The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

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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…

Kathy Mexted, Australian Women Pilots: Amazing true stories of women in the air

Kathy Mexted, Australian Women Pilots: Amazing true stories of women in the air NewSouth Books, November 2020, p/bk, 272pp, ISBN: 9781742236971, RRP: AUD$34.99 Thanks to the determination, grit, and spunk of the ten women Kathy Mexted chronicles in her first book Australian…

Horse Drawn: John Rae and 'The Turning of the First Turf'

John Rae c1884, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ML MSS A807) John Rae is, perhaps, my favourite dead white male. On the surface, he’s really rather ordinary. An administrator who was meticulous and ambitious, he was a career public servant.…

It's a sign

Traffic congestion in Pyrmont, August 1938. Note the 'silent cop' on the road in front of the policeman directing traffic. Courtesy ACP Magazines, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (ON 388/Box 035/Item 098) Last week Lisa Murray mentioned a few of…

Rose Bay Airport

[Window Title] Seagate Dashboard [Main Instruction] Seagate Dashboard has stopped working [Content] Windows is checking for a solution to the problem... [Cancel]_blankrel="noopener"> Short Empire Flying Boat Cooee at Rose Bay 5 July 1939, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW…

Sydney's hydrofoils

Hydrofoil in Sydney Harbour, 1970. Pic: Mark Faviell / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/markfaviell/5601046844) A couple of weeks ago when I was last in, I commented upon the hydrofoil footage in David Bowie's film clip China Girl and it transpired that…