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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
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Jack Mundey, Builders Labourers Federation, 1973

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Jack Mundey, Builders Labourers Federation, 1973

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Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive

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Mundey, Jack

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Ellis, Rennie

Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive

The Rennie Ellis archive contains thousands of documentary images taken by the late Rennie Ellis over many decades

Economy

With the arrival of Europeans, the traditional economy of Aboriginal clans was disrupted, and gave way to the convict economy of the Commissariat and government stores. But this closed economy was soon opened by free settlement, whaling and sealing, shipping and farming success, making Sydney the port for a vast hinterland. Depressions and booms alternated, bringing poverty and prosperity to the city. Sydney's growth and diversity mean that regional economies now exist within the Sydney region.

Sydney

Founded by Europeans as a social experiment, Sydney's beginnings brought death and dispossession to the original inhabitants of the place, as well as surprising freedom and prosperity to many of the convicts. Over its history, the city's growth has been shaped by factors that are common to many cities, but also by unique forces. In the twenty-first century, for the first time, the idea of sustainable progress is itself in doubt.

Green Bans movement

When builders labourers, organised by their union, refused to work on projects they found socially or environmentally undesirable, in Sydney in the 1970s, they started a new form of environmental activism. The Green Bans were to change the way Sydney developed

Trade unions

Demonstrations and protests

Heritage movement

Mundey, Jack

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Trade unionist who led the Builders Labourers Federation through the Green Ban period and became one of Sydney's foremost urban environmentalists.