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Francis Chocolates
Sydney has long been a magnet for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people seeking work opportunities, shelter and connections with community and family. Many worked in private industry in Sydney’s…
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Eveleigh Railway Yards
Eveleigh Railway Yards was Sydney’s largest employer from the time it opened in 1886. It was also one of the biggest employers of Aboriginal people living in Sydney. Many Aboriginal…
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Trades Hall
When Aboriginal people began to organise politically, there were often sympathetic non-Aboriginal people to help in the struggle, some of them unionists. From the 1950s, unions and Aboriginal organisations worked…
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Redfern Town Hall
Town Halls throughout Sydney’s inner suburbs provided large civic spaces that Aboriginal organisations used to gather and socialise for leisure activities and political meetings. Aboriginal activist William Ferguson was a…
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Sydney Town Hall
Sydney Town Hall played an important role in the movement towards self-determination from the 1960s onwards. Like other town halls throughout Sydney’s inner suburbs, it was a ‘hall for hire’,…
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Alexandria Town Hall
Town Halls throughout Sydney’s inner suburbs provided large civic spaces that Aboriginal organisations used to gather and socialise for leisure activities and political meetings. Regular dances were organised by the…
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Empress Hotel
The Empress Hotel on Regent Street was frequented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from the 1940s through to the 1970s. Although it was a place where Aboriginal people…
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Clifton Hotel
The Clifton Hotel on Botany Road in Waterloo was a place where Aboriginal people gathered. It was where the decision was made to start the Koori Knockout, and where Bob…
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Redfern Community Centre
The Redfern Community Centre, a focus for Aboriginal social and cultural activities in Sydney, is located in a refurbished former factory on The Block. It is surrounded by a landscaped…
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NCIE
Redfern Public School was established in 1879. It educated generations of Aboriginal children living in Redfern and surrounding suburbs during the 20th century. Most students knew the school as George…
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Aboriginal Dance Theatre Redfern
Aboriginal Dance Theatre Redfern (ADTR) was founded in 1979, occupying part of the old Black Theatre building before moving to Renwick Street. It offered accredited courses in Aboriginal dance and…
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Royleston
Royleston was a grand Glebe residence built in 1880. It was purchased by the NSW Child Welfare Department in 1922 for use as a ‘home’ or ‘receiving depot’ for male…
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Eora Centre
The Eora Centre (now Eora College) in Chippendale is a campus of the Sydney Institute of TAFE. Originally located at Regent Street, and later relocated to its present site on…
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Murawina
Murawina, meaning ‘black woman’, was a childcare centre run by and for Aboriginal people. It began in 1972 as a breakfast program in Hollis Park for local Aboriginal children living…
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Redfern Park
Redfern Park was the site of a speech given by the former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating on 10 December 1992, to launch the Year of the Indigenous Person. Subsequently…
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Land Rights
Along with the protection of children, and the right to vote and be counted, Aboriginal people also mobilised politically around land rights throughout the 20th century. Sydney had seen protests…
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Freedom Ride
The decade of the 1960s was a time of protest against racism around the world. In 1965, Sydney University student and Arrente/Kalkadoon man Charles Perkins joined with university students and…
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Boot Trade Union Hall
The Boot Trade Union Hall at Redfern was a popular gathering place for Aboriginal people living in Sydney following the Second World War, especially for dances on Friday evenings. It…
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Aboriginal Medical Service
Author: Lily Thomas-McKnight The Aboriginal Medical Service Cooperative Ltd (AMS) was opened on 20 July 1971 at 171 Regent Street, Redfern to provide free medical support to Aboriginal people in…
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Aboriginal Legal Service
Author: Lily Thomas-McKnight The Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) was established in 1970 at 142 Regent Street in the heart of Redfern. The ALS was created as a response to intense…
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St David’s Hall
The Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA) was an all-Aboriginal political organisation formed in Sydney in 1924 by Fred Maynard. He had been involved in the Coloured Progressive Association, a group…
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Dawes Point / Tar-Ra
Author: Paul Irish and Tamika Goward The Aboriginal name for the peninsula on the western side of Sydney Cove is Tar-Ra. It is also known as Dawes Point because it…
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Koori Knockout
The NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout, known to most as the Koori Knockout, has been held annually since 1971. It grew out of a longstanding tradition among Sydney’s Aboriginal community…
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Redfern All Blacks
The dynamic and successful Redfern All Blacks rugby league team formed officially in 1944, but may have begun informally a decade earlier. The team attracted talented players from around NSW…
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Paddington Town Hall
Author: Paul Irish Town Halls throughout Sydney’s inner suburbs provided large civic spaces that Aboriginal organisations used to gather and socialise for leisure activities and political meetings. Paddington Town Hall…