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Known as Kay-ye-my or Jilling to its Aboriginal inhabitants, Balgowlah was settled early by convicts, farmers and market gardeners. Rural until the 1900s, Balgowlah was developed and subdivided after the Spit and Harbour bridges were built.

Traditional country of the Terremerregal people, Turramurra was mainly farms and orchards until the railway opened it up for commuters in 1890. Reputed to have a climate 'as bracing as the Blue Mountains', it attracted well-off residents who built elegant homes.

As the earliest surviving element of the Australian sugar industry, the Sugarworks has endured a variety of industrial uses to become an intrinsic part of Canterbury's heritage.

Home of the Burramattagal clan, the area that became Camellia was full of game, birds and fish from the Duck River. When the Europeans came, they farmed with mixed success until Silas Sheather set up Camellia Grove nursery in 1852, breeding new varieties. By 1901, when the…

From its foundation in 1975, NAISDA has played a fundamental role in training Indigenous dancers and bringing together traditional and contemporary dance styles.

Set aside as part of the Governor's demesne by Governor Phillip, the Domain was formalised by Governor Macquarie in 1816, and has been a people's park, cultural precinct and the scene of political action and dissent ever since.

Once the site of a vast swampland, Marrickville became a significant industrial area in the nineteenth century. Today, the industry has largely gone but its multicultural legacy still flourishes in this inner west suburb.

Marshes, swamps and sandhills in the area that became Matraville were turned into market gardens by the 1840s, and attracted Chinese gardeners in the 1860s. After World War I a model garden village was planned, for disabled servicemen, and built by 1921. It was never a…

This is a tale of three deaths at The Rocks and a silent killer. The backdrop is the city's first gasworks. A neighbour to houses and schools, the gasworks gave its power (and industrial pollution) back to its community, and keeps on giving today, long after its smokestacks…

Terremerregal country until Europeans arrived South Turramurra developed slowly, with orchards and chicken farms lasting into the 1950s.

Bennelong's clan, the Wangal, were traditional owners of the area that became Mortlake, but dispossessed when the land was granted to settlers in 1795. By the 1880s, the suburb was dominated by the AGL gasworks, and the railway, coal loading and other infrastructure…

In 1880, the Shaftesbury Reformatory for Girls opened in a converted old hotel building on New South Head Road, Vaucluse. Several other institutions including the Shaftesbury Institute for Destitute Inebriates and the Shaftesbury Home for Mothers and Babies took the…

A graduate of the first academic architecture course, Ellice Nosworthy made it a practice to employ other women architects in her practice, which specialised in domestic buildings.

Originally fishing and camping grounds for the local Muru-ora-dial Aboriginal people, Maroubra is now the largest suburb in the area governed by Randwick City Council, in both area and population. However, its early beginnings did not foresee such developments. Industry and…

Built by convict labour in 1829, Reynolds' cottages have been used for many different purposes as the city around them changed and grew.

Built as part of the Tattersall's hotel complex, the Palace Theatre was an opulent, baroque-style theatre, with interior design by Phil Goatcher. It became known as a 'hard luck house' where shows did not prosper, and was later used as a cinema, and mini-golf course. It…

Maps of the Georges River were made from the time of Cook's visit onwards, but it was not until the maps of Dixon and of Mitchell in the 1830s that the river was accurately charted.

Named by European settlers for its plentiful springs and ponds, Neverfail Bay in Oatley was the cultivation ground for a thriving oysters industry until increasing pollution and viral contamination took their toll in the 1990s

Built on the original site of Paddy's Market, the Capitol Theatre was originally built as the New Belmore Markets, and converted into a Hippodrome for the Wirth Bros Circus when the markets moved to Thomas Street, closer to Darling Harbour. For 10 years the building was…

Cowan was explored by botanist George Caley in 1805, and its timber harvested for use in coach building. After the railway came through in 1901 it became a popular holiday and picnic spot, with bushland surrounding the town.