Dictionary special guest Dr Peter Hobbins talked to Tess about some top secret research undertaken at the University of…
Helicopter Crashes in City
This week on 2SER Breakfast, Dictionary special guest Dr Peter Hobbins talked to Tess about a terrible accident in the centre of the city in 1966 when a helicopter crashed onto Gold Fields House at Circular Quay. The three people on…
The Pierre Loti
A regular visitor from New Caledonia, Pierre Loti voyaged to Sydney from 1937 until its seizure in 1940. Photograph courtesy of Jean-Paul Fontanon. This week on 2SER Breakfast, Dr Peter Hobbins talked to new breakfast host Tess Connery about French Nazis…
Treating Sydney's sick
Detail showing the Sydney Infirmary from 'Bird's eye view of Sydney Harbour' by FC Terry, c 1856 courtesy National Library of Australia ( PIC Drawer 2407 #S1997) This week on 2ser Breakfast, Nic and our Dictionary of Sydney special guest Dr…
Vanessa Berry, Mirror Sydney
Vanessa Berry, Mirror Sydney Giramondo Publishing, 2017, 304 pp, ISBN: 9781925336252, p/bk, RRP AUS$39.95 The very title of Mirror Sydney says a great deal about Vanessa Berry’s take on her hometown. It’s inspired by an aged photograph album found in an op shop,…
James Bray and his Museum of Curios
Drawn from life by JS Bray, the tiger or brown-banded snake, Hoplocephalus curtus - venomous by JS Bray, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (c004220010 / PXA 192) The first entry to be published on the Dictionary since our recent…