The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

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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…

New home for the Dictionary

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wp-image-12532https://home.dictionaryofsydney.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Giantcoins.jpgPic: Training for the new decimal currency - a display of giant coins at the Channel 10 studio in Sydney 1965. By W Brindle. Contributed by National Archives of Australia [A1200, L52590]440438/> Pic: Training for the new decimal currency -…

Kate Leigh: the Sly-Grog Queen

Entry for Kate Leigh in State Reformatory for Women, Long Bay Photographic Description Book, 1915, State Records New South Wales (NRS 2496, No 188, 3/6007) The Dictionary of Sydney has some fascinating new articles including one on the famous ‘Sly-Grog Queen’…

The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney celebrated 200 years on Monday 13 June 2016. Yet, the site had been farmed since 1788 and under cultivation with scientific plants as well as agricultural farming before 1816, so why did they choose this…

Kiera Lindsey, The Convict’s Daughter: The scandal that shocked a colony

Kiera Lindsey, The Convict’s Daughter: The scandal that shocked a colony, Allen & Unwin, 2016, pp 1-322 The Convict's Daughter, Keira Lindsey Sydney in the 1840s was a complex and volatile city, a colourful social melting pot of convicts, ex-convicts, ex-convicts…

Sydney's wild weather

Wild weather just hit Sydney and parts of Australia’s east coast, causing four deaths and an estimated $38 million in damage. It seems each time this occurs, photographs and film footage captured by awestruck residents dominate the news, and this…

Catherine Bishop, Minding Her Own Business Colonial Businesswomen in Sydney

  Catherine Bishop, Minding Her Own Business: Colonial Businesswomen in Sydney New South, Sydney 2015, pp1-302, RRP $39.99 Contemplating the life of women in Sydney in the nineteenth century one might think about them as daughters, wives, mothers, lovers, sisters, spinsters and widows.…

White Bay Power Station

White Bay power station c1930, City of Sydney Archives (SRC352) Sydney Harbour was once a bustling maritime port and industrial waterfront. The White Bay Power Station is a landmark industrial complex on the shoreline of White Bay, an abandoned reminder of…

LIGHTFOOT DANCING: AN Australian-Indian Affair

LIGHTFOOT DANCING: AN Australian-Indian Affair by Mary Louise Lightfoot  ISBN 9781310808586 RRP $10.99 Mary Louise Lightfoot, the author of the Dictionary of Sydney entry on dancer Louise Lightfoot http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/lightfoot_louise has published LIGHTFOOT DANCING: An Australian-Indian Affair, - part biography, part dance history,…