Sunday Talks

Each month the History Group hosts a talk by someone with special knowledge of Pyrmont’s past. The event is free for everyone with an interest in our history.

These talks are usually recorded, and will be available on this website at a later date.

Date Third Sunday of each month
Time 5pm
Location Jacksons Landing Station, 58 Bowman Street Pyrmont

Upcoming Talks

COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS HAVE NOW EASED, AND THE STATION CAN ACCOMMODATE 50 PEOPLE.

WE WILL STILL HOLD A ZOOM WEBINAR AS WELL AS A FACE-TO-FACE TALK.

Please book to attend: Email Donald - djndenoon@gmail.com. The link to the Zoom webinar is provided below.

 2021

• Sunday 21 February - Two men of the sea - Dorothy Outram. Dorothy will tell us about two Sydney master mariners and their contribution to coastal shipping in NSW and Queensland - 1870 to 1946. To join on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81385166813

• Sunday 21 March - The Long Road from Lithuania to Pyrmont - Mary Hickson

• Sunday 18 April - TBA

• Sunday 16 May - The McWilliam Winery and Pyrmont - Stephen McWilliam. The group has been producing fine wines for 140 years, winning fans and prizes. Stephen will explain how the family enterprise did it – and does it.

• Sunday 20 June - Patrols into the Stone Age - Dave Wilkins

• Sunday 18 July - Whitlam’s Roles in Papua New Guinea - Donald Denoon

Recent Talks

2020

• Brewing in Pyrmont - Kevin Lambert. Kevin makes his living in IT, researches the history of brewing, and brews Pyrmont-themed beer, sold in Pyrmont pubs. He described the evolution of brewing in Sydney, and the role of pubs in Pyrmont. 

• My Life in Film - Suzanne Baker. Suzanne Baker AM is a film producer, print and television journalist, writer, historian and feminist. In 1977, she became the first Australian woman to win an Academy Award.

• From Kyrgyzstan to Pyrmont - Ed Ginzburg is the manager of the Pyrmont Community Centre. When he arrived in Sydney from Odessa as a young boy with his family and no English, the local community centre became his second family, and was vital in helping him to find his way in his new country.

• The Rise and Fall of Urban Design - Philip Thalis

  Professor Philip Thalis is an architect, planner and City Councillor, deeply involved in the redevelopment of Pyrmont in the 1990s and 2000s, and an influential commentator on current approaches to development.

• Bringing Experiment Street to Life - Noelle Janakzewska

  Noelle Janakzewska, researcher and creative writer, created the ABC program on Experiment Street, animating archival records with imaginative reconstruction. 

  Listen to the half-hour podcast via this link: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-history-listen/experiment-street/11447906  

  Note: if you have trouble, try the link in a different browser.

2019

• Maybanke Anderson - Rosalind Strong, a direct descendant of Maybanke Anderson, provided a detailed account of her role as a feminist, children’s advocate, and as a powerful woman in public life and notably as a founder of free kindergartens - and more!

• From Cockle Bay to Yarralumla; the Bunn and Murray families - Colin Fowler.

• Pyrmont in the 1990s - Wendy Bacon, journalist and activist, shared her experiences of residents’ resistance to Pyrmont’s and Ultimo’s top-down development.

• The Mount Street Archaeological Site - Pamela Kottaras, who led a team of archaeologists to identify layers of occupation before excavation began on the last empty site to be developed between Mount and Harris Streets : the schoolmaster’s house, cottages and workshops that were built and torn down before the site became a car park. She described this research, and how it relates to other sources on Pyrmont.  

• Australian South Sea Islanders - Emelda Davis screened her film about her Australian South Sea Islander ancestors, and shared her knowledge of their remarkable lives.

• Building on Community in Pyrmont - Marcelle Hoff inspired and brought together new and established residents to campaign to retain public land on Pyrmont Point, and create Pirrama Park.

• The Saunders family and their impact on Pyrmont - Barbara Cail, a descendant and family historian, described their lives and contributions.

• Big History: how to think about it, and how to do it - David Christian has pioneered an unusual way to study the past and the present, from the Big Bang to today.

• Exhibitions in the Powerhouse Museum - Grace Cochrane, independent curator, writer and consultant, was curator, then senior curator of Australian decorative arts and design at the Powerhouse from 1988-2005.

• Memories of CSR - Dennis Archibald worked here from 1975 to 1992, and described how CSR functions related to each other; and what it was like to work here.

2018

• Free sex and mung beans - Bill Burton described life among the squatters of Scott Street

• Resurrection of the Terminus - Shirley Fitzgerald, leading historian of Pyrmont; the Terminus was its social hub. She described the evolution of the pub, its licensees and patrons and their central role in Pyrmont ‘s history.

• The Chambers family in Victorian Pyrmont - Colin Fowler. Charles was Sydney’s Town Clerk, and then a magistrate. Lucy, born in 1834, became “The Australian Nightingale” at La Scala and other great European stages. Later she taught Nellie Melba.

• Who Planned Pyrmont? - Neil Bird, a resident of Jacksons Landing who was a member of the Central Sydney Planning Committee from 1999 to 2007.

• Paraguay to Pyrmont - John Kersh and John O’Meally - The life and remarkable times of Kenneth Forester Lewis, who was brought up in New Australia (the Utopian community in Paraguay), and spent the rest of his eventful life working in Pyrmont.

• Back to the Sugar House - Alana Valentine’s stage play opened at the Belvoir Street Theatre in May 2018, a dramatic story of family, heritage and change in Pyrmont. Members of our own community joined her in reading excerpts of the play and exchanged personal perspectives on Pyrmont’s history.

• Harvesting Pyrmont Sandstone - Troy Stratti. Pyrmont’s yellowblock was used in the best buildings in eastern Australia and beyond. It is essential to repair them with identical stone. Troy explained how the material is extracted and how it is used.

• Triumphs and Tragedies of a Pyrmont Family - Kris Needham has researched and written about her forebears, in and out of Pyrmont, in and out of trouble and prosperity for nearly 200 years. Their stories gave us a sense of the many ways in which lives were lived.

2017

• Growing up in Pyrmont - Jennice and Raymond Kersh

• Sandstone - Films

• Maritime Pyrmont - Alan Edenborough

• Steam Trains in Darling Harbour - Ian Dardick introduced a film about the steam trains in Darling Harbour, and the amazing complex of the Darling Harbour rail yards, and the Darling Harbour Railway Station

• The Past and Future of The Terminus Hotel - Garry Stanley

• War Memorials in Pyrmont - Paul Lancaster

• Pyrmont Power Station - Malcolm Park

• Pre-industrial Pyrmont - Paul Gye

2016

• Politics of Planning Pyrmont - Laurence Troy