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.

Attachment to place · Belonging · Blue Plaques · Camden Red Cross · Camden Story · Cultural Heritage · Cultural icon · First World War · Historical consciousness · History · Local History · Local Studies · Memorial · Memory · Military history · Myths · Philanthropy · Pioneers · Place making · Red Cross · Second World War · Sense of place · Storytelling · Volunteering · Volunteerism · War · War at home · Wartime · Women's history · World War One

Blue Plaque recognises Camden Red Cross sewing circle in wartime

The wartime efforts of Camden women have been recognised by the successful nomination for a New South Wales Blue Plaque with Heritage NSW. The women volunteered thousands of hours of their effort and skills to supply hospital requisites for soldiers at military hospitals.

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.

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 · 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.

Aesthetics · Architecture · Art · Artists · Attachment to place · Belonging · Community identity · Cultural icon · Design · Heritage · Living History · Local History · Memorial · Memorialisation · Memorials · Memory · Monuments · Oran Park · Oran Park Library · Oran Park Raceway · Place making · Placemaking · Sense of place · Storytelling · Urban Planning · Urbanism

Oran Park Library: public art celebrates the ghosts of motor racing

The Oran Park library has a number of public artworks that commemorate the former Oran Park motorway that was on the site. These wonderful public art installations celebrate the memories of the  Oran Park Raceway which closed in 2010.

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 Architectural Landmarks: A Journey Through Time

Narellan, named after an 1816 land grant, features historical buildings like St Thomas Church and School from the 1830s and 1880s. The village, surveyed in 1827, was one of four pre-dating Camden's establishment in 1840. Significant structures include the Narellan Hotel , the former Burton Arms Hotel and Ben Linden reflecting local heritage.

Architecture · Art · Attachment to place · Belonging · Churches · Cultural Heritage · Education · Heritage · History · Leppington · Local History · Local Studies · Memorial · Memorials · Memory · Modernism · Place making · Sculpture · Town planning · Uncategorized · welfare

Sir John Sulman Medal for Architectural Excellence in 1963 awarded for a local example of mid-century modernism

Bell Tower Park in Leppington is dedicated to the memory of the St Andrews Boys Home that was located on the site. There is a replica bell tower and a number of sculptures of young boys in the park.