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Berowra Waters was settled in the 1820s by timber-getters, fishermen and lime burners who mined the Aboriginal middens for lime. In the twentieth century, tourists hired boats at Rex Jones's boatshed and walked in the surrounding bush.

Developing in the 1850s out of a blacksmith's business established in 1820, Lassetter's dominated the retailing of affordable household goods in its huge stores until the 1920s. Known as 'Cheapside', the stores carried thousands of lines and employed hundreds of Sydneysiders…

Prior to European settlement, the waterway we now call the Parramatta River was a shared food source, a highway and a territorial boundary for the Wangal, Wallemudegal, Gammeraygal and Burramattagal peoples. Colonisation dramatically reshaped the ecology of the river; the…

Sydney-born, James Oatley made his money as a publican, and then devoted himself to public affairs, as an alderman, mayor and parliamentarian.

The Mayor, feeling indignant at the mode of pavement advertising adopted by Mr J Joubert, tries the hydrant as a means of throwing cold water upon the Secretary and his men.

Known as Kutti to the Cadigal people, Watsons Bay became crucial to the early colony's maritime life, with the signal station, pilot station and lighthouses nearby. Fishing was important too. At the same time, grand houses, hotels and public buildings were built for the upper…

The Free Public Library - which we now know as the State Library of NSW - arose from the ashes of the Australian Library and Literary Institution and its immediate predecessor, the Australian Subscription Library.