NSW History
Challenging Narratives: Introducing the June 2025 JRAHS
Challenging Narratives: Introducing the June 2025 Volume of the JRAHS The June 2025 issue of the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society (Vol. 111, Part I) explores new perspectives on colonial authority, identity, and Australia's contested past. As Editor Dr Samuel White outlines in his foreword, this issue reflects the Journal’s original intent: to challenge dominant narratives and recover overlooked voices from across Australia’s history. Dr Keith Amos revisits the 1790 spearing...
The Recruiting Officer: Australia’s First Recorded Play
The Recruiting Officer: Australia’s First Recorded Play Written by Rebecca Vipond, RAHS Volunteer When you hear the word ‘convict’, what comes to mind? Chain gangs? Cat o’ nine tails? How about theatre and play acting? On 4 June 1789, the birthday of King George III, a group of convicts performed Australia’s first recorded play at Sydney Cove. (1) The play was The Recruiting Officer by Irish playwright George Farquhar. It is not surprising that a play was performed by the colonists. In the...
Royal Society of NSW Bicentennial Bibliography
Two New History Research Guides from the Royal Society of NSW Australia’s colonial and post-colonial history includes many conflicts and controversies. Two new digital reference guides could help modern historians and writers to better understand how many British-European migrant scholars studied, mapped and interpreted Indigenous people, places, animals, plants, geology, chemistry, fossils, weather conditions and astronomical phenomena. After celebrating 200 years of its intellectual culture...
The Old Court House at Wisemans Ferry
Written by Robert Cunneen (Secretary, Dharug and Lower Hawkesbury Historical Society) Last December, an exciting discovery was made at Wisemans Ferry. It is the foundations of an early colonial building contemporary with Cobham Hall, which still exists on land belonging to Hornsby Shire Council. An early survey dated 1831 shows that it is the site of the courthouse, office and residence of the surveyors (and magistrates) in charge of constructing the Great North Road between 1826 and 1832....
Hidden Gems and Stories: Show & Tell
MOCA Event: Hidden Gems and Stories Discover your own personal treasure trove and become part of history in the making. The Museum of Chinese in Australia (MOCA) invites you to bring your personal historical documents, objects, heritage memorabilia, pictures, and photographs of relevance to the history of Sydney’s Chinatown/Haymarket area for appraisal by a panel of specialists, historians and curators who will help identify its history and significance. The museum is interested in discovering...
Makers & Manufacturers: The Industrial History of St George
Hurstville Museum & Gallery exhibition Makers & Manufacturers: The Industrial History of St George 9 November 2024 – 11 May 2025 Makers & Manufacturers highlights the untold stories of the industrial history of the St George region. As Sydney expanded during the 19th century, the St George area remained unsettled longer than any other, with a population of just over 450 people by 1841. The earliest industries in the area used the abundant natural resources and included timber...
Knowledge for a Nation: Origins of the Royal Society of New South Wales
A new book by the Royal Society of NSW reveals colonial research culture in New South Wales. During the reigns of British monarchs George III, Queen Victoria and Edward VII, the prison colony of New South Wales was transformed by intellectually curious and innovative migrants from Britain, Europe and America. In a new book, Knowledge for a Nation: Origins of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Blue Mountains historian Dr Anne Coote explains how leading colonial administrators, scientists,...
Back to Black: The David Jones Family in Strathfield
A new exhibition will showcase the history of the David Jones Family in Strathfield. The David Jones family have strong associations with the Strathfield district, dating back to the 1860s. Members of the family have played an important role in business, architecture, medicine, education, recreation and even the incorporation of Strathfield Council. David Jones is one of the world's oldest department stores still trading under their original name. It was founded in Sydney in 1838 by Welsh...
Hardy Wilson’s Old Colonial Architecture 1924–2024
A new exhibition marks the 100th anniversary of Hardy Wilson's influential architectural work. Published in 1924, Hardy Wilson’s book Old Colonial Architecture in NSW and Tasmania was the first major publication dedicated to the documentation and conservation of Australian buildings. This exhibition draws attention to the book’s creation, examines its enduring presence and influence in Australian architecture, and contextualises it in Wilson’s biography and wider body of published work. This...
Online Guide: Accessing NSW Colonial Secretary’s Records
The Museums of History NSW have released the NSW Colonial Secretary’s records, 1826–1900: a guide to accessing them online on their website.
The guide was made available with the permission of Clive Smith and the Port Macquarie and Districts Family History Society Inc.
Bicentenary of the Supreme Court of NSW
Celebrate the bicentenary of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 17 May 2024 On 17 May 2024, the Supreme Court of NSW will celebrate the bicentenary of its founding under the Third Charter of Justice, providing us with the opportunity to reflect on its profound impact on Australian society. In a recent interview with ABC RN's Law Report, NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell emphasised the Supreme Court’s pivotal role in democracy. He also discussed notable cases, including the Myall Creek...
NSW Premier’s History Award Winners Announced
Alan Atkinson's Elizabeth and John awarded the Australian History Prize The 2023 NSW Premier’s History Awards, with $85,000 in prize money, were announced at the State Library of NSW on Thursday, 7 September. The winner of the Australian History Prize was Alan Atkinson’s Elizabeth and John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm. The Judges said that Atkinson had ‘produced a landmark book that will refresh early colonial studies and stand as a model for comparative biography, sensitive research and...
How science was communicated in colonial New South Wales
By Davina Jackson [PhD, M.Arch, FRGS, FRSA, FRSN] Two hundred years ago, in June 1821, Australia’s first learned society was launched in Sydney. Named the Philosophical Society of Australasia – because ‘natural philosophy’ was the prevalent term for science at that time – the group comprised seven prominent men who shared the goal of establishing a museum of natural history. The founders were Judge Barron Field, Dr Henry Grattan Douglass, Colonial Secretary Frederick Goulburn, surveyor John...
A Groundbreaking Bicentenary: St James’ Church, King Street
Written by RAHS Volunteer, Elizabeth Heffernan On the 7th of October 1819, builders under the guidance of convict architect Francis Greenway laid the foundation stone for what was intended to be Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s new courthouse on King Street. A far grander building was planned for George Street as Sydney’s new metropolitan cathedral – It was not to be. Sent all the way to Sydney from London, Commissioner John Bigge questioned the expense of Macquarie’s proposed cathedral, and...