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Sydney is unusual in the extent to which the urban landscape has been profoundly influenced by the basic, yet ancient, building material of bricks. Bricks made by the first convict brickmaker were used in the public buildings of the new colony, and the presence of brickyards…

The Prince of Wales was the last ship to join the First Fleet on its epic voyage to Botany Bay in 1787-88. It remained at Sydney Cove for five months while its stores were unloaded.The ship returned to Falmouth on 25 March 1789 with many of the crew having suffered from…

English born clerk in the public service. He and his brother Thomas travelled to Tasmania in 1824, where he married and established a farm New Norfolk. He moved to Sydney in the 1820s. He was the Chief Clerk in the Treasury Office, and would act for the Colonial Treasurer. He…

Australian office of Japanese merchant and trading business, Katematsu Corporation, that opened in Sydney in 1890 in an office at 99 Clarence Street before moving to 8 O'Connell Street in 1891. The company had been established by Fusajiro Kanematsu in Japan in 1889 in order…

Born in Massachusetts, Eber Bunker left North America at the time of the American revolution, and became a whaler and trader. He was granted land in Sydney, NSW and Tasmania, and became a prominent merchant and an influential colonist.

Thirteen (originally twelve) storey office block at King and Castlereagh Streets designed in 1911 by architectural firm Spain, Cosh and Minnett for the estate of the late Sarah Jane Marks, who had died in 1909. The building was named after her family's property Culwulla at…

Convict Henry Lavell, or Lovell, arrived in Sydney on the Friendship in 1788. Convicted of theft and forgery in London in 1782, he had been sentenced to transportation to America for life but escaped before departure in the convict mutiny on the Mercury in 1784. Recaptured,…

Woolloomooloo's chequered history includes its past as a Gadigal hunting ground and ceremonial space, its subsequent use for farming and country housing for Sydney's elite, and its evolution into an area of workers cottages and maritime industry. From the 1970s new residents…

Built for Sir Maurice O'Connell, Commander of Forces for NSW, in 1838, Tarmons was the scene of society balls and occasions before it was bought in 1855 by the Sisters of Charity as a convent and hospital, becoming the headquarters for the order in Sydney. It was demolished…

Brazilians have arrived in Sydney in two waves -- largely unskilled migrants in the 1970s, attracted by an Australian government assistance scheme, and middle-class migrants, in the 1990s, attracted by a better quality of life. Despite this class divide, Brazilian festivals…

Once a great swamp, Warriewood became important to Sydney's food supply, with so many greenhouses it was known as Glass City by the 1940s. Now subdivided, many of the street names recall tomato varieties once grown on the land.

Working as a governess was one of the few respectable occupations for middle-class women in the nineteenth century, but governesses were placed in a difficult social position, living with the families they worked for, but not being regarded as on the same level. The women who…

Paddington amusement park designed as a white city with mountains of snow. It had Australia's biggest scenic railway and merry-go-round and closed in 1916. The White City Stadium, located at the White City Tennis Club, was built on the site in 1922. Once an iconic part…

Theatre at the Haymarket end of Castlereagh Street which was one of Sydney's longest lived vaudeville venues, until it closed in 1966. One newspaper reported its construction was to cost 40,000 pounds and its stage was to be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere at 85 feet…

Western suburb, 14 kilometres west of central Sydney, nestled around Rookwood Cemetery, with industry and commercial development as well as residential areas. The area was known by several names, including Rookwood, Liberty Plains, and Haslams's Creek, before a new name '…

The School of Leather Dressing and Tanning was a training facility established at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Sydney Techical College for the use of new technologies and chemicals in the tanning and leather industry. Originally based at Circular Quay, it…

Reef near the entrance to Sydney Harbour between Camp Cove and Georges Head. It caused damage and wrecks before explosives were used to reduce its size. In 1836 a lightship replaced the floating beacon, and this was in turn replaced by a permanent pile light in the 1912. The…

School operating from the 1820s by St James' Anglican church on land that ran between Elizabeth and Castlereagh streets. The site was resumed by the government in 1882 after denominational schools lost government funding under 1880's Public Instruction Act. The church was…

Artist and surveyor who worked across south east Australia with Thomas Livingstone Mitchell. His artistic works were well known in colonial Sydney and included sketches, paintings, lithography and wax models. His representations of the gold fields were especially popular. The…

Public servant who was appointed to the position of Clerk of Petty Sessions and Registrar for Births Deaths and Marriages for Ryde in 1915, then moved through several positions including the position of Police Magistrate for Wagga. He replaced Edward Thomapson Oram in the…