Research & discovery

Our year in review 2023

It happens everywhere, every day, across the organisation – the dual tasks of doing research and supporting others in their research and discovery.

Much of the research carried out by staff – often with the help of volunteers and other supporters – underpins our exhibitions program and collections access activities. But research is also central to developing our learning programs, conserving our collections and heritage buildings, our horticultural works, our public programming, the presentation and interpretation of our sites and collections, and to our visitor and client relationships.

Through 2023, a major research focus was the history of the Sydney Opera House in the lead-up to its 50th birthday and our exhibition The People's House. Among the many highlights of this work was bringing to light the extraordinary contribution of Wulli Wulli tenor Harold Blair AM. Blair was the first professionally trained Australian Aboriginal opera singer, and he performed at the newly completed Opera House in 1973. Other significant projects during the year included planning for a new museum within the National Heritage–listed Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct. Research has uncovered new insights into the history of this site and the experiences of the convict women, orphaned children and others detained there in institutional care.

In parallel, our critical role of supporting the needs and interests of our diverse research community continued. We worked with historians and family historians; students and educators; artists, designers and other creatives; public offices; and individuals and groups seeking evidence around the impacts of government policies and decisions. We hosted a number of fellowships and commissions, including research into the immigration histories of Albury, Broken Hill and Wagga Wagga, and the domestic and indentured labour used at Vaucluse House. We continued to enable research and discovery through our ever-active program of digitising our collections, developing research guides and finding aids, presenting webinars and information sessions, and making upgrades to our online catalogues to help researchers and visitors access and explore our collections. In October, in partnership with the Aboriginal Languages Trust NSW, we launched a program to improve the access of First Nations communities to archival material in our collections and support language revitalisation.