Fourteen miles up the harbour from the ocean entrance at Sydney stand two bridges that are the access route over the Parramatta River from Concord to Ryde. One, a railway bridge, was opened in 1886 as part of the construction of the Main Northern railway line. It was a lattice truss bridge designed by John Whitton, the Chief Engineer…
A list of Concord’s industries and commercial enterprises at the turn of the century gives a clear picture of how some of the residents of the municipality earned their living, although many others, of course, travelled away from the district to work. In the 1880’s and 1890’s twenty-five grocery shops were dotted round the municipality,…
The Assisted Passage Migration Scheme was created in 1945 by the Chifley Government and its first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, as part of the “Populate or Perish” policy. It was intended to substantially increase the population of Australia and to supply workers for the country’s booming industries. Australia required an influx of 70,000 migrants…
In August 1969 the Concord Historical Society was formed. In the 50 years from then our society has grown, gone through changes of name and amalgamated with the Drummoyne Historical Society to become the City of Canada Bay Heritage Society. In our early years we established the Concord Heritage Museum in the Joanna Walker Children’s…
Introduction: This is the beginning of an article prepared by the City of Canada Bay Heritage Society to record the changing of what was once a workingman’s suburb with an abundance of industries of all types offering employment to people from all walks of life, into a more modern and gentrified suburb. The article will…
The first Postal Act had been passed in November 1825, empowering the NSW Governor to establish a GPO in Sydney and other places. There had been a Post Office building occupying the site in George Street since 1830s, beginning with one room of the two-storeyed former police office. By 1845 the Post Office occupied the…
The armistice of 11 November 1918 was celebrated in Concord with fervour. Citizens immediately formed tin-can bands and took to the street and within twelve hours of the news of armistice the Western Suburbs Master Carriers’ Association had organised what was then the largest procession in the history of the Western Suburbs. Beginning at Concord…
There is little accurate information available on Jane Walker, the wife of businessman and philanthropist Thomas Walker of Yaralla. Our understanding of who Jane was is hampered by a lack of primary documentary evidence and by statements in secondary sources that are made about Jane, but which do not appear to be grounded in any primary…
There’s a familiar saying among Australian baby boomers that if you can remember the 1960s then you weren’t really there. It was certainly a socially turbulent decade with the spread of pot and widespread protests opposing the Vietnam War and “All the way with LBJ”, especially the controversial conscription ballot (the lottery no one wanted…
There is no doubt that almost every Australian family was affected by World War One in some way or another. One sad fact that came out of the war was the intense hatred of Germans that emerged together with all things German. The German families who emigrated to Australia and were happily living their lives,…
From the 1850s German settlers escaping the rising nationalist sentiment in Germany began arriving in the Australian colonies looking to start a new life. Port Adelaide was the point of arrival for the majority of German settlers. The Germans moved on to Western Australia, the Barossa Valley, the Riverina and South East Queensland where they…
Governments borrowed heavily to pay for the war. They issued government bonds and raised taxes to pay growing interest debt. The result was increasing inflationary pressure, higher cost of living and an erosion of wealth for those on fixed incomes and pensions. Shortages of manpower as a result of war casualties lead to increased wages,…
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