The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
Search the blogs
The camels at Government House
View of old Government House - Sydney - N.S.W. as it appeared when vacated by Sir George Gipps in 1845, painting by George Edwards Peacock, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ML 658) The State Library of New South Wales holds…
A venerable old bird
Cocky Bennett, Sea Breeze Hotel, Tom Uglys Point 1911, State Library of Victoria (H23120) Here at the Dictionary of Sydney we like to give you insight into those seminal moments in the city’s history, the patterns and forces that shaped our…
A Drama of Llamas
Social distancing measures with llamas, Durango Trails, Colorado These days we’re all talking about social distancing, or, more accurately, physical distancing but how far should we be staying away from each other? Some advice is 1.5 meters, some is 2 meters.…
A story of escape: a terrible true tale or fake news?
Traveller's engraved horn, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (LR 23) One of the most perplexing tales to come out of Norfolk Island in the nineteenth century is the story of Bennett and Balsto. A story that beautifully illustrates both the…
Balmain Colliery
Balmain Colliery c1920 by John Henry Harvey, courtesy State Library of VIctoria (H91.300/71) The deepest coal mine ever worked in Australia was on the waterfront in Sydney's inner western suburbs. This week we took a look into the pit of a…
They had no Shelf Control: book thieves in colonial Sydney
Photo by Su Westerman, via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) For as long as we have had books, books have had value. Intellectual value, sentimental value and, of course, cash value. Sydneysiders have had access to books since the arrival of the…
Sydney's smallpox epidemic in 1881
'Small-pox! : a treatise' by D. Kinnear Brown. Sydney: J.G. O'Connor, 1881, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (DSM/614.473/B) As we stare down the barrel of an unknown pandemic, we remember that the city has seen quite a few epidemics in…
'The difficulties that beset the paths of working mothers'
Arriving at nursery school, October 1939, courtesy National Library of Australia (nla.ms-ms2852-19-9x) It was International Women's Day on Sunday 8 March, so this week I thought we could reflect on how women have worked together to improve their lives in Sydney. …
Enmore Theatre: Sydney's longest running live entertainment venue
Children running into a school holiday matinee at Enmore Theatre 1951 by Bob Rice, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ON 388/Box 005/Item 047) Sometimes you are involved in making history without even realising it, and anyone who has seen something…
Remove your dead! The exhumation of the Devonshire Street cemeteries
Headstones in Devonshire Street Cemetery, showing the tramline being constructed to remove them to Bunnerong Cemetery c1901, by Ethel Foster, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ON 146/373) Recently we have seen the New South Wales State Government resume whole streets…