NOVEMBER 2022

Saturday 12th at 2:00pm

Historian Warren Fahey presents a talk on his new book, Dead and Buried

Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required | COVID rules apply

Cemeteries hold fascinating stories and Sydney’s three main early cemeteries - The Old Burial Ground on George Street, Devonshire Street Sandhill’s Cemetery and the grand Rookwood Necropolis - all played roles in the story of the city. These are tales of notable and ordinary people, the high and the low, and the good, bad and the ugly. There are also stories of architecture, sculpture, religious practices, and the ever-changing attitude to burial and remembrance.

Dead & Buried illustrates how the three early cemeteries evolved. These are by no means morbid stories. They present a slice of Sydney’s early days with tales of sensational murders, tragedies and disasters, diversity, and, at the same time, celebrate poets and politicians, artists and dreamers.

 

DECEMBER 2022

Saturday 10th December at 2:00pm

Random, different and interesting!! Stories from three of our members- they always surprise us!!

Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required

From Hat Factory to Home: the story of a Surry Hills building Speaker: Angela Phippen

Angela tells the story of one of the interesting old buildings in the Eastern Suburbs.One of the many survivors with a little known history, once an important industry in Sydney

 

 

 

 

"Australia’s First WW1 Casualties" Speaker: John Brooks

 

We have all grown up with the stories of how many casualties Australia had from our participation in WW1. To most people, April 1915 marks the start of losses from the Gallipoli campaign rolling on to France and the Somme. But a stranger story marks the earlier loss of lives of Australians on New Year’s Day 1915.

 

 

 

 

"A Close Encounter of the Scary Kind" Speaker: Celeste Radcliffe

 

A lifetime of scuba diving and surfing has left Celeste Radcliffe with many tales to tell of her underwater explorations in the early days of scuba diving in the1960’s. Not everyone is brave enough to venture there! You will be surprised and fascinated

 

 

 

JANUARY 2023

Saturday 14th at 2:00pm

Non-Convicts of the First Fleet

Speaker - Kerima-Gae Topp

Venue: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Sydney Mechanics of Arts, 280 Pitt Street
Admission: Members $5 Visitors $10
No bookings required | COVID rules apply

This presentation was put together after hearing a ‘heated’ conversation where one person insisted that there were hundreds more convicts on the First Fleet than others, which only included Governor Arthur Phillip and a few sailors! Plus, other than the Governor, who remembers any of the other non-convicts? They just came and went, and we have very little reminders of them today!

Definitely not true. With actually more non-convicts than convicts on the First Fleet; Kerima-Gae Topp has selected a few ‘non-convicts’ and highlighted their contribution- mainly good - to those early days of British settlement here and what remainders still exist today. She will also highlight how they became involved with the First Fleet, some very reluctantly at first. You may be amazed at the early age one couple first became involved with seafaring and you may also be surprised at another two, who held very important roles in these early days of settlement, could have killed each other!