History & Heritage 2008

From Girls to Maids

Mary Brown was transported to Australia during the Irish famine. She lived in the Hyde Park Barracks until Dr Anderson chose her as an assistant in his home, where she would live and work for the rest of her life.
Her story is not unlike many other Irish orphan girls, many of who were transported to Australia during the Irish famine. According to Gary Crockett, curator of the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, the Irish teenage girls were a discrete category of the read more

Sydney is harbouring many tales of the past

If most of what you know about early Indigenous Australian heritage is centred on the outback, you might want to consider the picture that emerges from the research of North Sydney Council historian Dr Ian Hoskins.the picture that emerges from the research of North Sydney Council historian Dr Ian Hoskins. Dr Hoskins has been examining the significance of the sea to early Australians – white European settlers and the Aboriginals of Sydney Harbour. read more

The women of the Hungry Mile did their bit

The hidden lives of women who lived and worked in homes along the notorious dockside strip known as the Hungry Mile were examined by historian Dr Margo Beasley in her 2008 History Week talk, entitled Home Life on the Waterfront.
Dr Beasley offered a detailed account of the daily lives of the women whose houses were clustered in the Rocks, an area that is prime property today but at the turn of the 20th century was a squalid slum. read more

Gentrification eroding working class identity

Sydney and its beautiful harbour are synonymous. It is unthinkable to remove the spectacular sandstone cliffs and the coves and bays bounded by lush gullies from the picture. There is a timeless beauty to the harbour that defies any notion of improvement.
The grand industrial heritage that characterises some cities like Belfast and Liverpool could not be further removed from the popular image of picturesque Sydney. read more

The stories on my street

From the weekly ABC Radio National radio program Street Stories, a competition called My Street has sprung. Sara Irvine talks to producer Claudia Taranto to discover just how many people have found joy in their cul-de-sac, sadness on their avenue, and all the carriageway characters in between. Claudia Taranto, Executive Producer of Street Stories at Radio National noticed her teenage sons abandoning television for the internet and the interaction it offers. read more

A faded star is on the rise - Broadway

It’s hard to decide what to make of Broadway. The street’s name evokes great expectations: neon theatres, cabaret and the iridescent glamour resonant of its namesake in New York. But the street, which runs from the beginning of King Street to the west and Railway Square to the east, is far removed from that image. Broadway was named Broadway literally because the Council expanded the street in the 1920s,” says Shirley Fitzgerald, Sydney City Council historian read more

Harris Street, the street with many lives

Juliette has scraped every claw, beak, feather, bone and ligament that she can find off the Harris Street bitumen for the past 22 years. She cups her cracked hands ever so gently, mimicking the motions of holding a mutilated bird before she wraps it in a bandage or an old cushion cover and buries it. “All animals should be buried in a good place and I don’t like it when they’re chucked in the rubbish. If you leave them they grow maggots in them, and that’s just terrible,” she says. read more

Crawling through Sydney’s traditional pub scene

Offering a pulse, personality and tempo that no other beverage comes close to – alcohol, and the vibrant pub culture that has flourished alongside it, is a characterising factor of Australian culture.
It defines the manner in which we celebrate, relax and congratulate. As Australian as Vegemite, shouting a round for your mates is an unwritten rule of pub etiquette, genetically embedded inside us. read more

Historic facade moves into future

A lone facade stands in the empty lot at 61-71 Quay Street, Haymarket. It was once Sydney’s Poultry Market where people came to haggle over chickens, cows and eggs. But now it is a remanent of Sydney’s bygone era with next to nothing left – dirt, some cobblestones and Development Application at Sydney Council. The site will soon be home to a 12-storey retail complex. Offices located on the top floors will have a view over Paddy’s Market, and retailers will offer their goods through glazed windows. read more

St James Church’s prayers answered

St James Church, which recently won a $50,000 Heritage Grant to repair the church spire, has begun work on the project. “A contract has been led for the restoration of the internal work in the tower after which it will be reclad with copper,” says Moreton Rolfe, Chairman of the Church Committee. He also added that in the early days the spire was the first thing ships saw as they came up the harbour. read more

King-sized investment

After six years, millions of dollars, and numerous court cases, The Kings Cross Hotel has opened all five levels of its historic establishment to the general public, a first for the 96-year-old hotel. Its owner, Brian Perry, could not be happier. “It is a wonderful feeling to walk through the Hotel and reflect on the huge number of activities and trades that have made an imprint on the building,” he says. read more

New life for old fountain

One of the oldest fountains in Australia is undergoing a makeover. Heritage garden consultant Colleen Morris says that the John Baptist Fountain in Hyde Park was originally carved for the award-winning garden and nursery of the prominent Sydney horticulturist John Baptist and installed in the early 1860s. A Portuguese immigrant who arrived in Sydney in 1829, John Baptist established his 40-acre garden in Bourke Street, Redfern, in 1830. read more

NSW State Library moves into digital age

The NSW State Library has registered a jump in the number of online visitors since it introduced its online Discover Collections in 2005. Over the past year, the Library received more than 620,000 visitors in or around Sydney to explore its maps, paintings, photographs, letters, journals, books and newspapers. Solely funded by sponsorship, the digitised Discover Collections received a further $2 million this year, taking the total for private fundraising efforts to over $6 million. read more