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Dharug country for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived in the area in 1813, Leura's early development was based on the railway that passed over the mountains in 1867. By the 1880s large houses were being built there, and tourism boomed in the 1900s. Leura's…

Built on Gameygal country, Allawah was named after the railway went through in 1925, but developed on farmland granted to the Townson brothers in the early colonial period. The suburb prospered in the interwar period, providing many homes for new migrants from Britain.

Lidcombe Hospital was a large institution of a kind common in the nineteenth century. As the focus of care changed over time, men, women, the aged, influenza victims, surgical patients and others were looked after there. The piggery, dairy, vegetable gardens and poultry run…

Tharawal people were the traditional owners of the country before Europeans arrived. It became Thomas Holt's South Botany Estate, out of which were carved the Royal National Park and a railway, both of which brought daytrippers and residents to Sutherland. A series of…

The Georges River floodplain has a history of severe inundation with tragic human consequences. With increasing urbanization, governments and councils have recognized the need to respond, introducing planning controls and mitigation strategies such as levees, flood gates and…

Part of the Bassett-Darley estate tied up in legal wrangling until 1877, Little Manly was not subdivided until the 1880s. Baths and a boatshed were built there, and later made way for a public reserve.

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…