Discover who was responsible for recording North Sydney’s past
Local history is the study of communities and their places, typically suburbs, small towns or rural localities. The stories told are those of individuals and families, institutions such as schools and sporting clubs, businesses, industries, transport and public works.
The earliest local histories appeared in the journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, established as the first of its kind in the new commonwealth in 1901. In those early years, its members were not academic historians, for Australian history did not exist as a discipline to be researched and taught at university until the 1920s.
The society’s writers were not very concerned with interpretation. Their local histories were full of facts and figures. This was basic historical groundwork in a young nation still creating its foundation stories. The stories told were about who did what, where, and were less concerned with why people did them. The presence of Aboriginal people was generally given little attention, if they were mentioned at all.
In Sydney, local histories were also commissioned by local councils keen to highlight the ‘progress’ made in their areas. These books told the stories of pioneers who cleared bushland to establish farms, orchards, suburbs and industries. The Sesquicentenary of colonisation in 1938 was a great boon for such celebratory history. That year, Lane Cove Council published a ‘permanent record… of its progress and development’. North Sydney Council, too, published a work, the subtitle of which indicated its purpose: ‘History and Progress from the Earliest Settlement 1788-1938’.
Local historical societies formed as change became palpable with old places giving way to new. On the North Shore, the Manly Warringah and Pittwater Historical Society dates its beginning to 1924. But it was the rush of postwar development – with its corresponding demolitions – that prompted many more to consider what had been and what needed to be recorded. The Mosman Historical Society was formed in 1953. The Lane Cove Historical Society was established in 1962, while the Willoughby District Historical Society was formed in 1974.
In North Sydney it was the pending demolition of an 1870s sandstone house called Bell’vue to make way for a residential skyscraper called Blues Point Tower that prompted locals to establish the North Shore Historical Society. That was 1958. The society was fortunate in having as its first journal editor, the bibliophile and publisher Walter Stone. “All beginnings are difficult,” he noted with good humour. As a pioneering genealogist, Stone placed great emphasis on the publication of reminiscences and family records.
The society’s journal is still published, now with a focus on original detailed research. It also encourages the writing of work relating to North Sydney through its history prizes. There’s an open category essay for which $1,000 is paid to the winner and two school category prizes of $250 each. Entries for both categories close 1 October. Contact the Society at northshorehs@ hotmail.com for more information.
Historical Services, North Sydney Council