More house history resources

The Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) maintains the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System (AHIMS) which includes information about Aboriginal objects and places.

‘At home in North Sydney’ is a unique online exhibition exploring the history of North Sydney through the built environment: its architecture, architects, builders and residents.

The Dictionary of Sydney is an online resource covering more than 700 suburbs, with each entry complete with demographic information and precise boundary maps.

The State Library of NSW has produced a 4-part webinar called Historic Land Records Viewer (HLRV) Fundamentals. These videos introduce the major record series contained in HLRV, including Old System grants and title deeds, Torrens Title and parish maps. Highly recommended viewing before leaping into the HLRV.

The Inner West Council has an online guide that introduces key sources and has the opening hours of their local studies collections. If your house is located within the Inner West local government area, this is your starting point.

The Inner West Council presented a House History Workshop for History Week in 2020. The video of the workshop is available through the History Council of NSW’s Youtube channel.

Researching land history using the Land Registry records can be very helpful in establishing the history of a property or locality. This webpage provides a start. A key to unlocking the mysteries of the different title systems is to read the guides to searching land records.

Documents at the NSW Land Registry Services record who owned the land. A basic aim is to establish the "chain of title" ie. the sequence of historical transfers of title to the property from the present owner back to the original deed of grant from the government. The Historical Land Records Viewer is the primary way for the public to gain free access historical titles and cancelled plans created by the NSW Lands Department and now managed by the NSW Land Registry. Before you leap into searching within the viewer, read the information regarding Land Titles Historical Research.

The National Library of Australia has a frequently asked questions list (FAQ) with some suggestions for how to research the history of your house.

A National Library of Australia learning webinar on discovering the history of your house. Learn tips from the National Library’s experienced research librarians on identifying architectural features and using state and national resources to add to your research. This session is especially useful if you’ve already done some sleuthing in Trove and would like to know more about other free sources of information.

This NSW State Archives guide provides an overview of the major sources for researching houses and properties. It provides details about records held by the state archives and lists other organisations that may hold relevant material.

The NSW Heritage Inventory database has listings for more than 20,000 heritage buildings and items on statutory lists in Sydney and NSW. Even if your house is not listed as a heritage item, there may be houses in your street or locality that are.

This article on the Traces website provides newspaper searching tips from Sue Reid’s Newspaper searching masterclass.

North Sydney Council has an online research guide for how to research your house history. The guide, Getting Started: Finding out about your North Sydney house, is available as a pdf download on this webpage.

This is a guide to the City of Sydney street names, and documents name changes and streets that have disappeared.

This occasional series of video guides introduces the City Archives, its catalogue Archives and History Resources, and highlights collections in the archives.

Trove is a consolidated index developed by the National Library of Australia which is focused on Australia and Australians. It brings together newspapers, maps, books and images from more than 1,000 Australian museums, libraries, galleries and archives.