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Writer, publisher, inventor and activist, Louisa Lawson influenced Sydney life at the turn of the twentieth century in many ways. At her death, she was called 'the mother of womanhood suffrage in New South Wales'.

Phillip described the transportation of convicts to New South Wales as a voyage 'to the extremity of the globe'. Having successfully managed both the ships and the convicts, the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove brought Phillip new challenges: how to keep men and…

A grammar school for boys which was established by the Reverend John Pendrill in his residence - Eglinton House, Glebe. Many of Sydney's elite families sent their sons to be educated there, among them the sons of the Colonial Architect Edmund Blacket as well as the…

Minister who worked for his businessman father before he was ordained in 1888. He migrated with his wife Jane and three sons serving in Bega and Nowra before he moved to Ultimo in 1916. From 1920 he served in various churches and as a visiting chaplain at Sydney Hospital.

Tour by the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth II who became the first reigning monarch to set foot on Australian soil, accompanied by her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. During the tour the Queen and the Duke spent February 3-13 in New South Wales, about half of it in Sydney.

In 1956, the Australian Opera Company was formed in Sydney under the auspices of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. In 1970, the company became known as The Australian Opera. Opera Australia was formed by the merger of the Australian Opera and the Victoria State Opera…

Commemorative plaque that was installed on the Treasury building as part of the Sydney Green Plaques Bicentennial project in 1985. The text on the plaque read 'These offices, designed by Mortimer Lewis, Colonial Architect, were built in 1849-1851. Early shipments from the…

Erected by Sydney's Irish community at the end of the nineteenth century, the 1798 memorial honours Michael Dwyer, the Wicklow Chief, a hero of the 1798 Rising. Subsequent generations have included the names of those killed later in the struggle for Irish freedom.

The son of Sydney Coroner Major CT Smeathman and his wife Eliza, Henry Smeathman became William Bland's stepson in 1846 when his widowed mother remarried. Until then he had been working as a registrar and clerk in Berrima, but after the marriage he lived in Sydney and trained…

Australia's first professional artist. A talented artist with an interest in scientific studies, Lewin decided to travel to Australia to paint its natural history. He arrived in Sydney in 1800 and was encouraged by patrons including Governor Philip Gidley King, Governor…

Gertie McManamey (left) and Isobel Bowden in the side passage of the Woodford Academy near the doorway of the gold storage room, used when the gold escort coach stopped overnight from the goldfields to Sydney. On the left is a banana passionfruit vine.

The Sans Souci tidal baths were a popular swimming site in Sydney's south for over sixty years. The baths provided welcome access to the waters of the Georges River and a venue for important sporting events.

Public fountains were once a familiar sight in Sydney. Street widening, city improvements and the public's desire for hygienic sources of water led to their demise. The Glebe Jubilee fountain on Glebe Point Road at the corner of Broadway, Glebe, is one of a few remaining…

The Tank Stream, Australia's first water supply, was a series of tanks cut into the sandstone along the sides of a freshwater stream in Sydney Cove. Although abandoned as a water source by 1826, the technology of the Tank Stream and its name were shaped by the experience of…

Inner north-western residential suburb named after the town on the River Thames in England, located on the end of a peninsula separating the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers. Now one of Sydney's wealthiest suburbs, it is the site of Kelly's Bush, subject of the first 'Green…

Roadway cut through deep rock between The Rocks and Millers Point, begun by convict labour in 1843, and completed in 1859, with later completion of bridges over the cut. The cut was altered again in the 1920s with the construction of the approaches to the Sydney Harbour…

Musical based on the gospel of Matthew which was seen around the world in various productions throughout the 1970s. Its Australian debut was in Melbourne in 1971. It was performed in Sydney in the Richbrooke Theatre in Elizabeth Street in 1972-1973 and has been revived…

Professional puppet theatre founded in Sydney under the auspices of the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. Its first project was the national tour of The Tintookies and for more than 20 years, the company produced innovative large-scale puppet shows for children. This included Norman…

Laneway between Loftus and Young Streets, Sydney, which provided a back entrance to the shipping brokers, customs agents and wool buyers which existed in the area during the shipping boom of the nineteenth century. With pulleys and hoists from many buildings, it was a noisy…

Public servant who became Sydney City Coroner in 1945 after acting as a general state coroner since 1934. His criticism of tram drivers and workers for ignoring their responsibilities to the public prompted a tram strike in 1945 tram strike. He was appointed to the Paddington…