Stories From Sydney

Plant Stories!

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!

Bungaree

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.

Yarramundi, Colebee and Maria of the Boorooberongal clan: A Dharug Dynasty

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.

River Rocks and Where to Find Them

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

A Partial Account of Watkin Tench’s Journeys to the Hawkesbury-Nepean

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.

Bonus Episode: Following the Flow West

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!

The Tragedy of Newcastle Coal

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?

The Theosophists and the Star of Balmoral

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!

Palaces of Consumerism

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.

The War and the Wobblies

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.