Aesthetics · Art · Artists · Built heritag · Camden Council · Camden White Gum · Community identity · Cowpastures · Cultural Heritage · Cumberland Plain Woodland · Ecology · Environment · Heritage · Landscape · Landscape aesthetics · Local History · Memorials · Nepean River · Oran Park · Public art · Sense of place · Storytelling · Uncategorized

‘The Tree of Life’, public art at Camden Council Administration Offices

The art installation The Tree of Life by sculptors Gillies & Marc celebrates the endangered Camden White Gum. The sculpture is located adjacent to the entry of the Camden Council administration building at Oran Park. The work was commissioned by the council in 2016 for the opening of the new office building.

20th century · Attachment to place · Built heritag · Campbelltown · Collective Memory · Community identity · Community organisations · Community work · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · First World War · Frances Day · Local History · Macarthur region · Menangle · Military history · Patriotism · Place making · Red Cross · School of Arts · Sense of place · Storytelling · Uncategorized · Urban growth · Urban Planning · Volunteering · Volunteerism · War at home · Wartime

Menangle School of Arts hall, the heart of a village, under redevelopment

The Menangle Community Association is leading a project to replace the former Menangle School of Arts with a modern community hall.

20th century · Architecture · Art · Attachment to place · Australian Botanic Gardens Mount Annan · Belonging · Built heritag · Camden Story · Colonialism · Cultural Heritage · Design · Garden history · Gardening · Herbarium of NSW ABG · Heritage · History · Landscape · Lifestyle · Living History · Local History · Local Studies · Mount Annan · Place making · Placemaking · Plant Nursery · Plants · Public art · Sculpture · Sense of place · Storytelling · Uncategorized · Urban growth · Urban history

Botanic gardens herbarium at Mount Annan wins top architecture award

The National Herbarium of NSW at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan has been awarded the AILA 2023 NSW AILA Awards in the Health and Education Category.

1920s · 1930s · 20th century · Agriculture · Argyle Street · Attachment to place · Belonging · British colonialism · Built heritag · Camden · Camden Story · Collective Memory · Colonialism · Commemoration · Community identity · Country town · Cowpastures · Cultural Heritage · Dharawal · Historical consciousness · Historical Research · Historical thinking · Historiography · History · Legends · Local History · Local Studies · Macarthur · Memorial · Memorialisation · Memorials · Memory · Monuments · Mysteries · Myths · Newspapers · Pioneers · Place making · Regionalism · Ruralism · Sense of place · Settler colonialism · Settler Society · Small communities · Stereotypes · Storytelling · Tourism · Urban growth · Urban history · Volunteering

The Camden Story: the historiography of the history of the country town of Camden NSW

The history of telling the story of a small community has been interpreted in different ways at different times in the past by different historians. This area of study is called the historiography. I have recently published an article on the historiography of the small country town of Camden, NSW.

1968 Sydney Region Outline Plan · 1973 New Cities Campbelltown Camden Appin Structure Plan · Advertising · Attachment to place · Built heritag · Community identity · Cultural Heritage · Elderslie · Heritage · History · Land releases · Living History · Local History · Local Studies · Place making · rural-urban fringe · Storytelling · Uncategorized · Urban development · Urban growth · Urban history · Urban Planning · urban sprawl · Urbanism

Elderslie land releases 2000-2023, the background and fancy estate names

The Elderslie area has been identified in Sydney’s strategic growth plans for land releases on the metropolitan rural-urban fringe. It is a valuable exercise to see how and when Elderslie was identified as part of Sydney’s planning framework.

20th century · Architecture · Argyle Street · Built heritag · Business History · Camden Story · Camden Town Centre · Colonial Camden · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · Heritage · History · Hotel History · Hume Highway · Lifestyle · Local History · Place making · Sense of place

The Plough and Harrow Hotel: an early colonial Camden inn

The Plough and Harrow Hotel is the second oldest pub in the Camden town centre and was built in the early 1850s. The hotel is still on its original site located on the former Great South Road, later the Hume Highway, now relocated.

1920s · 1930s · Architecture · Attachment to place · Built heritag · Business History · Collective Memory · Community Health · Cultural Heritage · Design · Edwardian · Film · Foresters Hall (former) · Heritage · History · Interwar · Leisure · Living History · Local History · Local Studies · Memory · Modernism · Movies · Narellan Military Camp · Placemaking · Second World War

The former Foresters’ Hall, a marvellous Edwardian building

In Camden NSW the former Foresters’ Hall occupies one of the most prominent sites in the Town Centre on Oxley Street and Argyle Street at 147 Argyle Street. On its opening in 1908, the hall was considered the best in New South Wales by the Order of Royal Foresters.

1920s · 1930s · 1932 · 20th century · Adaptive Re-use · Aesthetics · Architecture · Argyle Street · Attachment to place · Belonging · Built heritag · Business History · Camden Story · Camden Town Centre · Collective Memory · Colonial Camden · Community identity · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · Design · Economy · Governor Macquarie · Historical consciousness · History · Interwar · Local History · Local Studies · localism · Macarthur region · Mid-century modernism · Modernism · Place making · Placemaking · Sense of place · Storytelling · Streetscapes · Town planning · Uncategorized · Urban growth · Urban history · Urbanism

 The former Bank of New South Wales building in the country town of Camden

In central Camden is an empty bank building of understated significance at the intersection of John and Argyle Streets. This building was the premises of Westpac, formerly the Bank of New South Wales, and was the second banking chamber on that site. Constructed in the 1930s by a prominent firm of local builders and designed by one of Sydney’s top award-winning architects. It is a building of much architectural merit, and few know its history. 

Adaptive Re-use · Architecture · Built heritag · Business · Churches · Community identity · Cultural Heritage · Eastern Command Training School, Narellan, NSW · Heritage · History · History of a house · House history · Local History · Local Studies · Military history · Narellan · Place making · Placemaking · Schools · Second World War · Sense of place · Storytelling · Village

Narellan’s Built Heritage

The former colonial village of Narellan originally located in the Cowpastures has some fascinating surviving built heritage.

Aesthetics · Agricultural heritage · Agriculture · Argyle Street · Attachment to place · Built heritag · Camden · Camden Airfield · Camden Show · Camden Story · Camden Town Centre · Churches · Cobbitty · Colonial Camden · Colonialism · Community identity · Country town · Cultural and Heritage Tourism · Cultural Heritage · Cumberland Plain · Farming · Floods · Heritage · History · Landscape · Living History · Local History · Local Studies · Macarthur Park · Onslow Park · Place making · Placemaking · Railway · Sense of place · Storytelling · Tourism

Camden, the best preserved country town on the Cumberland Plain

The historic town of Camden is hailed by architect Hector Abrahams as the best-preserved country town on the Cumberland Plain. Established in 1840, it offers a glimpse of Victorian and early 20th-century charm. Visitors can explore its heritage precinct, rural landscapes, historic villages, and even relive the town's aviation history.