The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Search the blogs

Blog search

Search

Joseph Fowles

George street and Charlotte Place, in 'Sydney in 1848 : illustrated by copper-plate engravings of its principal streets, public buildings, churches, chapels, etc.' from drawings by Joseph Fowles, Dixson Library, State Library of NSW (DL Q84/56) Joseph Fowles was by way…

Brutality at Birch Grove

Headstone of Samuel and Esther Bradley, Devonshire Street Cemetery c1901, Ethel Foster, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ON146/342) Research on the epitaph on a tombstone in Sydney's old Devonshire Street Cemetery led to the shocking story of the deaths of…

Barracluff's Ostrich Farm

There are many great things about the Dictionary of Sydney, but one of the things I love the most is the way you can discover quirky things about Sydney. In the past I've shared about Cocky Bennett, and public toilets,…

No honour among thieves…

Detail of Convicts embarking for Botany Bay, ca. 1790 by Thomas Rowlandson, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (SV/312) In Governor Arthur Phillip’s great outdoor gaol in Sydney Cove, most eyes were on the convicts. It was logical to assume that…

Jack Mundey and the Green Bans

Jack Mundy, Builders Labourers Federation, 1973 by Rennie Ellis © Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive Can you imagine Sydney without The Rocks? or what if we didn't have the Centennial Parklands or the State Theatre? These are just some of the iconic…

Throw like a girl

Mary Spear and Joy Partridge fielding (England), Betty Snowball wicket keeping, and Hazel Pritchard (NSW) batting during the English women's cricket team tour, Sydney, 1935, National Library of Australia ([PIC/8725/218 LOC Album 1056/C) To ‘throw like a girl’ or ‘run like…

Ben Boyd

Portrait of Ben Boyd by an unknown artist, 1830s, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ML 1461) Sailing into Sydney in his yacht Wanderer in July 1842, Benjamin Boyd was welcomed by the press of the day as a flamboyant saviour…

The High Life

The Astor Flats, Macquarie Street 1923, Building Magazine 12 Nov 1923, p3 Nestled at the Harbour end of Macquarie Street facing the Botanic Gardens is The Astor, the grand old dame of Sydney’s apartment blocks. Built in 1923, it was then…

St James tunnels

Drawing by Bradfield of Interior of St James' Underground Railway Station, Sydney 1926, reproduced in a supplement to Building magazine, 11 September 1926 There is nothing people like more than a secret tunnel. And while a lot of people have heard…

Hanging out with the hangman

Nosey Bob, the common hangman, The Bulletin, 31 January 1880, p4 Today is the anniversary of the death of Robert Rice Howard, the hangman for New South Wales from the 1870s until 1904, who died on 3 February 1906. Listen to…