Episodes
Monday Mar 15, 2021
The Tiger Shark and the Tattooed Arm
Monday Mar 15, 2021
Monday Mar 15, 2021
On a quiet autumn day in 1935, a recently captured Tiger Shark on display in the swimming pool at the Coogee Palace suddenly regurgitated an entire human arm. How did the arm get there, and what does this murder mystery reveal about Sydney society during the Great Depression?
Tuesday Mar 02, 2021
The Six O'Clock Swill
Tuesday Mar 02, 2021
Tuesday Mar 02, 2021
In the 1890s the temperance movement took off across Australia. At first laughed out of the room, the coming of World War One dramatically changed public attitudes and saw the cultural centre of towns and suburbs move away from the public bar. A new, arguably less civilised, drinking culture took hold across the land and Sydneysiders had to grapple with the tension between their disposition towards authoritarianism and their love of a hard and fast drink.
Monday Feb 15, 2021
The Old Commodore of Blue's Point
Monday Feb 15, 2021
Monday Feb 15, 2021
Despite arriving as a convict in the very early years of the colony, Billy Blue went on to achieve considerable success as a ferryman and harbour master and gave his name to many locations on Sydney's North Shore. Tune it to find out more about this colourful figure and the little-known history of African-American convicts in Sydney.
Monday Feb 01, 2021
Coming Up in Season 2
Monday Feb 01, 2021
Monday Feb 01, 2021
Tune in to this week's short trailer to get yourself geared up for another season of Stories from Sydney, find out what's changed (not much) and to hear our first episode's all important clue!
Monday Aug 17, 2020
Overengineered and Underdelivered (The Story of the Great North Road)
Monday Aug 17, 2020
Monday Aug 17, 2020
Colonial Sydney was rife with grand schemes to put the town firmly on the map and in hearts and minds across the Empire. Few such schemes were as demanding, or as necessary, as the plan to build a road connecting the Parramatta, Hawkesbury and Hunter Rivers. Things didn't quite go as planned, but the present day residents of the route might just be better off for it.
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
The Hospital that Rum Built
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
The so called "Rum Hospital", which still stands on Macquarie Street, was constructed in return for exclusive rights to import rum into the young colony. How did it come to pass that rum was such an important commodity in colonial Sydney? Did this government contract exacerbate the drunken debauchery that Macquarie had been tasked with bringing under control? And was this novel contract a good deal for the government, or an absolute bonanza for the rum-importing, hospital- constructing cartel?
Monday Jul 20, 2020
From the Valley to the Gully
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Monday Jul 20, 2020
In the 19th century British settlement irreversibly altered the ecological and cultural landscape of the Burragorang Valley. For the Gandangara people of the valley, the 20th century would bring only greater pain, as Sydney's demands for water and recreation would see them displaced again and again. The 21st century brought greater recognition of the struggles of the Gandangara people of the Burragorang, but with it the threat of yet further destruction.
Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
The Last Woman Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol
Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
This week's episode follows the story of Louisa Collins, a working class woman who in 1888 saw not one but two husbands die under mysterious circumstances. During the episode, we discuss the history of the Darlinghurst Courthouse and Gaol, and touch on the struggle for female political emancipation and growing opposition to capital punishment in the late 1800s.
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
Celebrating a New Beginning Across the Blue Mountains
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
It took white Australians 25 years to find a way across the Blue Mountains, but only 10 years for a pub to open on the way down the other side. This story is about a pub that burned briefly, but burned bright, leaving an indelible mark on Australia forevermore.
Monday Jun 08, 2020
The Sydney Language and the Missing Notebooks of William Dawes
Monday Jun 08, 2020
Monday Jun 08, 2020
The notebooks of William Dawes, astronomer of the First Fleet, disappeared from public view for nearly 200 years before being uncovered in 1972. These weren’t just any old diaries, but instead contained an extensive account of the indigenous language of Sydney. This episode is about how these notebooks came to be written and then forgotten, and what we can learn from reading the conversations that Dawes recorded in them. Along the way, we too will learn a little about the local Aboriginal language of Sydney!