Sydney Open presents Talks: Public Sydney

Dr. Shirley Fitzgerald is a public historian who works in Sydney. She interprets history through books, articles and on -line, and contributes to the public domain through media, public art, exhibitions and film. A graduate of the University of Adelaide and Macquarie University, she worked for many years as the City Historian for the City of Sydney. She taught the inaugural Master of Letters degree in Public History at the University of Sydney and was involved in the establishment of the dictionaryofsydney.org. She was President of the History Council of NSW, 1996-99, Chair of State Records NSW, 2001-2007, and is currently Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Suzie Matthews | Manager, Late Night Economy & Safe City, City of Sydney

Suzie Matthews is the Manager of the Late Night Economy & Safe City for City of Sydney, who is working to make Sydney a world class night time city. Working in crime prevention and public policy field for over a decade, in 2010 Suzie used her Churchill Fellowship to examine how other global cities are delivering safe, diverse and sustainable night time economies. In 2011, the City of Sydney started work to improve their night time economy.

Talk date: 7 August 2012

Peter Mould | Former NSW Government Architect

Graham Jahn AM | Director, City Planning, Development & Transport, City of Sydney

Graham Jahn AM joined the City of Sydney in September 2009 and is the Director of City Planning, Development & Transport. He is member of the Council’s Executive directly responsible for city planning, transport strategy, development assessments and regulatory compliance. He is an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at University of Technology Sydney and author of the books the Guide to Sydney Architecture and Contemporary Australian Architecture.  Prior to joining the city he was a practicing architect, receiving many design awards including the national Robin Boyd Award, an Australia Award for Urban Design and the American Institute of Architects President’s Medal. He received an Order of Australia in 2012.

Talk date: 14 August 2012

James Grose | National Director, BVN Architecture

James Grose is an architect.  He is the Sydney based National Director of BVN Architecture.

Gideon Haigh | Writer and Journalist

Gideon Haigh has been a journalist for almost thirty years, has written twenty-five books and edited seven others. He now works for The Australian and The Times. In his latest book, The Office: A Hardworking History, Gideon traces from origins among merchants and monks to the gleaming glass towers of New York and the space age sweatshops of Silicon Valley, finding an extraordinary legacy of invention and ingenuity, shaped by the telephone, the typewriter, the elevator, the email, the copier, the cubicle, the personal computer and the personal digital assistant.

Talk date: 21 August 2012

Dr Lisa Murray | City Historian; Chair, Board of Trustees, Dictionary of Sydney

Dr Lisa Murray is a committed public historian. In her current role as the City Historian, Lisa oversees a diverse History Program at the City of Sydney Council that encompasses local and community history, corporate history and urban history. Her current research interests include public history methodologies, boarding houses, Sydney music, and cultural landscapes and memory. She is the Chair of the Dictionary of Sydney Trust, supporting the digital presentation of and community engagement with metropolitan Sydney's history. Lisa is actively involved in the History Council of NSW and she is an accredited member of the Professional Historians' Association (NSW).

Patrick Fensham | Principal and Partner, SGS Economics & Planning Pty Ltd

Talk date: 28 August 2012

Dr Robert Freestone | Professor of Planning & Urban Development, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales

Nicole Gardner | Lecturer, Design, Architecture and Building, UTS

Listen to Nicole's talk [MP3, 37 MB]

Nicole Gardner is an Australian Registered Architect with over ten years experience working in architectural practices in Adelaide, London and Sydney. Nicole has worked across a wide range of project typologies and scales, including high density residential, educational, institutional and major transport infrastructure projects in both London and Sydney. These projects have included the King’s Cross Underground Station Redevelopment, London, and planning and design concepts for the proposed Sydney Metro, Australia. Nicole has coordinated and taught architectural design, construction and communication courses in the schools of architecture at the University of Adelaide, the University of South Australia and since 2008, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). In 2011 she commenced a PhD at UTS with research interests in urban mobility, pervasive technologies and urban public place perception. Nicole is a co-author of the book, Infostructure: A Transport Research Project (2010, Freerange Press).

Talk date: Tuesday 4 September

Listen to the discussion [MP3 file, 79 MB]

Professor Hilary M Carey | Ourimbah Director Research Development, Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle

Hilary Carey is a Professor of History and Ourimbah Director Research Development in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the University of Newcastle. She is one of Australia's foremost religious historians. Her most recent book, God's Empire: Religion and Colonialism in the British World (Cambridge University Press, 2011) was nominated for the Ernest Scott Prize. She has held visiting appointments at Balliol College Oxford, St Andrews University, the University of York, Macquarie University, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University. She is President of the Religious History Association and a member of the Executive of the Australian Historical Association. She lives in northern Sydney and is married with three grown children.

Rev Graham Long | CEO/Pastor, The Wayside Chapel

At the time that Wayside called him into Ministry, Graham was a postie. He'd almost perfected riding a little motor bike when Wayside called him to be their next Minister. In his first life, Graham was a social worker in South Australia, specialising in the field of child protection. Graham trained for ministry from 1979 to 1982. After a few years in church ministry, Graham became a chaplain to Parramatta Prison and he ran a church welfare agency. Academically, after ordination, Graham pursued studies in philosophy achieving degrees from Catholic Theological Union and from the Catholic Institute of Sydney. A Masters honours in philosophy was halted when a near fatal motorcycle accident changed all of life's priorities in 2001. Graham has been married to Robyn for 40 years and together they have two children and three grand daughters.

Talk date: Tuesday 11 September 2012

Ian Innes | Assistant Director, Heritage and Portfolios, HHT

Ian has over twenty years experience in cultural landscape management and conservation, including in senior management roles at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney and Centennial Parklands. He studied architecture and, later, landscape architecture, and his ongoing professional interests developed since that time span a range of aspects of the built environment including: architectural and landscape design, heritage conservation, cultural landscape management, contract administration and project management, strategic asset management, horticulture and arboriculture, and garden plant conservation.

Rod Simpson | Associate Professor in urban design, University of Sydney

Talk date: Tuesday 18 September 2012

Michael Lech | HHT Curator, Collections Online

Michael Lech is Curator, Collections Online at the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (HHT). His specialties include the history of houses, interiors and domestic furnishings in Australia and he has authored a book on the extensive wallpaper collection at the HHT’s Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection. He is also engaged in ongoing research into the rise and development of Australia’s department stores and furnishing trade. Michael is the current secretary of the Australiana Society.

Andrew Robertson | General Manager, Westfield Development & Asset Management

Andrew is Project Director for Westfield Sydney - a $1.2 billion development project in the Sydney CBD. He has been involved in this project for the past 8 years and led all the project phases to date from concept through to completion. Prior to Sydney CBD, Andrew worked as a Development Executive in the QLD portfolio and was responsible for creating and delivering projects at Strathpine, Chermside and Northlakes. Andrew has worked with a range of companies and local government in Australia, the UK and the Middle East. Andrew has qualifications in Town Planning, Property and Economics.

Talk date: Tuesday 25 September 2012