History
Gone and Forgotten on Glebe Point Road, Part 2
Posted on 1st July 2024
Gone and forgotten are Gurth, Wamba and Mussett, three of the six dwellings replaced by the Anchorage at 451 Glebe Point Road. Read about some of the families that occupied these beautiful waterfront homes.
Then as now: Glebe’s ‘three broad social precincts’
Posted on 2nd April 2026
It is often observed that Glebe has (broadly) three socioeconomic groups that are (broadly) arranged geographically. The spatial distribution of those groups is not so different to that described by Jevons in 1858.
Remembering Heather Goodall AM (1952–2026)
Posted on 18th March 2026
Heather Goodall leaves behind a profound legacy: historian, teacher, writer, and activist – a beloved Glebe resident known for her intellect and integrity. Her scholarship and compassion resonated across Australia and beyond.
Glebe Society treasure Lyn Collingwood gets a gong
Posted on 14th March 2026
Lyn Collingwood, well-known to Glebe Society members for her Mystery Photo and Who Lived in Your Street? articles and Players in the Pub, received an OAM on Australia Day 2026 for ‘service to community history and to the arts’.
Congratulations Lyn Collingwood, OAM
Posted on 26th January 2026
Glebe Society Life Member, Lyn Collingwood, has been awarded the Order of Australian (OAM) in today’s Honours List, for ‘service to community history and to the arts’.
Mystery photo: December 2025
Posted on 29th December 2025
The December 2025 mystery photo was taken by Ted McKeown in 1992; it shows what was to become the Anzac Bridge, then little more than a twinkle in the NSW government’s eye.
This month’s mystery photo: November 2025
Posted on 23rd November 2025
This is 98 Glebe Point Road. What’s its connection with the entertainment industry?
This month’s mystery photo: October 2025
Posted on 8th October 2025
A fascinating photo this month! Where was it taken and what is going on?
Did you know? – St Johns Road
Posted on 8th October 2025
This story of a former corner shop overlooking Orphan School Creek exemplifies the shift toward denser land use that reshaped Glebe and Forest Lodge around the turn of the 20th century.
Vale Neil Macindoe
Posted on 24th September 2025
Ted McKeown honours Neil Macindoe, former Society president and planning convenor, known for his role in the 1996 film Rats in the Ranks. Neil passed away in June.
This month’s mystery photo: September 2025
Posted on 24th September 2025
The September Mystery Photo, from State Library of NSW, is the pneumatic tube system at Grace Bros Model Store Broadway, used to transfer money in canisters from sales points to a secure cash office.
Gone and Forgotten – Dann Street, Forest Lodge
Posted on 19th September 2025
By Rodney Hammett, August 2025, from Bulletin 6/2025 (August) In the 1860s much of what we now know as Forest Lodge was owned by just a few landed gentlemen. George Wigram Allen not only owned Toxteth Park in Glebe but also several parcels of land in Forest Lodge; the others being Thomas Holt, Thomas Ware […]
Heritage Subcommittee Annual Report 2025
Posted on 13th August 2025
The Heritage Subcommittee met monthly in 2025 to research, advocate, and engage with the public on Glebe’s history and heritage. It reviewed 107 DAs, responded to public queries, published articles, and contributed to heritage policy.
Obituary: Grahame Murray Budd (1930–2025)
Posted on 9th August 2025
Grahame Budd, longtime Glebe resident and pioneer of Australian Antarctic science, died in June, aged 95. Read about Grahame’s life and legacy, including the first ascent of active volcano Big Ben, the highest mountain on Australian territory.
This month’s mystery photo: August 2025
Posted on 16th August 2025
This month’s mystery photo – has it got you in a bind?
Avon Calling
Posted on 10th August 2025
Numbers 1 and 3 Avon Street were long-time homes of sisters Elizabeth and Christine (born Young). Elizabeth’s husband, Captain Kay, spent years at sea and had many adventures.
This month’s mystery photo: July 2025
Posted on 29th July 2025
Where was this photo taken? A clue – somewhere in Glebe.
Grahame Budd revisits Mawson and updates us on the Antarctic
Posted on 1st November 2012
by Jeanette Knox, from Bulletin 9/2012 The meeting room at Benledi was crowded on Sunday evening, 21 October, when Dr Grahame Budd repeated a talk he gave earlier in the year on Sir Douglas Mawson’s expeditions to the Antarctic and their significance, both scientifically and politically. In addition, he updated us on developments after the […]
Event report: Grahame Budd on Sir Douglas Mawson
Posted on 1st June 2012
By Neil Macindoe, June 2012, from Bulletin 4/2012 About 50 people went to Benledi on Sunday evening 29 April to hear Lyn Collingwood and Grahame Budd talk about the great Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson who, along with Frank Hurley, spent his formative years in Glebe. Both speakers were very entertaining and knowledgeable, and in addition […]
Seminar on the Antarctic
Posted on 1st April 2011
from Bulletin 3/2011 (April/May) Glebe has some connections with Antarctica through the explorer Douglas Mawson (pupil at Forest Lodge Public School), the photographer Frank Hurley (pupil at Glebe Public School) as well as modern-day Glebian Grahame Budd AM. This year marks 100 years of Australian Antarctic Expeditions, a tradition established by the first Australasian Antarctic […]
Graffito, graffiti, graffitit, graffitamus, graffititis, graffitent
Posted on 2nd March 2012
by John Gray, from Bulletin 1/2012 (March) My Latin teacher would vince. As he had a lisp he said ‘w’s like ‘v’s and the reverse; ‘r’s became ‘w’s also. So we learned to conjugate the verb to prepare and shout it out pwouldly as: … pawo, pawas, pawa. You get the picture. So eventually did […]
The story of Derwent Street from 1975 to 1980 continues …
Posted on 13th June 2025
The final instalment of Brian McDonald’s fascinating account of living in Derwent Street in the late 1970s.
This month’s mystery photo: June 2025
Posted on 13th June 2025
This month’s mystery photo is a bit different. Where are we?
Two more Blue Plaques for Glebe
Posted on 9th May 2025
Heritage NSW has just announced the latest successful nominations for a Blue Plaque; among which are two from our suburb …
Blue Plaque nomination #3: 67 Glebe Point Road, once Women’s Liberation House
Posted on 20th May 2022
by Ian Stephenson, Bulletin 3/2022 (May) The third site nominated by the Glebe Society for a Blue Plaque is Women’s Liberation House, 67 Glebe Point Rd. The building is important for its ability to represent the early days of second-wave feminism in Australia. First wave feminism was focused on suffrage and legal obstacles to gender […]
51 Hereford Street, Glebe: Some early history
Posted on 7th April 2025
Have you ever wondered what was located at 51 Hereford Street before today’s controversial unit block was built in the mid-1990s? A newly unearthed photograph reveals the stately Victorian villa ‘Lask’, named after the Polish hometown of the Rogalsky family who built it in 1883.
This month’s mystery photo: April 2025
Posted on 8th April 2025
There are two mystery photos this month. Try your hand at working out where they were taken. (Answers also provided)
Pub quiz
Posted on 3rd March 2025
There are eight pubs trading in Glebe today, a lot fewer than in earlier times. When was ‘peak pub’ in Glebe? Find out the answer to this and other Glebe pub trivia questions.
How I got to Glebe: Duncan Leys
Posted on 3rd March 2025
Although Glebe Society President Duncan Leys grew up in Moree, Glebe has a special significance for Duncan, featuring in his family’s history.
