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Curator Elise Edmonds with an old waxed bread wrapper. The State Library of NSW will soon open a new exhibition of treasures from the collection to mark its 200th anniversary

From fruit stickers to human hair: The State Library’s strangest collections

The State Library of NSW is celebrating its 200th birthday with a selection of items that show collectors are a weird mob.

  • Julie Power

Latest

The Paragon cafe.

The Paragon has sat empty for eight years. Locals fear it might soon be gone for good

The owner of the heritage-listed cafe has been ordered to maintain the premises to a minimum standard.

  • Julie Power
North Blackwood potato farmer Louisa Dunn.

The potato fields and huts that point to Victoria’s enduring love affair with the spud

They were crucial to the household staple that we still eat by the tonne today. Now heritage protection means their architectural legacy cannot be demolished.

  • Benjamin Preiss
State Theatre gif

The Sydney time capsule from when women were butterflies and men ruled the world

The decor of the State Theatre reveals plainly what it was acceptable for men and women to do at the time it was constructed.

  • Julie Power
The MLC Building, designed by Bates Smart McCutcheon, won the NSW Architects Enduring Architecture Prize in 2021.

The plan to revive Sydney’s most divisive office block

The complex has been tipped for a gleaming office tower, university campus or build-to-rent units. In a twist, its new owners plan to go back to the future.

  • Megan Gorrey
Andrew Markerink

Inside the Sydney clocktower where time will turn backwards

At 3am on Sunday, when the rest of Sydney is asleep, one man will manually shift the hands of the Town Hall clocktower back by an hour.

  • Cindy Yin
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Andrew Sutherland at the former gun emplacement at Point Lonsdale Lighthouse Reserve.

At a beautiful spot with a rich heritage, graffiti-covered buildings are crumbling amid inaction

It’s a prime coastal site with spectacular views and a maritime and military history. But plans to develop the area keep grinding to a halt.

  • Benjamin Preiss
Felicity Selkirk and Tim Holding at  
Château de Purnon, a French chateau they have been restoring bit by bit, funded by subscriptions on social media.

‘I’m crying’: How social media helps Tim and Felicity renovate their 105-room chateau

A cottage in Melbourne or a unit in Sydney goes for the $1.2 million it cost for a 250-year-old French chateau that was crumbling like a Breton biscuit.

  • Julie Power
Carlos Martins at his Burwood home.

A knock on the door alerted Carlos his home of 18 years is in heritage limbo

Home owners in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs have been surprised to learn their houses are flagged for potential heritage listing without their knowledge.

  • Rachael Ward
Crowds inspecting former prime minister Alfred Deakin’s house, Ballara, in April.

Former PM’s seaside residence passed in at auction after promised federal funding falls over

Tom Harley, one of Alfred Deakin’s great-grandsons, said the Commonwealth had indicated it would help put Ballara in public hands, but pulled out this week.

  • Benjamin Preiss and Lachlan Abbott