Camden, the making and re-making of familiar places

WEA-RAHS Seminar Series

Understanding Places

History House, 135 Macquarie Street, Sydney

28 October 2009

Camden, the making and re-making of familiar places

Abstract

This presentation examines Sydney’s urban expansion into the local area (in Elderslie, Oran Park, South Camden), which threatens to destroy what is left of Camden’s notion of being a country town. Fact or fiction? Many in the local community desire to retain Camden’s image as a country town. Is this just a dream, or is there some reality to this idea? Many local people talk about retaining Camden’s ‘country town atmosphere’ or ‘keeping Camden country’. The town is described as ‘picturesque’ and having ‘charming cottages’. To others, Camden is a ‘working country town’ or ‘my country town’. These values and ideas are connected to the reality of trying to keep what is left of Camden as a country town. Tourist brochures use these ideas to picture idyllic rural scenes. Land developers have scenes of families frolicking in the meadows with their children. These values and ideas are based on nostalgia. They look back to the early days of Camden, when daily life in the town was uncomplicated, innocent, and genuine, with traditional rural values. When people talked to their neighbours and stopped for a chat in the street, they were based on nostalgia. Nostalgia and yearning for a lost past have been re-created in a ‘country town idyll’ in Camden, NSW today.