Flying around the boards - the bicycle velodromes of Sydney (2023) (3.4 MB)The first human-powered wheeled vehicles were a mixture of designs until settling on the penny farthing bicycle in the 1870s. This was replaced by the modern safety bicycle, which was being manufactured in Australia by 1899. Bicycle racing was undertaken on roads until the first tracks were built around ovals in Moore Park and Ashfield. By the late 1920s, timber velodromes were being constructed, bringing Australia in line with overseas track racing standards. The golden era of track cycling was the 1920s to 1930s, when huge crowds flocked to see stars like Hubert Opperman and Dunc Gray in action. While most cycling tracks have closed now, Australian cyclists continue to do well at Olympic Games and World Championships. The Legacy of religions in Sydney's inner east (2021) (3.8 MB)Christianity arrived in NSW with the First Fleet, mostly Anglican with a sizable Catholic minority of Irish convicts. Other denominations followed and were given official recognition from 1835. Schools, hospitals and welfare services were needed, and in the absence of State-run institutions, the churches took on these responsibilities. Colonial Governments eventually adopted a model of charity-based services subsidised by the State, which largely continues today. The Catholic Church remains a significant provider of education, and the Salvation Army and Mission Australia are leading providers of welfare to the needy. Cabbage trees and rabbits: the history of hat-making in Sydney (2022) (3.0 MB)When the first Europeans arrived in Sydney in 1788, it was soon obvious that their caps and narrow-brimmed hats could not cope with the fierce summer sun. The local cabbage tree palm leaves were utilised to fashion wide-brimmed straw hats, creating the colony's first cottage industry. Felt hats made from rabbit fur, available in great abundance, became a major industry in an era when everyone wore a hat. By the 1950s, hat-wearing was losing popularity and many factories closed, but Akubra and Mountcastle have survived, and continue to supply the Army's famous slouch hats. Making the music - Sydney piano manufacturing history (2024) (3.9 MB)Pianos have always been a part of the social life of the Australian colonies, starting with the piano brought out on the First Fleet. Before long, pianos and sheet music were being imported from England, and from 1835 local manufacturing and music publishing industries were established. By the end of the 19th century, 700,000 pianos had been imported, gracing almost every school, hospital, church, town hall and mining camp. Owning a piano became a status symbol for middle-class gentility and prosperity. Piano manufacturing survived the challenges of two economic Depressions, two World Wars, player pianos, radio and the Australian climate, but finally succumbed to the advent of television in the late 1950s. Today only two prominent piano makers are active in Sydney. Cooling the city - the history of refrigeration in Sydney (2025) (4.4 MB)Until the nineteenth century, perishable food could only be preserved by traditional methods such as dehydration, fermentation or natural refrigeration. Sydney's first ice was transported from Boston in the 1830s, and by the 1840s chemical refrigeration was used to make ice cream. But industrial-scale refrigeration required mechanical methods, which were invented by James Harrison in Geelong in the 1850s. The visionary businessman Thomas Mort funded experiments from the 1860s to develop the refrigeration equipment for an export trade in frozen meat. This became a reality after Mort's death in the late 1870s, heralding a new era of prosperity for graziers and dairy farmers. In time, air conditioning, ice skating and mass-produced ice cream became part of Sydney's daily life. Smoke and Ladders - firefighting in early Sydney (2025) (5.8 MB)Sydney's first fire brigades were formed in the 1830s by the newly established insurance companies. Eventually a diverse group of volunteer brigades sprang up in the city and suburbs, some of them formed to protect uninsurable buildings such as theatres, breweries and printing presses. But as the number of brigades grew, so did conflict over lack of coordination at fire sites, and access to scarce resources such as fireplugs and ladders. Legislation in 1884 finally regulated the brigades and established a single point of control and a permanent professional fire service. Epidemics and public health policy in New South Wales (2026) (2.8 MB)Medical care was in the hands of private doctors or hospitals in the early colony of NSW. Public health measures did not exist but were gradually triggered by the increasingly serious epidemics of infectious diseases, from measles and scarlet fever in children to the more deadly smallpox and bubonic plague, culminating in Spanish flu in 1919, the deadliest epidemic of all. The traditional miasma theory of disease transmission slowly gave way to modern germ theory and better identification of causative pathogens, resulting in better policies for the management of epidemics. John W. Ross. |
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