Listen Now

Be transported to a time before electricity and public bathrooms via letters of complaint that were escalated into petitions to the council.

This episode delves into the difficulties Sydneysiders had moving about the city such as low-hanging signs threatening to smack tall pedestrians in the head. Roadworks and the construction of tramlines threw traffic into chaos, and streetlights weren’t lit on nights of the full moon.

City of Sydney historian Dr Lisa Murray returns with complaints about offensive language and disorderly conduct by youths and men. We also hear from a letter about ladies’ cricket and requests that the council take women’s sport as seriously as men's.

In this episode, City of Sydney historian Dr Lisa Murray reflects on the thinly veiled xenophobia in some letters of complaint and discusses anti-Chinese sentiments of the 19th century.

Imagine, if you can, Woolloomooloo crawling with farm animals. This episode explores just one of the many neighbourhood complaints made over the wicked smells and loud bleating from the goats that ran rampant in the city.

Meet the Nuisance Inspector, the City employee in charge of regulating sounds, smells and suspicious solids bothering the good people of Sydney.