The National Library of Australia digitises 50 years of The Australian Women’s Weekly

The National Library of Australia digitises 50 years of The Australian Women’s Weekly with DatacomIT

Since 1994, the National Library of Australia has financially supported the preservation of nationally significant material through the use of its Community Heritage Grant programme. However, it was not until 2009 that the Library initiated its first large scale project to digitise the entire available collection of the first 50 years of The Australian Women’s Weekly (The AWW).

Check out Trove

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/title/112

New light rail line follows the old goods line

The proposed new extension of the light rail line follows the old Goods Line. In 1910 it was suggested taking a new railway route alongside the new Long Cove Canal (now Hawthorne Canal) through Leichhardt. Their plan was to install a new intersection at Dulwich Hill on the Bankstown line and linking this to Rozelle, Glebe Island and eventually Darling Harbour. On June 30 1916 the goods line on this route,  opened for traffic.

Now the light rail runs along the same line from Catherine Street, Lilyfield to Central Station. The  light rail extension will run from Lilyfield to Dulwich Hill along the historic goods line.

Total length from Lilyfield to the Dulwich Hill Railway Station is 5.6km.  Approximately nine stations will be built along the 5.6km extension at:

  • • Leichhardt North
  • • Hawthorne
  • • Marion
  • • Taverners Hill
  • • Lewisham West
  • • Waratah Mills
  • • Arlington
  • • Dulwich Grove
  • • Dulwich Hill Interchange

Researching Family History

For Family History enthusiasts check out some software that could assist your organisation and research with

Family Tree Maker – Free Update for Version 2012 brought to you by Gould Genealogy.

We also have a subscription to Ancestory.com  which can be accessed at both Leichhardt and Balmain Library.

Sydney Sands Directory on microfieche

Sydney Directory 1865 (Sands). 1865. Directories are a great resource for genealogists, social and local historians … no they don’t give you BDM details, but they can give you all the interesting information about a person and the place they lived in.

The Sands’ directories are among the most comprehensive and best known of Australian directories. 1865 was the fifth year of release for the “”””Sand’s Sydney Directory””””. Similar in style to earlier years, this one contains 13 directories in one.

You will find the following included:

  • Street Directory (lists houses/businesses street-by-street, together with the head of the household and occupation)
  • Suburban Directory (lists persons in the suburbs alphabetically by surname, together with their address, and sometimes occupation)
  • Alphabetical Directory (lists persons in Sydney alphabetically by surname, together with their address, and sometimes occupation)
  • Trade and Professional Directory (occupations are listed alphabetically, with a listing of each person, and address – similar to current day yellow pages)
  • Banks, Insurance and Other Companies
  • Artistic, Literary, Scientific, and Benevolent Institutions
  • Masonic Institutions
  • Government and Official Directory
  • Ecclesiastical Directory
  • Legal Directory
  • Medical Directory
  • Municipal Directory
  • Colonial Directory (contains details on heads of parliament and governmental positions for each Australian state, and New Zealand)
  • hundred of adverts are also included, which make for interested reading in themselves!

Covering both Sydney and its suburbs, this will be a useful reference for all with connections to the region at this time. Also included is a small Almanac section which lists ‘Remarkable Events’ for every day of the year.

Leichhardt Street Names

Leichhardt Street

This year Patrick James completed a comprehensive Local Study on the Origins of Street names in Leichhardt. Did you know that Norton Street was named after James Norton a Sydney Solicitor and one of the crossing streets… Marion street was his wife.  Patrick has compiled a report which includes 135 streets in Leichhardt included in the report are old, new, obsolete and recycled street names.

Here are a sample of Street Names

Abattoir Road Road leading to the Glebe Island abattoir.  See Catherine Street.  NB two different roads Abattoir Road, Petersham (Leichhardt) and Abattoir Road, Pyrmont (Sands 1871).  Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 19 August 1862, page 5… Mr. Walter Beames stated that in the year 1831, a requisition was sent into the Government for the proper formation of (Abattoir Road), together with an estimate and plan showing the probable expense (£3000). No attention, however, was paid to this memorial, and some short time back another petition, signed by 400 or 500 persons, was sent in, but with like result…
Balmain Road After William Balmain, surgeon and landholder, born 2 February 1762, Perthshire, Scotland, died 17 November 1803, London Road from Petersham to Rozelle; after the suburb name. The Government road to Balmain (1842, 1859)
Edith Street After Edith Lucy Doust, eldest child of Isaac Doust landowner and developer of       Doust’s Subdivision.
Gillards Avenue Now McDonald Street, within McDonald Estate, in part previously called Gillards Avenue (after James Gillard landowner and developer) and Sutton Street.
Piper Street After John Piper, plan dated 1842

To view the complete copy of the report visit our Online Catalogue