Where would we be without ice? It's not something we give much thought to these days but in fact, ice has played a surprisingly important role in creating the world as we know it today. As Lisa explained on 2SER breakfast this morning, a cold drink on a summer's day in the 19th century was a rare and beautiful thing. But before refrigeration came along (and even the mechanical production of ice was difficult), there was an international trade in frozen water  - natural ice. Ice first arrived in Sydney on 16 January 1839 after a voyage of four months and five days from Boston. About 250 tons arrived, although reportedly 400 tons was sent - the rest had melted on the journey. For six years (1839 to 1840 and 1853 to 1856) natural ice kept Sydneysiders and their food cool during summer, introducing them to such delights as 'iced sherry cobblers' and  'iced brandy smashers' as well as iced lemonade and soda water. It was extremely popular in 1855 when on one January day the thermometer hit 44 degrees Celsius. But for the savvy entrepreneurs who gambled their fortunes in a highly risky business, we would not have fridges and freezers in every home or readily available cool drinks and ice creams. Ice brought dramatic improvements in food hygiene, enabled fresh and frozen food exports and led to the development of new industries such as the thermal insulation used in today's buildings and appliances. When the ice trade with Boston suddenly stopped, it was not because of a fall in interest but because advances in technology permitted the manufacture of ice closer to home. From 1857, manufactured ice traveled to Sydney by ship from Melbourne but from 1864 the Sydney Ice Company's works, located on West Street, Darlinghurst, provided a local source, free from the vagaries of transport or weather. You can read more about Sydney's first ice in the Dictionary. And if you are enjoying Lisa's summer-themed Sydney stories as much as we are, don't forget to tune in again next week to hear her on 2SER breakfast with Tim Higgins at 107.3.                  

Lisa joined Jack Crane on 2SER breakfast this morning to explore Sydney's first outdoor amusement park, Wonderland City at Tamaramma. Originally known as the Royal Aquarium and Pleasure Grounds (or, misleadingly, the Bondi Aquarium), the park had swings, merry-go-rounds, a shooting gallery, water boats, punch and judy shows and a dance hall, as well as an aquarium and roller-coaster. The acquarium housed seals, a lone penguin, turtles, stingrays, and a couple of sharks but the biggest attraction was the Switchback Railway. A wooden rollercoaster ride, the Switchback ran high above the beach around the cliffs and drew huge crowds. Despite the thrills and pleasures of the park, the popularity of the Royal Aquarium and Pleasure Grounds waxed and waned during the 19th century until an entrepreneur took over the park in 1906. Renamed Wonderland City, the new park captured the imagination of early modern Sydney. It had all of the same amuseuments, including the roller-coaster and aquarium, but for the first time in Australia, it also had an open-air ice skating rink - right on the beach!

To top off these wonders, the park aslo had the Airem Scarem - an airship that tracked on a cable from cliff to cliff, and swept over the sea at high tide - an artificial lake, an alpine slide, a music hall for variety shows and two new stars, Alice the elephant and daredevil, Jack Lewis. To the horror of the weekend crowds, Lewis would rollerskate down a ramp, through a hoop of fire and land in a tank of sharks. Miraculously, the daredevil always survived unharmed! In its heyday, about 2000 people came every summer weekend to Tammarama to enjoy Wonderland City. The park employed over 160 people and there were 70 turnstiles. Wonderland burned bright, but was short-lived. The park closed in 1911. Tune in again next week as Lisa brings another Dictionary story to the airwaves on 2SER breakfast at 8:20am.

GiveNow Week, 1-8 December 2013

GiveNow Week is here and The Dictionary of Sydney is gearing up for a great week of giving as we prepare for Australia’s biggest annual celebration of community spirit. From the 1st to the 8th December is GiveNow Week and we are hoping for as much support as possible to publish more stories about Sydney’s history. This year’s theme is Pass the Hat – the age old Aussie tradition of everyone chipping in for a good cause. And we’re asking YOU to Pass the Hat for us. We’re encouraging everyone to kick the kringle, forget the pointless presents and pass the hat to collect money for a good cause. Whether it’s your tennis club, your family Christmas gathering or to replace the office kris kringle, there’s an opportunity for you to collect a bit of spare change for the Dictionary of Sydney. Activities are being coordinated by the Our Community Foundation, which runs the GiveNow.com.au giving service, providing access to commission-free online donations for community groups.  This means that any online donation you make is free of any administration charges or fees meaning the maximum amount of money gets to the right place – us!

GiveNow Week is designed to focus attention on the many ways that individuals, families and businesses can make a difference to the community in the lead-up to Christmas and beyond.  At the Dictionary of Sydney we believe that a good place to start giving this season is to us.  Jump online at www.givenow.com.au/dictionaryofsydney and see how you can help us! Kim Hanna Executive Officer    

size-medium wp-image-6068Isaac Nathan, Australia's first composer, 1820. Contributed by National Library of Australia [nla.pic-an2292675]http://trust.dictionaryofsydney.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/IsaacNathan-226x300.pngIsaac Nathan, Australia's first composer, 1820. Contributed by National Library of Australia [nla.pic-an2292675]226300/>

This morning on 2SER breakfast, Lisa and Tim looked into more of Sydney's musical history with the story of Isaac Nathan, Australia's first composer. An intriguing character, in England Nathan associated with the poet Lord Byron, setting some of his poems to music, and was reportedly a royal spy. Emigrating to Australia for financial reasons in April 1841, Nathan quickly became the city's leading singing instructor and is remembered as a founder of Sydney's musical culture. Nathan directed music at St Mary's Cathedral, St James' church and the first Jewish Synagogue in York St. He composed operas, the most famous of which was his Spanish romance, Don John of Austria. His many compositions contributed not only to the city's, but to the colony's national musical culture. He wrote patriotic vocal odes such as Australia the Wide and Free (to verses by WA Duncan), to celebrate the inaugural Sydney City Council in 1842 ('Composed and respectfully inscribed to The Right Worshipful John Hosking, Mayor of Sydney'), and the musical entertainment Currency Lasses, for the 58th anniversary of the founding of Sydney in 1846. Unusually for his time, Nathan was interested in Aboriginal life and set to music poems by Mrs EH Dunlop such as 'The Aboriginal Mother'. He was the first person to publish transcriptions of local Aboriginal music - something that is now considered extremely significant. Sadly, Nathan was tragically killed by a tram in 1864 - one of the earliest recorded tram deaths in Sydney. He is buried in St Stephen's cemetery, Newtown. Don't forget to tune in again next week to hear more of Sydney's unique stories from the Dictionary with Dr Lisa Murray.

A new issue of the Sydney Journal, the Dictionary of Sydney's peer-reviewed scholarly publication, has just been released - it's a special issue edited by Matthew Bailey and Paul Ashton based on papers from the conference From the Ground Up: People and Places in Sydney’s Past which was held at the State Library of NSW August 23-24 2012, and it's packed with fascinating stories about Sydney's past. Last week on 2SER Breakfast with Tim Higgins, Lisa Murray talked about Andrew Evans' paper on John York, who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, manufactured and sold brass musical instruments in Chippendale, in a factory located just near the current location of  the 2SER  studios. Now John York's story is familiar in many ways. A skilled English immigrant who brought his family to a developing capital city and became a manufacturer and small business owner. But his skill of brass instrument making and repairing was special. He was just one of a handful of brass instrument makers known to have operated in Sydney in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Brass bands were incredibly popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. York's business reveals much about the local Sydney brass band communities and Sydney music making. York donated cash prizes to band competitions and he supported groups such as the Parramatta Model Band. Read all about it in Andrew Evans' article in the Sydney Journal. John York's business was threatened by cheaper mass produced imports from overseas and the larger musical emporiums like Palings and Nicholsons, but his enduring reputation for consistent, high quality workmanship and superior, personalised service sustained loyalty from York’s customers well into the middle of the twentieth century when the business continued under the management of his wife and sons. Even today, there are brass players in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra who recall their teachers or brass band colleagues telling them to take their instruments to "Yorkie's" for an expert repair or service. As a special bonus, there's a Youtube video by the author here with more pictures.  

Celebrating culture and connecting people

From the 14-24 November, Sydney will be hosting the inaugural Corroboree Sydney festival of Indigenous arts and culture. Directed by Hetti Perkins, the festival features leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, writers, dancers and musicians. A showcase of creative events and stories is being presented at significant sites around the city including Bangarra at Pier 4 in Walsh Bay, the Australian Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Blackfella Films, Sydney Opera House, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, Koori Radio 93.7 FM, State Library of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The word Corroboree, synonymous with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, is actually derived from a local Sydney language word 'Carriberie', used to describe a ceremony of singing, telling stories and dancing. The first Corroboree documented by early explorers was staged in the area that is known today as Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens. You can find out about the events planned over 11 days here. For more information about the festival, head to the Corroboree Sydney webpage: http://www.corroboreesydney.com.au/ The Dictionary has a host of materials relating to Aboriginal Sydney, including essays and images that you can browse here.

Corroboree, a new Sydney Indigenous cultural festival kicks off on the 14th November (this Thursday) so this morning on 2SER Breakfast with Tim Higgins, Lisa and Tim talked about the life of Bennelong, one of Sydney's most famous men. So what do we really know about Bennelong? For years, Bennelong's story has been plagued by myths: for example, that he 'collaborated' with the British, was 'taken to London to meet the king', was 'despised by his own people' and 'died in a street brawl'. These claims can be laid to rest from new research by Keith Vincent Smith published in the Dictionary of Sydney. By nature, Bennelong was mercurial: a joker and a mimic, quick to laughter or anger. He was also a canny politician who played a complex double game between his people and the governor. No collaborator, he was active in the resistance against the colonists before he agreed to 'come in' peacefully to the Sydney settlement in October 1790. Initiated as a Wangal man, Bennelong was about 24 yrs old when the First Fleet arrived. After being kidnapped by Governor Phillip so he could learn Aboriginal customs, Bennelong became an interpreter and cultural mediator. It was Bennelong who taught Governor Phillip the names of various points and coves around the harbour, which led Phillip to change the name Rose Hill back to Parramatta. With Yemmerrawann, he accompanied Governor Phillip to England in 1792 and was there for many months. On his return, he retreated back to the company of his own people, living among them as a respected elder. Bennelong died on 3 January, 1813 -  200 years ago. He is buried on the estate of James Squire at Kissing Point. Bennelong Point, where the Sydney Opera House stands, is named after him. He is to be remembered alongside Pemulwuy in a public art installation by Aboriginal curator Djon Mundine at Circular Quay. Titled The Song of Bennelong and Pemulwuy, the artwork will to act as a permanent acknowledgement of Sydney's Aboriginal heritage. Tune in again next week to hear Lisa share another tantalising tale from Sydney’s history.

This morning on 2SER with Tim Higgins, I reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out another great Sydney story - the origins of the cartoon character Felix The Cat.

Felix the Cat pre-dates Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, making Felix possibly the earliest animated celebrity. But while everyone knows that Felix was created by Walt Disney, few know the creator of Felix. His name was Pat Sullivan (born Patrick O'Sullivan) a Sydney boy who grew up in the inner city suburbs of Woolloomooloo and Chippendale around the time of Federation and aspired to make it big as a cartoonist. After attending art classes at the Art Society of NSW, in 1905 O'Sullivan (as he was then known) began submitting cartoons, illustrations and caricatures to The Worker, the trade union affiliated newspaper. When the Great White Fleet visited Sydney, he dreamed of America and set off the following year overseas, going first to London and then on to the United States of America in 1914. It was around this time that he dropped the O and became Pat Sullivan. Three years later Sullivan produced his first animated film, The Tail of Thomas Kat. Thomas was the precursor to Felix, who first appeared in film in 1919 in The Adventures of Felix. Felix The Cat was a great hit. This little black cat was quite an individual, able to think, reason, and solve problems using his bag of tricks, and in 1923 he began to appear in comic strip form. By the mid-1920s, the Felix comic strip was published in more than 60 newspapers worldwide. Although the height of his fame was in the 1920s and 1930s, he was still well-known decades later. He appeared in over 100 films, featured in music, comic books, toys and badges, as well as appearing on collectables and clothing. The Dictionary features some great images of the fictional character in various guises that attest to his popularity. A Felix the Cat toy is included in the Australian War Memorial collection, as he was a mascot for some of the naval personnel on HMAS Brisbane. In the 1920s, a large Felix the Cat was dragged lovingly by its young owners down to Nielsen Park for an outing; and a cheeky cartoon of Felix can be found at Bondi Beach. Relive Tim's astonishment at Felix's Sydney connection by listening to the podcast, and tune in next week as I once again rumage through my bag of tricks to share with you another tantalising tale from Sydney's history.  

This morning on 2SER breakfast, Tim and I talked about oral history in anticipation of today's launch of the City of Sydney's Sydney Oral Histories website. Oral histories are a great primary source of information about our past. They offer first hand accounts of every day life, describing people's observations and experiences with an immediacy that is highly engaging. The pioneer of oral history is Hazel de Berg, a Sydney woman who recorded hundreds of voices and memories of Australians born between 1865 and 1956 over a thirty year period. Hazel's collection is in the National Library of Australia. The Dictionary's collection of oral histories includes an interview with 88 year old Rita who recalls life in Leichhardt in the 1930s. Rita talks about Norton Street once being a graveyard, paved over after the headstones were removed.* Other fascinating stories on the Dictionary include first hand accounts of working as a Sydney tram conductress, a labourer who transported circus elephants around Sydney in the 1950s, memories of the first mardi gras parade and delivering Meals on Wheels to Rosaleen Norton, the 'witch queen' of Kings Cross. Sydney Oral Histories (www.sydneyoralhistories.com.au) will be launched tonight in the Barnet Long Room at Customs House at 6pm. The website is divided into places, beliefs, encounters with the natural environment, art and culture, shelter, work, commerce and industry. It's fascinating listening and easy to browse with short excerpts accompanied by full sound recordings and written transcripts to download. The website has been many years in the making. Our congratulations go to Dr Margo Beasley, the Oral Historian at the City of Sydney, and the History Unit for bringing making these oral histories available to everyone. * Rita is referring to Balmain Cemetery, near the northern end of Norton St, which is now known as Pioneers Park  

Vol 4, No 1 (2013): From the Ground Up: People and Places in Sydney’s Past: A special issue of Sydney Journal is available here.