Search

Originally part of a 60 acre grant to Samuel Blackwell in 1831 who named it Tivoli. It passed to Thomas Horton James in 1831 and was subdivided, Sydney merchant Peter Haydon purchasing the future house site of 18 acres. Owned by the Dumaresque family from 1840 to 1881, it…

Jockey who rode 'Archer', the winner of the first Melbourne Cup in 1861. Johnny Cutts, as he became known, was one of the best known and most respected jockeys in New South Wales and trained at the stable of William Cutts. After his retirement, he and his wife Mary…

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…

Hotel, part of the international Hilton Hotel chain, that lies between George and Pitt Streets, opposite the Queen Victoria building. The first Hilton Hotel building was constructed in 1969 on the site of Tattersall's Hotel and the Royal Arcade to designs by architectural…

At the beginning of the twentieth century, most of the streets of inner Sydney had been sealed and their hard grey surfaces lay like an empty slate waiting to be written on. Lines to regulate traffic were the first messages to appear on the paving, but traffic authorities are…

The fresh water course which supplied the fledgling colony, emptying into Sydney Cove. It was named for three storage tanks which were constructed in the sandstone beside the stream during a drought in 1790. By 1828 the stream had been polluted to such an extent that it could…

Sydney's Catholic Guild built the Victorian Free Gothic style hall on Castlereagh Street. It was then converted into the Academy of Music in 1879 before it was renovated in 1880 and re-opened as the Gaiety Theatre. It closed in about 1893 before it was re-opened again in 1895…

Peter Hobbins is Principal Historian at Artefact Heritage Services. Much of his work has explored the meanings and boundaries of 'scientific medicine', in both nineteenth- and twentieth-century Australia. He is the author of a book on snakes and snakebite in colonial…

Residence for the first nine Governors of NSW, which was the first major building in the colony. The first permanent building in the colony, it had two storeys built of bricks and stone comprising six rooms, two cellars and a rear staircase. In front of the house was a garden…

Women played prominent roles in the anti-war, anti-conscription and peace movements in Sydney between 1914 and 1918, lead rallies and demonstrations and addressed outdoor meetings across the country. As sisters, wives and mothers, women were expected to sacrifice their…

A three-masted timber barque of 347 (imperial) tons (352.6 tonnes) that was built in Yorkshire in 1828 and named after a local politician. The ship travelled between England and Australia in 1830 and again in 1832-3, carrying goods and passengers, including immigrants and…

Marine who arrived in Sydney on the Charlotte in the First Fleet. On 20 March 1789, in exchange for a pardon, Hunt told authorities all he knew about the gang organsing thefts from the Government Stores. On 27 March 1789, his co-conspirators James Baker, James Brown, Richard…

Sydney's first Chinatown was in lower George St, The Rocks, where Chinese businessmen settled in the 1850s, providing services to Chinese goldseekers on their journey to the goldfields. By the 1870s, the Chinese part of the city had moved to Haymarket where Chinese…

Elizabeth Agnes Miller arrived in Sydney on the ill-famed 'floating brothel', the Janus, having received a 14-year sentence for possession of forged banknotes. She soon married William H Bennett and rose to become a respectable baker's wife and matriarch in the…

Carpenter and butcher who became a wealthy landowner both on the Liverpool Plains and in New Zealand before a career in politics. He lived in an old cottage at 43 Bent Street in the city until his death. He was interested in the welfare of Aboriginal people, and employed an…

Convict who was transported for seven years for 'feloniously stealing...four hundred pounds weight of lead'. He became a plumber and glazier and married Ann Marsh, who assisted him in various business activities including a bakery, butchery and a general store. He…

Horse racing figure who left his birthplace, the town of Moruya in New South Wales, in his twenties for Sydney allegedly with a horse and 50 pounds 'concealed in the lining of his vest'. He settled in Randwick in 1884 and eventually acquired a block of land…

University of Sydney monetary prize for students that was established in 1917 with funds presented to the university by the mother of Dagmar Berne, the first woman to study medicine there. For many years it was awarded to the woman who gained the highest marks in her final…

Passenger who died in the wreck of the Edward Lombe in Sydney Harbour in August 1834. He appears to have joined the ship at Hobart, ten days before the disaster. His body was found washed up near the wreck with that of seaman James Starkie. Both men were formally identified…

Jean Arnot was a librarian and activist for women's rights. She spent her career at the Public Library of New South Wales (1921-1968) and held various offices in the Australian Institute of Librarians (later the Library Association of Australia), the National Council of Women…