Guest Speaker:
Phillip Simpson
when Phillip Simpson presents...
Phillip spent spent nearly 31 years writing the Historical Guide to New South Wales (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2020). At 835 pages it is the first comprehensive guide to the location and history of every country town and village in the State. Never before has there been an attempt to succinctly record the location, history, industries, buildings, calamities and the population of over 9700 cities, towns, villages, hamlets and localities outside Sydney. It is the only place-by-place chronology of the settlement, history and development of Australia’s premier State, covering over 230 years and almost a third of the nation’s places.
Phillip's presentation will illustrate how he achieved this, and how the result will be indispensable to historians, geographers, librarians, heritage consultants, local historical societies, local councils, journalists and especially family historians, not to mention inquisitive tourists.
It will illustrate how and why towns came about; the amazing variety of industries in which people worked; the infrastructure that enabled people to move around; the churches that held many communities together; the schools; the public services including post, telegraph, water, sewerage, gas, electricity, fire brigades and ambulance services; law and order; and the range of calamities faced by so many, including epidemics, dust storms, pests, and numerous fires when there was no reticulated water and few fire brigades. The talk will be illustrated with actual examples from many towns.
About Phillip Simpson
Phillip is uniquely qualified for a task of this scope and magnitude, with several decades of experience in heritage and government in NSW, and postgraduate degrees in both Historical Archaeology and Public Administration from the University of Sydney. For a decade he was the Chairman of one of the National Trust’s principal research committees. In acknowledgement of his service to the recognition and preservation of our heritage and his contributions to industrial archaeology and the history of technology in particular, he was awarded the Trust’s silver medallion. More recently the Premier of NSW awarded him a medallion for meritorious long service to the State.
As always, please keep an eye on our website in case of any last-minute changes.
The venue is Gordon Library Meeting Room No. 1, in the Old Gordon Public School, which adjoins the Gordon Library, 799 Pacific Highway, Gordon (corner Pacific Highway and Park Avenue).
It’s just a 5-minute walk from Gordon Station.
For a map and parking information, see our Contact page.
