The Dictionary's articles have been included in the National Library of Australia's invaluable Trove service for the first time, and we are thrilled to be playing a small part in this important national endeavour. Of course, we've been correcting away on the Australian digitised newspapers that we use all the time, and sending readers and researchers off to Trove at every chance we get, but it's very nice to have our content suddenly available to the world through this trusted search resource. If you haven't become an addicted user and browser in Trove, you are missing out. It's the place to discover all things Australian. And as the Dictionary grows, we'll be adding more to it, and including more kinds of content in the federated search.

The Dictionary of Sydney, like the city, is based on the built environment. From our first commissioned articles (over 600 suburbs each with demographic information), to our essays and entries, some of the most important parts of the Dictionary deal with buildings, spaces, precincts and the themes of built environment, planning, housing and suburban development. To understand a city, you need to know how it grew. We have essays on Sydney's roads in general, and on the arteries that lead north, south, south west, east and west. Along these (and along the railways) grew the townships that became suburbs. Along the way, specific streets, like Broadway, Market Row and Martin Place, became sites of commerce, development and change. The Dictionary also includes two quirky and creative takes on city infrastructure and how people interact with it, Reading the roads, and The decorated footpath, by Megan Hicks. The Dictionary is able to get down to real specifics: individual buildings, both well known ones like Central Station, or the GPO, and some that might be less familiar to many, like the Hero of Waterloo Hotel, or the Baha'i House of Worship. There are references to and articles on individual architects, builders, engineers, developers, and planners.

And it isn't all a story of improvement. Much was lost in the modernisation and growth of Sydney. Buildings long demolished, such as the Theatre Royal, and the Hotel Australia, live on in the Dictionary of Sydney. We also tell the stories of resistance and activism, with articles on the Green Bans which saved much of historic Sydney, including buildings in Glebe, The Rocks and Woolloomooloo, and its pockets of bush, such as Kelly's Bush.

Along the way, people who came to Sydney brought their ways of building, socialising and living with them, changing the city around them. While most of the early colonists were English, with English tastes and styles of building, later immigrants, such as the Chinese, Italians, Greeks, Croatians, Germans, French, Lebanese and Dutch, as well as the Vietnamese, Cambodians and Lao, brought different styles to the city, with their churches, mosques, schools, clubs and other community buildings. Our entries on cultural groups relate how the city was changed by these new Sydneysiders. So if you are interested in how the built environment of our city came to be, there's no better place to start than the Dictionary. And as the city continues to grow and change, so will the Dictionary.

At this time of year in Sydney, dressing up is high on the agenda for a lot of Sydneysiders, who are working out what to wear in the Mardi Gras parade, or to the various parties and events. But the story of drag in Sydney goes back a lot further than Mardi Gras, and illuminates a history of gender-role policing, persecution, resistance and fabulous frocks that dates back to convict days. Garry Wotherspoon's article on Drag and cross dressing in Sydney outlines this fascinating story, with multimedia that ranges from a Sidney Nolan painting to mugshots and newspaper clippings, as well as oral history about Sydney's drag venues.

In Mardi Gras month, it's good to remember that Sydney has always had people of varying sexualities, and despite efforts to police them, they've always been here. The Dictionary's article on Lesbians in Sydney is by Rebecca Jennings, and traces the stories of female same-sex desire in Sydney from before the Europeans arrived. Rebecca's work is based on both archival research and oral history, and adds greatly to understandings of what was, for much of the period, a hidden and private culture. Castigated as sinful and immoral in the nineteenth century, lesbianism was medicalised in the twentieth century and considered to be a psychological disorder. At the same time, the tabloid newspapers revelled in the sensational stories of lesbian murderers (such as  Eugenia Falleni) or gangsters (like Iris Webber).

'Lesbian Brides' marching group, Mardi Gras 1994 by C. Moore Hardy. Contributed by City of Sydney Archives (061-061352)

With the advent of renewed movements for women's rights and gay liberation, the lesbian underground became a public subculture and an important part of the city's fabric. Women produced lesbian publications, such as Lesbians on the Loose, or LOTL as it is now known, plays, films and novels in Sydney, creating a vibrant cultural space in which lesbian issues were debated, often contentiously. These women were crucial to the development of second wave feminism in Sydney. Lesbian activists were part of the Mardi Gras from its beginnings in public protest, and remain stalwarts of the festival, as parade participants, artists and cultural producers, activists and fans out to have fun. Have a great weekend!

Where else would one find this intoxicating combination than the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras? It's Mardi Gras time in Sydney again, and the rainbow flags are coming out, along with the Marching Boys and many other classics such as the Dykes on Bikes. But every year the Mardi Gras finds new areas of interest and activism and this year will be no different. You can read about Sydney's pre-eminent parade in Garry Wotherspoon's article about the history of the Mardi Gras. Garry is a well known historian of the gay movement, and has been a participant in many of the struggles and celebrations he writes about. Starting as a political demonstration in 1978, which escalated due to police behaviour, the Mardi Gras has developed into a full scale cultural festival, with multiple events over several weeks. It has also become a major tourist attraction, bringing visitors from all over Australia and the world. Kicking off with the Fair Day at Victoria Park on Sunday 12 February, this year's festival looks to be as diverse and outrageous as ever. Check out the program and see what you can get along to.

   

One of the more unusual articles added recently to the Dictionary is Catherine Bishop's exhaustive piece on the women of Pitt Street. Catherine takes readers on a virtual walk up Pitt Street in 1858, peering in the shop doors and windows to find the women who live, work and play there. It's a fascinating snapshot of the range of businesswomen, employees, servants, landladies, teachers, and others, who were manufacturing, selling, cleaning, teaching and generally making a living in mid-nineteenth-century Sydney. Catherine has made full use of the possibilities of searchable digitised resources like Trove and the New South Wales Births Deaths and Marriages indexes to follow these individuals and save them from 'the enormous condescension of posterity', to use the phrase coined by EP Thompson. It's a fascinating way to experience Pitt Street.              

Welcome to the new look Dictionary of Sydney Trust page and the new home for our blog Looking Up. The new site incorporates the Dictionary of Sydney’s organisational information, access to the Dictionary’s resources, information on our projects, and tips on ways readers can contribute to and support the Dictionary. The Dictionary itself is still found at www.dictionaryofsydney.org. You can keep in touch with what we're up to by subscribing to the blog and/or our quarterly newsletter, befriending us on Facebook or following our Twitter stream - just select the option from the left hand column. Hope to see you here often!

One of our new articles is about Sydney's Greek communities, one of the largest and oldest groups in the city, with a venerable tradition and great pride.

Panayiotis Diamadis has written for us about the Hellenes of Sydney, who hailed from all over the Mediterranean, but traced their ancestry back to Greece. There's been a long two-way traffic between Sydney and Greece, as well. The first Greek arrivals were convicts in 1829, later pardoned, who helped start the Camden vineyards. By the end of the nineteenth century, churches and social groups were being formed, and a thriving community was taking steps to protect its language and religious traditions. This essay covers the history of one of Sydney's best known migrant communities, which has become an integral part of the modern city.

The Dictionary never forgets that Sydney is a maritime city, and two articles in the latest batch tell stories about the ships that have plied the harbour since the Europeans arrived. Randi Svensen's Tugboats is a lively account of this indispensable trade, which has been crucial to Sydney's working port since 1831. A number of families worked their tugboats over generations, and built lasting businesses and reputations. Some of the tugs themselves became celebrated icons of perseverance and survival, like the Hero, a tug whose 70-year career included over 3 years underwater. Where the tugs mostly stayed inside the harbour, Sydney's whaling fleet ranged far and wide, returning to port for processing, refitting, resupplying and leisure of many kinds. Mark Howard's article shows just how economically important whaling was to the young city, and links the industry to many Sydney personalities and places.