Hyde Park, St James Parsonage Dispensary, afterwards the Mint, and Emigration Barracks 1842 by John Rae Credit: Dixson Galleries, State Library of NSW (a928373 / DG SV*/Sp Coll/Rae/16)

We’re coming into the festival season, when our city seems to come alive with a variety of cultural events and activities. Let’s go back to the 1800s and see how culture developed in Sydney, from unruly pastimes to popular sports and theatrical pursuits. Listen to the podcast on 2SER radio.

Many of our city’s most popular sports and activities today had their beginnings only a few years after the First Fleet anchored in Sydney Cove. Though Sydney did not immediately replicate English cultural practices during early settlement, officers and free settlers were active in promoting certain sports which they felt demonstrated upper class respectability. While this part of colonial society focussed their energies on sports such as horse racing and cricket, convicts reproduced old habits in the form of drinking and gambling. They manufactured their own playing cards and frequented taverns and sly-grog shops.

Consequently, governors sought to provide alternative means of recreation. As early as 1796 authorities allowed a group of ‘the more decent class of prisoners’ to open a playhouse in The Rocks. Over the next decade the company presented a number of plays, including comedies and tragedies and even a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry IV. And just as with English audiences, Sydney’s playhouse theatregoers could be quite rowdy and disorderly!

Another popular feature of the early colony were the various alehouses and inns, with the first two licences to sell liquor granted in 1792. Cockfights were held in Sydney from the earliest years of settlement, in particular in the wharf areas as well as Brickfield Hill, an area bound by George and Liverpool streets. There were also bare knuckle fights, with the first ones held as informal grudge matches until it became institutionalised in 1811. Horse racing was also popular, with the first official race meeting being held in Hyde Park in 1810.

In promoting these activities, authorities attempted to divert attention away from the less desirable pursuits of drinking and gambling. Of course this didn’t quite work, as racegoers at the first Hyde Park races became so intoxicated they were unfit to work for several days, while gambling booths thrived as an entrenched part of all meetings.

Sydney’s theatre scene gained momentum in the 1830s, with the Theatre Royal on George Street being popular among Sydneysiders, even though the first few performances featured rowdiness in the pit and gallery! Unlike contemporary programs, the Royal not only featured a main play, but light entertainments between acts as well as afterpiece farces. But as programs mellowed over the decades to include rather more sophisticated performances like opera, so too did theatregoers.

The gold rushes in the 1840s to 1850s transformed Sydney’s cultural life as immigrants arrived from all over the globe in much larger numbers than before. Between 1851 and 1914, the city’s population went from 54,000 to 648,000. And during the late nineteenth century, Sydney’s culture was also shaped by modernisation. Sports such as cricket, football, horse racing and boxing all became subject to the standardised rules, regular competitions and professional administrators.

Housing and demographic change also impacted the city’s cultural life. While the poorer classes were housed in older areas of the inner city zone, more well-to-do individuals began to move further out of the city centre into suburban areas with better sanitation and lower density living. What a difference to today’s trends, as people scramble to live closer to the city and areas once considered slum districts have turned into gentrified cultural hubs!

If you missed Nicole’s segment on 2SER this morning, you can catch up on the podcast here.

Bronte Baths c1880-1900 Credit: Tyrrell Photographic Collection, Powerhouse Museum (85/1285-223)

It’s summertime and as the temperatures rise, Sydneysiders will no doubt be flocking to the city’s famous beaches. This morning for 2SER Breakfast, I thought I’d talk to Mitch about our love affair with sea bathing and how our ocean pools have played a crucial role in our beach-loving culture.

By the late 19th century, Sydneysiders were increasingly turning to our coastal areas to cool down during the warmer months. While Manly offered sea-bathing in its harbour baths, the pools in Coogee, Bronte and Bondi beaches offered the safest sea-bathing option. In those days, few people wore bathing costumes and there was fierce debate about what constituted appropriate swimwear in the first place.

Bathing boxes like these at Coogee Beach c1880-1890 were designed to allow sea bathing while protecting the swimmer's modesty. Credit: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales (a6359001 / SPF/3464)

In order to safeguard the respectability of sea-bathers, councils provided gender-segregated sea baths which screened bathers from view during daylight hours. By 1886, Coogee Beach had a women’s only pool, today the only surviving single sex pool in the country. It also had a men’s only pool on the other side of the beach. Waverley Council decided to allocate separate hours for men’s bathing and women’s bathing at their supervised pay-to-use ocean pools at Bondi and Bronte beaches, and it required all bathers wear costumes.

But on 20 October 1907, Waverley, Manly and Randwick councils faced criticism when thousands of men dressed in ladies clothing gathered at Bondi, Manly and Coogee beaches. They were protesting against the councils’ proposal requiring men to wear a skirt-like tunic when swimming at all times. Newspapers called it ‘Burlesque at Bondi’, as ‘bathers in arms’ and ‘skirt brigades’ commandeered garments belonging to their sisters and wives, and made a mockery of the proposed dress code. In the end, the ‘salt water kilt’ was not enforced on the city’s bathers!

Men’s swimming clubs sprung up in the 1890s and Bondi and Bronte hosted swimming carnivals which included diving events and water polo matches. These events nurtured the development of the lifesaving movement, with Bronte and Bondi beaches both hosting Australia’s earliest lifesaving clubs.

From the early 1900s councils permitted daylight bathing in public view, provided swimmers wore approved costumes. This did not lessen the demand for ocean pools; as a safer swimming environment, it still appealed to beachgoers. Wylie’s Baths at Coogee Beach was its third pool, and opened in 1907 as a gender-segregated, pay-to-swim pool. While sunbathing in public view remained prohibited, the bath’s change sheds offered a venue for sunbathing. Gradually, Wylie’s Baths became one of the first ocean pools to offer mixed or family bathing.

The skirted bathers of Bondi Beach, Sydney Mail 23 October 1907, p1075 via Trove http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page16781273

From 1907, formally organised surf lifesaving clubs begun patrolling Sydney’s most popular surf beaches in daylight hours. But as they were operated by volunteers, their patrols were limited to weekends and public holidays, which meant ocean pools continued to provide beachgoers with the best protection against sharks and rips.

The popularity of ocean pools extended throughout the early 20th century, but from the 1970s, the pollution of Sydney’s eastern beaches by sewage and industrial waste decreased the support for the further development of these pools. Yet despite this, the demand for ocean pools remained quite high due to enthusiasm for fitness swimming and winter swimming clubs. Today, Sydney’s ocean pools remain a popular spot not only for swimmers, but for photographers, drawn by the prospect of that perfect sunrise capture.

 

If you missed Nicole’s segment on 2SER this morning, you can catch up on the podcast here. 

   

The Skirt and Surf Bathing Controversy, Sunday Times magazine, 20 October 1907, p7

 

Staff and pupils of Woodford Academy c1910. Contributed by Blue Mountains City Library [Local Studies Collection PF1028]

It’s holidaying season and a good time to venture beyond Sydney. A trip to the Blue Mountains is always a great idea, and the National Trust property, Woodford Academy, is even more reason to explore one of our most picturesque regions. I spoke with Mitch on 2SER Breakfast about its development, from an historic inn to a school for boys.

Archivist and writer, Ken Goodlet, has recently published an article in the Dictionary of Sydney on this historic property which contains the oldest collection of buildings in the Blue Mountains. Back in the 1830s Woodford in the Blue Mountains was known as 20 Mile Hollow. Before Woodford Academy became the grand set of buildings it is today, in 1831, the only building on the site was a sly-grog shop established by the convict and illegal squatter, William James, and his wife Mary.

Also in that year the former convict, Thomas Pembroke, was awarded two acres of land and he constructed an inn called ‘The Woodman’. Until the mid-1840s The Woodman was a day’s travel from the nearest inns at Valley Heights and Wentworth Falls. Today these sorts of distances are made in 20 minutes by car, but back in the 19th century, these roadside inns were a welcome sight for the weary traveller undertaking the long, arduous trek across unsealed roads. But the life of the publicans who managed these inns was an isolated one; Goodlet notes that William James’ wife Mary committed suicide within five years of establishing their business.

And it seems there were also dark times for Thomas Pembroke and his wife Frances. After Thomas was gaoled in 1837 for theft, Frances appealed to the governor for his release as she was an ‘unfortunate and destitute wife’ with nine children, and in desperation she reportedly turned to prostitution. Thomas was later admitted to a mental asylum and Frances remarried.

The prosperity of the inn continued and the discovery of gold in the Bathurst district in 1851 brought thousands of people from all over along the Western Road from Sydney to Bathurst. During this time, the inn tripled in size and today, the low, quaint rooms built at that time have survived and are little changed. One of the inn’s most famous owners was William Buss, a former convict who would welcome guests at the front door wearing a distinctive scarlet waistcoat.

Unfortunately the days of the roadside inn began to dwindle and in 1868, the Sydney merchant Alfred Fairfax purchased the property for £450 as a country retreat, renaming it Woodford House. Fairfax’s purchase of the property as a retreat from the city formed part of a shift in general perceptions of the Blue Mountains. No longer a wild, threatening landscape, the mountains were now valued for their fresh, healthy mountain air, their waterfalls and sweeping views.

Woodford House ran as guesthouse until 1907, when it was leased by the distinguished scholar, John McManamey, and turned into the Woodford Academy for Boys. In its first year, the school had 28 pupils with 15 of them boarders. Each morning at 7am the boarders would emerge from their dormitories and run 1.5 kilometres north to Mabel Falls where they would swim before running back! They were taught the usual subjects like English, History, Mathematics and so on, but also Latin, bookkeeping, music, dancing and sometimes, Greek. And, McManamey encouraged students to engrave their initials on the desks and window frames, believing they would ‘make their mark’ in history.

The school closed in 1925, and McManamey’s daughters continued to reside there taking on boarders. In 1979 the last surviving daughter, Gertrude, bequeathed the property to the National Trust. It operates as a museum today, documenting the property’s iterations and telling the stories of its many colourful residents. Check out the National Trust's website for details about the museum's opening hours.

If you missed Nicole’s segment on 2SER this morning, you can catch up on the podcast here.

If you're a square you'll have to get hep to bodgey language, March 1951. Bodgies and widgies have added to the headaches of the English language by inventing a whole tribe of new expressions. From the collection of the State Library of New South Wales [TN18] (PIX, 10 March 1951, p23).

Ever heard of the term bodgie? What about widgie? When we think of great social change, people often cite the 1960s as a decade of transformation. But toward the end of World War II in the 1940s, a subculture emerged among Sydney’s youth - they called themselves bodgies and widgies and drew their inspiration from African American culture. I spoke to Mitch about this cultural movement on 2SER. A new entry has just been published in the Dictionary of Sydney by writer Clem Gorman, and it details the development of what Gorman terms a ‘sensual revolution’ among Sydney’s youth during the 1940s. Young men were wearing loose-fitting jackets, brightly coloured shirts, suede shoes and pants with key chains dangling from their belts. Young women cut their hair short and wore jeans. They called themselves bodgies and widgies and were directly influenced by African American servicemen who were among the thousands of US soldiers who congregated in the many clubs and streets of Kings Cross, Surry Hills and Darlinghurst during World War II. This cultural movement and its new fashions and music marked the beginning of subsequent waves African American influences in Australia, such as rock and blues music, gospel and hip-hop. Gorman notes the bodgie movement sprung out of ‘a rejection of the dry, bloke, anti-emotional male culture of the inherited British tradition’. Although African American culture had entered Sydney during the 1920s, it wasn’t until 1943, when black GIs came Sydney bringing their fashions and rhythm and blues music. Gorman collected much of his research from interviews conducted with men and women who identified as bodgies and widgies in Sydney during the 1940s and 1950s. He goes into great detail about the bodgie fashions, music tastes and cultural pursuits. Their suits, for example, were influenced by suits worn by young African Americans in the first half of the 20th century, which in turn were influenced by gunnysack clothing worn on cotton plantations. Their suits included padded shoulders and were generally loose fitting. Some of the bodgies interviewed reminisced how they not only adopted the fashions of African American GIs, they also set out to emulate their body language, walk and slang speech. One called this transformation ‘a statement, a kind of slap in the face to the powers that be’. Another feature which attracted young working-class Australians to the visiting African Americans was their dancing, which emphasised fluidity in the hips, free arms, tapping feet and a joyful attitude, a huge departure from the more traditional dances they were exposed to like the foxtrot. According to some of those interviewed, there was one man who embodied all the ‘coolness’ of bodgie and was known as the ‘sharpest cat in the Cross’. But none of the interviewees seem to agree on his name, which was given variously as Kenny Lee, Donny Mannion or several Greek and Italian names. Whoever he was, according to his contemporaries he was incredibly good looking, successful with women, hip, sharp, cool and tough. Gorman concludes it’s possible this man was a myth; a figment created to ‘represent an idealised version of ‘bodgiedom’ which no individual could meet’. On that note, I’ll leave you with some bodgie language to resurrect in common usage. ‘Guzzling Foam’ meant having milkshakes, for the widgies ‘Etching the edges’ meant applying lipstick, ‘the Royal smooth’ meant having a steady girlfriend, and ‘His plates don’t beat’ meant whoever ‘he’ is, he doesn’t understand. Make sure you check out Clem Gorman’s fantastic article in the Dictionary! If you missed Nicole's segment on 2SER this morning, you can catch up on the podcast here.

A new Grace Bros regional store at Parramatta October 1939. By Sam Hood. From the Mitchell Library collection of the State Library of New South Wales [hood_09953 / Home and Away 9953]

You might have heard that Roselands shopping centre turned 50 years old earlier in the week. It was a game changer in suburban shopping in the 1960s: a fully undercover shopping centre built for Grace Bros with 80 specialty shops, 10 acres (4 hectares) of shopping space and room for 3,000 parking spots. Although not the first department store to establish suburban outlets, Grace Bros was the first to strategically plan and develop an extensive network of branches in suburban Sydney. Roselands was part of their aspirations in the 1960s and 1970s to have a store within 10 minutes drive of every housewife in Sydney. Grace Bros traced its origins back to the draper store set up by Joseph and Edward Grace on George Street West, not far from the 2ser studios, back in 1885. Within six years they had bought  out a neighbouring draper and had expanded into clothing, boots, carpets and crockery. Sydney's newest department store was on their way up. Grace Bros is best remembered for its large iconic store at Broadway. Built in 1904, it was seen by tram travellers coming from the south and west. The glass and steel globe at the top of the building bearing the company became a symbol of the company, visible from many parts of Sydney and used for decades in advertisements, promotions and company stationery. The success of the department store was driven by the ambition of the family. The company's original motto from the 1880s reflects their will and drive: 'We will deserve success'. Later store mottoes became more customer focussed: 'The store that keeps faith with the public' (c.1900) and in 1916 'Sure to get it at Grace Bros'. The company began expanding into suburban areas as early as the 1930s, with a store at Parramatta in 1933, following by Bondi Junction in 1934. But it was when the family firm became a public company in 1960 that they had the capital to invest in suburban expansion and shopping innovations like Roselands. First came Chatswood (1961), Warringah Mall (1963), Top Ryde(1964), Roselands (1965), Miranda Fair (1971), Liverpool (1972), Mt Druitt (1973), Hornsby (1979), Burwood (1981), Macquarie Centre (1981) and Maroubra (1981). Of course Grace Bros is no more. A double take over saw the department stores subsumed within Melbourne's Myer. The name lived on until 2004. But we can still remember the innovations of Grace Bros through their Broadway store, and Roselands shopping centre. You can read more about Grace Bros in  Michael Lech's article in the Dictionary. And check out the Photo gallery of Roselands when it opened in 1961. If you missed Lisa's segment on 2SER this morning, you can catch up on the podcast here.  

wp-image-11038https://home.dictionaryofsydney.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/PedestriansandtramGeorgeSt1910.jpgBy Harvey, John Henry. Pedestrians and tram on George Street c1910. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria [H92.150/143] 470454/> By John Henry Harvey, Pedestrians and tram on George Street c1910. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria [H92.150/143]

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the new light rail project and the disruption being caused by the closure of George Street. In a case of history repeating itself, Sydney’s seen it all happen before from when the first line for horse-drawn trams opened in 1861 to the electric tramways of the late 1890s. Let’s take a look at the heyday of Sydney’s old trams… The population in Sydney experienced a bit of boom from the mid-19th century, as the gold rushes brought people from the world over. Consequently, the need for improved transport around the city became obvious and, in December 1861, the first horse-drawn tram was opened running along Pitt Street between Circular Quay and a new terminus at Prince Alfred Park in Surry Hills. Problems arose from cost overruns and poor revenue flows and it turned out the rails that had been imported from England were found to be unsuitable and were laid upside down. Although the trams were still able to run on them, there were parts which protruded and caused accidents and complaints from the general public. The first fatality caused by a tram occurred in May 1863, when six-year-old Thomas McGowan’s ‘leg was severed’ by a tram and he died in hospital. And the death of a well-known musician, Isaac Nathan, in 1864, galvanised a select committee to recommend the removal of the tram system in 1866. It wasn’t until 1879, when the grand Garden Palace in the Botanic Gardens hosted the International Exhibition, that a temporary line was constructed to convey visitors to the exhibition. It was powered by steam and was a hit with passengers! Nearly half a million passengers were conveyed, an average of more than 4,000 per day. Following its success, a bill was introduced to allow the government to construct tramways throughout the city and its suburbs. The new tram network expanded rapidly, and although it formed a cheap mode of transportation, the trams caused high levels of dust, noisy and smoke to permeate the streets. In 1884, cable driven tramways were first proposed for Sydney, from the ferry terminal at Milsons Point up to Ridge Street in North Sydney. But, this technology was quickly superseded by the electric powered tram. Once an experimental line using overhead wires was tested on the Waverley-Randwick extension in November 1890, and then another one from King Street in the city to Ocean Street in Woollahra, the tram era entered full swing. Over the next decade, new tramlines using the electric wire system were constructed around Sydney expanding the network from 124 kilometres to more than 320. By 1922 the size of the network was at its peak, it was the largest tram network in Australia and one of the largest in the world. However, after the Great Depression hit and then World War II, progress was halted. In 1946 only 13 per cent of all trips in Sydney were by car but by 1960, that figure had risen to 50 per cent. The popularity of motor vehicles spelt doom for the city’s trams, and so in 1961, Sydney’s last tram ran and within days, road traffic congestion had begun. And now today we revisit this means of transport yet again, and soon we will be seeing trams, or shall we say the light rail, gracing George Street once more. You can read more about the history of Sydney's trams, and transport, in Garry Wotherspoon's articles for the Dictionary: Trams, Tram Deaths and Transport. We also have a lovely piece of audio by Yvonne Weedon on being a tram conductress. You can catch up on today's podcast here. Don't forget to tune in again next Wednesday morning for more Sydney history courtesy of the Dictionary of Sydney and 2SER Breakfast with Mitch Byatt.  

Catch up with Lisa Murray's segment on 2SER earlier today and get the lowdown on Sydney Open:   by Lisa Murray

Tiles in the disused train tunnels under St James Station. The tunnels will be open to a lucky few Golden Ticket holders this Sunday. Photo courtesy: Nicole Cama (MuseumMinx)

We are all sticky beaks at heart, and on this coming Sunday, 1 November 2015,  you can indulge your curiosity by visiting the interiors of over 50 historic and architectural buildings in the city. Sydney Open is an annual one-day event organised by our good friends at Sydney Living Museums. If you enjoy history, architecture, art or photography, you will have a great time at Sydney Open. And you'll enjoy it even more reading up before or after the event about many of the buildings which are covered in the Dictionary of Sydney. Now it is a ticketed event, https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/sydneyopen/buy-tickets and you need to plan, as it's almost impossible to get to them all in one day. http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/sydneyopen/plan-your-day So, as a seasoned participant of Sydney Open, here are my top five historic building recommendations: 1. AMP Building (1962) http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/amp_building This was the first skyscraper in Sydney to exceed Sydney’s long-imposed 150-foot (46-metre) height limit. It was 107m tall - and so was twice the height of virtually every other building in Sydney. The only thing that came close was the AWA tower. You can go up to the original observation deck and the roof top terrace for great views. 2. Lands Department Building (1876-1888) http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/department_of_lands_building See it while you can. The state government is selling this off and it is going to be converted into a boutique hotel. You can see the Eastern Dome, Plan Room, Loftus Street stairs, Secretary’s Office, ground floor Surveyor’s Baseline, and Bridge Street foyer. 3. Sydney Town Hall (1868 - 1889) http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/sydney_town_hall Come and say hello to me. I'll be sharing my knowledge about the Old Sydney Burial Ground, which was on the site prior to the town hall. And all the major civic spaces are open, and you can hear the City Organist play the grand organ. 4. Sydney Masonic Centre (1976) A fine example of brutalist architecture. And in my view one of the great modernist interiors in Sydney - don't miss the ceiling of the grand lodge room. The masons have a distinguished history in Sydney and their museum, archives and library will be open alongside all their key rooms. 5. Mortuary Station (1869) http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/mortuary_railway_station This Gothic railway station designed by James Barnet was the departure point for funerals heading to Rookwood Necropolis. Rarely open, this is a great opportunity to see the finely carved angels along the station platform.   The Dictionary of Sydney has lots more information about the buildings on offer for Sydney Open, so here are some of the other buildings you can explore on Sunday in person, or at any time of the day or night through the Dictionary of Sydney.

Stained glass figure representing Australia, designed by Lucien Henry, in Sydney Town Hall. Photo courtesy of Paul Patterson, City of Sydney Council.

ABC Ultimo Centre http://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/702_abc_sydney ANZAC Memorial http://dictionaryofsydney.org/structure/anzac_war_memorial_hyde_park< Australia Square http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/australia_square Culwulla Chambers http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/culwulla_chambers Customs House http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/customs_house Deutsche Bank http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/deutsche_bank_place Government House, Sydney http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/government_house Grosvenor Place http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/grosvenor_place_towers Hyde Park Barracks http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/hyde_park_barracks Justice and Police Museum http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/justice_and_police_museum_building Kensington Street Chippendale http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/10_kensington_street_chippendale http://dictionaryofsydney.org/place/chippendale Lucy Osburn - Nightingale Museum http://dictionaryofsydney.org/person/osburn_lucy http://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/sydney_hospital Museum of Contemporary Art http://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/museum_of_contemporary_art_australia http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/museum_of_contemporary_art Museum of Sydney http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/museum_of_sydney Parliament House http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/parliament_house Queen Victoria Building http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/queen_victoria_building St James Church http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/st_james_anglican_church_queens_square St Marys Cathedral http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/st_marys_cathedral State Library of New South Wales, including Mitchell Library http://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/state_library_of_new_south_wales http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/state_library_of_new_south_wales_building http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/mitchell_library http://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/mitchell_library Sydney Grammar School http://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/sydney_grammar_school The Great Synagogue http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/great_synagogue The Mint http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/the_mint The Old Clare Hotel (Tooth & Co) http://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/tooth_and_co_ltd< http://dictionaryofsydney.org/place/kent_brewery UTS Tower http://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/uts_tower http://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/university_of_technology_sydney For the full list of buildings and ticket prices for the day, go to: http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/sydneyopen/buildings   You can listen to a podcast of Lisa's segment with Mitch at 2SER Breakfast here. Tune in again next week for more of Sydney’s history courtesy of the Dictionary of Sydney, on 107.3 at 8:20am. Don’t miss it!

by Michaela Ann Cameron Last year the Dictionary of Sydney released its debut historic walking tour Old Irish Sydney on the free Dictionary of Sydney Walks app. Using the Old Irish Sydney app got me excited about the way multimodal technology has the ability to put “history in the palm of your hand” and transform the everyday urban environment into an outdoor museum, so I approached the Dictionary about being involved in their next app project. Given that I am an “Old Parramattan” myself with at least 7 convict ancestors and a huge passion for colonial history, it was decided that the next app would have a Parramatta theme. Eighteen months and eleven new Dictionary entries later, the walking tour Convict Parramatta is here and available to download for free on Google Play and the App Store. Thanks to the efforts of the Dictionary team, you will experience Convict Parramatta in all its multimedia glory, with historical imagery, a lively narration by actress Rebecca Havey, and an evocative colonial soundscape. I was delighted to join Ellen Leabeater on 2SER this week to announce the official launch of the new walking tour, which has been a real labour of love for me, and to give listeners a little taste of what they can expect. Convict Parramatta’s release this week has coincided with Parramatta City Council’s food and arts festival Parramatta Lanes. It seemed pertinent then to focus on the convict history of a major street the festival goers will be strolling down: George Street, Parramatta.

George Street Parramatta, from the gates of Government House, around 1804-5 by GW Evans. Courtesy Sydney Living Museums (Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection 31758)

In 1788, George Street was little more than a track leading from the original landing place on the Parramatta River. However it was not long before that modest track became Australia’s first planned road and, according to Watkin Tench, a “great” and “very noble” one at that; stretching from the landing place (the Governor’s Wharf) to the governor’s house. Convict huts, erected in 1790, lined both sides of George Street and extended right into present-day Parramatta Park. The remains of convict huts were revealed in the Murray Gardens only two weeks ago during excavations conducted by GML Heritage for the Parramatta Park Trust. They had been lying beneath a surprisingly shallow layer of soil for 200 years! A likely inhabitant of a convict hut that stood on the corner of George and Marsden Streets was John Hodges; an ex-con and sly-grog trader. It is thought Hodges even operated his “disorderly house” in that hut in the early 1800s before his £1000 winnings in a card game at the nearby Woolpack Inn enabled him to construct Brislington—a considerably grander abode—on the site of his old hut.

Brislington, the house built by former convict John Hodges, copyright Michaela Ann Cameron 2014

The cashed-up Hodges remained a crim at heart though. Indeed, he and his convict servant Thomas Lynch were brazen purloiners! Rather conveniently for the opportunistic Hodges and Lynch, the convict hospitals (known as the General and Colonial Hospitals) were located directly behind Brislington, making it easy for the thieving duo to steal a marble slab intended for the hospital’s new mortuary. They subsequently installed it in Hodges’s kitchen fireplace. It was a crime that earned them both a twelve-month prison stay. What made the theft of the marble slab particularly unpardonable was the fact that, from their inception, the poorly designed, woefully constructed, and malodorous convict hospitals had struggled with properly disposing of the dead. Colonial commentators complained bitterly of the deceased being piled up in hospital passageways or left in the same rooms as the living due to the absence of a mortuary. For this and so many other reasons, Richard Rouse claimed many convicts were “carried [to the hospital] often against their will” while the irate Reverend Samuel Marsden declared, “there was never such a place for want, for wretchedness, for debaucheries, and for every vice.” You will not see those convict hospitals on the tour; but you will see the Parramatta Justice Precinct’s Heritage Courtyard where the hospitals once stood. The Heritage Courtyard is literally an outdoor museum created by architects Bates Smart wherein artefacts recovered from the hospital site during archaeological excavations are displayed alongside images, primary source quotations, and historical information. You will even get to see the partially excavated remains of a colonial cesspit!

View of the colonial hospital in Parramatta c1822, State Library of Victoria (Acc no: 30328102131561/12 (detail))

The sites and stories mentioned here are just a small section of the first leg of a one-hour walk through colonial Parramatta, which takes you from the Hanging Green (Prince Alfred Park) to God’s Acre (St John’s Cemetery: the oldest surviving European cemetery in Australia) and 11 other convict sites; the Parramatta Female Factory, Parramatta Gaol, Old Government House and the Dairy Precinct in the World Heritage listed Parramatta Park. The secret felonious pasts of even the most innocent and genteel-looking Georgian cottages are also exposed along the way. Convict Parramatta is the latest but by no means the last Dictionary Walk. Stay tuned for the release of “Sydney Harbour Islands” and “Heritage Randwick” later this year. In the meantime you can download the free Dictionary of Sydney Walks app and tours to your mobile device on Google Play or the App Store. The Convict Parramatta project has been assisted by funds allocated to the Royal Australian Historical Society through the Heritage Branch of the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.

You can listen to a podcast of Michaela's segment on 2SER Breakfast here and check out her fantastic entries on the Dictionary here.

Tune into 2SER again next week for more of Sydney’s history courtesy of the Dictionary of Sydney, on 107.3 at 8:20am. Don’t miss it!

I can't quite believe it's been just over 50 years since the Beatles first performed in Sydney but as a new article written by Kim Hanna for the Dictionary records, it was

"at 6.30am on the morning of 11 June 1964, The Beatles flew into Sydney’s Mascot International Airport, where a crowd of 1,000 greeted them. Not everyone was pleased to see them; one mob held up a banner that read 'Go Home Bugs – NSW Anti-Trash Society.' Nevertheless, their arrival, along with the new independence of teenagers and various social changes, meant the tour was a cultural phenomenon."

Contemporary music has a big influence on teenage and popular culture and this can be clearly seen with the impact of the Beatles in Sydney. It was teenagers who idolised the Beatles and screamed their way through their concerts. They played Adelaide and Melbourne, before coming back to Sydney. The Beatles played six shows over three days at The Stadium at Rushcutters Bay, a tin shed that was once a boxing stadium and had terrible acoustics. But you couldn't hear much, above all the screams. The Stadium was the city's largest performance venue, holding 12,000 people, about 6 times the audience of the Sydney Town Hall. It stood on the corner of New South Head Road and Neild Avenue, Rushcutters Bay, but was demolished in 1973 to make way for the Eastern Suburbs Railway.  Just like today, merchandise was all the rage, and where the band made a good proportion of their money. There was  "plastic wigs, autograph books, bracelets, pencil cases, drink tumblers, powder puff compacts, stockings, dolls, scarfs, boots, stickers, posters, serving trays, fans, hairbrushes, face masks, wallpaper and schoolbags. And the fans could not get enough." By the 1st July it was all over. The Beatles flew out of Sydney, destination London. Popular culture and music moves Sydneysiders. And as the Beatles sung: "With a love like that, you know you should be glad". To relive the Beatles and the popular culture tsunami they created, check out:

• The Dictionary of Sydney's article
• the ABC radio Hindsight documentary 'The band that fell to Oz: The Beatles tour of 1964'
• Powerhouse Museum - Beatles in Australia exhibition interviews on YouTube

You can listen to a podcast of my segment with Nic at 2SER Breakfast here. Tune in again next week for more of Sydney’s history courtesy of the Dictionary of Sydney, on 107.3 at 8:20am. Don’t miss it!