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Inspired by the success of the Aboriginal Legal Service, and founded by many of the same activists, from 1971 the Aboriginal Medical Service provided free medical care to Aboriginal people from its shopfront in Redfern.

The area that became St Ives was cleared by timber-getters, and later planted with orchards and market gardens. It remained rural until the 1950s, when immigration brought numbers of Italian, Jewish and later South African migrants. While housing density has increased, there…

Built as a collier, Captain James Cook's ship Endeavour carried him around the world and up the east coast of Australia in 1768-71, before becoming a coal ship again.

This essay follows on from Introducing the Dyarubbin Project: Aboriginal history, culture and places on the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales

Belonging to the Tharawal and Gundungurra people before the Europeans came, the area now called Smeaton Grange was granted to explorers William Hovell and Charles Throsby, and later sold to an associate, James Fitzpatrick. The land was farmed successfully into the twentieth…

Mrs Lillian Dulcie Watson was born in 1904 and interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' Mrs Watson remembers her arrival in Hammondville, a settlement developed near Liverpool during the…

Mr Carl Borowsky came to Liverpool as a boy in 1923. He was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960' project. Here he remembers Liverpool in the 1920s when it was dominated by horse transport and…

Murdered in 1826, Frederick Fisher is commemorated by Fisher's Ghost Creek, where legend has it that the ghost led the way to his own grave, thereby implicating his murderer, who was convicted and hanged.

The bushfire season of 1994 was one of the worst in the history of New South Wales. Eight hundred blazes torched over 800,000 hectares of bushland from Batemans Bay to the Queensland border, with mass evacuations occurring in populated areas up and down the state. Three…

At 11pm on 12 October 2002, two suicide bombers killed two 202 people in Indonesia in an attack on popular Balinese nightclubs Sari Club and Paddy’s Bar. The victims came from 21 countries, with 88 Australians killed and hundreds injured. On 14 October, a specialist team from…

Gameygal country until Europeans arrived, the area that became Blakehurst was part of huge grants given to the Townson brothers before 1810, and exploited for timber, charcoal, lime and soda, before farming began. As roads and transport improved in the mid-nineteenth century…

The land granted to Colebee and Nurragingy in 1819 was one of the rare instances where the colonial government recognised Aboriginal interests in land. The site is of enduring importance for Aboriginal people who trace their traditional ancestry and social history back to…

Tharawal and Gundungurra country before the Europeans came, Cobbitty was part of the Cowpastures area, granted to settlers in the 1810s. It became a dairying area, with a butter factory in the village. Nearby Camden Airport was developed in the 1930s and remains in use, among…

Dharawal country until the Europeans started moving in in the 1860s, Como's position on two rivers made it an early oyster-gathering spot and tourist attraction. From the 1890s subdivision brought new residents to the area, and Como developed into a suburban village. During…

Home to Aboriginal people until at least 1828, the island called Mullet Island by Arthur Phillip was leased to Andrew Thompson, salt maker, in the 1790s. In the 1860s it was bought by the Dangar family, becoming Dangar Island officially in 1922, by which time it had been sold…

Initiated by by Pearl Gibbs and Faith Bandler, the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship included non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people in its campaign for Indigenous rights.

Priest, scientist and adventurer, François-Joseph Receveur, later also known as'Père Laurent Receveur', was wounded in Samoa in December 1787 and died at Botany Bay in February 1788, becoming the first Catholic priest and the first scientist buried in Australia. His grave has…

A bushland suburb that expanded rapidly with improved road and rail access, Jannali remains an affordable commuter village.

Traditional land of the Dharug people, Agnes Banks was where Europeans first saw a platypus, and was the home of Yellomundi. Land was granted to Europeans from the 1800s, who farmed the rich river flats, but were frequently flooded out. Orchards were planted, and dairy farms…

Converted from boxing auditorium to popular vaudeville theatre, the 'Nash' reinvented itself again in the 1930s as a cinema when economic depression and the popularity of film forced further adaptation.