The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
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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…
![342. Bradley, S & E [Samuel and Easter. Mary Martin] (B13)](/sites/default/files/styles/max_325x325/public/featured_images/SLNSW_ON146_342.jpg?itok=BqDfF_qe)
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…
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…
The Waratah Festival
Waratah Spring Festival parade, College Street 1960s, City of Sydney Archives SRC18259 Celebrating Spring, and named for the state's floral emblem, the Waratah festival ran for 18 years from 1956 to 1973. It was replaced by the Sydney Festival in January…