2025 Autumn Edition Newsletter
NEWSLETTER
greetings to all our members and friends
It’s an eventful time for LGBTIQ+ History and Pride History Group. We hope you are as keen as us to preserve and celebrate our lives and achievements. Our next general meeting will be online on Monday 21 April at 6.30pm. We meet online every third Monday of each month.
What's been happening?
Blue Plaques
Pride History Group is very please to announce that our nomination for a Blue Plaque for Ida Leeson has been successful. Heritage NSW has released its latest round of Blue plaques, an initiative that recognises and celebrates people, events and milestones that have shaped NSW history and aims to encourage people to explore their neighbourhood and connect with amazing people and stories.
This round of Blue Plaques celebrates a number of LGBTIQ people. Among the 16 new plaques announced are four NSW LGBTQIA+ people: Ida Leeson, Malcolm Cole, Bobby Goldsmith and Peter Allen. While the exact locations are yet to be announced, these blue plaques will be placed at sites connected with the individuals.
The inclusion of LGBTIQ+ people’s lives in these physical markers is more than just recognition of significant individuals, but also tangible public reminders of our visibility and representation of our continuing existence, resistance and lives, which historically have been all too often ignored or erased.
More information at https://blueplaques.nsw.gov.au/news-and-media/articles/2025/16-new-blue-plaques-announced
Ida Leeson, 1933 / photographer unknown - Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Malcolm Cole. 1976. Copyright William Yang.
Fair Day
PHG again had a stall at the Fair Day in Victoria Park on Sunday 16 February. PHG volunteers chatted with a wide range of people about all things LGBTIQ history. Many shared what they knew or had heard of individual life experiences: showing the power of the personal story. Michael sat under a shady tree behind our stall and conducted oral interviews. One of our members, Stephen, reflects on the day: “Our Pride History Group stall was on a gravel track looking across to Sydney University’s fence. I saw my own undergraduate life there, having joined Gay Liberation in early 1973 meeting regularly at the Old Union upstairs for ‘consciousness raising’: sharing and growing between we early members, some of whom have oral histories on our site. Across Victoria Park and Paramatta Road, 33A Glebe Point Road was our other Gay Liberation meeting place.” Our Fair Day stall was once again a fabulous way of connecting with community.
IN brief
On 29 November 2024 Pride History Group celebrated our 20th Anniversary with an event at the Inner West Pride Centre.
On 24 February Pride History Group partnered with Mardi Gras Film Festival to present the film “Unusually Normal.” The film documents a multi-generational queer family in Canada.
On 10 March our President, Shirleene Robinson, gave a literary talk with historian Graham Willett, about Graham’s new book Before Mardi Gras.
You can find more info about all these events on our Facebook page.
Coming up - The Pride History debate
We are busy planning a joint event for Pride month with Qtopia on Tuesday 10th June at 6pm. Come and listen, and perhaps join in, to a lively debate about the value of queer history. This is a free ticketed event with the option of donating to Pride History Group. Tickets are available here https://events.humanitix.com/the-pride-history-great-debate
Drawing by Garry Wotherspoon
HERITAGE LISTings
Bars and pubs
Three well-known Oxford Street gay bars are being proposed for heritage listing in recognition of the part they played in Sydney’s queer history. The proposal was put forward by City of Sydney Council. The Oxford Hotel, Palms and Universal (formerly Midnight Shift) are now being considered by Heritage NSW. At the same time, City of Sydney councillors are now investigating requesting heritage listing for TRADE nightclub, formerly known as Ruby Reds, which was considered Sydney's first lesbian bar, and the long-standing LGBTQ+ bookstore, The Bookshop Darlinghurst.
The Imperial Hotel in Erskineville has been listed on the NSW State Heritage Register. The “Impy” has been an important venue for LGBTIQ+ social events and community get togethers for over 40 years. More information at https://www.nsw.gov.au/ministerial-releases/pride-and-preservation-imperial-hotel-listed-on-nsw-state-heritage-register
Captain Moonlight and dearest Jim
The 19th-century bushrangers, Captain Moonlite and James Nesbitt. (Photo: National Portrait Gallery)
Andrew Scott (Captain Moonlight) was a flamboyant bushranger active in western New South Wales in the 1800s. He and his beloved, James Nesbitt, are buried together at a spot just outside Gundagai. The site has recently been added to the NSW State Heritage Register. More information here https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-01/captain-moonlite-nsw-queer-history/104995210
Hunter Rainbow History News
Documenting Project Pipers. Pipers was a re-purposed straight night club in Hunter Street, Newcastle West “taken over” by Newcastle’s drag performers. The venue became Newcastle’s first queer managed night spot. The Project will record memories for a booklet. Collected material will be archived in Special Collections, Newcastle University Library.
The Star Hotel. John Witte has written up an argument for the heritage listing of the Star Hotel, using material found in various queer oral histories. It uses new evidence of the close friendship Monique and Ayesha forged in Newcastle and of the knowledge of the early camp scene in both cities through seamen who drank at the Seaman’s Bar at the Star and who socialised on leave in Sydney.
Bernies Bar, which occupies the 1925 extension of the Star Hotel is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year with a history plaque to describe its queer history. John is looking for photos of the picket held to protest the ban on lesbians, gays and transgender customers on 3 February 1979. Please let us know if you have any.
Work continues describing the thousands of photos in the MacKillop House archive. MacKillop House was the first community run AIDS residence in Australia where clients and carers lived under the same roof.
More info at https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/59991
LGBTIQ history FRIENDS
Australian Queer Archives (AQUA)
The Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) collects, preserves and celebrates material from the lives and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, intersex, queer, Brotherboy and Sistergirl (LGBTIQ+) Australians. More info at AQUA
Qtopia
Qtopia strives to honour the stories of those who paved the way, amplify the voices of the present, and inspire a more inclusive future for all. To see their current exhibitions and events, go to https://qtopiasydney.com.au
INTERNATIONAL LGBTIQ+ ARCHIVES
Queer Indonesia Archive
A digital archiving project committed to the collection, preservation and celebration of the lives and experiences of queer Indonesians. See more at https://qiarchive.org/en/
QAMRA
Queer Archive for Memory, Reflectiona and Activism (QAMRA) is based in Bangalore and preserves stories of grit exhibited by trans and queer community members across India. More information at https://qamra.in
Do you want to help?
Members are always busy on a number of projects. Do you want to get involved?
We can always use some help to:
log oral history interviews
chase up permissions to publish interviews
scan photographs and posters
work on one of our current history projects
Or do you have your own initiative you're wanting to work on? Get in contact!
And don't forget our website
The EARLI project
The Enhanced Advance care planning and life Review Longitudinal Intervention (EARLI) project, led by University of New South Wales, is partnering with us to publish written life stories. The aim is to improve advanced care planning through discussion and recording of life stories. You can read John Waterstreet’s story here .
New oral histories
Jude Irwin grew up in country New South Wales. She came to Sydney to study social work at UNSW. She married and had two children. After this, Jude threw herself into social justice causes and political lobbying, especially in relation to women's issues and domestic violence. At Sydney University, Jude was involved in the Australian Centre for Lesbian and Gay Research. In this interview, Jude speaks about family, education, and her life in activism. See Jude’s info here
Thanks for reading
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Become a member of Pride History Group and get involved today!
And don't forget that members are encouraged to come along to monthly meetings to find out what's going on, catch up with friends and get involved.
We meet online on the 3rd Monday of each month. We hope to see you soon.