1. The Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Iris Webber: 'the most violent woman in Sydney'

size-full wp-image-10596 'Sensational Incidents At Holmes Shooting Inquest', Truth in Sydney, 13 May 1945.National Library of Australia [news-article169358891 via Trove] (Truth, 13 May 1945, p16) http://trust.dictionaryofsydney.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Iris.jpg300183/>
'Sensational Incidents At Holmes Shooting Inquest', Truth in Sydney, 13 May 1945. National Library of Australia. News-article169358891 via Trove. Truth, 13 May 1945, p16.
The Dictionary of Sydney has some new content! When you think of Sydney’s dangerous crime queens of the 1920s-30s, the names Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh might come to mind. But there was another woman who earned a reputation as ‘the most violent woman in Sydney’. Her name was Iris Webber - a petty thief and sly grog seller who allegedly carried a knuckleduster and became famous for her dramatic courtroom appearances. I spoke with Nic Healey on 2SER Breakfast about Fiona McGregor's fascinating new article in the Dictionary. Iris Eileen Mary Shingles was born in Bathurst in 1906. She married Edwin Webber in Warwick, Queensland in 1925. In 1932, Iris Webber was placed on remand for two and half months after she shot her husband in the buttocks with her pea rifle. She was acquitted because her husband refused to testify. By 1933, Iris was living in Glebe and two years later in Surry Hills, at the time described as a ‘locality frequented by drinkers of methylated spirits and criminals of the worst type’. Just minutes from her abode was the beerhouse of the sly grog queen, Kate Leigh, and even closer lived gangster Bill Smillie, who had served five years in prison for a vicious slashing while working for Kate Leigh. Next door was Kathleen McLennan and her close friend, the prostitute Maisie Matthews, who became Iris’s lover. Bill Smillie, who was also romantically linked with Matthews, was found bleeding on Elizabeth Street one night. He had been shot in each thigh with a repeating rifle owned by Iris. Though McLennan claimed responsibility, claims arose after the case collapsed that the assailant was actually Iris. In the end, Smillie refused to testify; humiliated, he claimed he was shot by a man. In 1936 Iris spent time at the State Reformatory for Women in Long Bay for minor charges. The following year she was charged for the murder of Alfred (Slim) Maley, another lover of Matthews. Again, Iris used a pea rifle, but was acquitted after spending six weeks on remand. From 1938 Iris was arrested five times for busking, and in 1940 she was placed on remand for a mugging and spent over a year in gaol for assault. After that point, she sacked her lawyer and began conducting her own legal defence developing an aptitude for legalese. She was described by the pioneering policewoman, Lilian Armfield, as having a ‘brilliant brain’. During the early 1940s, Iris was selling sly-grog from her house in Woolloomooloo and was raided eight times in six months. She was placed on remand for assaulting Jackie Hodder, a standover man and feared street fighter. Hodder had gone to Iris’s house to extort her before she attacked him with a tomahawk. Hodder withdrew the charges, yet another of Iris’s victims to claim he was attacked by a man. After this incident, Iris married 65-year-old labourer George Furlong, perhaps to avert attention from her sexuality, something the police had noted, saying she was ‘practising the perversion on lesbianism’. While in gaol for selling sly grog, she filed for a divorce and after her release, she was back in Woolloomooloo with her new lover, Vera May Sariwee. They were both embroiled in a court case; Iris was charged with assaulting a men with a tomahawk while her lover, Vera, attacked his friend. They were both acquitted as the men did not turn up to give evidence. In her final years, Iris was considered one of the personalities of Sydney. Her dramatic and successful courtroom appearances, accordion playing, violent streak and the fact that she was openly lesbian, secured her notoriety. Her last recorded conviction was in 1952 for contempt of court, after which she died a year later. You can listen to a podcast of my segment with Nic at 2SER Breakfast here. Tune in again next week for more of Sydney’s history courtesy of the Dictionary of Sydney, on 107.3 at 8:20am. Don’t miss it!
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Iris Webber
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Sydney as Inspiration for Art and Design

Waratahs in staircase window at St Cloud, Burwood. By Douglass Baglin. Contributed by Private collection. By kind permission of the Baglin estate.
There is a great exhibition currently showing at the State Library of NSW called 'Inspiration by Design'. It is an international exhibition, touring from the acclaimed Victoria and Albert Museum in London, that that showcases some of the world’s finest book art, graphics, photography and illustration. Alongside this exhibition, the State Library has curated a smaller display called 'Australian Inspiration' which draws upon the Library's amazing collections to demonstrate how the waratah, the koala and the Sydney Opera House have become sources of inspiration and design. This got me thinking: Sydney's landscape, its flora and fauna has been an inspiration for design for thousands of years. We have many articles in the Dictionary of Sydney which touch upon the artistic endeavours of Sydneysiders and the inspiration that Sydney has provided for artistic expression. The sandstone country of the Sydney coastline provided platforms for Aboriginal rock engravings and art which depict local fauna such as whales, sharks, fish, birds and animals. You can read about rock carvings in Bondi and Manly, as well as their contribution to our understanding of Aboriginal life in Sydney before invasion. Artists' camps flourished around Sydney Harbour, mainly in the Mosman area, in the 1880s and 1890s, dying out after the first decade of the twentieth century. They developed as a result of the enthusiasm for plein-air painting. Robin Tranter provides a wonderful overview of the camps that hosted artists including Livingston Hopkins, Julian Ashton, Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton. Beverley Sherry has written a fascinating article about Stained Glass in Sydney, which is illustrated with stunning photos that really pop on the computer screen. An integral part of Sydney's nineteenth-century architectural heritage, stained glass was a medium where artists displayed their visions of the colony's future. Sydney life and ambitions are depicted in all sorts of ways. Lucien Henry was one designer who designed some stunning stained glass windows for Sydney Town Hall. He came to Sydney in the nineteenth century after being freed from incarceration in New Caledonia for his revolutionary activities in the Paris Commune. He made a new life in Sydney as an artist, teacher and an advocate for native Australian motifs in the decorative arts. He was a particular fan of the waratah. Margaret Flockton made an enormous contribution to early Australian botanical illustration and taxonomy in her role as the first botanical illustrator at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. Margaret's patience, passion for nature and rendering detail matched perfectly with her unique and valuable skills as a lithographer, as hundreds of botanically accurate drawings, lithographs and coloured sketches attest. Flockton is a relative unknown, but she should be a household name! Her work was extremely important in documenting our native wildflowers, among other plants, and the botanic gardens has over 1000 illustrations by her in their archive. We have a beautiful drawing of waratahs illustrating our article in the Dictionary. If you want to explore the Dictionary of Sydney's resources in relation to artistic design a little bit more, have a look at the following subject listings which list articles, images and people of artistic interest: And if you're into graphic design and illustration, then check out the exhibitions at the State Library of NSW. They're free and open for just another couple of weeks, until 27 September. Don't miss out. If you missed Lisa's segment on 2ser with Mitch this morning you can catch up here. Tune in next Wednesday morning for more Sydney history courtesy of the Dictionary and 2SER on 107.3 at 8:15am.
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Arthur Streeton
artists camps
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Julian Ashton
Livingston Hopkins
Lucien Henry
Margaret Flockton
Tom Roberts

Our Volunteers

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OUR VOLUNTEERS

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The Dictionary of Sydney relies on a passionate team of volunteers to assist us in our work. Our volunteers have an extraordinary range of talents and skills they bring to the Dictionary and we are extremely grateful to them for their hard work and dedication.

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The Dictionary has more than 400 volunteer authors who give their work to the project. A full list of authors published to date can be found here.

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The Dictionary also has agreements with a range of institutions and individuals that allow us to use material from their collections in the Dictionary. A full list of these institutions and collections can be found here.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label="Row" _builder_version="3.25" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_divider show_divider="off" admin_label="Divider" _builder_version="3.23.4" height="20px" hide_on_mobile="on" disabled_on="on|on|off"][/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure="1_4,1_4,1_4,1_4" admin_label="Row" _builder_version="3.25" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat"][et_pb_column type="1_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_team_member admin_label="NICOLE" _builder_version="3.0.87" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]Nicole Cama Nicole Cama is a professional historian, curator and content strategist specialising in public history and the history of the Sydney area. Nicole's many areas of research include World War I, maritime history, intellectual property and family history research. She is the Executive Officer of the History Council of NSW. You can read her Dictionary entries here, and hear her on Wednesday mornings on 2SER presenting the Dictionary of Sydney's weekly radio segment. [/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_team_member admin_label="Lisa" _builder_version="3.0.87" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]Dr Lisa Murray Dr Lisa Murray is the Historian of the City of Sydney and the former Chair of the Dictionary of Sydney board. Her most recent book, Sydney Cemeteries: A Field Guide was the winner of a 2017 National Trust Heritage Award.  You can read her entries on the Dictionary here, and hear her on Wednesday mornings on 2SER presenting the Dictionary of Sydney's weekly radio segment. [/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_team_member admin_label="CATIE" _builder_version="3.0.87" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]Dr Catie Gilchrist Dr Catie Gilchrist has an MA in History from The University of Glasgow, an MA in Women’s History, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, from The University of London, and a PhD in convict history from Sydney University. As well as entries for the Dictionary, Catie writes many of the Dictionary's book reviews. [/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_team_member admin_label="neil" _builder_version="3.0.87" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]Dr Neil Radford Neil joined the Dictionary team in July 2012. He is a librarian with qualifications from the Universities of Sydney, NSW and Chicago. He has worked in the libraries of the Universities of Sydney and Chicago, and has taught librarianship at the University of Illinois and in Tasmania. He was University Librarian at the University of Sydney 1980-1996. He indexes scholarly books for academic colleagues and has indexed three 19th century local newspapers for Leichhardt Library. Neil's expertise in relation to the application of the Dictionary's subject terms has been invaluable. His entries for the Dictionary can be read here.   [/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label="Row" _builder_version="3.25" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_divider show_divider="off" admin_label="Divider" _builder_version="3.23.4" height="20px" hide_on_mobile="on" disabled_on="on|on|off"][/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure="1_4,1_4,1_4,1_4" admin_label="Row" _builder_version="3.25" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat"][et_pb_column type="1_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_team_member admin_label="Ross" _builder_version="3.0.87" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]Ross Coleman Ross joined the Dictionary team as a volunteer in 2015, after having been an early Dictionary of Sydney Trust board member. He is an independent librarian who was formerly the Director of Collections, Digital & eScholarship Services at the University of Sydney.

  [/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_team_member admin_label="KAREN" _builder_version="3.0.87" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]Karen Bryant Karen is a retired educator and editor. After teaching English and ESL in the secondary and adult sectors she worked for many years in educational resources development for TAFE and schools as a project manager and content developer and in quality assurance including editing. Karen joined the Dictionary as a volunteer editor in 2015. [/et_pb_team_member][et_pb_team_member admin_label="DAVID" _builder_version="3.0.87" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" disabled="on" disabled_on="on|on|on"]David Morgan David Morgan is a consulting research historian with an MA in History from the University of Sydney. For the City of Sydney History Unit he researched and wrote the historical walking tour maps ‘Passion’ (Kings Cross/Potts Point), ‘Port’ (Pyrmont), ‘Preservation’ (Glebe) and ‘Parade’ (Oxford Street). His book The Australian Miscellany was a collection of facts, figures and stories about Australia and its history. His blog ‘A Sydney Anthology’ explores the city’s history though its art and literature. [/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_team_member admin_label="Margo" _builder_version="3.0.87" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]Dr Margo Beasley Dr Margo Beasley is a consultant public historian. She was also the City of Sydney's Oral Historian until 2015 and has conducted many of the interviews available on the Dictionary. Her books include Wharfies: the History of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, The Sweat of their Brows: One hundred years of the Sydney Water Board 1888-1988 and The Missos A history of the Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union. You can read her entries for the Dictionary here. Margo joined the Dictionary team as a volunteer in 2015.

  [/et_pb_team_member][et_pb_team_member admin_label="TRUDY" _builder_version="3.0.87" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" disabled="on" disabled_on="on|on|on"]Trudy Holdsworth Trudy is a retired legal secretary whose hobby is history. She was the inaugural president of the City of Sydney Historical Association Inc and is currently the Secretary/Vice Chairman of the Friends of the First Government House Site Inc. Trudy also has an interest in public speaking and has given talks to various organisations about the Dictionary of Sydney.  [/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_team_member admin_label="MICHAELA" _builder_version="3.0.87" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" use_border_color="off" border_color="#f16524" border_style="dotted" disabled="on" disabled_on="on|on|on"]Michaela Cameron Michaela is an historian of sound  and PhD candidate in the University of Sydney History department. She has additional research interests in the convict experience in Colonial Parramatta, Sydney, Australia and the heritage sites associated with that history, such as The Parramatta Female Factory  Follow her on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/sydneyhistory [/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label="Row" _builder_version="3.25" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_divider show_divider="off" admin_label="Divider" _builder_version="3.23.4" height="25px" hide_on_mobile="on" disabled_on="on|on|off"][/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_fullwidth_image src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/slnsw.dxd.dc.prod.dos.prod.assets/home-dos-files/2015/06/COSA_1888-City-of-Sydney-Birdseye-view_CROP_centre2.jpg" admin_label="Fullwidth Image" _builder_version="3.0.87" animation="off" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"][/et_pb_fullwidth_image][et_pb_row admin_label="Row" _builder_version="3.25" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" _builder_version="4.0.5" text_font_size="10" background_size="initial" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" text_orientation="right" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" global_module="11276" saved_tabs="all"]

Detail from MS Hill's 1888 map 'The City of Sydney',  a birds-eye view over the city looking to the south and west across Darling Harbour. http://dictionaryofsydney.org/image/97526

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History Week 2015: War, Nationalism and Identity

Women lay wreaths on the wharf at Woolloomooloo where the WW I troops departed, c1931. By Hood, Ted. From the collection of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, hood_02026 / Home and Away 2026
History Week has been going for 18 years and there will be many interesting events being held in Sydney and across NSW with the theme: ‘War, Nationalism and Identity’. One of the key issues being discussed is how Australians commemorate war. For instance, did you know Australia is spending more money on its World War I commemorations than any other nation? I delved into the Dictionary of Sydney to see how war has impacted Sydney and how we remember it today, and spoke about it with Mitch on 2SER Breakfast. There are a couple of interesting articles of note in the Dictionary. In her article ‘Women and World War I’, Catie Gilchrist notes that although there was initial widespread support for the war, some women joined anti-war, anti-conscription and peace movements. They established organisations such as the Women’s Peace Army and Sisterhood of International Peace, and led organised rallies and demonstrations. One of their protest songs, the most common sung at anti-conscription rallies, is worth reciting here:
I didn’t raise my son to be a soldier, I brought him up to be my pride and joy, Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder, To kill some other mother’s soldier boy? The nations ought to arbitrate their quarrels, It’s time to put the sword and gun away...
The lyrics to this song were banned by legislation introduced by the government, however this did not deter women from singing it at their rallies. Another one of the Dictionary’s contributors, Neil Radford, has written articles on war memorials. He notes that more than 60,000 Australians died during World War I, and of those only one body, that of Major-General Sir William Throsby Bridges, was returned to Australia. So in a way, the war memorial movement sprung up for a very practical reason - families had no graves to visit and needed a site where the names of their loved ones were inscribed and it is no surprise that today there are many examples in public spaces and buildings across the country that include a memorial with the names of those who served. But some of these modes of commemoration were produced during the war for an additional purpose. In churches, schools, town halls, sporting clubs and other public buildings across the country, honour rolls were created to display the names of the local men in the community who had enlisted. Although designed to honour these individuals, in some cases it was also used as a recruitment tool to encourage others to enlist. For History Week, my fellow Dictionary of Sydney 2SER guest historian Dr Lisa Murray will be taking a tour of the memorials and honour rolls of Redfern and Waterloo this Saturday (12 September), with a morning tea starting at Waterloo Library. Make sure you book online, head over to the History Week website for more details. Also, I worked on two mini World War I exhibitions with the City of Sydney, and they will be showing over the next month at Surry Hills Library and Customs House Library, so be sure to check those out too. Speaking of honour rolls and war memorials, I’ve recently been researching an honour roll which was initially placed in the Ultimo Presbyterian Church in 1916. There is an interesting story behind the honour roll itself, but just as fascinating are the stories behind the 36 names listed on its wooden panels. There is one name, which remains a mystery - E Scranchki. If anyone has any information they can share which may shed some light on E Scranchki’s identity, get in touch with us! In the meantime, enjoy History Week 2015! You can listen to a podcast of my segment with Mitch at 2SER Breakfast here. Tune in again next week for more of Sydney’s history courtesy of the Dictionary of Sydney, on 107.3 at 8:20am. Don’t miss it!
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history week
sydney history
war
women
World War I
WWI
WWI Centenary

Adventures in Stationery

Book cover for James Ward: Adventures in Stationery, Profile Books, 2015. ISBN 978-1846686-160. RRP $19.99 pp1-280
James Ward: Adventures in Stationery, Profile Books, 2015. ISBN 978-1846686-160. RRP $19.99 pp1-280
Review by Neil Radford James Ward: Adventures in Stationery, Profile Books, 2015. ISBN 978-1846686-160. RRP $19.99 pp1-280   James Ward is obsessively enthusiastic about stationery. His favourite place on the internet is the Early Office Museum (www.officemuseum.com) and when on holidays he likes to visit such sights as the 7m tall paper clip statue in Norway, and the Pencil Museum in the UK to gaze in awe at the world’s longest pencil (7.9m). One doesn’t need this level of enthusiasm about stationery to find his book unexpectedly fascinating, a trivia buff’s treasure trove. Ward has researched the history of every conceivable stationery item and presents their stories in an often amusing way, ideal for the layperson who need not delve too deeply into the technicalities of, say, the evolving design of paper clips or the different types of fountain pen nibs. The secrets of paper clips, pens, pencils and their sharpeners, erasers, rulers, adhesive tape, staplers, the Post-it Note and others are all revealed. My favourite stationery item must be the combination ruler, letter weigher, magnifying glass, compass, protractor, spirit level and set square (advertised as 'the Xmas gift that’s different'. Adventures in Stationery would be a different Xmas gift for that special friend who yearns to know that in 1949 Biro produced a ballpoint pen with a built-in cigarette lighter, or that by tradition the Director of MI6 always signs his correspondence in green ink. Dr Neil Radford is a retired librarian (former Sydney University Librarian 1980-1996) and a volunteer and contributor for the Dictionary of Sydney. Neil's articles for the Dictionary include The beginnings of Anzac Day commemorations in Sydney, War Memorials for World War I, War Memorials for the Sudan and Boer Wars, and War Memorials to World War II and later conflicts.
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Lucy Frost, Abandoned Women: Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas

Lucy Frost, Abandoned Women: Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2015, ISBN 978-1-76029-026-9, RRP $22.99, pp 1-231
Review by Dr Catie Gilchrist Lucy Frost, Abandoned Women: Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2015, ISBN 978-1-76029-026-9, RRP $22.99, pp 1-231 Lucy Frost’s most recent book, Abandoned Women: Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas follows the lives of women convicted of crime in Scotland and who were subsequently transported to Van Diemen’s Land on the convict transport ship the Atwick in 1838. Remarkably, Scottish women constituted 78 out of the 151 women transported on this ship and yet relatively little attention has been given to them by historians. The book skillfully weaves these women’s pre-transportation lives together with their experiences as convicts in the colony and, for those that left paper trails behind them, their subsequent lives as free women. The story starts in Scotland in the 1830s and paints a bleak and stark picture of life for poor and mostly unskilled women. Most of the women we meet in the book were transported for stealing, often a crime of desperation by vulnerable women struggling to survive life in the newly industrializing cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. Many were born in rural Scotland and the transition to the cities had proved fraught and difficult. Some were married with children, others were single mothers, many more were friendless lonely teenagers with little choice but to live off their wits and find shelter and food by whatever means necessary. What is truly remarkable about their stories is the fact that these women’s experiences after they arrived in Van Diemen’s Land were many and varied and the book charts the ups and downs of their lives in the convict colony. Some languished soon after arrival and died in the Female Factories; others were spirited and unruly and refused to conform to colonial ideals of femininity. Many of these women would be assigned to colonial masters and they would spend years oscillating between service in assignment and being sent back to the Female Factory as punishment for some small misdemeanor which had offended their masters – usually for ‘disorderly conduct’ which often alluded to drinking and swearing in the case of convict women. And yet some women of the Atwick like Elizabeth Williamson were assigned to decent masters and served out their sentences with no further offences recorded on their records. Within three years Elizabeth was granted her ticket of leave which enabled her to work for wages and eventually marry. She married twice and remarkably, twenty three years after her arrival as a convict in Van Diemen’s Land, she left the colony as a wealthy widow and sailed back to London. Her story is a reminder that transportation brought opportunities as well as punishment for women exiled from their homelands. Yet many other women and their children were not so fortunate. By 1841 eight of the Scottish women had died; many more would turn to alcohol to cope with their forced exile which often brought them into trouble and some ended their lives as alcoholic vagrants. Others would resist the authorities from the start. Within fifteen months of her arrival on board the Atwick, Ann Martin from Edinburgh had been brought before the authorities no less than ten times. Her convict record would eventually run to twenty two charges of resisting the convict system. Mary Sheriff was similarly a troublesome prisoner for the authorities and her original sentence of seven years transportation would be extended by another six years as she moved in and out of the colonial penal institutions for various offences against the system. Perhaps the most unexplored aspect of convict women’s lives in Australia’s convict historiography is their children. Prior to conviction some children witnessed their mother’s crimes; others were born in prison. Some were left behind in Scotland never to see their wayward mothers again. Other convict women brought their children out with them on the Atwick and fought tooth and nail to hold onto them.  Perhaps more shockingly to contemporary readers, a few convict women brought their children with them and then abandoned them in the colony’s orphan schools; they had no desire to ever retrieve them or even acknowledge their existence once new lives had been forged upon freedom from their penal sentences. This is a rather distressing side of convict women’s lives yet the author writes with both sympathy and nuance - testimony to her abilities as a researcher and author. Many convict women eventually became free and married. Again their experiences varied from those who married violent and abusive men to others who went on to have long and prosperous relations. In both categories many lost children from infant and toddler deaths; others would live to see extended families and grandchildren grow up. Indeed in 1888, the year of centenary in New South Wales and fifty years after the Atwick first unloaded its dubious cargo on the shores of Van Diemen’s Land, at least thirteen of the women were still alive; seven of the Scottish women and six of the English. And this is perhaps the essence of this book – a remarkable human story of life and resilience, survival and struggle in the Nineteenth Century. In 1838 Margaret Alexander (eventually Boothman), an illiterate teenager from Stirling arrived on the Atwick having been transported for theft. When she died aged 93 years in December 1912, she had prospered in so many ways; as the wife of a pioneer farmer and as a respected pillar of the community.  She had also left a signed will. And as the author reminds us of these women, ‘none of them had achieved notable success in the eyes of the world, and yet even to have attained what we might call the ordinary comforts of daily life is quite impressive, given the difficulties with which they began’. Lucy Frost has written a meticulously researched, richly detailed and utterly convincing book. You really get to know these women by the closing chapters. Both the writing and the stories are so compelling this reviewer would like to suggest that this book would make a fabulous television drama. In using a wide variety of contemporary sources – from Scottish criminal trial records and petitions sent to the home office, to colonial convict indents, marriage, burial and orphan school records, the author has beautifully brought to life the lives of the Scottish women of the Atwick. This book will appeal to a wide audience – from academic historians to general readers of history, women’s studies and Australian studies. It will also greatly delight readers who enjoyed reading about other ships bringing convict women to the shores of Australia, most notably Sian Rees’, The Floating Brothel and Babette Smith’s A Cargo of Women: Susannah Watson and the Convicts of the Princess Royal. Catie Gilchrist has an MA in History from The University of Glasgow, an MA in Women's History from Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, The University of London and a PhD in convict history from Sydney University. Catie has written extensively for the Dictionary including  Forty years of the Elsie Refuge for Women and Children, William Chidley at Speakers Corner, World War I and the Peace Society in Sydney, The Empress Hotel, Redfern and Harriet and Helena Scott. Catie lectures in history in the Department of History at Sydney University and has worked on a variety of academic history projects.
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Randwick Racecourse

Royal Randwick Racecourse 1948. Contributed by City of Sydney Archives, SRC11917
Since it is the start of spring, and the spring racing carnival is getting underway, I thought we should take a look at the history of Randwick Racecourse. Randwick Racecourse is older than you might think. A race track was first laid out there using convict labor in the 1830s. It was called the Sandy Course when it first opened, as the topography was completely sandy. Racing began in the autumn of 1833 and lasted until 1838. After that racing went out to Homebush but returned to Randwick twenty years later in 1858. By this stage the Australian Jockey Club (AJC) had been formed to regulate horse racing and oversee meets. The first race meeting was held on 29–31 May 1860, with a first-day crowd of over 6,000. The course was still pretty sandy and in the middle of nowhere - as watercolours and photographs from the 1860s and 1870s show. Randwick racecourse began to draw huge crowds after the trams were extended to Alison Road, bringing bettors from distant suburbs. It was the first extension of the Sydney tramway system outside the city boundary. Opened in time for the Spring Carnival in 1880, by 1900 the system was so popular that a dedicated tramway loop station was built to serve the racecourse alone. At their peak the trams carried a record 117,480 passengers in 664 tram cars on one day in 1934. Much of the colour of the race day meetings has been provided, not only by the action on the track, but by the spectators and the on-course bookmakers. 'Banjo' Patterson was a racing enthusiast. He wrote a weekly racing column for the Sydney Mail , and published at least one verse, 'The Oracle' (1917), on the Randwick races. Randwick Racecourse has been used for many special events, such as the landing in Sydney by Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm in their aircraft the Southern Cross in 1928, following their trans-Pacific flight from the USA. It has hosted concerts, social outings and religious gatherings, including the Billy Graham crusades, and the visit of Pope John Paul II, in 1995, when he beatified Mary McKillop. It was also a military site during the world wars. Speaking of wars, that reminds me that I should remind you all that History Week starts this coming weekend. It runs from 5-13 September and there are many events, exhibitions and talks exploring the theme War, Nationalism and Identity. You can find out about all the event at their website here. So get out there and celebrate history in all its guises. If you missed Lisa’s segment this morning, you can catch up here. Don’t forget to listen in next week on 2SER Breakfast with Mitch Byatt to hear more Sydney history.  
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Long Bay prison

Entry for Kate Leigh in State Reformatory for Women, Long Bay Photographic Description Book, 1915. Contributed by State Records New South Wales, NRS 2496, No 188, 3/6007
Long Bay prison opened 106 years ago this month and saw some of Sydney’s most notorious underworld figures incarcerated within its walls. I spoke to Mitch on 2SER Breakfast this morning about its history... The Long Bay prison complex is significant as the only prison in Australia to be planned with separate prisons for men and women. After it opened in August 1909, it was our state’s principal prison complex for over 80 years. It is situated on a coastal ridge of the south-eastern beachside suburb, Malabar, and was designed by Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon in accordance with the views of the English prison reformer of the 1770s, John Howard. He believed prisons should be located away from town centres, on the rise of hill and exposed to the elements. Priority was given to the female reformatory and construction began in 1901. When it opened, the new block, with its Federation Gothic entrance, was praised as one of the few purpose-designed women’s prisons in the world. The daily average occupancy was 124 female inmates, growing to its peak of 199 in 1916. Two recurrent inmates were the famous crime queens of the razor gangs, Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh. By 1937, there were only 42 occupants in the 276-cell women’s section. The male penitentiary was the first gaol in New South Wales to cater especially for petty offenders. Though it was less elaborate that the female reformatory, it took longer to complete and was opened in 1914. It consisted of six two-storey cell wings, a debtors’ prison, workshop, hospital and observation ward. For the first time, attention was paid to prisoners’ amenities, with cell sizes, electric lighting, ventilation sources and sanitary facilities. A baker’s oven was installed in 1915, beginning a long tradition of bread-making at Long Bay! There was a an electrified line from 1906 installed to convey materials to the site and until 1950, prisoners were conveyed in compartmented prison cars directly from Darlinghurst police station to the 'birdcages' at the entrance block in Long Bay. By the 1920s, the facility was overcrowded and these problems continued until well into the 1960s when it was found that 1,244 prisoners were confined to an area suitable for 815. From 1968 work began in secret on a maximum security block to be called Katingal. It was designed to eliminate physical contact between inmates and staff and also between inmates and the outside environment. Despite this strict new block, inmates still managed to escape or riot and eventually a Royal Commission was held in 1978 which recommended closure of the facility. Since the 1980s, additional facilities have been introduced at Long Bay as well as a series of name changes. And enhanced security technology including motion detectors and video surveillance were installed, but this still has not completely stopped inmates from escaping. In January 2006, maximum security prisoner Robert Cole escaped from Long Bay by losing weight, removing bricks from his hospital gaol cell and squeezing his way through the gap in the brick wall! Read Terri McCormack's article here. You can listen to a podcast of my segment with Mitch at 2SER Breakfast here. Tune in again next week for more of Sydney’s history courtesy of the Dictionary of Sydney, on 107.3 at 8:20am. Don’t miss it!
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Sydney's 'pissoirs' and public lavatories

Black and white photograph of public lavatory in Taylor Square, Sydney, taken about 1934. Men's convenience, Taylor Square c1934. Contributed by City of Sydney Archives 02020262, NSCA CRS 538, Cleansing Department photographs, 1929-1939
 

It’s a thing we all need, take for granted and is perhaps one of the more awkward topics to discuss, but when did Sydney first see public lavatories in its streets? I spoke to Mitch about it on 2SER Breakfast this morning, exploring Christa Ludlow's fascinating entry, Public Lavatories,  in the Dictionary of Sydney. During the late nineteenth century social concerns were raised about public respectability, health and hygiene, and certain undesirable behaviour was being witnessed in Sydney’s streets. It was not uncommon to see men urinating in public because of an absence of public toilets throughout the city. A number of urinals or ‘pissoirs' were installed in busy spots in the city during the 1880s, they were above ground and quite flimsy! One of these pissoirs can be seen today in The Rocks, underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was originally located on Observatory Hill. When bubonic plague hit Sydney in 1900, it became clear that many houses in the city’s inner urban areas had faulty sewerage connections and others had none at all and relied on earth closets and cesspits. The first underground public loo (for men only) opened on 24 May 1901 in Moore Street, between Pitt and Castlereagh streets. There were others on Darlinghurst Road and at the intersection of Liverpool and Oxford streets, and finally one for women in Parker Street. One lavatory installed in George Street was the first to use fire clay urinal ranges which were considered more sanitary. One built on the corner of Bourke and Forbes streets in Darlinghurst in 1907 still survives today and was used as part of an art installation back in 2012. In 1902, members of the Women’s Progressive Association waited on the Lord Mayor, requesting more ladies’ public toilets be installed. A contract for the first ladies’ above-ground lavatory was finally entered into in September 1910, for construction in Hyde Park. The toilet had fewer conveniences than the men’s lavatories and by the end of 1914 a council publication revealed only £1,064 was spent on women's public lavatories while more than £15,000 was spent on public lavatories for men. One man wrote to the Lord Mayor in 1917, commenting on the ‘wretched state of affairs’ and ‘eternal shame’ that ‘the men are amply provided for…but a woman…is placed in a most awkward position’.

Plan of underground public toilet at Macquarie Reserve c1907. Contributed by City of Sydney Archives, CRS 569/P425.
 

The toilets were opened from 5am until midnight with two attendants working daily shifts each at each and eight attendants employed in total. It seems many of these early public toilets had quite an ornate appearance with white glass tiles, concrete floors covered with 'arkilite' or 'ironite' paving and polished wooden doors. The early public toilets that survive today demonstrate Sydney’s urban street life at the turn of the twentieth century. There was a desire to remove personal activities seen as undesirable from public view but these underground facilities also reflected improvements in the city’s sewerage systems. The toilets today have come a long way with self-cleaning lavatories above ground in places such as Wynyard and Hyde parks. You can listen to a podcast of my segment with Mitch at 2SER Breakfast here. Tune in again next week for more of Sydney’s history courtesy of the Dictionary of Sydney, on 107.3 at 8:20am. Don’t miss it!

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Harriet and Helena Scott

Antheraea Eucalypti 1851. By Scott, Harriet. Contributed by Biodiversity Heritage Library (Plate 1 from 'Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations drawn from the life by Harriet and Helena Scott; with descriptions, general and systematics, by AW Scott', London, 1864)
Have you done your family history? Well, I must confess that although I do historical research every day, I haven't yet embarked on tracing my family's history - although others in my family have begun this absorbing project. But this month is the best month to get started. August is National Family History Month. Here are the Dictionary we're very aware of how family relationships, connections and businesses build up our communities and are an integral part of Sydney's history. Today I thought I'd highlight the contribution of two sisters - Harriet and Helena Scott. Their full exploits are documented in a recent article for the Dictionary by Catie Gilchrist. Harriet and Helena Forde (nee Scott) were the foremost natural science painters in New South Wales from 1850 until turn of the century, despite being born in an age when female scientific education was limited, women's 'gifts' were to be kept in the private sphere of home and hearth, and the professions were a male preserve. In Australia, as in England, the study of natural history was the pursuit of gentlemen, for whom amassing a collection was a status symbol. Yet, through prodigious talent, Harriet Scott and her younger sister Helena became esteemed as professional artists, brilliant natural history illustrators and meticulous specimen collectors. Contemporaries hailed their contribution to late colonial natural science, yet they were mostly forgotten until the twenty-first century. The Scott sisters' father was an entomologist and a trained artist with a lifetime interest in natural science, as well as being an entrepreneur and grazier. Alexander Walker Scott inherited his passionate curiosity for botany and entomology from his father, Dr Helenus Scott, a physician and botanist who worked for the East India Company in India for thirty years. This familial legacy shaped the trajectory of the Scott sisters' personal and professional lives. Their family background, particularly on the mother's side, is also fascinating, and shows how the line between respectability and social outcast could be a very fine line. The most famous work by Harriet and Helena Scott is Australian Lepidoptera and their Transformations. Although the work was not published in London until 1864, it was completed in 1851 when the sisters were only 21 and 19 years of age. Their manner of working together made the Lepidoptera paintings both remarkable and exceptional, for they combined accurate scientific detail with stunning visual appeal. Their illustrations were completed with the aid of microscopes to capture the exact colour, texture and details of tiny body parts. They depicted the life cycle and host plants of each species and often included background landscapes, such as familiar locations in and around Sydney, which revealed further information about the habitat of the insects. These landscapes were executed in black pen and ink wash or light colours, to contrast with the vibrant colours of the insects. This contrasting technique was unique to the Scott sisters; few contemporary natural history illustrators at the time used such backgrounds in their work. The Australian Museum has all of their paintings and you can browse through these gorgeous scientific paintings using one of my favourite apps - The Art of Science App. Coming up next week... National Science Week kicks off this Saturday, the 15th August, which is another reason why I chose to talk about the Scott sisters today. And, of course, being the good cultural collaborator that we are, the Dictionary of Sydney is participating in National Science Week. Author, media producer and historian Catherine Freyne will be talking about another remarkable woman - Florence Violet McKenzie, an electrical engineer who taught thousands of women and World War II soldiers to use radio for signalling, founded The Wireless Weekly magazine and pioneered technical education for women. Grab your free tickets to hear Catherine next week on Thursday afternoon talking about The Electric Violet McKenzie.
The Electric Violet McKenzie. Catherine Freyne for the Dictionary of Sydney. Thursday 20 August 2015, 3.30-4.30pm. Benledi House, 186 Glebe Point Road, Glebe. For free tickets, email: info@dictionaryofsydney.org
If you missed Lisa's segment this morning, you can catch up here. Don't forget to listen in next week on 2SER Breakfast with the lovely Mitch Byatt to hear more Sydney history.
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