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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
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Historical writing

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Historical writing

Subject

McGarvie’s list and Aboriginal Dyarubbin

Sydney

The Dyarubbin Project: Aboriginal history, culture and places on the Hawkesbury River

The colonial observations of Surgeon John White

The myth of Sydney's foundational orgy

A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay

A Rambler from Clare

A Short History of Australia

A Voyage to New South Wales, December 1786-May 1792

A Voyage to Terra Australis

A complete account of the settlement at Port Jackson, in New South Wales

Aldine centennial history of New South Wales

An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales

Archibald Liversidge: Imperial Science Under the Southern Cross

Centennial Supplement

Dyarubbin: Mapping Aboriginal history, culture and stories of the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales

Journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth, 1787 March 22-1789 August

Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales

Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960

Picturesque Atlas of Australasia

Playing Beatie Bow

Real Secret River: Dyarubbin project

Rev John McGarvie's list of 'Native names of places on the Hawkesbury’ 1829

Sydney: the Story of a City

The Birth of Sydney

The Fatal Shore

The Toongabbie Story

The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay

Thirty Years in Australia

Tivoli

Coral Thomas Fellowship

Adelaide, Debra

Ashton, Paul

Barnard, Marjorie

Barton, George Burnett

Bateson, Charles

Batten, Bronwyn

Bennett, Samuel

Bertie, Charles Henry

Birmingham, John

Black, George Mure

Blackmore, Kate

Broadbent, James

Brodsky, Isadore

Brooks, Barbara

Broomham, Rosemary

Byrne, Paula Jane

Campion, Edmund

Candy, Philip

Carey, Hilary M

Chadwick, Doris

Cheng, Chris

Clark, Manning

Cleland, Bilal

Collingridge, George

Curby, Pauline

Doak, Frank

Dowling, Arthur

Dutton, Geoffrey

Edwards, James George

Fischer, Gerhard

Fitzpatrick, Brian Charles

Garton, Stephen

Gilbert, Lionel

Gledhill, Percy Walter

Goodall, Heather

Grahame, Emma

Griffiths, Tom

Hughes, Joy

Hughes, Robert

Inglis, Ken

Jalland, Pat

Jauncey, Leslie Cyril

Jervis, James

Johnson, Keith

Jose, Arthur Wilberforce

Jupp, James

Karskens, Grace

Keane, Eva

Kent, David

Kerr, Joan

Kingston, Beverley

Konishi, Shino

Lea-Scarlett, EJ

Lutyens, Mary

MacDonald, WA

MacLeod, Roy

Mackerras, Catherine

McKay, Jim

McShane, Ian

Mudie, James

Neill, Norm

Norman, Lilith

Nugent, Maria

Ollif, Lorna

Park, Ruth

Phillips, Murray G

Proudfoot, Helen

Quartly, Marian

Radi, Heather

Radic, Therese

Read, Peter

Richmond, Tom

Sargeant, Doris

Scates, Bruce

Scott, Geoffrey

Shaw, Mary

Slarke, Eileen

Smith, Keith Vincent

Solling, Max

Spearritt, Peter

Swancott, Charles

Tatz, Colin

Taylor, Rebe

Tench, Watkin

Thompson, Jimmy

Townsend, Norma

Van Straten, Frank

Waterhouse, Richard

Watson, James Henry

West, Peter

Williams, Ruth C

Willmot, Eric

Wootton, David

Writer, Larry

Yong, CF

Artefact Heritage Services

Charles H Bertie 1930

Charles H Bertie 1952

Charles H Bertie, City Librarian, 1925-1927

Enmore House 1836-1840, described by Rolf Boldrewod

Marjorie Barnard, writer and historian c1936

Martin Cash autobiography poster 1870

Real Secret River: Dyarubbin project team members (l to r) Leanne Watson, Grace Karskens, Erin Wilkins and Jasmine Seymour above Dyarubbin at Sackville June 2018

Screenshot of website 'Dyarubbin: Mapping Aboriginal history, culture and stories of the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales' 2021

Title page of 'An historical journal of the transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island ...;' by John Hunter, 1793

Title page of the 'Picturesque Atlas of Australasia', Volume I, 1886

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Historical writing

McGarvie’s list and Aboriginal Dyarubbin

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

Sydney

Founded by Europeans as a social experiment, Sydney's beginnings brought death and dispossession to the original inhabitants of the place, as well as surprising freedom and prosperity to many of the convicts. Over its history, the city's growth has been shaped by factors that are common to many cities, but also by unique forces. In the twenty-first century, for the first time, the idea of sustainable progress is itself in doubt.

The Dyarubbin Project: Aboriginal history, culture and places on the Hawkesbury River

The winner of the State Library of NSW Coral Thomas Fellowship in 2018-19 was a collaborative project, The Real Secret River: Dyarubbin. Based on a list of Aboriginal words recorded along Dyarubbin (the Hawkesbury River) in the 1820s by Reverend John McGarvie that is held in the Mitchell LIbrary, winning the Fellowship allowed the team behind the project to work on the recovery, recognition and revitalisation of the river's Darug and Darkinjung history, culture and Language.

The colonial observations of Surgeon John White

Surgeon John White, an officer of the First Fleet, was responsible for the health of the infant penal colony. His journal, and those of his contemporaries, reveals that food shortages were a serious problem for colonial officials, convicts and Aboriginal people. While there was some early collaboration between Aboriginal people and colonists regarding food, tensions escalated into violent incidents and an unknown number of fatalities. White, however, offered care to all the residents of Port Jackson, including Nanbaree, who White took to England.

The myth of Sydney's foundational orgy

Despite many debunkings over the years since it was first concocted in 1963, the myth of Sydney's foundational orgy persists. In fact the arrival of convict women did not create licentious scenes in the colony, and produced many flourishing and devoted families.

A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay

One of the earliest published accounts of life in the first days of the settlement, recorded by Watkin Tench.

full record »

A Rambler from Clare

Memoirs of Dan Minogue, leading light in the Irish National Association and supporter of Irish culture in Australia.

full record »

A Short History of Australia

Book capturing Australia's social, cultural and political transformation through its many stages.

full record »

A Voyage to New South Wales, December 1786-May 1792

Manuscript journal by William Bradley recording his impressions of the new colony as a naval officer in the First Fleet. It is believed to have been compiled as a fair copy after 1802 and is held in the Mitchell Library at the State Library of New South Wales.

full record »

A Voyage to Terra Australis

Book by Matthew Flinders recording the coastal exploration of Australia and his imprisonment by the French on Mauritius.

full record »

A complete account of the settlement at Port Jackson, in New South Wales

Watkin Tench's second book about the new colony at Sydney.

full record »

Aldine centennial history of New South Wales

Two volume set published by William Frederic Morrison in 1888 as a comprehensive illustrated record of the state .

full record »

An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales

Book written by David Collins describing the early years of the colony and its native inhabitants.

full record »

Archibald Liversidge: Imperial Science Under the Southern Cross

Biography of Archibald Liversidge by Professor Roy MacLeod published in 2009.

full record »

Centennial Supplement

Book of 212 pages which gave a broad overview of the geography, flora and fauna and exploration of Australia in the first 100 years of white settlement. All aspects of government, commerce, manufacturing, public health and sport were included with particular emphasis on New South Wales though the other colonies and New Zealand were described.

full record »

Dyarubbin: Mapping Aboriginal history, culture and stories of the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales

full record »

Publicly available, online interactive map created by NSW State government department Spatial Services in 2021 using the results of the Real Secret River: Dyarubbin research project led by Professor Grace Karksens with Aunty Edna Watson, Leanne Watson and Jasmine Seymour, and supported by the State Library of NSW 2018-2019 Coral Thomas Fellowship.

Use the External Link with this record to go directly to the map at Spatial Services.

Journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth, 1787 March 22-1789 August

Journal by Arthur Bowes Smyth held in the National Library of Australia (MS 4568) concerning hia voyage to Australia in 1787 on the Lady Penrhyn, his stay in New South Wales and the trip back to England in 1789. Two other fair copies of the journal exist, one at the State Library of New South Wales (ML Safe 1/15) and the other at the British Museum (Add MS 47966)

full record »

Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales

Journal by John White, surgeon with the First Fleet, which provided one of the first descriptions of the flora, fauna, settlement and peoples of the new colony.

full record »

Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960

The 'Looking back at Liverpool: an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' project was conducted by Liverpool City Council. The project ran from June 1985 to March 1986. There are approximately sixty tapes within the collection, all of which are transcribed and indexed. Editor and project co-ordinator: Catherine Johnson. Researchers: Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic and Kathleen Smith.

full record »

Picturesque Atlas of Australasia

Ambitious multi-volume atlas of Australasia published between 1886 and 1888 with over a thousand original engravings by leading artists.

full record »

Playing Beatie Bow

Children's book by Ruth Park about a girl who travels back in time from the 20th century to colonial Sydney. It won the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year in 1981.

full record »

Real Secret River: Dyarubbin project

Collaborative research project led by Professor Grace Karskens as the Coral Thomas Fellow at the State Library of New South Wales 2018-2019. Once every place on Dyarubbin and its tributaries had an Aboriginal name, reflecting ways in which this Country was understood, used and experienced. Now only a handful survive on maps and in common usage. Using a list made by Reverend John McGarvie in 1829 that records the place names used by the Aboriginal people along the Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin), a team of Darug people, historians, archaeologists and linguists identified the original locations, allowing for the recovery, recognition and revitalisation of the river's Aboriginal history, culture and Language.

full record »

Rev John McGarvie's list of 'Native names of places on the Hawkesbury’ 1829

full record »

List of 178 Darug and Darkinyung names of places along Dyarubbin (Hawkesbury River) compiled in 1829 by the Reverend John McGarvie, Presbyterian Minister at Ebenezer and Pitt Town, as he and his Aboriginal informant/s travelled along the riverbanks. The words appear in geographic order and often with locational clues, like settlers’ farms, creeks and lagoons. The list is in McGarvie's papers in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

Sydney: the Story of a City

Book tracing Sydney's development from colonial outpost, written by Geoffrey Moorhouse in 1999.

full record »

The Birth of Sydney

Anthology of the writings of early settlers, explorers, journalists and early visitors.

full record »

The Fatal Shore

Historical account of white settlement which focuses on the historical, political and sociological reasons which led to the establishment of the penal colony.

full record »

The Toongabbie Story

Local history book written by Doris Sargeant.

full record »

The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay

Book, including illustrations and charts, which was first published in London by John Stockdale, 1789.

full record »

Thirty Years in Australia

Account by Ada Cambridge of the exoeriences of herself and her husband in Australia, mostly in Victoria, from 1870.

full record »

Tivoli

Book recounting the history of vaudeville, burlesque and the Tivoli Circuit in Australia.

full record »

Coral Thomas Fellowship

Biennial research fellowship offered by the State Library of New South Wales. It was established in 2015 by Rob Thomas and his family at the end of his tenure as President of the Library Council in honour of his mother, Coral Kirkwood Thomas née Patrick (1920-1996). It is the Library's most significant fellowship.

Coral Thomas was born in Scotland 1920. She was an intellectual woman, awarded the Thow Scholarship in Civil, Constitutional and Public Law, and the Muirhead Prize for Law whilst attending Edinburgh University. Her academic career was curtailed during the War and in 1942 she joined the Foreign Office where she was employed in code and cipher work. During a posting to the British Embassy in Washington she met Fred Thomas, Group Captain of the RAAF Mission. They were married in May 1944 and moved to Melbourne where they raised their family and took an active part in the city's cultural life.

full record »

Adelaide, Debra

Writer and editor.

full record »

Ashton, Paul

Historian and author.

full record »

Barnard, Marjorie

full record »

Novelist who co-wrote with Flora Eldershaw under the pseudonym M Barnard Eldershaw.

Barton, George Burnett

Lawyer, journalist and academic whose writing on Federation, Asian immigration and Australian history often aroused strong opposition.

full record »

Bateson, Charles

New Zealand-born writer and maritime historian.

full record »

Batten, Bronwyn

Academic and public servant with a special interest in shared history and Aboriginal affairs.

full record »

Bennett, Samuel

Journalist, historian and newspaper owner who published Sydney's first evening newspaper and The Australian Town and Country Journal.

full record »

Bertie, Charles Henry

full record »

Librarian, historian, Australiana collector and author who was appointed as the first librarian of the Sydney Municipal Library in 1909. In 1918 he established within the Municipal Library the first public lending library for children in Australia. An active member of the Royal Australian Historical Society he wrote and spoke on many aspects of Sydney's history and amassed an impressive collection of Australian material.

Birmingham, John

Writer and 'biographer' of Sydney.

full record »

Black, George Mure

Journalist, editor and politician whose self esteem often outstripped his political stature.

full record »

Blackmore, Kate

Historian and writer.

full record »

Broadbent, James

Architectural historian and cartoonist who does satirical drawings about the heritage 'business'.

full record »

Brodsky, Isadore

Historian and writer.

full record »

Brooks, Barbara

Sydney writer and independent scholar.

full record »

Broomham, Rosemary

Historian and author.

full record »

Byrne, Paula Jane

Historian and author of works on colonial manners, female economy and law.

full record »

Campion, Edmund

Catholic priest, teacher and writer whose work has recorded Catholic life in Sydney.

full record »

Candy, Philip

Academic in the field of higher education, training and lifelong learning.

full record »

Carey, Hilary M

Religious and cultural historian.

full record »

Chadwick, Doris

Assistant editor and editor of the NSW School Magazine 1924-59 who wrote children's books based on Sydney's history.

full record »

Cheng, Chris

Teacher and children's writer.

full record »

Clark, Manning

Eminent historian of Australia whose work revitalised the study of Australia's history.

full record »

Cleland, Bilal

Educationist who converted to Islam 30 years ago and has become historian of the faith in Australia.

full record »

Collingridge, George

Artist and engraver who settled at Berowra, and later Hornsby, and devoted his life to researching the earliest European discovery of Australia.

full record »

Curby, Pauline

Author and historian.

full record »

Doak, Frank

Writer and military historian.

full record »

Dowling, Arthur

Writer.

full record »

Dutton, Geoffrey

Prolific and versatile author and historian.

full record »

Edwards, James George

School teacher who played an important role in the Killara Progress Association and was later elected to Ku-ring-gai Municipal Council.

full record »

Fischer, Gerhard

Writer and historian.

full record »

Fitzpatrick, Brian Charles

Journalist, historian, socialist and defender of civil liberties whose historical writings for the first time provided a left-wing interpretation which deeply influenced the postwar generation of young academic historians.

full record »

Garton, Stephen

History professor with a special interest in crime and incarceration, sexuality and medicine.

full record »

Gilbert, Lionel

Academic and writer on natural history, genealogy and local history including the history of the Royal Botanical Gardens.

full record »

Gledhill, Percy Walter

Historian and writer with a special interest in Anglican church history.

full record »

Goodall, Heather

Historian and academic who has researched and published in the areas of Indigenous history and relationships, environmental history and intercolonial networks.

full record »

Grahame, Emma

Academic, researcher and digital marketing consultant.

full record »

Griffiths, Tom

Historian and author. Professor of History at the Australian National University in Canberra.

full record »

Hughes, Joy

Author and historian.

full record »

Hughes, Robert

Art critic, writer and documentary maker.

full record »

Inglis, Ken

Historian who has written extensively on the ANZAC tradition, war memorials and the ABC.

full record »

Jalland, Pat

Professor of history and social history writer on death and old age.

full record »

Jauncey, Leslie Cyril

Economist and author whose mildly radical politics was expressed in works on banking, national economies and conscription.

full record »

Jervis, James

Historian of early Sydney.

full record »

Johnson, Keith

Historian and author.

full record »

Jose, Arthur Wilberforce

Journalist and historian who became a war correspondent and sometime lecturer though increasingly turned to historical scholarship from the 1920s.

full record »

Jupp, James

Academic and social researcher.

full record »

Karskens, Grace

Author and historian whose books include the 'The Rocks: Life in Early Sydney' and 'The Colony: A History of Early Sydney' and 'People of the River'.

full record »

Keane, Eva

Australian author.

full record »

Kent, David

Author and historian.

full record »

Kerr, Joan

Academic in fine arts and architectural heritage. Born Sydney 1938, died Sydney 2004.

full record »

Kingston, Beverley

Author and historian.

full record »

Konishi, Shino

Yawuru woman who is a historian at the University of Western Australia. In 2020 she led an ARC Discovery Indigenous project with Dr Malcolm Allbrook and Professor Tom Griffiths from ANU to double the number of Indigenous biographies in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

full record »

Lea-Scarlett, EJ

Historian.

full record »

Lutyens, Mary

British author best known for her biographical works on the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.

full record »

MacDonald, WA

Author and historian.

full record »

MacLeod, Roy

Academic and author of many books and articles on social history of science, military history, research policy and the history of higher education.

full record »

Mackerras, Catherine

Biographer.

full record »

McKay, Jim

Author and academic.

full record »

McShane, Ian

Writer and historian.

full record »

Mudie, James

Officer of marines, landowner and author renowned for his cruelty to convicts. Eventually, disgusted with colonial affairs he returned to England and published The Felonry of New South Wales, an attack on all whom he fancied had opposed him in the colony. The subsequent duel in Sydney in 1840 only reinforced his unpopularity.

full record »

Neill, Norm

Author who wrote a history of Sydney Technical College in 1991.

full record »

Norman, Lilith

Poet and children's author.

full record »

Nugent, Maria

Academic and historian with expertise in oral, Aboriginal and cross cultural history

full record »

Ollif, Lorna

Local historian of the Hornsby area.

full record »

Park, Ruth

full record »

New Zealand-born writer who lived most of her life in Sydney and is the author of many novels, children's books and non-fiction books including novels based on Sydney's history.

Phillips, Murray G

Sports writer.

full record »

Proudfoot, Helen

Historian and author.

full record »

Quartly, Marian

Historian and academic.

full record »

Radi, Heather

Australian author.

full record »

Radic, Therese

Biographer and musicologist.

full record »

Read, Peter

Academic and pioneering historian of Aboriginal Australia who coined the phrase 'Stolen Generation'.

full record »

Richmond, Tom

Historian.

full record »

Sargeant, Doris

Local historian and author.

full record »

Scates, Bruce

Historian and academic who has written several books on Gallipoli.

full record »

Scott, Geoffrey

Historian.

full record »

Shaw, Mary

Historian of the Mark Foy story and that of the Hydro Majestic Hotel.

full record »

Slarke, Eileen

Writer and curator.

full record »

Smith, Keith Vincent

Journalist, gardener, historian and curator.

full record »

Solling, Max

Urban and sports historian and long term resident of Glebe.

full record »

Spearritt, Peter

Professor of history with a special interest in coastal urbanisation and the conservation of natural and built heritage.

full record »

Swancott, Charles

Local historian ofn the Sydney area.

full record »

Tatz, Colin

Historian and teacher.

full record »

Taylor, Rebe

Historian and writer whose books include 'Unearthed: The Tasmanian Aborigines of Kangaroo Island ' and 'Into the Heart of Tasmania'. She was the inaugural Coral Thomas Fellow at the State Library of New South Wales for her project 'The Wedge Collection: moments of encounter on the Tasmanian and Victorian frontiers'.

full record »

Tench, Watkin

Marine officer and writer whose accounts of the early colony were among the first published.

full record »

Thompson, Jimmy

Author.

full record »

Townsend, Norma

Historian and author.

full record »

Van Straten, Frank

Arts historian, author and theatre director.

full record »

Waterhouse, Richard

Academic who specialises in United States colonial history, the history of Australian popular culture, and the social and cultural history of rural Australia.

full record »

Watson, James Henry

Draper, soldier and historian who pursued his passion for historical research after resigning from business life and the militia in 1902.

full record »

West, Peter

Historian.

full record »

Williams, Ruth C

Writer of historical fiction.

full record »

Willmot, Eric

Aboriginal scholar, engineer, administrator and author.

full record »

Wootton, David

Author of medical history and political theory books.

full record »

Writer, Larry

Journalist, author and public speaker known for his books on Sydney's razor gang wars.

full record »

Yong, CF

Malayan author of the history of Chinese people in Australia.

full record »

Artefact Heritage Services

full record »

Based in Pyrmont, Artefact Heritage Services is a leading provider of heritage management and archaeological services, including all aspects of Aboriginal and historical cultural heritage management and archaeology. Artefact’s projects span the breadth of New South Wales but focus in particular on central and western Sydney.

By

Artefact Heritage Services

Contributed By

Artefact Heritage Services

Charles H Bertie 1930

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[The Home, 1 March 1930, p56 via Trove]

Charles H Bertie 1952

full record »

By

Freeman Studios

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol 38, Part 5 1952, p203 via Trove]

Charles H Bertie, City Librarian, 1925-1927

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

(NSCA CRS 54/129)

Enmore House 1836-1840, described by Rolf Boldrewod

full record »

Contributed By

Internet Archive

[inbadcompanyothe00bolduoft_0343]

(from 'Ancient Sydney', In bad company, and other stories, by Rolf Boldrewood, Macmillan, London 1903, p331)

Marjorie Barnard, writer and historian c1936

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a4176008 / P1 / 108]

(Mitchell Library)

Martin Cash autobiography poster 1870

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a1635001 / D 356/7, Item 11]

Real Secret River: Dyarubbin project team members (l to r) Leanne Watson, Grace Karskens, Erin Wilkins and Jasmine Seymour above ...

full record »

By

Contributed By

Screenshot of website 'Dyarubbin: Mapping Aboriginal history, culture and stories of the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales' 2021 ...

full record »

Contributed By

[Dyarubbin: Mapping Aboriginal history, culture and stories of the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales]

Title page of 'An historical journal of the transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island ...;' by John Hunter, 1793

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a1978007 / C 689]

(Mitchell Library )

Title page of the 'Picturesque Atlas of Australasia', Volume I, 1886

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[Nef 919.4 GAR (Petherick)]

Literature