December 2024
Saturday 14th December at 2:00pm
The buildings of Surry Hills
Speaker - Angela Phippen
Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
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In this illustrated virtual ‘walking tour’, Association member Angela Phippen will show some of the buildings of Surry Hills, ranging from colonial times to the 21st century.
Surry Hills is one of those Sydney suburbs that has seen its stocks go up and down: it has been praised for its 'healthy breezes and beautiful views', but at other times damned as a squalid slum breeding crime and immorality. It has been home to colonial bluebloods in opulent villas and townhouses, but it has also sheltered the poor in dark basements and attics of appalling meanness.
Sit comfortably in your seats at SMSA and see and hear about one of the oldest and most interesting inner-city suburbs.
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November 2024
Saturday 9th November at 2:00pm
A History of The Aussie
Speaker - Kez Hasanic
Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
Credit: RAN Official,
HMAS Australia 2 - A History of the Aussie, the second flagship to bear the name of our country had a very different career to the first flagship! Always in the thick of action and battle it won the admiration of all who served in her and our US allies as well. We will find out how HMAS Australia 2 faced Kamikaze attacks and a crew murder as well as the story of men who fought the enemy and survived the ‘divine wind’ attacks of the dreaded Kamikazes in World War 2.
Kez Hasanic has had a lifelong interest in History and in particular military and naval history.Previously a history teacher Currently Kez is active as a volunteer guide at the Australian National Maritime
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October 2024
Saturday 12th October
Annual General Meeting for members: 1:30pm
Speaker for Visitors and members: 2:00pm
Joseph Conrad's Eastern Voyages
Speaker - Ian Burnet
Venue: Lord Mayors Reception Room, Sydney Town Hall
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
Credit:Otago State Library
Historian and author Ian Burnet tells the story of the life of Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski which reads like an adventure story, an adventure story that could be written by somebody like Joseph Conrad. The young Conrad dreamed of a life at sea, he eventually became a British merchant seaman and he spent fifteen years sailing on the classic three-masted, square-rigged sailing ships, including many voyages to what was then the Dutch East Indies. During this period, he worked his way up from apprentice to third mate, to second mate, to first mate and finally the captain of one of these beautiful ships.
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September 2024
Saturday 14th September
at 2:00pm
An Uncommon Hangman
Speaker -Dr. Rachel Franks
Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
Credit: Truth January 1901
Originally a cab driver, Robert Rice Howard (known as "Nosey Bob" Howard) (c 1906) was an Australian executioner. He was employed as a hangman for the colony of New South Wales from 1875, initially as an assistant hangman. Howard held the position of senior executioner from 1877 until he retired in 1904. Throughout a career spanning twenty-eight years, Robert Howard assisted or supervised the execution of sixty-two persons in New South Wales. Howard had a facial disfigurement, resulting in the loss of his nose, that occurred while working as a cabman in the mid-1870s. His missing nose and lengthy high-profile career as an executioner led to him being generally known, in newspapers and common parlance, as 'Nosey Bob’. Living in a normal suburban family life and at the same time taking on a widely despised role it makes for a very interesting story.
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August 2024
Saturday 10th August
at 2:00pm
Dr. William Redfern
Speaker - Andrew Redfern
Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
Credit: City of Sydney Archives
Learn about the extraordinary life of Dr. William Redfern, the convict who has a suburb named after him.
This captivating session, delivered by a descendant, Andrew Redfern, details the doctor’s riches to rags and back again story against the backdrop of early colonial Australia. Hear about research that has uncovered remarkable stories involving extensive international travel, escaping death several times and associations with royalty. Recent testing of hair samples from the 1830s has led to further unexpected discoveries.
Don't miss this opportunity to uncover the legacy of Dr. William Redfern in a very different way.
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July 2024
Saturday 13th July
at 2:00pm
That Bligh Girl
Speaker - Sue Williams
Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
Credit: Herald Sun
Journalist Sue Williams returns to the untold stories of the women of colonial Sydney with another fascinating, meticulously researched historical novel.
Mary Bligh is no shrinking violet. After a horrific six-month sea voyage from Britain, she proves as strong-willed as her bloody-minded father, the newly appointed Governor William Bligh. The pair scandalises Sydney with their personalities, politics, and her pantaloons. When three hundred armed soldiers of the Rum Rebellion march on Government House to depose him, the governor is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Mary stands defiantly at the gates, fighting them back with just her parasol.
Despite being bullied, belittled and betrayed, Mary remains steadfast, even when her desperate father double-crosses her yet again in his last-ditch attempt to cling to power. But will Mary turn out to be her father's daughter and deceive him in pursuit of her dreams and ambitions?
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June 2024
Saturday 15th June
at 2:00pm
Mr Todd's Marvel: How one man telegraphed Australia to the modern world
Speaker - Adam Courtenay
Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
Credit: Maritime Museum
In the early days of Sydney settlement people were lucky if they ever heard news of their family again. Every ship arriving in the Port of Sydney was rushed as people clustered hopefully to hear news from home. Letters also took forever going the other way. And then came…the telegraph.
Author Adam Courtenay tells the story. In 1855 talented astronomer and scientist Charles Todd had a dream to build a telegraph line across Australia to connect it to the world. This dream was a bold one and he would have to wait for technological advances to catch up with his ideas.
Todd and his men would have to erect thousands of telegraph poles across the entire expanse of the country, from Adelaide to the northern coast - one pole every 80 metres - across land that was relentlessly inhospitable and largely unknown to them. They overcame every obstacle and, as well as reducing the transmission of information to the country from months to hours, revealed the splendour of the continent's interior to its rapidly growing population.
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MAY 2024
Saturday 11th May
at 2:00pm
Sydney's Condemnation and Demolition books
Speaker - Laila Ellmoos
Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
Cottage in Francis Street Darlinghurst, circa 1909, City of Sydney Archives A-00036644
In this talk, City Historian Laila Ellmoos will tell us about the history of the City of Sydney's Condemnation and Demolition Books, a key photographic collection held in the City Archives comprising almost 5000 photographs and associated glass plate negatives.
The City Building Surveyor’s department used photographs to document the city’s profound transformation in the first two decades of the 20th century. These photographs inadvertently captured the largely working-class neighbourhoods and people being displaced by commercial and government redevelopment.
The Demolition Books collection formed the basis of an exhibition at Customs House called Developing Sydney: Capturing Change 1900-1920. The exhibition, which was on display for 2 years during the Covid-19 pandemic, is available as a virtual exhibition and as a story map. The City Archives is working to digitise the collection and make it available for researchers and casual browsers alike.
Laila Ellmoos is a professional historian who is passionate about communicating history to a wide range of audiences through exhibitions, talks and the written word. She is the City Historian at the City of Sydney Council, and a long-standing member of the Professional Historians Association of NSW & ACT.
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APRIL 2024
Saturday 13th April
at 2:00pm
A Brief History of the Development of the Sydney Tramway System from 1861
Speaker - Ron Besdansky, Engineer and train enthusiast
Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
Picture: Daily Mail
There was a time when trams were a common sight throughout Sydney.
Remember when you could travel anywhere on the tram network for just one shilling? How did the network operate? How did the trams intertwine with the trains? And what led to the demise of this much loved form of public transport?
Join us for this fascinating look back at a time when trams were an essential part of all the Sydney public transport network. Alas, today it is a very limited experience.
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MARCH 2024
Saturday 9th March
at 2:00pm
TREASURES IN SYDNEY CHURCHES
Speaker -Robijn Alexanda
Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
Not unlike a museum, church treasures employed for ritual use and religious devotion in church services require safe keeping for survival. Patrons, whether they be individuals, or institutions, have funded these creations and thus served as a means of ensuring quality that works were completed to a high standard. Objects include statuary images, architectural details, baptismal fonts, shrines, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, and paintings.
In Sydney the earliest statuary from Eastern Europe dates from the C15th and the most recent work of art was installed in 2018 by the Armenian community. Historian Robijn Alxanda will reveal some of Sydney’s secrets.
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FEBRUARY 2024
Saturday 24th February
at 2:00pm
From the First Fleet to the Harbour Bridge: Sydney's astronomical beginnings
Speaker -Professor Richard de Grijs
Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required
The voyage of the First Fleet from Britain to Botany Bay was more than a convenient way to rid Britain of its convicts. Join us as historical detectives on the trail of William Dawes, astronomer, engineer, surveyor and ordnance officer---from his arrival in 1788 until the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932.
The First Fleet was not just for military but also scientific purposes , which is poorly known today. Astronomers were vital on voyages of discovery, because they could cross check the readings of a chronometer – a portable timekeeping device also used for determining longitude at sea – with time measurements based on the stars. Willam Dawes spent much time building rapport with the indigenous people and was working with a young Aboriginal woman to record the Gadigal language. He was the first European ever to do this. While Dawes was making scientific progress and surveying the stars and streets of the new colony, his relationship with Governor Arthur Phillip deteriorated. Well known to us is the area in Sydney called Dawes point, but how many have heard the story of this interesting man?
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