By Dorothy Davis, Katharine Vernon and Duncan Leys
We have an interesting program of Walks and Talks for 2026 and we look forward to having you join us.
Many of the Walks will focus on our local maritime and foreshore heritage, a special theme for 2026, though we will also include old favourites, such as exploring local precincts or cemeteries with Max Solling, and heritage streetscapes and buildings with Katharine Vernon. Glebe, Forest Lodge, Annandale and Pyrmont are surrounded by Rozelle Bay and Blackwattle Bay and were once home to a flourishing working port. The maritime gem, the Sydney Heritage Fleet, is in Rozelle Bay.
This environment is threatened, with the likelihood of high-rise residential development around the foreshore, closure of the Heritage Fleet at its present location, and the diminution of the working harbour west of Darling Harbour. Our bays and foreshore areas are of significant industrial and maritime history, as are the traditional fishing places and practices of local indigenous communities. The opening of the new Sydney Fish Market makes this an appropriate year to focus on this story.
All Walks and Talks require booking. To book any Glebe Society event, go to our Eventbrite page and then click on the event you are interested in. For members-only events, please use the direct link supplied in the Bulletin.
2026 upcoming Walks & Talks
Explore Waverley Cemetery with Max Solling
Thursday 21 May, 9.15 am–12.45 pm
Join us in exploring one of Sydney’s oldest, most beautiful and most historic locations – Waverley Cemetery. Heritage-listed and poised on the cliff-tops at Bronte, this Victorian and Edwardian gem is sited in one of Sydney’s most striking locations, the cliffs between Tamarama and Clovelly, overlooking the glittering Pacific Ocean.
Guided by the always-expertly-informed Max Solling, we’ll visit the final resting places of many prominent Australians including Henry Lawson, Dorothea Mackellar, Fanny Durack, Victor Trumper, Henry Kendall, Carla Zampatti and others, many of whom have a surprising link to Glebe. The cemetery is also famed for its imposing memorial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion, noting that tragic history from Michael Dwyer to Bobby Sands.
A bus has been arranged that will leave from and return to the Old Fire Station on Mitchell Street.
NOTE 1: the cemetery is fairly steeply sloped and quite uneven in parts (some sealed roadways, mostly uneven grassy paths). Please wear appropriate walking shoes and bring water, sunblock and a hat.
NOTE 2: this event will go ahead only if we have enough attendees (15) to cover the cost of the bus etc. The Walks Team looks forward to having you join us!
Bookings: https://explore-waverley-cemetery.eventbrite.com.au
Cost: $25 (Glebe Society members), $35 (non-Glebe Society members)
Tour the Sydney Heritage Fleet Shipyard on Rozelle Bay with Alex Byrne
Sunday 21 June, 10 am
Discover the extensive restoration of harbour vessels including the 1912 Sydney Ferry Kanangra. The last of Sydney’s “K” class ferries, Kanangra, was built in Mort Bay in 1912 and is currently under restoration at the Sydney Heritage Fleet shipyard on Rozelle Bay. Its superstructure is timber drawn from the extensive lumber yards which used to surround Rozelle and Blackwattle Bays.
One of 70 “K” class ferries, Kanangra carried nearly 1000 passengers mostly on the City to Mosman and Cremorne route from 1912 to 1987 but also provided services for the 3000 workers on Cockatoo Island and peak hour services to Hunters Hill and Woolwich. She was converted from being coal-fired to diesel- engined in 1959, the last to be converted. She is the great survivor having seen two world wars, the Great Depression, the building of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House and survived a couple of collisions.
Meeting at the SHF shipyard, this tour takes visitors through the Fleet’s extensive maintenance and restoration facilities, looks at the Fleet’s other vessels and then goes on board Kanangra to hear her history and view the restoration which is currently underway. It will be led by Glebe Society member and Heritage Shipyard volunteer, Alex Byrne, and other volunteers who work on Kanangra and can explain its history, technology and the restoration.
Note: Cost covers contribution to Sydney Heritage Fleet, which charges for its tours to ‘Keep the Fleet Afloat’
Three options for getting there: 1. Light Rail L1 to Rozelle Bay stop then walk down to the Crescent, cross and walk around the end of the Bay into James Craig Road (about 15 min). 2. Bus 433 to stop just after Johnson St, cross the Crescent and walk around the end of the Bay into James Craig Road (about 10 min). 3. Car over Anzac Bridge up to end of Victoria Rd (but in left hand lane) then move to left and take first left turn into James Craig Road with parking in the yard on the left as you enter the first roundabout.
Requirements: Closed-toe shoes; sufficiently mobile to walk around the shipyard and Kanangra and to climb steep stairs onto Kanangra. Hi-vis safety vest and hard hat will be issued upon arrival and must be worn throughout the tour.
Meeting place: Sydney Heritage Fleet Shipyard, Gate 4/13 James Craig Road, Rozelle
Bookings: https://tour-heritage-shipyard.eventbrite.com.au
Cost: $25 (Glebe Society members), $35 (non-Glebe Society members).
Past 2026 Walks & Talks
Glebe Town Hall – The People’s Place
Sunday 19 April, 2–4 pm at Glebe Town Hall
Did you know that Glebe used to have its own elected Council? For nearly 70 years (1880–1948) Glebe Town Hall was the administrative centre of the Glebe Municipal Council but it also served many other community purposes.
For generations it was the place for meetings and events – weddings, dances, concerts, wartime balls, live theatre and so on. When most people who lived in Glebe were tenants and walked to wherever they needed to go, it was a meeting place for local associations, political groups and sporting clubs, a venue for boxing tournaments, election campaigns, lectures and debates about big issues of the day such as Federation, Prohibition and Conscription. It was a critical place in the early history of the Labor Party. The Glebe Labor Electoral League (as party branches were then called) met there and meetings could be feisty.
One hundred and thirty-five men–and two women–served as aldermen (councillors) on the Glebe council. Over time they evolved from being from the property-owning elite, to local self-employed Glebe businessmen, to being Labor controlled in the 1920s and 30s.
Join us to hear our well-known local historian Max Solling tell us more about its history, the battlers, stirrers and other colourful characters associated with the Town Hall.
View a photographer’s studio-home and his iconic Glebe works (members only event)
Saturday 21 March, 4 pm.
A unique event – a visit to the studio and home of art photographer Tom Psomotragos will be held on Saturday 21 March at 4 pm. Tom has generously invited Glebe Society members to his renovated warehouse studio home, built on land which was part of the original Lyndhurst Estate.
Well-known for his photographs of local Glebe identities, Tom will give us a preview of his photographic collection documenting Glebe’s living industrial history, including the old fish market, the barges and bridges.
Bookings: https://tgs-visit-photographer-studio.eventbrite.com.au/
A brief report on this event by Katharine Vernon, Dorothy Davis and Helena Klijn, April 2026
Our first event of the year was a terrific visit to photographer Tom Psomotragos’ home/studio on Saturday 21 March.
On our tour of the three floors of their wonderful renovation, Tom and wife Deb explained the process of its conversion from a dye and ink factory built in the 1890s on land that was previously part of the Lyndhurst Estate. This was followed by light refreshment while viewing photographs Tom has taken of life in Glebe including the former Fish Markets.
We received gratifying positive feedback from members who attended.
Pubs, people and place in Glebe and Forest Lodge
Sunday 1 March, 4–6 pm, Forest Lodge Hotel
In the late nineteenth century, there were 27 pubs in Glebe and Forest Lodge. Now there are eight.
Max’s talk, ‘Pubs, People and Place in Glebe and Forest Lodge’, begins in the 1840s, when pubs were places for male drinking and were concentrated in the poorer parts of Glebe and Forest Lodge. Gentlemen did not frequent pubs, and women were largely excluded, although some were licensees.
Issues of temperance and respectability, the influence of religion, the power of the breweries, economic conditions and government resulted in policies such as a prohibition on Sunday trading and 6 o’clock closing. At the same time, pubs were places where local sporting, civic and other organisations could meet.
So, if you’d like to know more about the history of our local pubs and the social, economic and policy forces that shaped their place in our community, join us for what promises to be a captivating talk by Max Solling, Glebe’s foremost historian.
Listening to talks can be thirsty work. Buy a drink from the Forest Lodge Hotel bar before the talk.
After the talk, please stay on, chat with neighbours and have a meal (at your expense). The Forest Lodge Hotel’s meals are very good and reasonably priced.
The Forest Lodge Hotel is on the corner of Arundel and Forest Streets – across the road from the Officeworks carpark entry.
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