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.

1920s · 1930s · 1932 · 20th century · Aesthetics · Bridges · Collective Memory · Commemoration · Community identity · Cultural and Heritage Tourism · Cultural Heritage · Engineering Heritage · Engineering History · Entertainment · Film · Heritage · History · Industrial Heritage · Interwar · JE Bradfield Engineer · Living History · Memory · Modernism · Monuments · Place making · Political history · Sense of place · Storytelling · Sydney · Sydney Harbour Bridge · Tourism · Transport · transport history · Uncategorized · Urban development · Urban growth · Urban history

The Sydney Harbour Bridge, an engineering marvel

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is an icon on the Sydney urban landscape. The bridge is an engineering marvel of modernism and the early 20th hope of a new nation.

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.

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.

British colonialism · Camden · Camden District · Cawdor · Cobbitty · Colonial Camden · Colonialism · Community identity · Convicts · Cowpastures · England · Farming · Floods · Heritage · Historical consciousness · Historical Research · History · Landscape aesthetics · Local History · Macarthur · Menangle · Myths · Parks · Place making · Regionalism · Royal Tours · rural-urban fringe · Sense of place · Settler colonialism · Tourism · Transport · Urban growth · Urban history · Urbanism · Volunteering

The Camden district, 1840-1973, a field of dreams

The Camden district was historically significant, serving as a social and economic center for over a century. It integrated farming, mining, and community life, shaped by Aboriginal heritage and European settlement. However, modern developments and infrastructural changes led to its decline, transitioning to a regional identity tied to Macarthur area governance and branding.

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. 

20th century · Adaptive Re-use · Aesthetics · Architecture · Attachment to place · Belonging · Burra Charter · Camden Story · Church History · Churches · Collective Memory · Commemoration · Community identity · Cultural Heritage · Elderslie · Families · Family history · Farming · First World War · Genealogy · Heritage · History · Living History · Local History · Local Studies · Memorial · Place making · Placemaking · Sense of place · St Mark's Church Elderslie · Urban development · Urban growth · Urbanism · Village · Wartime

St Mark’s Church Elderslie, the little church on the hill

St Mark's Church Elderslie tells the story of a small farming community that has disappeared through the mists of time. The history of St Mark’s church is the history of Elderslie, and the church was a special place of community celebrations and commemorations along with family celebrations, traditions, and events. The church has been a gathering place, a sacred site.