Mort’s Dock 50 years ago and Today.
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Author Archives: Localnotes
Leichhardt Historical Journal vol 1-20 is now online.
You will be happy to know that the Leichhardt Historical Journal written by Dr Peter Reynolds, a labour of love and dedication to the Architectural history of Leichhardt LGA suburbs is now available online. The first edition came out in November 1971 and Vol 24 is in the process of completion. Volumes 1-20 is available online at: Here
Balmain Observer 1884-1907 digitised
2nd December 2013
We are delighted to announce that Leichhardt Library Service has joined
forces with the National Library of Australia to ensure the Balmain Observer
is available for everyone to read now and into the future.
Through the National Library’s Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program,
the Balmain Observer and Western Suburbs Advertiser 1884 – 1907 has been
digitised and is now available to read online at:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=Balmain+Observer+
In the coming year Balmain Observer and Western Suburbs 1907 -1954 will
be digitised adding further value to the local community.
It is part of a National Library program available to all libraries, community
groups and other organisations, to digitise selected newspaper titles.
Already this service is providing free online access to over 11.5 million pages
from over 600 Australian metropolitan and regional newspapers from every
state and territory. All of the newspapers are fully text searchable.
Lilyfield Community Centre is renamed after Jimmy Little.
This Saturday we’ll be honouring a great #Aboriginal #Australian by renaming the #Lilyfield Community Centre the Jimmy Little Community Centre. Jimmy was an outstanding entertainer, educator and activist, and a cherished neighbour and friend in the Lilyfield Community. There’ll be a great #free #family fun day with a #Kids Zoo, craft activities, face painting, music, clown, information and refreshments. The official renaming ceremony will be at 12:30. We hope to see you there. http://bit.ly/1j0mvvh
Family History Workshops at SAG for December 2013 and Janurary 2014
Full details on all upcoming activities at http://www.sag.org.au/ Unless otherwise advertised, all activities are held on the top floor of ‘Richmond Villa’, 120 Kent St and are limited to 40 bookings. We regret there is NO disabled access to this area. Prices are shown as Member/Non-member price – when booking online please note that a discount code is no longer needed for members as the price code shown now relates to the non-member price.
| When | Time | Title/Presentation | Price | Brief Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wed 4 Dec 120 Kent St | 10.30 am – 12.30 pm | The Griffiths Valuation and its survey maps and the wonders within - Hilary Walker | $20 / $30 | The Griffith Valuation (overseen by Richard Griffith & published between 1847 & 1864) was the first full scale valuation of property in Ireland. The Index gives us occupiers’ names, parish and townland with survey map numbers identifying individual properties. Hilary will demonstrate how to make the most of these maps, locating information about your ancestors and the farms, houses, or cottages that they occupied. |
| Sat 7 Dec 120 Kent St | 10.30 am – 12.30 pm | Social Media for Family Historians - Carole Riley | $20 / $30 | The internet is a medium for social interaction as well as a source of information. Social media tools such as such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and blogs enable family historians to find and communicate with friends and family around the world to share research, family news and photos. This session will introduce tools that can help with research into family both past and present, and how to recognise and avoid the dangers. |
| Sat 7 Dec 120 Kent St | 1.30 pm - 3.30 pm | Historical photographs of places online – postponed from 7th Sept - Kerry Farmer | $20 / $30 | Historical photographs reveal the character of a place and challenge our preconceptions. Comparing old and new can provide fascinating insights. This session concentrates on the Historypin website, but also examines other historical photographic collections such as Flickr, Trove and NSW State Record’s Photo Investigator. |
| Thu 12 Dec 120 Kent St | 10.30 am - 12.30 pm | Getting Started on your Family History - December - Kerry Farmer | $10 Limit 10 Members only | For new members with no family history research experience. Learn the basics of how to start researching and what to do. |
| Sat 14 Dec 2/379 Kent St | 9.00 am – 10.00 am | Library Orientation Tour - December | Free Members only | Join us for a tour of the SAG library – learn about its layout and the services offered. Why not stay on after the tour and do research! |
| Mon 16 Dec Your Place | 8.00 pm – 9.00 pm | http://www.sag.org.au/events/webinars/374-webinar-english-wills-and-probates.html | $10 Members only | Celia Heritage, UK professional genealogist, will discuss how to find English wills & probate records and how they can add extra depth and knowledge to your family research. |
| January 2014 | ||||
| Thu 9 Jan 120 Kent St | 10.30 am – 12.30 pm | Apprenticeships in England - Pauline Kettle | $20 / $30 | Pauline Kettle will demonstrate how to research English apprenticeships using both the SAG’s library collection and online resources, such as English Origins. |
| Sat 11 Jan 120 Kent St | 10.30 am – 12.30 pm | 2014 – An organised approach to your family history! - Bruce Fairhall & Heather Garnsey | $20 / $30 | Need more time for family history? Need to be more organised? Heather Garnsey will show how by setting research targets you can progress your family history in 2014, while Bruce will demonstrate how important good recordkeeping is - an organised family historian is a successful one! |
| Wed 15 Jan Your Place | 8.00 pm – 9.00 pm | Webinar: Irish Online – What’s new? - Cora Num | $10 Members only | Focussing on new websites & resources for Irish research and how to use them, Cora will help further your research on the internet with this webinar. |
| Thu 16 Jan 2/379 Kent St | 9:00 -10:00am | Library Orientation Tour - January | Free Members only | Join us for a tour of the SAG library – learn about its layout and the services offered. Why not stay on after the tour and do research! |
| Fri 17 Jan 2/379 Kent St | 10.30 am - 12.30 pm | Family Search - Hands On - Vicki Eldridge | $30 / $45 Limit 14 | The FamilySearch website has had many changes recently. In this hands-on session learn how to get better results by refining searches and exploring new features on this essential website. |
| Sat 18 Jan 120 Kent St | 10.30 am – 12.30 pm | Parish Chest - Jeremy Palmer | $20 / $30 | These records reflect the lives of many of our ancestors in the period up to the mid-19th century and can be an excellent additional source to parish registers. Many hold overseers of the poor accounts, settlement and removal certificates, bastardy documents, constables’ accounts and local land records. |
| Sat 18 Jan 120 Kent St | 1.30 pm - 3.30 pm | Journey around the Journals - Richard Thomas | $20 / $30 | Have you ever sat in the Richmond Villa conference room wondering what is in those journals on the shelves around the walls? The Society is currently reorganising its extensive genealogical and family history journal collection. This lecture will explain how to search the SAG catalogue from home and find out what journals we hold in the library and in Villa stack. You will learn how the collection is organised and have a chance to search for a jewel in the Australian collection. |
| Wed 22 Jan 120 Kent St | 10.30 am – 12.30 pm | Online Resources at State Records NSW including getting the most out of Photo Investigator - Gail Davis | $20 / $30 | The State Records website is becoming a comprehensive starting point for researching family history in New South Wales. Resources include indexes to records, the catalogue Archives Investigator, Photo Investigator, guides to using the NSW State archives and more. Whether you are researching at home or planning a visit to our reading room this session will help you to navigate your way around the website. |
John Elvy – Leichhardt’s corner street butcher
Leichhardt’s own corner street butcher John Elvy hanging up the apron after 30years of serving the Leichhardt community.
WHEN Leichhardt institution Elvy?s Meats finally closes its doors, it will be the end of an era for the suburb.
For almost 60 years, the family-run butcher’s shop has been serving the choicest cuts to inner west meat lovers.
Owner and local identity John Elvy, 68, has decided to retire to spend more time with his wife Robyn, his two adult children and two grandchildren, and the shop and attached residence is now for sale.
The shop was opened in 1954 by Mr Elvy’s father, Ted, and his mother Marjorie also worked there.
As a child Mr Elvy would help out after school and he and his brother used to deliver meat orders in the area on their bicycles.
Mr Elvy took over the popular business in 1973, and he has seen dramatic changes in the suburb over the years.
“Leichhardt has gone from being very industrial with factories and manufacturing to becoming mostly residential,” he said.
“When we came here in the 50s there was a lot of Italian migration to the suburb and I learnt how to serve our Italian customers by taking them into the cool room and having them point out what they wanted.
“Now there are probably only 20 Italian families that I serve and the number of Italian people has dwindled as they moved on to other suburbs.”
Mr Elvy said he remembered a time when lamb shanks and cutlets were cheap as chips and he has also seen independent butchers struggle to compete with supermarket giants like Coles and Woolworths.
“We have been successful because we ran it as a family business and as a traditional butchery, with all cuts prepared in the traditional way,” he said.
“I have people come at Christmas time from out of town to shop with us and I have seen different generations of the same family. The little ones have grown up now and are coming in with their own families.”
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/leichhardt-heritage-butcher-on-the-hook-20131207-2yy24.html
Blogger: Azar
Do you remember The Greek Club at 406 Darling Street, Balmain?
When we think of Leichhardt and Balmain the Italians seem to jump to mind immedietaly for their rich contribution to the local area through fruit shops, cafes and fishing..now we shift our focus slightly and look down the lense of local history at the Greeks in Balmain. Unilever was once a large employer of migrant labour particularly Greek, many fish and chip shops, milk bars and hamburger shops along Darling Street between 1960s -1980s were operated by Greek, Macedonian Greek, Greek Cypriot or Egyption Greek origin.
Three was a Greek Club operating in the terrace hous eat 408 Darling Street. Painted Green and with a sign “GREEK CLUB” was nailed in individual reflective red lettering over the door. The Club began in the 1950s and operated for about 10years, there were also two other Greek Clubs ner the Rozelle Juction. Such clubs were male-only bastions. In the late 1950s and 1960s, an after hours Greek Language schoolwas conducted in the former Presbyterian Church hall by Mrs Pavlou.
Greek and Cypriot immigrants were rarely educated and many arrived with only the clothes on their back and a change of clothes in their suitcase. Whilst some were able to purchse their own businesses, the lot for many was exploitative menial work. Most Greek workers took in lodgers. Greek immigrants were huge purchasers of merchandiser sold at street stall and jumble sale fund raisers that local churches ran in the mid-1960s.
If you have any memories or pictures to share of the Greek club or Greeks in Rozelle and Balmain we would love to hear from you.
Annandale in Focus
Annandale in re focus…alot of exciting research is under way in regards to Annandale’s history, from indigenous beginnings to early land grants and development. Keep posted for the first two editions of AURA (Annanadale Urban Research Association) journals to be released as an ebook early next year. Strong Women and subdivisions are common themes in the history of Annandale, according to local architect David Springett. Annandale is a unique suburb within this LGA because it was a single block of land until the 1880s with alot of the development taking place from 1890 onwards. The land was first owned by George Johnston midshipmanon the First Fleet, leader of the Rum rebellion, soldier in the Napoleonic wars. He was married to Esther Abrahams, a young Jewish convict and they had four children together, none of who went on to inherent land. The land was left to run down from the 1840s until Melbourne developer Robert Young purchased it in the 1870s. Young subdivided the land and held a competition to plan the new suburb won by Glebe architect Ferdinand Reuss. Although the plan was for the suburb to become one of the finest-in the colony, the lots were re-subdivided and the rate of purchase was lower than expected. During World War I and II the suburb was largely considered a slum, but experienced a resurgence in the 1950s to 1960s. “It is a unique suburb because it was built in a few years.” “David Springett”
References: Local History Vertical Files.
Leichhardt Ludwig Bicentennary exhibition Leichhardt Town Hall
Don’t miss the last days of Looking for Leichhardt 1844-45 trail re-examined at Leichhardt Town hall.
Artist Bill Gannon led a group of artist and a team of scientist to passionately follow Ludwig’s trail on an adventure packed with history art and investigation into some of the most remote parts of Australia. Bill Ganonn’s 15 painting thoughtfully trace 15 months of Ludwig’s trails starting with a night painting mapping the skies and terrain to more melancholic scenes that express the isolation and misery that his diaries express on stages of the expedition. “Often I found myself in these different states of the brightest hope and the deepest misery” (Ludwig Leichhardt diaries) and disaster struck often along side discovery.
Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt inspires central Qld artist’s journey ABC
Looking for Leichhardt: Ludwig Leichhardt’s 1844-45 Trail Re -examined.
Image by Bill Gannon – Looking NW to NE across the Mitchell River, Queensland
Celebrating the Bicentenary of the birth of Ludwig Leichhardt at the Leichhardt Town Hall between the 16th – 27th October, 2013
The Leichhardt Town Hall will play host to a series of author talks, discussions, workshops and artworks by four artists who followed in the steps of Leichhardt’s 1844-45 expedition.
In 2012-13 artist Bill Gannon followed Ludwig Leichhardt’s 1844-45 trail from South East Queensland, north to the Mitchell River at the base of Cape York, and then across to the Northern Territory to the top of the Top End at the Coburg Peninsula.
Mr Gannon’s artistic accounts of his journey will be on display in the Leichhardt Town Hall in October, to commemorate the Bicentenary of the birth of the man known as the most important German in Australian history.
Artists Jason Benjamin, Sarah Larsen and Maljah Cathy Snow will also be exhibiting works as part of the exhibition. Sydney based artist and Archibald finalist Jason Benjamin accompanied Mr Gannon on the Kakadu to Coburg Peninsula leg of the journey, while Sarah Larsen is a Central Queensland artist who joined Bill on two sections of the trail, and Maljah Cathy Snow is a Gkuthaan woman from the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Exhibition opening hours: 10am – 4pm daily
Dates: 16 – 27 October, 2013 (CLOSED Monday 21 – Tuesday 22)
Location: Leichhardt Town Hall – Corner of Marion and Norton Streets, Leichhardt
Tours available
To organise a tour please contact bronwynt@lmc.nsw.gov.au
Program of Events
- Looking For Leichhardt Exhibition Opening – Wednesday the 16 October, 6-8pm
The first preview of the exceptional artworks by Jason Benjamin, Bill Gannon, Sarah Larsen, and Maljah Cathy Snow from the Looking for Leichhardt art exhibition. Refreshments will be served and accompanied by music by the Leichhardt Brass Band. Please Register here for the Looking for Leichhardt Exhibition Opening for catering purposes by Wednesday 9 October. - Meet The Artists – Friday 18 October, 6-8pm
An artist led tour of the Looking For Leichhardt art exhibition with the four contributing artists: Jason Benjamin, Bill Gannon, Sarah Larsen and Cathy Maljah Cathy Snow. Hear directly how following in Ludwig’s trail inspired and indeed, affected the development of the works in the exhibition. Please Register here for Meet the Artists for catering purposes by Wednesday 16 October. - In the Steps of Leichhardt – Saturday 19 October, 11am – 12
Join Leichhardt enthusiast, Jenny Pattison, for a talk on Ludwig Leichhardt’s extensive botanic knowledge, his plant collecting in Sydney and NSW, and his connections to the Royal Botanic Gardens. Please Register here for In the Steps of Leichhardt for catering purposes by Wednesday 16 October. - Ludwig Leichhardt’s Birthday – Wednesday 23 October – 6-8pm
In celebration of Ludwig Leichhardt’s 200th Birthday, please join us in the Leichhardt Town Hall for an Author Talk by Dr Darrell Lewis, and some classical German music by the Cacilien Choir. Dr Darrell Lewis’ book, Where is Dr Leichhardt? was released earlier this year. The book posits all of the various theories developed around the disappearance of Ludwig Leichhardt in 1848, and addresses what he calls “the greatest mystery in Australian history – the disappearance of the Leichhardt expedition somewhere in the vastness of the inland”. Light refreshments will also be served including some delicious German Sacher-Torte in honour of Leichhardt.
Please Register here for Ludwig Leichhardt’s Birthday for catering purposes by Friday 18 October.
Artist Talk by Bill Gannon – Saturday 26 October, 10.30 – 11am
Artist Bill Gannon is the lead artist behind the exhibition and expedition in the trail of Ludwig Leichhardt, and he is very passionate and knowledgeable about his subject. Join him to hear about his inspiration and insights on the Leichhardt expedition, and all about the interesting mix of characters that travelled together on the 1844-45 expedition. A light morning tea will be followed by Bill’s Explorer’s Guide to drawing at 11.30am. Please Register here for the Artist Talk by Bill Gannon for catering purposes by Tuesday 22 October.