Take a virtual journey through history

Published on 26 June 2020

Mayor Frank Carbone and Councillor Dai Le smiling and posing with the earliest surviving records of Council minutes at Whitlam Library

Local history enthusiasts can now explore our City’s past at the click of a button thanks to Council’s new Fairfield City Heritage Collection archival website.

The website provides a digitised catalogue of Fairfield City’s significant and rare object collections housed at Fairfield City Museum & Gallery, enabling users to immerse themselves in the rich history of our area.

Fairfield City Mayor Frank Carbone said the new website is a valuable resource giving fascinating insight into Fairfield City’s past.

“Fairfield City Heritage Collection is an accessible online resource where you can learn about our City’s hidden treasures; explore maps, listen to oral histories and view photographs dating back to the 1800s.”

“Every year Fairfield City Heritage Services and the Museum respond to public requests for historic items like building plans, images of streetscapes or street maps of where residents or former residents and their ancestors once lived. These requests require hours and sometimes days of digging through records, archives and collection databases,” Mayor Carbone said.

“Now anyone can search for these items online, saving everyone time and allowing people to browse what interests them. This is a great way to learn about our history, show our children what Fairfield was like in the past, and reminisce about the old days,” Mayor Carbone said.

The historical atlas also provides a snapshot of Fairfield City’s evolving boundaries from the mid-1850s to today.

The site enables users to save and share historical items on social media, and will soon introduce a function where registered members can comment and suggest edits on content and more.

Visit https://heritagecollection.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au to access the collection.