The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

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Sydney’s wining and dining evolution

Ye Olde Crusty Wine Cellar, 255 George Street, Sydney December 1942 Courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (Home and Away 24160) Nowadays, you can walk into any one of the many bars and restaurants of Sydney and be shown an extensive…

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…

Waverley Cemetery’s burlesque star

Maggie Oliver in costume c1885, courtesy State Library of South Australia (PRG 280/1/18/291) Waverley Cemetery is the resting place of more than 100,000 people, including many well known personalities from our past like writers Dorothea Mackellar and Henry Lawson, publisher JF…

The Bogle-Chandler mystery

The Canberra Times, 10 May 1963, p3 via Trove This week on 2SER Breakfast, the Dictionary's special guest historian Minna Muhlen-Schulte talked to breakfast host Tess Connery about a suburban mystery that has intrigued Sydneysiders since 1963. Listen to Minna and Tess…

Australia’s first public sculpture: Richard Bourke

Governor Bourke's statue, Domain 1871, by Charles Pickering, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (SPF/1056) The State Library of NSW recently announced work is  underway to conserve and restore Australia's first public sculpture, the Sir Richard Bourke statue that is located…

The Shaftesbury Reformatory in Vaucluse

Shaftesbury, Vaucluse c1925 by EG Shaw, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales (a7806 Online, 2) This week on 2SER Breakfast, Nicole Cama talked to Tess Connery about the Shaftesbury Reformatory on New South Head Road in Vaucluse that…

Michelle Scott Tucker, Elizabeth Macarthur: A Life at the Edge of the World

Michelle Scott Tucker, Elizabeth Macarthur: A Life at the Edge of the World Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2018, ISBN 9781925603422, pp 1-386, RRP $32.99 Elizabeth Macarthur: A Life at the Edge of the World is the author’s first book. And what a fabulous…

What Sick Shark Revealed

Cover of book 'The Shark Arm Case' by Vince Kelly, published by Horwitz Publications 1963, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ML 343.1/30A1) This week on 2SER Breakfast, the Dictionary's special guest Minna Muhlen-Schulte talked to new breakfast host Tess…

The Rum Rebellion and the Madness of Colonial New South Wales

The arrest of Governor Bligh 1808, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (a128113 / Safe 4/5) This week on 2SER Breakfast, the Dictionary's special guest Dr James Dunk talked to new breakfast host Tess Connery about the mental health of…

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…