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Area of towns and villages on far western edge of Sydney which is 70 per cent national park, governed by Blue Mountains City Council. It incorporates significant parts of the traditional lands of the Gundungarra and Darug tribal groups. Its scenery has made it a popular…

Area in Sydney's south-west, part of the traditional lands of the Cadigal, Wangal and Bediagal clans of the Dharug tribe, formerly governed by Canterbury City Council until being merged with Bankstown in 2016. Named for 'Canterbury Vale', a 1793 land grant to First Fleet…

Area in Sydney's south, part of the traditional lands of the Bidjigal and Gameygal peoples, governed by Georges River Council. It is bordered to the south and west by the Georges River and Salt Pan Creek. It was formed in 2016 by the merger of the Kogarah and Hurstvillle…

Traditional country of the Darug people, Toongabbie was settled as early as 1792 and quickly became an important farming centre, worked by convicts. Roads and railways shaped the town's growth, as it was increasingly integrated into Sydney's western suburbs.

While desire and sexual encounters between women have been part of life in Sydney for centuries, their history has been largely unknown until recently. Attitudes to lesbians varied from moral condemnation to medical and psychiatric discourses of disorder, until the political…

Transport House won the Sulman Award for its architects Henry E Budden and Mackey in 1936, incorporating art deco interiors with the latest technology, such as air conditioning and escalators. Green tiles exactly the same colour as Sydney's railway carriages at the time…

Owner of the Roycroft bookshop and library in Rowe Street from 1923 to 1933. She had previously run the Book Lovers' Club and Library in Perth from 1902. In Sydney she published a regular column 'Let's Talk About Books' under the name Franziska in The Australian Woman's…

Organisation which sought representative government in the colony and championed the rights of emancipists against the conservative colonists who sought to exclude them. With the passage of the Constitution Act of 1842 and the incorporation of the city of Sydney as a…

Protest trip in 1965 through country New South Wales which highlighted the segregation and lack of civil rights of Indigenous Australians. Students from the University of Sydney formed a group called the Student Action for Aboriginals and conducted the trip to also draw…

Laneway which weaves past fine commercial buildings and the City Recital Hall linking two major thoroughfares. It now houses a cluster of bird cages called Forgotten Songs by Michael Thomas Hill which commemorates the songs of fifty birds once heard in central Sydney before…

Scottish-born sculptor, mason and phrenologist who worked in Victoria and New South Wales, carving many prominent Sydney monuments during the mid to late 19th century. He worked on Darlinghurst Gaol, carved the allegorical figures, including 'Science', on the General Post…

Former convict who had been transported for burglary but became a constable in Sydney's early police force. He was one of several suspects in the murder of another police officer, Joseph Luker, in August 1803 but was found not guilty due to lack of evidence. He was also known…

Public house in North Sydney on Miller Street in the nineteenth century that was run and owned by William Chuter. It was described in 1859 as a two storey stone building containing a bar, 6 rooms, one of which was a large ball or public room, kitchen, stable, coach house and…

Orphanage set up in 1801 by Governor King to train destitute girls. Originally established on a site near the corner of Bridge and George streets to house 100 girls, by 1829 there were 152 inmates and the fear of moral corruption from its proximity to Sydney town led to a new…

The creation of a city railway was a central concern for town planners in Sydney from almost the moment that the first railway was opened in 1855. Initially the main terminus was in Cleveland Paddocks on the outskirts of the city, meaning commuters coming into town were…

Regulations of the New South Wales Saving Bank : a depositary for the savings of the poor. To which is prefixed a plain address to the convicts on their arrival and to the small settlers, mechanics, servants and labourers of the colony / by the President, 
Sydney : G.…

The Australian National Trust movement was established in New South Wales in 1945 by Annie Wyatt who, along with a group of other citizens, raised community consciousness of widespread destruction of the built and natural heritage in Sydney. The National Trust movement…

A flamboyant businessman who arrived in Sydney on his own ship, Wanderer, Boyd was an ambitious and somewhat dubious entrepreneur whose schemes failed because of a shortage of labour, and who eventually left the colony for California.

Transported for his part in the Irish rebellion of 1798, James Meehan became an exceptional surveyor and explorer of Sydney, New South Wales and Tasmania, before retiring to the large land grant he received at Macquariefield, as reward for his services.

Home to the Gommerigal people until the 1830s, Pyrmont peninsula remained undeveloped until the 1840s despite its proximity to Sydney Town. Quarrying the Pyrmont sandstone became a major industry, changing the natural features of the place. Wharves, factories and haulage…