The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Search the blogs

The Liquor Referendum and the Six O'Clock Swill

Liquor Referendum sign and advertisements, Surry Hills June 1916, City of Sydney Archives (NSCA CRS 51/1831) Back in February we chatted about the Liverpool Soldiers Riot in 1916. The riot, which started as a protest against camp conditions, caught the military…

Please consider donating to the Dictionary

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]450448/> Pic: Training for the new decimal currency -…

Constance Kent: The 'murderess'

Constance Kent, the murderess c1866 Credit: State Library of Victoria (Acc No: H41038) In 1929, an 85-year-old Sydney nurse and public servant named Ruth Emilie Kaye wrote a 3,000-word letter called the Sydney Document. In it, she confessed to murdering her three- year-old…

Blue Mountains icons

wp-image-12418https://home.dictionaryofsydney.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Hydro-Majestic-Hotel-Medlow-Bath-1920s.jpgHydro-Majestic Hotel, Medlow Bath 1920s. By Charles Henry Hunt. Contributed by National Library of Australia [nla.pic-an10566802] 413313/> Hydro-Majestic Hotel, Medlow Bath 1920s. By Charles Henry Hunt. Contributed by National Library of Australia [nla.pic-an10566802] The Dictionary of Sydney has plenty of content…

New home for the Dictionary

Traffic flowing smoothly on the Sydney Harbour Bridge after two new lanes were opened, July 1959. Credit: National Archives of Australia (A1200, L32700) Since it first started in 2009, over 1.5 million words have been published on the Dictionary of Sydney…

Leigh Straw, The Worst Woman in Sydney: The Life and Crimes of Kate Leigh

Leigh Straw, The Worst Woman in Sydney: The Life and Crimes of Kate Leigh (NewSouth Books, July 2016, pp1-266 RRP $29.99) Many Sydneysiders will have heard of Kate Leigh; sly grog seller, drug peddler, madam and a leading underworld criminal entrepreneur in…

Second Fleet project

wp-image-12357https://home.dictionaryofsydney.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/PerilousSituationoftheGuardianc1790.jpgThe perilous situation of The Guardian Frigate as she appeared striking on the rocks of ice c1790. By Robert Dighton. From the Mitchell Library collection of the State Library of New South Wales [a1528527 / ML 1112 (a)]600432/> The perilous…

The Ultimo World War I Roll of Honour

Ultimo Presbyterian Church World War I Roll of Honour, Nicole Cama 2015 Anzac Day commemorates all those who have served and died in war and on operational service. I recently published three articles in the Dictionary of Sydney about a World…

The Appin massacre - 200 years on

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 11 May 1816, p2 This Sunday 17 April 2016 marks 200 years since the Appin massacre, when at least 14 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed by soldiers under the command of…

Jeannine Baker, Australian Women War Reporters

Jeannine Baker, Australian Women War Reporters; Boer War to Vietnam, NewSouth Books, 2015, pp 1-259, ISBN 9781742234519, RRP $39.99   ‘I have never been asked to march in an Anzac Day march. Men war correspondents have marched – but I think they’ve…