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Taken for granted in modern cities, public toilets are a relatively recent improvement. From the 1880s, Sydney authorities began to provide public conveniences for men, and later women, in order to improve street cleanliness and behaviour.

Luxury Federation style brick apartment block in Potts Point on the corner of Greenknowe Avenue and Macleay Streets. Designed by architects Halligan & Wilton, it was one of the first apartment blocks in Sydney, and featured two balconies and bathrooms in each of the 16…

English artist who arrived in Sydney from Madras in 1832, and returned there in 1835. A talented portrait and miniature artist who had exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London every year between 1818 and 1830, he executed portraits of Billy Blue, James Dowling and…

Large Gothic-style residence surrounded by a nineteenth-century garden and outhouses on the harbour in Sydney's eastern suburbs. The original cottage was built by Irish convict Henry Browne Hayes in 1805, and he named it and the estate Vaucluse after the village of Fontaine-…

German mathematician and sailor who interest in astronomy led him to work at Governor Brisbane's private observatory at Parramatta from 1821-1823. He was appointed the first government astronomer in 1827 and went to London in 1829 for astronomical instruments. He was…

Dr Allison Cadzow is Research Associate on Serving Our Country: A History of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the Defence of Australia, at the ANU, Canberra. She is co-author with Professor Heather Goodall of Rivers and Resilience: Aboriginal People on Sydney…

Literary scholar John Le Gay Brereton was appointed Assistant Librarian of the University of Sydney in 1902, nominally under the titular Librarian who was also the Registrar. He was appointed Librarian in 1914 and served in that role until he was appointed Professor of…

Andrew Robson is one of Australia's premier composers and alto saxophonists. An ARIA award winner and recipient of the Freedman Jazz Fellowship, Andrew performs nationally and internationally with groups including The Paul Grabowsky Sextet, Mike Nock's Big Small…

Since 1857 Glebe Island bridge has facilitated development in the western and northern suburbs. The third bridge to have been constructed on the site, the Anzac Bridge is an icon of Sydney engineering.

HMAT Supply was the smallest and fastest ship in the First Fleet. A naval vessel, she carried 16 marines and accompanied the flagship HMS Sirius on the voyage to Sydney Cove. Over the next three years she made 11 more voyages, the last causing her so much damage that she was…

Traditional country of the Gadigal people, the area that became Darlington was part of Grose Farm, and set aside for the trustees of the Female Orphan School. Its timber was cleared and the fertile land became Thomas Shepherd's Darling Nursery. By the 1880s the whole area was…

Michael Wayne is the author of the blog 'Past/Lives of the Near Future' which seeks to uncover the secrets, reveal the hidden sides and tell the forgotten stories of Sydney using the clues that have been left behind through the years. Past/Lives chronicles those instances of…

Commemorative plaque that was installed on the Queen Victoria Building between 1984 and 1988 as part of the Sydney Green Plaques Bicentennial project. The text on the plaque read: 'This building was first opened on 21 July 1898 and was restored to commercial use in 1986 after…

Wallumetta to its traditional owners, the Wallumedegal, the land that became Ryde was settled early and provided food to the growing town. From the 1870s, subdivision started, and the railway brought more development from 1886. In the twentieth century, Ryde became suburban…

Coroner and magistrate who began his career as a public servant in 1867 as a clerk with the mounted police at Bathurst and then in the prison system. Murphy was sworn in as a general coroner for the colony in 1897. At the time, he was an appointed police magistrate and the…

The owner of Ultimo Estate, John Harris was the nephew of the surgeon and public servant, John Harris. He arrived in Sydney in 1844, though died two years later and bequeathed a half-acre of his share in the Ultimo Estate to the Church of Scotland in Ultimo. The trustees of…

Woman who lived in Back Row (now known as Phillip Street) in early colonial Sydney. Her house was robbed in August 1803 and the investigating police officer, Joseph Luker, was murdered. In 1804 she sold her house prior to leaving the colony. It was described as a neat and…

Sailor who died in the wreck of the Edward Lombe in Sydney Harbour in August 1834. He had been the second mate. He and a passenger, surgeon Thomas Gibbs, died while trying to fix a line from the ship to the shore at Middle Head during the storm.  His remains were…

Commemorative plaque that was installed in Bent Street between 1984 and 1988 as part of the Sydney Green Plaques Bicentennial project on the site of the Female Immigrants' Home. The text on the plaque read: 'The Female Immigrants' Home.  Caroline Chisholm, 'the emigrant's…

Minister for the Randwick parish from 1885, preaching at the town hall before he became the first minister at the Randwick Presbyterian Church when it was built in 1889-90. He moved to Brisbane, Queensland in 1896. No stranger to controversy, he was once dubbed by a Sydney…