The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
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Moore College
Endowed with the estate of Thomas Moore, who died in 1840, the college began operation in 1856, in Moore's house at Liverpool. By the end of the nineteenth century it had moved to Newtown, near the University of Sydney, and had trained 199 ministers.
Charity and philanthropy
In nineteenth-century Sydney, charity protected poor people from starvation and homelessness. The introduction of benefits and pensions in the early and mid-twentieth century made it less crucial, though still important. In recent times, as government outsourced many…
Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
The spectacular Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 1983 had its origins in the brutal police response to a much smaller parade in 1978. The subsequent public furore and political activism caused draconian laws to be changed and eventual acceptance of the special place the Mardi…
Performance Space
Established by creative artist, Mike Mullins, as a space to explore and present 'new forms' of theatre. Performance Space was created by and for artists as an affordable, permanent space for contemporary performance makers in Sydney to explore a practice driven by ideas and…
Fennelly, Michael
Renowned horse trainer and employee of the pastoralist James White. Along with White, he owned and operated the Newmarket Stables in Randwick. He also won many horse racing cups including the Sydney Cup in 1878, Victoria Derby and Melbourne Cup in 1883 and Maribyrnong Plate…
Baker, Maggie
Policewoman who was serving in the police force during the time of Sydney's razor gangs and was described by author Larry Writer as Lillian Armfield's 'right-hand woman'. Baker's true identity is not known as she adopted a pseudonym when describing…
Ward, Edward John
Eddie Ward was a trade unionist and Australian Labor Party politician who entered Federal Parliament in 1931. He was the member for East Sydney until 1960. Ward had taken an active role as a young man in the Great Strike in 1917, losing his job at the Eveleigh Railway…
Watts, Joseph John
Sawyer and groom who was tried at the Northampton Assizes in England on 4 March 1833 for housebreaking and transported for life to New South Wales. Watts later owned Randwick's Newmarket Precinct during its early days and became a prominent citizen of the Sydney suburb…
Parkes, Hilma Olivia Edla Johanna
Swedish born political organiser, feminist and suffragist. After emigrating to Sydney, she became a ward-sister at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She joined the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales in 1897, becoming one of its eight vice-presidents and then in 1902,…
Woore, John Chadwick
Police magistrate at Wilcannia, Queanbeyan and the Richard River in the mid-19th century. As the Commissioner for Lands he selected the site for the township of Wilcannia in 1863. Between 1889 and 1903 he was the City Coroner. He died at his home Tallandra in North Sydney in…
The Children's Hospital at Westmead
Hospital established in Glebe in 1880 as The Sydney Hospital for Sick Children, which remained there until 1906 when it moved to new premises at Camperdown as the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children. The hospital moved to Westmead in 1995 and is now known as The Children…
Centennial Park
A sandy swampy tract of land, skirted by roads based on Aboriginal tracks, the land that became Centennial Park was set aside as a common by Macquarie in 1811. Later the swamps in the park supplied Sydney's water, first by card and later via Busby's Bore. In 1888 the area was…
Crown Street reservoir
Completed in 1859, Crown Street reservoir is the oldest working reservoir in Australia. Built from special bricks imported from England with wooden columns and a fire-proof jack-arch roof, it was part of the early Botany Swamps water scheme and still supplies water, now from…
Randwick local government area
Area governed by Randwick City Council 6 kilometres south east of Sydney. The second oldest local government area in New South Wales, it includes the coastal beach strip from Clovelly to La Perouse. Its Indigenous population includes those who can trace their ancestors back…
Liverpool State Hospital
Tent hospital established in the 1790s beside the Georges River and replaced by first a brick then stone building. Currently in use as part of the TAFE campus. New buildings replaced the old in the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s. It is now the teaching hospital for the University of…
Female Orphan School, Parramatta
Three storey brick barracks in Parramatta that was built in the 1820s to house orphans after numbers increased beyond the capacity of the orphanage in the city. In use until the 1880s, the building was next psychiatric hospital for over a century before becoming part of the…
Meadowbank railway bridge
Bridge across the Parramatta River opened when the Sydney and NSW rail systems were undergoing a period of rapid expansion. The wrought iron structure and cast iron cylinders were imported from England, and the above-track sections are locally made steel lattice trusses. It…