On the 12th working day before Christmas @srnsw gave to me… Twelve Blue Bells Dancing

 

Eleven Ratters Cleansing

 

Ten (Road) Safety Scholars

 

Nine Budding Builders

 

Eight Men a Milking

 

Seven Lads a Sawing

 

Six Hansom Cabbies

 

Five Top-Hat Gents

 

Four Boys a Singing

 

Three Prisoners Posing

 

Two Stranded Fire Commissioners

 

and One Derailed Locomotive

 

The SRNSW Lyrics

On the 12th working day before Christmas @srnsw gave to me…

12 Blue Bells Dancing

11 Ratters Cleaning

10 (Road) Safety Scholars

9 Budding Builders

8 Men a Milking

7 Lads a Sawin’

6 Hansom Cabbies

5 Top-Hat Gents

4 Boys Singing

3 Prisoners Posing

2 Stranded Fire Commissioners

And a Derailed Locomotive

 

*This post is brought to you by State Records Team Social Media (check out their work on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)

 

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Background

In 2009 Dr Caroline Ford was the inaugural winner of the NSW Archival Research Fellowship. The scholarship enabled her to expand her research on Sydney’s relationship with its ocean foreshores, originally undertaken for her 2007 PhD at the University of Sydney. On 23 October 2014 the Hon Rob Stokes, MP, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Heritage, launched Caroline’s book Sydney Beaches: a History.

 Caroline described her book as an ‘environmental, cultural and political history of our much-loved ocean coast’. Although the thesis only went up to 1920, the book includes up to the present day.

Working with the archives

Relying heavily on the State Records collection, especially NRS 8258 Letter received [Miscellaneous Branch, Department of Lands], she ‘read thousands of pages of original government records that explained why particular governments made critical decisions that changed the shape of our beaches forever…’. One of these government decisions that comes as a surprise to modern readers was to buy the beaches back from the land owners in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries including iconic beaches like Tamarama and Bronte, ensuring that Sydney beaches are free to the public.

Despite the difficulties of locating files within NRS 8258, it contains some surprising material. For example in one file Caroline found a rejected proposal from the early 1930s to build a Luna Park on Bondi Beach which included an evaluation and report on St Kilda’s Luna Park. She has written about this in another forthcoming publication. Other files from the same period detailed community and government opposition to enclosed shark nets planned for Bondi and Manly ocean beaches, and the battles campers faced along the coast in pitching their tents close to their favourite strips of sand.

Behind every good researcher ….(there is a good retriever)

It was lovely to see that the book contains a thank you to our tireless retrieval staff who Caroline acknowledged as having ‘delivered dusty files and huge crumbling registers by the trolley load with unrivalled grace and efficiency over several years…’

It’s our final What’s the bigger picture? for the year.

Who will take a guess at this one?

As part of the 100 year anniversary of WWI, State Records NSW and apps4nsw are challenging developers to create an app that uses the collection of WWI state records in new and innovative ways. The goal is to streamline access to state records regarding WWI and find new ways to link the data.

The winning app will help honour the ANZAC legacy. It could also earn its creators $15,000 in prize money.

 The data

As part of the 100 year anniversary of WW1, State Records NSW has developed a Centenary of Anzac website, which showcases records in our collection that relate to WW1. Data sets are also available on the NSW Open Data Portal

 The challenge

To take State Records NSW data and create new interfaces to connect researchers with the collection and provide new pathways to link material together. Ideally, the app will have a WWI focus; however, it can relate to the period in any way—home front, personal relationships, soldiers, government responses and social trends.

How to submit

So get your submissions in to apps4nsw and help us honour the ANZAC legacy.

More information

For more information on the challenge and how to enter, visit apps4nsw and NSW Anzac Centenary .

Applications close on Thursday 13 November  2014.

 

The school choir – an integral part of any school music programme!

NRS 15051  School Photographic Collection captures choirs in full flight, group photos of choirs that have won competitions and scenes of ensembles practising in classrooms!

See more images from NRS 15051 here.

 

Another highlight from NRS 15051 Schools Photographic collection are photos documenting school children’s participation in the war effort during World War I (WWI).

School children were among the many groups who put their hand to providing comforts for troops at the front.

Organisations such as the Red Cross and the Soldiers Sock Fund encouraged people from all walks of life to knit socks to send to soldiers.

Without the means to wash or dry clothing, new clean socks were greatly needed by soldiers in an effort to ward against trench foot which was rife in the cold, wet mud of the trenches.

For more WWI related content online, see the State Records NSW Centenary of Anzac website.

Corowa Public School, 1917, measuring the number of socks knitted using ‘the sock barometer’. A grand total 140 pairs were completed:

A newspaper article sourced from Trove emphasises the need for socks by troops at the front and encourages the knitters of NSW to contribute:

Coonamble Public School, 1918, Red Cross Workers at the Superior Public School:

 Bondi Public School, 1916, spinning:

Camperdown Public School, 1916, knitting socks:

One of our Archives Outside readers has kindly provided us with images of “The Grey Sock”, a booklet produced by the Soldiers’ Sock Fund  in 1914. The booklet provides instructions for knitting socks for soldiers.

References and further reading:

“Australian Comforts Fund World War I”, Museum Victoria, available from http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/1848/australian-comforts-fund-world-war-i

“Booklet – The grey sock 1914”, Powerhouse Museum, available from http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/mob/collection/database/?irn=10108&search=patriotism&images=&wloc=&c=1&s=0

“Homefront – World War I and Australia”, State Library NSW, available from http://guides.sl.nsw.gov.au/content.php?pid=489033&sid=4179071

“Knitting for the Troops” Australian War Memorial, available from https://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2013/10/25/knitting-troops/

Something a bit different for this round of Can you date this photograph?

This is the main concourse of Central Station. There are plenty of clues as to the time period this might have been taken, but can we find any evidence to narrow down the date?

Can you date this photograph?

Larger version on Flickr

We have many other undated photographs in Photo Investigator and on our Flickr account. If you know the dates or any other interesting facts about these images please let us know.

“Universal Calamity Impending: The World’s Greatest War” was the news headline in The Daily Advertiser from 4 August 1914.  The phrase sums up well the air of foreboding that we imagine was hanging around on that day. It was on 4 August that Britain declared war on Germany.  And where Britain went, Australia was determined to follow.

With so many interwoven agreements, promises of support and alliances throughout Europe, when the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo the resulting mess was seemingly inevitable. Countries were mobilising even before any declarations of war – Australia included. No one wanted to be caught out. In that Tuesday’s edition of The Daily Advertiser, the editor gave the people of Wagga details on what the Government could offer Britain in the event of war.  Prime Minister Joseph Cook was quoted as saying “the Australian fleet is ready, and at the disposal of the Empire, as it has been and ever will be when our navy is wanted to help the mother country.”

• Read more at On Record @CSU Regional Archives

Who is up for another round of What’s the bigger picture?

Any guesses as to where this might be?