By Dorothy Davis and Katharine Vernon, Bulletin 2024/9, November 

Our popular Guided Walks explore the history, heritage, landscape and contemporary aspects of Glebe and Forest Lodge and their neighbouring areas, highlighting the special features of our local community. They provide an opportunity for learning, companionship, physical exercise and enjoyment!

The Glebe Society’s Guided Walks were the first events offered by the Glebe Society following the gradual lifting of COVID restrictions. Our Guided Walks at that time allowed members to meet old and new friends in safe, open-air settings. The Walks Program has gone from strength to strength, with nearly 250 bookings on 10 walks in the last 15 months, from September 2023 to December 2024.

Ian Stephenson led a guided walk of the University of Sydney’s architecture in June last year. We are in the Graffiti Tunnel, the best vantage point to view the rear of the Bank Building (Photo: V. Simpson-Young)

Six of these walks focused on exploring different aspects of Glebe – from late Victorian architecture to radical Glebe in the 60s and 70s; four covered areas close to Glebe (including Ian Stephenson’s walk in June this year – The Hidden History of Blackwattle Bay – that straddled Glebe and neighbouring areas); and one was out of the area, at Rookwood Cemetery, though mentioning many Glebe identities. 

The first three walks in 2024 were planned with the theme of ‘Glebe 50 years ago’, acknowledging significant events and inspiring people in Glebe in the early 1970s:

  • 2024 marked 50 years since the Whitlam Government purchased the Glebe Lands (much of the area bounded by St Johns Road and Broadway). The Glebe Society played a key role in campaigning for this significant part of old Sydney to be preserved. Max Solling, Glebe’s eminent historian, led the walk The Glebe Estate: St Phillips and Bishopthorpe in March this year. 
  • Just over 50 years ago, Kate and Bernard Smith’s seminal book, The Architectural Character of Glebe (1973), was published, documenting the heritage of Glebe and Forest Lodge. To celebrate this anniversary, Katharine Vernon and Jan Macindoe guided a group of walkers in April through the Toxteth Estate featuring Glebe’s Late Victorian Streetscapes. 
  • 2024 also marked 50 years since the establishment of Elsie Women‘s Refuge in Westmoreland Street in Glebe. Meredith Burgmann, Helen Randerson and Heather Goodall, all Glebe residents and well-known social activists and researchers, led a walk in April on The Sites and stories of radical ferment in Glebe, including the opening of Elsie, the first women’s refuge in Australia.

Local walks also included the Villas of Glebe pre-1870, in September 2023, led by Robert Hannan whose generous hospitality we also enjoyed at his heritage villa Rothwell Lodge, and Max Solling’s constantly interesting and revealing explorations of Forest Lodge in September 2023 and coming up again very soon.

Two public historians, Mark Dunn and Patricia Hale, gave generously of their time and expertise to lead tours of Pyrmont (September 2023) and Ultimo (October 2024), respectively, opening our eyes to the different history and character of these two peninsular neighbourhoods to those of Glebe. The bus tour to Rookwood Cemetery and Back was –  perhaps unexpectedly (for a cemetery) – a fun day, led by Max Solling through a myriad of graves, monuments, mausoleums and gardens, pointing out the burial sites of famous and infamous characters, including many from Glebe. 

Max Solling led a guided walk of Bishopthorpe in the Glebe Estate in May this year (photo: V. Simpson-Young)

The Guided Walks Program’s success is largely due to the wonderful (volunteer) guides who have shared their expertise and knowledge with much enthusiasm. We especially thank local historian Max Solling, who willingly shares his deep knowledge of Glebe and Forest Lodge and has led three of this year’s walks and the Rookwood Cemetery tour. His years of research into all aspects of life in Glebe ensures an interesting and entertaining walk. Of course, these walks would be nothing without all the walkers, many of whom are ‘regulars’, who continue to turn up on the day, whatever the weather! The Walks Program is initiated, planned and executed by a small group of Glebe Society members. This year, Dorothy Davis and Katharine Vernon were joined by Jenny Broe and Helena Klijn to provide extra assistance in arranging the Glebe Walks program. The team has also appreciated the behind-the-scenes efforts of Virginia Simpson-Young and Sarah Fogg to ensure that information on the Glebe Walks is kept up to date on the Glebe Society website, our Bulletins and Eventbrite. 

Planning our Glebe Walks for 2025 will soon be underway and we welcome any ideas for new walks and any walks you would like repeated. And we’d love to hear from anyone interested in leading a guided walk. 

* Well, a bit more than a year – 15 months …