The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
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The Great Fire of Sydney
Looking down Hosking Place from Castlereagh Street after the Moore Street fire, 1890, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (PXA 2127, Box 10, 45) Just after 2 o’clock in the morning on 2 October 1890 the alarm was raised after…
Tom Frame, Gun Control: What Australian Got Right (and Wrong)
Tom Frame, Gun Control: What Australia Got Right (and Wrong) NewSouth Books, 2019, 201 pp., ISBN: 9781742236346, p/bk, AUS$34.99 Professor Tom Frame’s Gun Control: What Australia Got Right (and Wrong) offers a clear and concise history of Australian politics and policy for the…
The last public hanging at Darlinghurst Gaol
The People's Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator, 25 September 1852, p2 via Trove On 21 September 1852, illicit grog dealer, snappy dresser and murderer Francis Green was the last man to be publicly hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol. Listen to the…
The Governor's Demesne
Plan of Governors Demesne Land, surveyed in the year 1816. By C Cartwright. From the collection of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales [a2869001 / ZM3 811.172/1816/1] What did you last go to the Domain for? A protest?…
Fifty years of Kaldor Public Art Projects
View of Project 32: Jonathan Jones' barrangal dyara (skin and bones), Photo by Peter Greig, courtesy: Kaldor Public Art Projects This year Kaldor Public Art Projects is marking fifty years of challenging and surprising Sydneysiders with large scale, public and interactive…
Memory, Love and Gothic Horror
Headstones in Devonshire Street Cemetery c1901 by Ethel Foster, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ON146/386) It's History Week and this year's theme is 'Memory and Landscapes'. And there is no better way to think about memory and landscapes than…
Peter Corris, See you at the Toxteth: the best of Cliff Hardy and Corris on crime
Peter Corris, See you at the Toxteth: the best of Cliff Hardy and Corris on crime Selected by Jean Bedford Allen & Unwin, 2019, 323 pp., ISBN: 9781760875633, p/bk, AUS$29.99 Many readers will feel privileged to hold one more book from Peter Corris…
Archaeology in Sydney
Tim Owen inspects archaeological investigations in Western Sydney. Photograph by Sharon Johnson (GML Heritage) This morning on 2SER Breakfast, Dr Tim Owen from GML Heritage talked to Tess about his work as an archaeologist in Sydney. Listen to Tim and Tess…
The Witch of Kings Cross
A Weird Story By A Gifted Fifteen Year Old Authoress, Smiths Weekly, 6 January 1934, p16 via Trove Amidst the bohemian neighbourhood of Kings Cross in the mid 20th century, the self-proclaimed ‘witch’ Rosaleen Norton (1917-1979) was hard to miss; a…
Tanya Bretherton, The Suicide Bride; A Mystery of Tragedy and Family Secrets in Edwardian Sydney
Tanya Bretherton, The Suicide Bride; A Mystery of Tragedy and Family Secrets in Edwardian Sydney Hachette Australia, 2019, pp 1-311, ISBN: 9780733640988, RRP $32.99 Mid-morning, Tuesday 12 January 1904, Watkin Street, Newtown. Four-year-old Mervyn Sly probably did not fully comprehend the horror he…