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The Dictionary of Sydney
Murray, Lisa

Murray, Lisa

Author

Creator

A professional historian and awarding-winning author, Dr Lisa Murray is the Historian of the City of Sydney.

Building the Sydney Harbour Bridge as Author

Death and dying in nineteenth century Sydney as Author

Death and dying in twentieth century Sydney as Author

Devonshire Street Cemetery as Author

First State funeral as Author

Sydney streets montage 2007 as Creator

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Building the Sydney Harbour Bridge

When the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932 it was the epitome of modern bridge design and engineering ingenuity. The iconic design was the creation of Dr JCC Bradfield, of the New South Wales Department of Public Works, Ralph Freeman, consulting engineer for the builders, Dorman, Long and Co, and thousands of workers who toiled on it through the Great Depression.

Death and dying in nineteenth century Sydney

In the newly settled colony, cemeteries were an important cultural institution in which the social order could be established and a person's identity within the community could be defined. Through the trappings of the funeral, statements of status, class and religion were constructed and inscribed upon the cemetery landscape.

Death and dying in twentieth century Sydney

While improved sanitation, hygiene, immunisation, antibiotics and better medical care have contributed to a decline in all deaths in the twentieth century, new diseases have challenged modern concepts of life expectancy and the right to die. Cremation offered a new method of disposal as well as an opportunity to redesign the commemorative landscape. For new migrants, assimilation caused tensions with traditions, evidenced in the burial of successive generations of immigrants.

Devonshire Street Cemetery

Sydney’s Devonshire Street Cemetery, as it has come to be known, was a cemetery of firsts. Not only was it the first time the Surveyor-General grouped a set of burial grounds together; Devonshire Street was also the first time attempts were made to regulate burials and order the cemetery landscape. In use from 1820 until the 1860s, it was Sydney’s second major cemetery.

First State funeral

The first 'State funeral' in colonial New South Wales was accorded to William Charles Wentworth who died in England on 20 March 1872 and at his own behest, had his remains shipped back to Australia for burial - a fitting final gesture by the Australian 'patriot'

Sydney streets montage 2007

full record »

By

Shirley Fitzgerald

Courtesy:

City of Sydney Council