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)