Architecture · Attachment to place · Belonging · Ben Linden · Built heritag · Business History · Camden Story · Colonial Camden · Colonial frontier · Community identity · Country town · Cowpastures · Cultural and Heritage Tourism · Cultural Heritage · Domestic Architecture · Edwardian · Heritage · Heritage Walking Tours · History · Interwar · Local History · Local Studies · Macarthur region · Memory · Narellan · Narellan Built Heritage · Narellan Story · Place making · Regionalism · Residential Housing Style · rural-urban fringe · Sense of place · Storytelling · Sydney's rural-urban fringe · Tourism · Town planning · Urban development · Urban growth · Urban history · urban sprawl

Explore Narellan’s History: Heritage Walking Tour and Historic Sites

The Narellan Heritage Walking Tour, curated by local photographers Kylie and Peter Lyons, provides a fascinating exploration of the historical and architectural legacy of Narellan. This tour offers insights into the original villages predating Camden's establishment in 1840, featuring notable sites like The Old St Thomas Chapel and the Narellan Public School.

20th century · Aesthetics · Architecture · Attachment to place · Belonging · Biography · Built heritag · Camden Cottage · Camden Story · Campbelltown Art Centre · Campbelltown Mid-century modernism · Campbelltown Modern · Campbelltown Modernism · Collective Memory · Community identity · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · Domestic Architecture · Family history · History · History of a house · Hope and loss · House history · Housing · Housing styles · Lifestyle · Living History · Local History · Local Studies · Macarthur · Macarthur region · Memory · Mid-century modernism · Modernism · Peri-urban region · Placemaking · rural-urban fringe · Social History · Stereotypes · Storytelling · Symbolism · Urban development · Urban growth · Urban history · Urbanism

‘Fibro Majestic’: A Celebration of Mid-Century Housing at Campbelltown Arts Centre by Catherine O’Donnell

The "Fibro Majestic" exhibition at Campbelltown Arts Centre celebrates the historical significance of fibro housing in Australia, highlighting its role in post-war society. Artist Catherine O'Donnell's work reflects on the nostalgia, memories, and social contexts surrounding these humble structures, transforming perceptions of an architecture once deemed unattractive.

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.