Men on dock – Working port – White Bay waterside workers, ca 1958. Photographer Hugh Mason.
Picture of the week 2
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Author Archives: localnotes
Picture of the week
– Leichhardt Post Office, built in 1888 and Leichhardt’s iconic Town Hall, built the same year on Norton Street were a source of great municipal pride when opened; the suburb, many thought, had truly ‘come of age’. The opening of Leichhardt’s Town Hall drew a crowd of 5 000.
Photo ca 1907.
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Researching the past with local newspapers. .
In the 1990s the Leichhardt Library acquired microfilms of three local newspapers from the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The Balmain Observer spanned 1884-1889 and 1902-1907; the Leichhardt & Petersham Guardian covered 1886-1893 and was superseded by the Standard covering 1893-1897. In 2006 it was discovered that the British Library held a microfilm of the Balmain Observer between 1896 and 1903 so we ordered these from London partly filling the gap of missing issues. Taken together these newspapers cover the period 1884-1907 – nearly a quarter century of news and events of people in the Annandale, Balmain and Leichhardt area.
A newspaper is only useful as a historical resource for those who know the date on which some event occurred, or who are willing to read through many issues in the hope of coming across the information they need. In 2004 a volunteer commenced a long-term project to index this valuable resource. Every issue must be read carefully, and significant items indexed. The Balmain Observer has been completed (apart from the additional years acquired recently from the British Library), as has the Leichhardt & Petersham Guardian. Work on the Standard is underway, with completion expected later this year. Several more years will be needed to index the additional years of the Balmain Observer and incorporate them into the existing index.
The work is already bearing fruit. Research for the recent book Annandale 1907-2007 Place is People by Mary Haire made use of many references to the history of Annandale which would not otherwise have been known of. Because the activities of many individuals were reported in the news columns (local officials, marriages, deaths) the indexes are also proving useful for family history researchers that visit us.
Place is People – Annandale 1907-2007 – a book launch
Leichhardt Library hosted the launch of a publication by writer/historian/performer Mary Haire on Wednesday, 9th April. UTS journalism student Dan Bishton attended the launch and posted this report for
LOCAL NOTES:
Local historian Mary Haire launched her new book to a packed Leichhardt library on Wednesday April 9th. The event opened with a speech from fellow actress and author Judith Nunn. Haire; an historian, actress and 23 year Annandale resident took on the project with a $5000 grant as one of five local history grants awarded by Leichhardt Council last year.
Place is People – Annandale 1907/2007 presents a colorful cast – leaders, ghosts and chimney-sweeps feature in twin portraits of a suburb a century apart. Haire reveals uncommon knowledge of a mild suburb in her obvious delight for untold stories – two examples being Annandale’s sudden secession from Leichhardt Council and Sydney’s bubonic plague outbreak – complete with the district’s own rat catchers.
Born in Perth, Haire moved to Annandale in 1985. She cites the inspiration for her forays into Annandale’s past as her discovery of the story of Esther Abrahams, a Jewish convict who arrived in Australia on the first fleet and eventually became first lady of the colony. “I discovered Esther at the Jewish Museum, I’d never seen her name in Annandale – I was fascinated, and from that moment I decided I wanted to bring her back to Annandale.”
Esther’s story became the basis of a guided walk started by Haire in 1999, which covered important sites in Annandale’s development from estate to municipality. The success of the walks led into a successive set of local history projects that have culminated in the publishing of Place is People.
Haire’s Annandale projects aim to provide a reference point for current social developments by drawing strong parallel between the two eras, for example the recent influx of wealth into the suburb that is comparable to its 1907 status as one of the wealthiest in Sydney. Her motive in drawing this comparison is an attempt to regain an element she’s seen disappear. “I think we’ve lost our sense of community generally,” she says. “I want people to go away and be stimulated to think – not just have some entertainment and then close the book. I’d like to inspire people to be more community minded, and I’d like people to be inspired to do something themselves on heritage and history.”
Place is People: Annandale 1907/2007 is a limited release of 250 copies, and is available for sale through Leichhardt Library.
People in the Park
Women at Work
An international event, International Women’s Day was conceived in 1908 when many women were officially cast as second class citizens. Women in NSW only received the right to vote in 1907 – just a little over 100 years ago! (and women in many other places waited much longer) As well as being denied their democratic right at the ballot box, many worked in appalling conditions, earned half of men’s wages (maybe) and frequently died prematurely due to poor nutrition and maternal health.
It is sobering to reflect that the gains women have made have are due to the strength, determination and courage of women who risked their lives and their reputations to make the world a better place for all women to live.
We got into the International Women’s Day spirit with an exhibition of images of women at work taken from our photographic collection. Here’s a sample. . .
Birchgrove Public School
The Class of 69 (& friends) reunite!
FROM Frances Peters-Little: On 22nd March 2008, the Class of 69 hosted a Birchgrove School Reunion at the Town Hall Hotel on the corner of Darling and Mullens Sts, Balmain. Over 20 people and their friends attended, including Neil Perkins, Michael Russell, Denise Hunt and Jimmy Little. Former pupils who attended were Mary Carter, Vicki Bailey, Shauna Willoughby, Debbie O’Shannassy, Leonie Middleton, Karen Arthur, Fiona Willoughby, Anisah Alkamrakhi, William Moss, Rosie Manoursaridis, Kim Fitzgerald, and Linda Stanford, Frances Little, Bernice Ross, Les Dinham, Ross Gilding, Kerry Palmer, Debbie McPharlan, Steven Delaney and Michael Halasz. Nevertheless a great night was had by all. Continue reading
Sydney Journal
On 12 March 2008, the first issue of Sydney Journal was published, online at UTS ePress. Sydney Journal is an academic history journal which forms a part of the Dictionary of Sydney project. It contains essays and entries written for the Dictionary, in a more academic format and with the quality guaranteed by the full process of peer review for longer articles.
Sydney Journal 1 contains four major essays, six cultural group essays and five suburb articles, to give a real feel for the richness of the work being done for the Dictionary. When this text goes online with the Dictionary though, it will be fully illustrated and incorporate sound, film, maps and links to other material. All Sydney Journal content is freely available to readers anywhere in the world.
Sydney Journal is hosted by UTS ePress and produced using the Open Journal System (OJS) which enables the Dictionary of Sydney editor, Emma Grahame, to manage all the peer reviewing, maintain complete email records, control versions, copy edit and lay out herself. OJS is open source software developed by the Public Knowledge Project, run by a consortium of North American universities. Many new and existing journals are now being published using the software, which is making a significant contribution to public scholarship worldwide.To see the first issue, go to http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/ojs/index.php/sydney_journal
ScreenSound Australia
We were recently contacted – through Leichhardt Council’s Recreation team- by ScreenSound Australia – the national film and sound archive. ScreenSound are keen to know any details about these photos, knowing no more than they are stills from a film shot at O’Connor Reserve, Rozelle. They think the film was shot in the early 1980s, and that it may have been called Step by Step. Can you help? Contact us if you can.
Father Therry and the Balmain Catholic Cemetery
As Australia’s pioneer priest, Father John Joseph Therry stepped ashore in Sydney in May 1820, little would he have imaged that thirty seven years later, as parish priest of the parish of St. Augustine at Balmain in Sydney’s inner west, he would ‘do a deal’ with one of Sydney’s leading Protestants to acquire four acres in a remote part of his parish to establish a Catholic cemetery. The cemetery was known as the Balmain Catholic cemetery and for the next half century many Balmain pioneers were laid to rest there. The cemetery closed around 1905 and over the following 100 years, all traces of this cemetery disappeared and today’s visitor to the site would have no inkling that a cemetery ever existed there. The location has become one of Catholic Sydney’s least known historic sites. The cemetery land now houses St. Columba’s church, presbytery and primary school plus a convent for the Sisters of St. Joseph.
