The Dictionary of Sydney project

You can find out a lot more about the Dictionary of Sydney Trust and the progress of the project at our trust site, including information about the many Partners and Supporters who have made the project possible.

The Dictionary of Sydney is a groundbreaking project to produce a new kind of history of Sydney: online, growing and changing, covering every aspect of human life in this place. This website is the first window into the Dictionary but, over time, it will also be accessible through other technologies, including mobile delivery, print-on-demand and others yet to be developed.

Geographically, the Dictionary of Sydney includes the whole Sydney basin and spans the years from the earliest human habitation to the present.

The project welcomes all kinds of history – engineering history, social and cultural history, economic history and so on. We are also interested in historical contributions from neighbouring disciplines such as archaeology, sociology, literary studies, historical geography and cultural studies.

The Dictionary contains new historical writing enriched with other resources – images, maps, sound, music, oral history, film, documents and pointers to important objects in Sydney collections. New material will be added regularly, and linked to what is already there. At the start, there will be large gaps – they'll get smaller with time.

Contributors include academics, professional historians, heritage specialists, local studies experts, genealogists, enthusiasts, volunteers and readers. We can't possibly know all the experts we need, so we welcome help in finding them. Readers are encouraged to contribute by suggesting topics, authors, images, multimedia and more, using the Contribute link found on every page.