Welcome to the new look Dictionary of Sydney Trust page and the new home for our blog Looking Up.
The new site incorporates the Dictionary of Sydney’s organisational information, access to the Dictionary’s resources, information on our projects, and tips on ways readers can contribute to and support the Dictionary. The Dictionary itself is still found at www.dictionaryofsydney.org.
You can keep in touch with what we’re up to by subscribing to the blog and/or our quarterly newsletter, befriending us on Facebook or following our Twitter stream – just select the option from the left hand column.
Hope to see you here often!
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One of our new articles is about Sydney’s Greek communities, one of the largest and oldest groups in the city, with a venerable tradition and great pride.
Evzones (Greek soldiers) who led the Greek Day march in Sydney, 28 February 1941, Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria, ref: an016346
Panayiotis Diamadis has written for us about the Hellenes of Sydney, who hailed from all over the Mediterranean, but traced their ancestry back to Greece. There’s been a long two-way traffic between Sydney and Greece, as well. The first Greek arrivals were convicts in 1829, later pardoned, who helped start the Camden vineyards. By the end of the nineteenth century, churches and social groups were being formed, and a thriving community was taking steps to protect its language and religious traditions.
This essay covers the history of one of Sydney’s best known migrant communities, which has become an integral part of the modern city.
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The tug Hero towing Pamir to Sydney Heads, 1947 photograph by Max Dupain, National Library of Australia nla.pic-an21125310
The Dictionary never forgets that Sydney is a maritime city, and two articles in the latest batch tell stories about the ships that have plied the harbour since the Europeans arrived. Randi Svensen’s Tugboats is a lively account of this indispensable trade, which has been crucial to Sydney’s working port since 1831. A number of families worked their tugboats over generations, and built lasting businesses and reputations. Some of the tugs themselves became celebrated icons of perseverance and survival, like the Hero, a tug whose 70-year career included over 3 years underwater. Where the tugs mostly stayed inside the harbour, Sydney’s whaling fleet ranged far and wide, returning to port for processing, refitting, resupplying and leisure of many kinds. Mark Howard’s article shows just how economically important whaling was to the young city, and links the industry to many Sydney personalities and places.
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Photograph by Jill Lummis of the stained glass window in St Paul's Anglican church, Cobbitty 2011
Sydney’s always been an arty place, from the carvings and dances of the traditional owners, and the sketchbooks and pianos of the early settlers, to the art societies and chamber music of the twentieth century and beyond.
The latest addition of material to the Dictionary continues our interest in these themes. Graeme Skinner has written a clutch of entries on musicians and groups of early twentieth century Sydney. Cyril Monk and his wife and colleague Varney Monk, father and daughter George and Iris de Cairos-Rego, and Ernest Truman would have met at concerts by the Austral String Quartet and Collegium Musicum, or performances of Collits Inn, Varney Monk’s prizewinning musical.
Silas Clifford Smith has given us another piece on early twentieth century artists, the XV Independent Group of Artists, who reacted against modernism during World War II, forming their own school based on ‘craftsmanship’.
Craftsmen of a different kind built the wonderful stained glass that Sydney is so rich in. Beverley Sherry‘s essay on this art form is lavishly illustrated and comprehensive, and will make you look at the windows around you in a different light. From the windows of Sydney University’s famous Great Hall, to the stained glass at Sydney Airport, this essay shows the depth of architectural design and technical expertise that has produced Sydney’s stained glass.
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