Articles

The David Sheedy Foundation has initiated a grant for works to be undertaken on the John Oxley steamship, which was built in 1927 in Scotland for the Queensland Pilot Service. The ship was named after the explorer John Oxley, who was the Surveyor-General based in Sydney and explored the eastern coast of Australia.

“Connections” is a project undertaken by the recent David Sheedy Scholarship recipient, Althea Rodricks. The project is based on acquiring records from one of the National Trust’s heritage properties, the Everglades House and Gardens in Leura, Blue Mountains; and using them in an exhibition to showcase the house and the people who have cared for it.

Following purchase of land by Sidney Sheedy on a sandstone escarpment in the 1920s, he commissioned a house to be designed by FG Leslie Allen which was built in 1939 on Hardy Street. Distinctive in all round red face brick, the structure was double fronted with an engaged circular tower facing west, all founded on a Bondi White sandstone basement.

David’s research into maritime history was lifelong and he was determined to capture the past by campaigning tirelessly for the preservation of the Alice Rawson. The account given by Roger Baylis (2012) summed up the Alice Rawson as Watsons Bay’s last lifeboat built in 1905 to replace the Lady Carrington. She was built entirely of Australian hardwood at Cockatoo Island Dockyards and was the prototype for future Sydney Lifesaving surf boats.

The Maitland Railway Precinct was one area of David Sheedy’s particular attention due to its distinct indigenous, industrial, pastoral, agronomic and architectural heritage influences in the greater Sydney district. The Maitland Railway area is significant because of the mostly intact, early 19th century railway settings that contributed to the local economy largely due to commercial interests that were nation building.