The Old of Newtown

City of Sydney Council has just updated their Newtown specific history website. It's a great resource and anyone interested in Newtown is encouraged to get over there and have an explore.


I discovered it when I moved into Newtown early this century (doesn't that sound grand) but re-visiting it a couple of years ago it appeared to be abandoned, with the latest updates being a few years ago. In fact the mayor's portrait was even pilfered from there (it belongs to a real Mayor of Newtown, Alderman William Rigg); a fact that council archivist Mark Stevens pointed out to me when I wrote to him requesting permission to use some other council photos for the mystery photo series shortly after Newstown was launched !

Mark also informed me that the archive site was being updated - even better, the work has been done by a local Newtown firm, In My Room. So head on over there and check it out.

Credits, from their about page:

The Newtown project started in 2000 and is based on a concept by Graeme Nichols. Work on the site during 2000-2005 was undertaken by Graeme (who was the webmaster during this time) and other volunteers at the City of Sydney Archives. The site was redeveloped in 2009 by In My Room, a Newtown based web design firm.

We would particularly like to acknowledge the contributions of -

• Graeme Nichols and Reg Johnson, for transcription of Sands Directory .
• Shirley Doolan, Jan Bowditch, Jenny Kropp and Lorraine Sketch, for transcription of the Minutes of Newtown Council.
• Mark Matheson, for biographical notes on Mayors and Aldermen, and historical notes on street names and other topics.

Mark Stevens Natasha Neal
City Archivist Webmaster