Vital Connections
Roads are vital connections that bind communities together, ensuring social cohesiveness and facilitating commerce. On 18 September the RTA launched the book Vital Connections - A History of NSW Roads from 1788 at the Museum of Sydney, as part of History Week celebrations and as its contribution to the Centenary of Federation.
Vital Connections - A History of NSW Roads from 1788 focuses on the role of roads in the history of New South Wales from the arrival of Europeans in 1788 to the Centenary of Federation in 2001. It highlights the part roads have played in the State's social and economic development.
The Roads and Traffic Authority and its predecessor organisations have played a major role in connecting communities and opening up NSW to development opportunities.
Vital Connections traces the remarkable achievements of road makers, engineers and bridge builders as they coped with the extremes of the New South Wales landscape - wide rivers, seemingly impassable mountain ranges and rugged coastlines. The first paths between convict tents led ultimately to a cart track over the Blue Mountains, the construction of hundreds of bridges and the creation of a main roads system which by 1889 reached all the boundaries of the colony and accessed remote communities untouched by rail. With the coming of the motor car the quality of the roads had to be upgraded. During the 1990s many motorways planned half a century earlier were finally completed.
The book, written by historian Rosemary Broomham, emphasizes the human dimension of the history of NSW roadways. It is an important contribution to the recording of public history. Vital Connections is available for $45 from the Museum of Sydney bookshop, (02) 9251 4678.
This book, based on an exhibition of more than 100 photos, aims to popularise images and themes which make North Sydney what it is today. It explores the concepts of the 1999 Heritage and Cultural Resources Study through the eyes of the people who live, work and play in North Sydney. The photographs were supplied by the community and illustrate the eight "quality of life" themes that define the unique character of North Sydney and its people: a well respected topography, views great and small, on the waterfront, an enviable urbanism, landmarks, layers of history, a vibrant economy and civic tradition.
Twentieth Century Architecture in Wollongong celebrates the diversity and quality of buildings and structures in Australia's ninth largest city. Although Wollongong began as a scattering of small settlements in the 19th century, its character has been moulded by the 20th century. The 300 photographs in this book reveal that Wollongong contains a notable microcosm of Australian architecture - from Federation houses and humble miners' cottages to industrial landscapes, modern tower blocks and pristine contemporary residences.