The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
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Bradleys Head
Extending like a long finger into the harbour, Bradleys Head was known as Borogegy to its first people, the Borogegal clan. Long a military and naval site for the colonial and later the Australian government, it became a popular park and an important part of Sydney Harbour…
Phelps, Philip Henry Ferdinand
Three albums of sketches and watercolours by Captain P H F Phelps of scenes in Sydney and New South Wales were sold at auction in London in 1924 during a sale of John Calvert's collection. Phelps was the son of Lieutenant Colonel JH Phelps who arrived in Sydney in 1835 and…
Iron Cove bridge
Steel truss bridge across Sydney Harbour from Rozelle to Drummoyne constructed by Hornibrook McKenzie Clarke Pty Ltd. The original bridge was opened in 1882 but replaced by 1955. A duplicate bridge opened in 2011.
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Australia
International order of Brothers and Priests within the Catholic Church. Initially established in France, it came to Sydney in 1885. Its sister congregation is the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
Greenhill, Thomas Tress
Passenger on the Edward Lombe who was killed when the ship was wrecked in Sydney Harbour in 1834. He had a brother in Sydney, Stephen Greenhill. He was named in all reports as being a passenger and had made other trips to Tasmania and Sydney prior to this voyage,…
New South Wales Migration Heritage Centre
The NSW Migration Heritage Centre is a virtual immigration museum which identifies, records, preserves and interprets the heritage of migration and settlement in New South Wales from 1788 to the present.
Its research program is almost completely decentralised outside…
Industrial and Art Exhibition 1861
Devised as a publicity event, and to raise funds for the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, the Industrial Exhibition of 1861 revealed Sydneysiders' interest in science, technology and self-education when it attracted over 500 visitors per day for nearly six weeks.…
Collicott, Mary
The wife of a convict who followed her husband to Sydney with her three children as well as three of her husband's children from a previous marriage, and later became matron of the Female Orphan School.
Caspers, Ella
Contralto who continued her training in London before the scandal of marriage to a bigamist hastened her return to Sydney. She recovered her career and was an early recording artist in the 1910s and 1920s.
Hargrave's House
Country retreat of W.H. Hargraves, registrar in Equity and a trustee of the Australian Museum in Sydney, son of the man who claimed credit for the discovery of gold in New South Wales in 1851
Baughan, John
Millwright and carpenter who arrived in Sydney as a convict on the Friendship in the First Fleet. He designed and built a successful functional grinding mill, using a treadmill model operated by 9 men in March 1794.
Fairyland: A Novel
Autobiographical novel by Sumner Locke Elliott that was published in 1990, the year before his death. The main character is a writer coming to terms with his homosexuality in Sydney in the 1930s and 1940s.
Goat Island
Goat Island stands tall and proud in the centre of Sydney Harbour. It has many traces of heritage left over from the convict and industrial past.
Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs
From 1964 the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs focused on social inclusion and acceptance for Aboriginal people in Sydney, in the process fostering Aboriginal art, culture and political organisation.
Dawes Point battery
First permanent fortification in Sydney constructed on the site of Dawes' observatory. The current archaeological site below the southern pylon of the Harbour Bridge reveals a powder magazine, officer quarters, guardhouse and circular battery .
St Andrew's Scots Presbyterian church
Second Presbyterian Church in Sydney built near the Old Burial Ground on Bathurst Street. The foundation stone was laid in 1833 though it was several years before funds were raised for the construction.
County of Cumberland Planning Scheme
Based on an initiative of the Labor state government of William McKell in 1945, the Scheme was designed to coordinate planning and growth between metropolitan Sydney's many councils, and preserve the 'green belt' that would prevent urban sprawl.
Utzon's Opera House
Considered 'the devil's work' by some and 'poetry, spoken with exquisite economy of words' by others, the Sydney Opera House quickly came to define a city, while its author drifted slowly into obscurity. Myths about Utzon and his influences abound:…
Montgomery, Charles
Professional criminal and burglar who was hanged after his participation in the Bridge Street Affray in 1894. He had only recently arrived in Sydney from Melbourne where he had served time in Pentridge Prison.