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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
Fitzgerald, Shirley

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Fitzgerald, Shirley

Author

Creator

Shirley Fitzgerald is a historian. She was City Historian for the City of Sydney between 1987-2009

Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool as Author

Biloela Reformatory and Industrial School as Author

Broadway as Author

Chinatown as Author

Chinese as Author

Chippendale as Author

Darlington as Author

Dawes Point as Author

Eternity as Author

Garden Palace as Author

Haymarket as Author

Il Porcellino as Author

Millers Point as Author

Poverty Point as Author

Pyrmont as Author

Royal Commission into Alleged Chinese Gambling and Immorality 1891 as Author

Royal Commission into Noxious and Offensive Trades 1882 as Author

Stace, Arthur as Author

Sydney as Author

Ultimo as Author

Woolloomooloo as Author

Sydney streets montage 2007 as Creator

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Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool

A natural bathing place used by Aboriginal people, this site has had a series of swimming pools built on it since European settlement. Since 1968 the pool has commemorated one of Australia's greatest swimmers, Andrew (Boy) Charlton.

Biloela Reformatory and Industrial School

Product of a public controversy about neglected and wayward children, Biloela Reformatory was seen as an advance on imprisoning girls in adult gaols, but it quickly became a dysfunctional institution and lasted less than a decade.

Broadway

After George Street West was widened in the 1930s, the name Broadway soon caught on, though the road had been the gateway to Sydney since early colonial days. A microscosm of the city, this place has seen industry, poverty, religion, commerce and redevelopment and repurposing of its buildings and surrounding areas.

Chinatown

Sydney's first Chinatown was in lower George St, The Rocks, where Chinese businessmen settled in the 1850s, providing services to Chinese goldseekers on their journey to the goldfields. By the 1870s, the Chinese part of the city had moved to Haymarket where Chinese market gardeners came to sell their produce, staying overnight in Chinese lodgings in Surry Hills. Early twentieth century slum clearance, and the movement of the markets towards Darling Harbour, moved Chinatown again, to Dixon Street.

Chinese

Chinese settlers arrived in Sydney from 1818 and their compatriots followed, especially after gold was discovered in New South Wales. Despite harrassment from governments and intimidation from other Sydneysiders, Chinese immigrants continued to come and to stay throughout the 19th century, until the relaxation of racist laws in the mid-20th century. With renewed Chinese immigration in the 21st century, Sydney's Chinese community is rapidly changing.

Chippendale

Chippendale's progress from Gadigal forest and wetland, to farm and nursery, was followed by industrial development that made it a polluted and deprived suburb. Community, charity and religion helped inhabitants, but poor drainage and unplanned development persisted until the end of the nineteenth century. As the number of factories grew, population fell, and recent migrants moved in. From the 1970s, as the factories closed, Chippendale again became an attractive place to live, drawing students, artists and others who wanted an inner-city life.

Darlington

Traditional country of the Gadigal people, the area that became Darlington was part of Grose Farm, and set aside for the trustees of the Female Orphan School. Its timber was cleared and the fertile land became Thomas Shepherd's Darling Nursery. By the 1880s the whole area was built over with terraces of workers' housing. In the twentieth century, the University of Sydney encroached into Darlington, rebuilding much of it and reducing the population.

Dawes Point

Known to its Cadigal traditional owners as Ta-Ra, the land that became Dawes Point was Sydney's first observatory and weather station, run by William Dawes. It was fortified to a Greenway design and remained government land. In 1925 part of the fort was demolished for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and most of the land became Dawes Point Park.

Eternity

Written in chalk on Sydney's pavements for decades by Arthur Stace, the word Eternity, in copperplate script, has become an icon of Sydney's popular culture, as well as its religious life.

Garden Palace

Whilst the Garden Palace was a brief and fiery addition to the Sydney landscape, the decision to hold an International Exhibition in 1879 was to place the city on the world stage.

Haymarket

Once a convenient stopping place for bullock carts, the Haymarket traditionally attracted cheap housing and entertainment to service its many markets. Many such elements remain in a modern guise as the theatre district and Chinatown have expanded into the area.

Il Porcellino

Sydney's favourite Italian boar, the statue of Il Porcellino is a curious addition to the Macquarie Street landscape.

Millers Point

Called Ta-Ra by its first inhabitants, the Cadigal, Millers Point was named for the windmills that were built on its heights, and their owner, John Leighton, known as Jack the Miller. By the 1850s Millers Point was a maritime enclave, with almost all residents and employers focused on the wharves and the trade they brought. Through plague, depression and war, the community at Millers Point retained its cohesion, but the changes brought by gentrification are harder to predict.

Poverty Point

A gathering place for Sydney's entertainers, actors and performers for decades, Poverty Point was where theatre managers found players for city theatres and for country tours.

Pyrmont

Home to the Gommerigal people until the 1830s, Pyrmont peninsula remained undeveloped until the 1840s despite its proximity to Sydney Town. Quarrying the Pyrmont sandstone became a major industry, changing the natural features of the place. Wharves, factories and haulage provided work for the people who moved in, until the industry moved out, and another transformation began in the 1980s.

Royal Commission into Alleged Chinese Gambling and Immorality 1891

Called at a time when anti-Chinese feeling was high, the Royal Commission took care to inquire into the real situation of Chinese Sydneysiders, and came up with a report that provides a detailed view of life in the community.

Royal Commission into Noxious and Offensive Trades 1882

The stinking industries of mid-nineteenth century Sydney, combined with the theory of miasmas, or infection through smells, led to agitation to move 'noxious' trades away from the city. The Royal Commission of 1882 recommended changes to the siting of polluting industries, but this did not happen until well into the next century.

Stace, Arthur

A former drunk who was converted to Christianity, Arthur Stace spent the rest of his life spreading the Gospel, and unobtrusively writing Eternity in chalk on pavements all over Sydney. The identity of the Eternity Man was a mystery for over twenty years. Eternity has since become part of Sydney's mythology and iconography.

Sydney

Founded by Europeans as a social experiment, Sydney's beginnings brought death and dispossession to the original inhabitants of the place, as well as surprising freedom and prosperity to many of the convicts. Over its history, the city's growth has been shaped by factors that are common to many cities, but also by unique forces. In the twenty-first century, for the first time, the idea of sustainable progress is itself in doubt.

Ultimo

Originally the country of the Gommerigal people, the Ultimo estate of surgeon Harris was a rural retreat until the 1840s when industry gradually encroached and subdivision in the 1860s. Quarries and woolstores provided work, but life was hard for Ultimo's residents. Postwar economic changes took away the manual work, and like other inner-city neighbourhoods, Ultimo has become a wealthier area, with rich cultural and educational institutions.

Woolloomooloo

Woolloomooloo's chequered history includes its past as a Gadigal hunting ground and ceremonial space, its subsequent use for farming and country housing for Sydney's elite, and its evolution into an area of workers cottages and maritime industry. From the 1970s new residents joined with unions and locals to preserve Woolloomooloo from developers.

Sydney streets montage 2007

full record »

By

Shirley Fitzgerald

Courtesy:

City of Sydney Council