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Historic meets modern at Sydney Open
Stained glass window in in Sydney Town Hall, designed by Lucien Henry symbolising Australia. Photo by Paul Paterson, Courtesy City of Sydney Council. It's on again this Sunday, 6 November! Sydney Open is your chance to be a sticky beak and see…
The Royal Commission into Noxious and Offensive Trades
Scalding and dressing pigs at Mr D O'Connell's pig-killing pens, Glebe Island abattoir, 1879 Australian town and country journal, 7 June 1879, p 1088 There have been many current and proposed Royal Commissions in the news lately, so I thought I’d…
Have you ever been to see Kings Cross?
William Street, Kings Cross at night 1970 by John Fitzpatrick, Credit: National Archives of Australia (A1200, L84008) Comic entertainer Frankie Davidson asked Australians in 1963 'Have you ever been to see Kings Cross?' Whether you've been there or not, you probably know…
Sydney’s shipwrecks
Last week news broke that HMS Terror, the long-lost ship of British polar explorer (and former Governor of Tasmania) Sir John Franklin, has been found 168 years after its sinking. I thought I’d delve into the Dictionary of Sydney and…
Colonial neighbours: Reynolds' cottages
Reynolds Cottages on the left, Harrington Street, The Rocks 1901 Courtesy State Records NSW (4481_a026_000192) Did you know there are three cottages side by side on Harrington Street in The Rocks which have survived for 187 years! Writer and historian, Melissa Holmes,…
Ostrich farming in Sydney
Did you know there was an ostrich farm at Sydney’s South Head from 1889 until the early 1920s? In addition to providing the highly sought after commodity of ostrich feathers for the discerning fashionable lady, the farm became a popular tourist…
"I challenge you sir!" - Duelling in colonial Sydney
'Honour Calls Him to the Field' from Whims and oddities : in prose and verse, by Thomas Hood, London 1836, p342 (The Internet Archive) Did you know a duel took place in a field in Homebush early one morning in March…
All aboard for Sydney's railway history
No1 Mortuary Railway station, Rookwood Cemetery - funeral train in station c1870 Pic: State Records New South Wales (17420_a014_a014000306) The railways are a quintessential part of Sydney. Railway historian Bob McKillop argues that they shaped the commerce and suburbs of Sydney…
NAIDOC 2016: Sydney's Aboriginal people
Portrait of Bennelong c1793, attributed to William Waterhouse, State Library of NSW, a1256013 / DG 10, f13 NAIDOC Week 2016 celebrations are in full swing at the moment and the Dictionary of Sydney recently published new articles about Sydney’s Aboriginal past by…
Tilly Devine: a formidable crime figure
Matilda Devine criminal record number 659LB, 27 May 1925, Long Bay Gaol. NSW Department of Prisons, Justice & Police Museum, Sydney LIving Museums Record no: 35694 Last week on 2SER, Nicole chatted about Kate Leigh the sly-grog queen, so it seemed only…