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Author of the first novel printed and published in Sydney. Anna Maria Bunn (1808–1889) was the anonymous author of The Guardian: a Tale (by an Australian) (1838) the first novel published on mainland Australia and the first in the continent by a…

Arriving in Sydney 1839, friendless and with a young family, Parkes went into business, but also began a political career that lasted over 40 years. He influenced nearly every aspect of colonial government, taking a particular interest in education, and was the driving force…

The politics of law and order were present at the foundation of Sydney as a convict settlement. They have remained part of the fabric ever since, and a vital aspect of the city's imagined life. Like many other parts of the city (its churches, its schools, its hospitals), the…

Built over tracks, campsites, rock art and middens used for thousands of years before the dispossession of the Aboriginal people, Sydney's early haphazard development was given form by public buildings. As public transport developed, suburbs spread, and throughout the…

The early colony's closed economy, with limited currency and reliance on government rations, did not foster a retail culture, but it soon developed as the city moved beyond its prison status. At first dealing in necessities of life, Sydney's shops became more elaborate and…

Stream that ran through Thomas West's land into the western side of Rushcutters Bay, and appearing in maps from the mid nineteenth century as Rushcutters Creek.  In 1842 it was fixed as the municipal boundary with the City of Sydney and the line remains the boundary today…

Ornate symmetrical three storey building which, as the Technological Museum and later the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, exhibited examples of the skills and industry of the colony. Though the collection rapidly outgrew the building it was not relocated until the…

Refuge established in Pitt Street by the Sydney Female Refuge Society in part of the old Carters Barracks in 1848 to assist prostitutes to abandon their work and learn needlework and laundering skills. A new building was completed for the refuge in 1871. In 1901 the building…

The State Library of NSW is the oldest library in Australia. In 1869 the NSW Government purchased the Australian Subscription Library, which had been established in 1826, to form the Sydney Free Public Library, the first truly public library for the people of NSW. The…

Inspired by the much-loved Australian children's book My Place, All the Best runs back through the history of one place, The Rocks, Sydney, to the colonial characters that lived on and interacted with the land after British settlement. The country, traditionally cared for the…

The second-largest shire in the Sydney region, Hornsby Shire dates from 1906, when it was largely a rural area. Now a thriving suburban shire, it still contains large areas of bushland.

Arriving in 1802, Garnham Blaxcell found success in public service and in private business under Governor King, becoming a rich man. He was ousted by Governor Bligh and took part in the overthrow of Bligh known as the Rum Rebellion. With his business partner John Macarthur…

Part of the traditional lands of the Cammeraygal people, Kirribilli was granted to an ex-convict, Samuel Lightfoot, while the Cammeraygal still lived there, and despite later grants and leases, there was still a band of Aboriginal people living there in the 1820s, including…

Designed as a court house, St James was made into a church after Commissioner Bigge decided Macquarie's plans for the city were too expensive. One of Sydney's few Georgian-style churches, St James has been extensively modified.

A local character for nearly 50 years, James Samuel Bray was an amateur naturalist, prolific author and erratic entrepreneur in late-colonial Sydney. Despite representing the colony at exhibitions as far afield as Melbourne and Calcutta, Bray perennially skirted the edges of…

Cameraygal country until the Europeans arrived, the suburb of Lane Cove on Sydney's north shore was built after the timber had been felled, and transport links made the land accessible from the city centre. The water of the creeks and Lane Cove River fostered industry along…

Advertisement for Capstan Cigarettes that appeared in most daily newspapers across Australia, with an offer of a photograph of the bridge.  "We are not going to try to have this announcement placed on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, feeling that even a 'CAPSTAN' advertsiement…

Commemorative plaque that was installed on the Lands Department building by the Royal Australian Historical Society in 1985 as part of the Sydney Green Plaques Bicentennial project. The text read 'This office was designed by James Barnet, Colonial Architect, and erected in…

Commemorative plaque that was installed on Customs House at Circular Quay between 1984 and 1988 as part of the Sydney Green Plaques Bicentennial project. The text on the plaque read: 'Customs House. The first Collector of Customs was appointed in 1827 and the Department has…

The first traffic lights installed in Sydney. Vehicle-actuated, the two phase system was put into operation at 11am on Friday 13 October 1933. Explanations of the lights and signals were published widely, but many drivers virtually ignored them at the time. In 1935 it was…