Lisa Murray
PHA Accreditation
Professional Members
About
Dr Lisa Murray is the City Historian and heads up the history unit at the City of Sydney Council. She oversees a diverse History Program at the City that encompasses local and community history, civic and municipal history, and urban history. With over 15 years experience in the field of public history, Lisa is passionate about making history accessible to the public. Lisa is the award winning author of planning histories and a regular contributor to debates around public history, including being a speaker at TEDxSydney 2013.
Lisa's interests in public and community history have driven her to become actively involved in community history groups. She is Board Member and former Chair of the Dictionary of Sydney, an ambitious not-for-profit digital history project about greater Sydney, and has been a Councillor of the History Council of NSW, the peak body for history in this state, since 2003. She is a former board member of the Society of Australian Genealogists (2001-2004) and former Chair of the National Trust Cemeteries Committee.
In her spare time, Lisa is writing a history and field guide to Sydney's cemeteries, to be published by NewSouth Publishing in late 2016. Other research interests include history in the digital age; sensory urbanism; history and creative practice; landscapes and memory; the Dictionary of Sydney; Sydney music; and Sydney cookery books.
You can find out more about a day in the life of the City Historian here:
Writing History - Lisa Murray City Historian - Tales of the City - City of Sydney, February 2012
Heather Jacobs, "Tracking our digital footprint", Australia Unlimited, 19 April 2013
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SydneyClio
Twitter: @SydneyClio
LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/pub/lisa-murray/43/580/159
(photo credit: Australia Unlimited / Pierre Toussaint)
Area of Expertise
Sydney's urban history, cemeteries, the Dictionary of Sydney, public history methodologies.
Publications/Past Work
Talks / Videos
- Future-proofing our digital future - TEDxSydney, Sydney Opera House, May 2013
- Shaping Public Sydney - Vimeo video - Dr Lisa Murray and Peter Mould with Caroline Butler-Bowden, part of the Sydney Writers Festival at The Mint, May 2013
- Akubra Hats: an Aussie Icon - ABC TV Big Ideas - talk presented at Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, February 2013
- Public Sydney: Meet - Public Sydney talks program with links to audio - talk presented at Historic Houses Trust, August 2012
- History Matters: Power and Preservation - 7th Annual Marg Barry Memorial Lecture, Inner Sydney Regional Council for Social Development, 2011
- Kings Cross' colourful past - SMH video - video tour of Kings Cross, November 2011
- A History of Sydney's Streets - Shirley Fitzgerald & Lisa Murray - YouTube video - City of Sydney 2007
Media
- 2SER Radio - Breakfast with Tim Higgins - weekly segment about Dictionary of Sydney content - some examples: Sydney Suburb Names, Pyrmont Bridge, Arthur Stace the Eternity man, the Artists' Balls, the Cooks River ... for a full list of podcasts search "Dictionary of Sydney" on the 2SER website
- Expert Q&A - Sydney's history and family history resources, Inside History Magazine, August 2013 blog transcript
- Heather Jacobs, "Tracking our digital footprint", Australia Unlimited, 19 April 2013
- Why digital archives matter - YouTube video - interview by Drew Rooke for Sydney University, April 2013
- Peter Turner, "48 Hours in Sydney", National Geographic Traveller, October 2012
- Leesha McKenny, "Not quite your average suburb - Walsh Bay tries on a postcode", Sydney Morning Herald, 23 April 2012
- Tales of the City - Writing History - YouTube video - City of Sydney, February 2012
- Lance Richardson, "Small Step to a Distant Past", Sydney Morning Herald - Traveller, 18 February 2012 Barani / Barrabugu booklet profile
- Barani / Barrabugu (Yesterday / Tomorrow) Aboriginal history booklet launch - YouTube video - City of Sydney July 2011
- ABC Radio National, Hindsight (history documentary) “A Decent Burial”. Story researcher and producer: Nicole Steinke; first aired 4 January 2009. Overview and audio download
- ABC Radio National, Perspective (opinion piece) “Monuments and Memories”. First aired 18 September 2003. Transcript
Articles / Essays / Books
- Blog: Sydney Cemetery Adventures https://sydneycemeteryadventures.wordpress.com/
- Dictionary of Sydney entries - http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/contributor/lisa_murray
- "Civic Spaces and the City Architect", in Public Sydney: Drawing the City, Philip Thalis and Peter John Cantrill, Historic Houses Trust, Sydney, 2013, pp.172-177
- "From Slums to Sunny Hills: Sydney's would-be inner-city modern housing schemes", Architecture Bulletin: A City for Tomorrow, Autumn 2013, pp. 14-16
- "Sydney's Past, History's Future: the Dictionary of Sydney", co-authored with Emma Grahame, Public History Review, vol. 17 (2010) http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/phrj/article/view/1839
Web: http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/history
