The NSW Blue Plaques program celebrates heritage by recognising noteworthy people and events from our State’s history. The program aims to capture public interest and fascination in people, events and places which form the story of NSW. It is inspired by the famous London Blue Plaques program which originally started in 1866, and similar programs around the world. Learn more about the NSW Blue Plaques.
(Source: https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/heritage/celebrate-heritage)
35 Blue Plaques have been announced (as at November 2022):
Bessie Robinson
Landowner, developer, hotelier and educator
Brett Whiteley
Australian artist
Caroline Chisholm
Advocate for women and immigrant families
Dorothea Mackellar
Australian poet and author of ‘My Country’
May Gibbs
Author and illustrator of children’s books
Dr Charles Perkins
Aboriginal rights activist
Ethel Turner
Australian novelist
Nancy Bird Walton
First Australian woman to fly commercially
1965 Freedom Ride
Protest tour highlighting racial discrimination against Aboriginal people
Grace Cossington Smith
Australian artist and pioneer of modernist painting
Patrick White
Australian novelist
Walter Liberty Vernon
NSW Government Architect
Chips Rafferty
Australian film actor
June Bronhill (June Mary Gough)
Musical theatre actress
Arthur Malcolm Stace
Chalk writer known as ‘Mr Eternity’
Billy Hughes
Seventh Prime Minister of Australia known for representing Australia at the Treaty of Versailles, and establishing the Federal Police Force and the CSIRO
Duke Kahanamoku
Competition swimmer who popularised surfing in Australia
Sir Edward Hallstrom
Inventor, businessman and philanthropist
William and Ian Clunies Ross
Science educator and his son, the first Chair of the CSIRO
Mei Quong Tart
Philanthropist, merchant, and Chinese-Australian community leader
Arthur Bryant Triggs
Pastoralist, philanthropist and collector
Betro Abicare
Migrant and builder who contributed to the town’s commercial centre
Camden Red Cross patriotic wartime sewing circles
Voluntary patriotic activities during WW1 and WW2
David Lennox
Colonial engineer and master stonemason
Father Dunlea
Visionary and founder of Australia's original Boys' Town
John Sulman and Bishop Sydney Linton
An innovative architect and Anglican Bishop
Joseph Laurie
Timber industry pioneer
Little Company of Mary Sisters
Established a hospital in regional NSW
Dr Mark Lidwill
Medical innovation
Thomas Leech
Civil engineer who worked on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme
Albert (Tibby) Cotter
International test cricketer and soldier
Daniel Gowing
Prominent early developer in Bega and Tathra
Dr Thomas Fiaschi
Pioneering surgeon
Margaret Catchpole
Female convict chronicler
WW1 Valentine Day Soldier Riots
1916 soldier riots protesting conditions at military training bases in Liverpool
(Sources: https://blueplaques.nsw.gov.au/about
https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/new-blue-plaques-announced-as-second-round-of-nominations-opens)