Oran Park

Oran Park is a locality on the southwest rural-urban interface of the Sydney metropolitan area. It is an area that has been a zone of transition and contrasts, similar to other parts of the Sydney basin. For some it is a place of loss, while for others it is a place of hope and a fulfilment of their dreams.The western part of the locality of Oran Park is delineated by the Northern Road, the southern boundary is Cobbitty Road, while in the east the area is bounded by the watercourse of South Creek and in the north Lowes Creek. The area has always had a rural character and in 2001 the population of the Oran Park–Catherine Field area was 1,470, yet within 20 years Oran Park is predicted to grow to 25,000, while the Camden local government area will surge by 390 per cent to a population of over 250,000.

Camden

Camden is situated on the floodplain of the Nepean River, on the traditional land of the Dharawal people in an area known as the Cowpastures. The town is bordered in the east and north by the Nepean River, in the south by Burragorang road and Camden Bypass and in the west by Matahill Creek. The town area had a population of 3,063 in 2001 and until the 1950s was the hub of a district which took in the rural villages to the west of Camden, including Yerranderie, Burragorang Valley, The Oaks and Oakdale, and to the north, Elderslie and Narellan. Today Camden is being engulfed by the rural-urban fringe of Sydney’s metropolitan area

The geology of the Frangistra-Karpenisia region, Greece

Imperial Users onl

Sydney's Customs House - a means of collecting taxes

Taxes and dying. Two certainties in life, and that was certainly the case in colonial Sydney. For more than 150 years Customs House has provided the means of collecting taxes on the movement of good

Lost Campbelltown heritage

Campbelltown and surrounding areas have lost much in the way of their local heritage. Heritage is what the community considers of value at present and is worthy of handing on to the next generation. The loss of Campbelltown\u27s heritage is part of the story of the urban growth of the town and surrounding area. Andrew Allen has started to detail the loss of Campbelltown heritage buildings that coincided with a period of incredible urban growth the Campbelltown LGA in his history blog The History Buff. Campbelltown like other communities has gone through loss and renewal, and some are only interested in the new. Yet the need and yearning for a clear view of the past is part of the human condition where people need to honor and respect their ancestors and what did and did not achieve

A breath of fresh air

Fresh air was the order of the day for patients at the newly opened Carrington Centennial Hospital for Convalescents and Incurables at Camden in 1890. The hospital followed the latest methods in medical practice and building architecture from Victorian England based on the writings and approach advocated by Florence Nightingale

War and community: the Red Cross in Camden, 1939-1945

Voluntary organisations like the Red Cross were an integral part of the life of a small town like Camden during wartime. They played a very important role in the consciousness of the local community. They helped focus and galvanise the local population into support for the war effort. The Red Cross was the most successful example of an imperially-based, philanthropic, voluntary organisation that was active in Australia between 1914 and 1945. It had an international network that fitted the imperial profile, its aims were war-related and it was most active between 1914-18 and 1939-45. It had extensive kinship and interpersonal contact networks and tended to be exclusive in terms of social rank and religious beliefs. The success of the Red Cross was due to its broad aims, which encompassed peacetime work, imperial connections, strong female leadership, and the skilful organisation of a large network of women. In 1939 the Red Cross Society was the voluntary organisation best equipped, in the Camden district, to cope with the response of the homefront to the outbreak of the Second World War in terms of experience and resources. The Camden gentry and upper middle class, through their membership of local Red Cross branches, used the existing social networks and social structure to support their position within the local hierarchies and rally the local community. As well, they encouraged romantic notions of voluntary service, and imperial citizenship for war-related fundraising and other patriotic activities. These mechanisms allowed the Red Cross in the Camden district to effectively mobilise the local community, particularly the women, to volunteer thousands of hours of unpaid effort in the name of the Society

Making Camden History

The story of the construction of the history of the Camden area. There are many versions and they are all correct. They all put their own spin on the way they want to tell the Camden story. Some good, some indifferent, some just plain awful (Facebook, 23 November 2015. https://www.facebook.com/CamdenHistoryNotes1433284970226274/

Was Governor Lachlan Macquarie a terrorist?

In The Guardian Australia online this week there has appeared an article that asks the question: \u27Was Governor Lachlan Macquarie a terrorist?\u27 Paul Daley writes: \u27The colonial frontier was a violent location and many people suffered and died. Colonialism wreaked havoc on many cultures around the globe\u27. Was Governor Macquarie any better or worse than any other colonial administrator? Over next 150 years it is estimated that over 20,000 Aboriginal Australians were massacred in frontier wars. Is it fair to pick on Macquarie

Voluntary Aids at the Nerve Hospital

In the days immediately following the First World War a group of women from The Oaks and Camden volunteered at Waley Nerve Hospital at Mowbray Park as part of the activities of the Camden and The Oaks Voluntary Aid Detachments