Stories From Sydney

In this short and punchy episode the boys discuss three different plant species/genera common to Sydney Harbour. Yes, genera is the correct word for the plural of genus, and hence we would like to apologise in advance for insisting on using 'genuses' throughout the episode. Listen in to our last episode of Season 4 as we discuss some well known facts, obscure trivia and maybe even the odd tall tale about three plants dear to Jed's heart; Lomandra longifolia, Xanthorrhoea and Tetragonia tetragonioides!

In this episode we discuss Bungaree - a significant figure in the early history of Sydney and part of the first voyage to ever circumnavigate the continent of Australia! The detailed "King Bungaree" by Keith Vincent Smith was our major source for this episode.

In this episode Jed attempts to tell the multi-generational story of Yarramundi, Colebee and Maria of the Boorooberongal clan of the Dharug people of what is now Western Sydney. From the first encounters between the Dharug and the British on Dyarubbin in 1791, to the first ever land grant from the British regime to the original inhabitants of Australia in 1816, from Macquarie’s aborted ‘native institute’, the first Indigenous/British marriage and all through the stolen generation to the present day, Yarramundi’s family have been at the centre of the unfolding relations amongst the people that call Western Sydney home. In this podcast we discuss The History Listen podcast episode Yarramundi and the people of Dyarubbin and the Sydney University research that debunks one of the stories they tell. As with anything do with the people of Dyarubbin, Grace Karskens research is wonderfully helpful and the State Government published Dyarubbin: Mapping Aboriginal history, culture and stories of the Hawkesbury River that she was involved with is well worth a look if you’re interested in the specific geography of these last few episodes. Lastly, at the end of the episode we plug The Australian Histories Podcast and Jed also mentions a book he read on William Buckley, which is Jock Serong’s Buckley’s Chance.

In this episode we discuss the excavation of the Lapstone Creek rock shelter and what it tells us about Aboriginal history and culture in the Sydney region. Tune in to learn more about where you can find the best rock in the region for making stone tools, how it got there, and what kind of innovative uses it was put to by Aboriginal people over their staggeringly deep occupation of this continent! Sources: Grace Karskens: People of the River - a wonderful book The Lapstone Creek Excavation - the foundational text of Australian archaeology Sourcing Stone from the Sydney Region - a hatchet job Castlereagh and Penrith Lakes - a lovely blog post Penrith Lakes Scheme - an aspirational video of what the quarried moonscape could become

We're back for Season 4! Instead of our usual 2 minute teaser episode we are launching with a bang: just shy of 2 hours of mostly 18th century prose! In this episode Jed surprises Alistair with a dramatic reading of several passages from Watkin Tench's 1793 publication 'A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson'. The stories we explore relate to some of the first journeys the colonisers made to Dyarubbin, the river that they had mistakenly identified as both the Hawkesbury and the Nepean. Tench's writing gives us access to life on the river in the first years of the colony and shows some of the earliest interactions between the British and the Dharug people in the brief period before their displacement began.

In this bonus episode we discuss Following the Flow, a documentary exploring the people, places, ecology and history of the Macquarie Wambool River in Western NSW. Alongside Stories from Sydney, Jed has been working on this project for the past 3 years and is very excited to be bringing it to Sydney for a screening at the Golden Age Cinema in Surry Hills in July. As well as chatting inland waterways we crack open the vault and return to some fondly remembered clips from Jed's episodes 'Celebrating a New Beginning Across the Blue Mountains' and 'The Town Where the Bell Meets the Macquarie'. Head to www.followingtheflow.com.au to watch the trailer and join our mailing list or connect with @FollowingtheFlowfilm on facebook and instagram. We hope to see you there!

In the last episode of Season 3 we briefly trace the history of Australia's first and most important export, coal, and the city with which it is inextricably linked. We trace this history from the dreaming of the Awabakal people all the way to the open cut coal mines of the Upper Hunter that frame our national narrative to this day. One particular mystery, however, forms the focus of the episode; just why did roughly 50 merchant ships laden with Newcastle coal go missing in the Pacific Ocean bound for the West Coast of the Americas? And why were the powers that be so stubborn in their refusal to address an issue that cost over 1000 lives in the late 19th Century?

This fortnight we discuss the Theosophical Society and their impact on Sydney, from the 2GB radio station, to the Star Amphitheatre in Balmoral (pictured) and The Manor in Clifton Gardens. Tune in to hear about the famous Australian figures associated with the movement, their early interest in Buddhism, and the touted messianic hero who renounced his role and brought a decade of eager anticipation crashing down around him!

In the early years of the 20th century Sydney was the undisputed Department Store capital of the world. Retail family dynasties competed with each other to open the largest, most modern and most spectacular stores from Broadway to Wynyard. Alas, the 1960s brought changing fortunes for these icons as the CBD started to decay and sprawling Sydneysiders begun to favour newer, more climate controlled suburban shopping centres with plenty of onsite car parking. This episode we discuss five of the biggest names in Sydney's department store history, charting their rises and inevitable falls to find out what has become of some of these epic buildings and one-time institutions today.

In this episode we discuss tensions within working class politics in Sydney during the First World War. If you enjoyed this episode you might be interested in this podcast episode about the Great Strike of 1917 from the City Of Sydney. Also, we really enjoyed this podcast episode from Forgotten Australia about Percy Brookfield, which was what alerted us to this story in the first place. And finally, here is an article about the Sweetacres factory in Roseberry.

In 1880 the bushranger era came to a dramatic end in Eastern Australia with the infamous death of Ned Kelly in Melbourne. Earlier that same year a man just as infamous at the time was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol after engaging in his own wayward adventures across the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria and in the South Pacific. Some 110 years later the letters Andrew George Scott, known to the 19th century public as 'Captain Moonlite' wrote,came to light in the New South Wales State Archives. These letters gave a surprising insight into the mind of a fascinating character and gave queer Sydney an erstwhile hero. In this episode we explore just a few of Scott's misadventures and discuss his ongoing significance to Australian culture. This episode was written based on the work of Garry Linnell is his book 'Captain Moonlite: The Tragic Love Story of Captain Moonlite and the Bloody End of the Bushrangers'.

Well before the gold rushes of the mid 1800s, there was another all but forgotten resource extraction boom which played an important role in the expansion of the early colony. After being first logged along the Hawkesbury River, red cedar soon became the third largest export from the nascent port of Sydney and was known colloquially as “red gold”. It played a vital role in the foundation of places as diverse as Kiama, Maitland, and Byron Bay, and its presence is still to be observed in many buildings throughout Sydney today. A short video on red cedar which features the Reading Room in Canberra is available here. You can also check out the Macquarie Armchair, the oldest surviving piece of Australian red cedar furniture, or read this short article which contains many beautiful images of red cedar trees. Stories about red cedar have also featured in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Newcastle Herald.

This episode we discuss the story of the Sydney Cove, a ship that set sail from Calcutta bound for its eponymous port in 1796. The Sydney Cove never quite made it the whole way, but after countless misadventures just under half of her crew did. Join us as we discuss a story that is not only all but unbelievable but is one of the most significant stories of first contact between First Nations people and visitors from across the British Empire. This tale was more or less lost to time for much of the 20th century but from the unearthing of the shipwreck in 1977 there was no putting this tale back in the rum bottle, as it were. The original inspiration for this story came from reading Jock Serong's work of historical fiction: Preservation. The factual heavy lifting was largely courtesy of Mark McKenna's book: From the Edge; Australia's Lost Histories. If you'd like to read the full text of William Clark's published account of their journey you can find it, and an assortment of other relevant correspondence, here. And if you know where we an get a carton of James Squire's Preservation Ale we'd love to hear from you!

We discuss the history and significance of the local bowlo with special guest Louis Heath. Perhaps you, like us, have always wondered where this quaint game comes from, and why so many bowling clubs dot the streets of Sydney. If so, then you're in luck! We'll dive into the royal origins of the sport, its enormous boom in popularity in the post-war era, and what the future holds for these local institutions. If you would like to discuss bowlos or share resources with Louis, you can reach him at louisheath@hotmail.com. You can also read his thesis here, or simply reference this graph showing the steady rise and fall of bowling clubs over the last 100+ years. Here is the newspaper article about the significance of third places during the COVID pandemic that is mentioned during the episode. You can also read Wendy Bacon's investigative stories on the proposed development of Paddington Bowling Club here, and this Herald article about the recent restoration of the land to the Aboriginal Land Council.

To celebrate both boys recording from Sydney for the first time ever, we've included some bonus material about Manly in our introductory episode to Season Three - a "vignette from Sydney" as Jed likes to call it! Plus, find out about the exciting new episode format set to feature this season, and hear about the topics that we have prepared for you (or in some cases soon will be preparing).

Despite their household name being all but forgotten, the Macleay family were a force to be reckoned with in Colonial Sydney society. They owned vast swaths of NSW as it was carved up in the 19th century, they represented much more of the colony in parliament, they built a most impressive sandstone mansion at Elizabeth Bay House and after 3 generations of collection famously bequeathed one of the world's vastest natural history collections to the University of Sydney. Join us this episode as we discuss one of the most important but oft overlooked colonial Sydney families; the Macleays.

Tracing the history of sewerage infrastructure in Sydney provides a wild ride through the origins of democracy in NSW, the popularity of Egyptian obelisks in the nineteenth century, and the unsavoury prospect of surfing in the city’s muck. Join us on this week's episode of Stories from Sydney as we discuss the fractious history of the city’s waste disposal projects, and the monumental architecture that still exists right under our noses (or rather, above them!)

Until more recent years Sydney's large and visible queer community was generally ill considered by wider society, in large part due to the negative light the police and mainsteam media portrayed them in. Despite, or perhaps because of, this, a secret world of partially hidden dance parties was occurring across the city on an epic scale. This episode tracks the history of Sydney's gay bashes (the good kind) over the last 100 years, always present, but just out of sight - except of those who knew where to look.

We discuss the swimming scene in Sydney at the turn of the century, some iconic locations, our first Olympic champion, and the stroke that changed everything.

This episode we head West from Sydney to a town that has long shared connections with the Harbour City. From Ancient Caves to Pistol Duels and Unfinished Roads, through 3 short stories (and a generous introduction) we learn a little bit about a little town called Wellington.