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Statement on the future of Sydney's Victoria Barracks

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Statement of the Military History Society of New South Wales on sale and redevelopment of Victoria Barracks, Paddington, Sydney Site map of Victoria Barracks precinct The Victoria Barracks precinct contains some of the most elegant Regency style buildings in Australia, even though their original and continuing purpose has been functional as a military facility. The Barracks site is simply too compact in its dimensions and too important historically to be developed for anything other than its present use. Precious heritage buildings and spaces are dispersed right across the site (see site map above). In accordance with their function and the state of technology at the time of construction, the site’s structures are low-rise. We are concerned that new buildings would be higher in a way that spoils the low horizontal silhouette of the Main Barracks, particularly looking to the south. In this regard the Main Barracks and the parade ground have historically been, and should now be, groupe...
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RECONNAISSANCE Summer Issue 2025

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  This is the "From the Editor" column of the Summer 2025 Issue of Reconnaissance , the quarterly magazine of The Military History Society of New South Wales. Welcome to the Summer 2025 Issue of Reconnaissance . From our English inheritance of mistrusting over-mighty standing armies and calling on civilian reserves in times of threat, the concept of volunteer soldiering or militia service was implanted in the Australian colonies by the mid-nineteenth century. Interest in this form of defence intensified after the withdrawal of regular British troops in 1870. Since militiamen or reservists remained, primarily, civilians who served on a part-time basis, some degree of overlap between their work status in civil life and their military service was a natural development, as it was deep into English history. Many regiments and sub-units adopted identities associated with the occupations, professions and institutions to which their members belonged, as well as, of course, the loca...
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Group Visit to the Australian Army Museum of Military Engineering at Holsworthy Barracks, Sunday 19 October 2025

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On Sunday, 19 October 2025 a party of Society members visited the magnificent Australian Army Museum of Military Engineering at Holsworthy Barracks in western Sydney. We were granted the privilege of a special guided tour which started off on the upper level along the visual Timeline wall which places events in chronological context from colonial to more recent times. Then we were given access to back-of-office storage and sorting areas containing hundreds of fascinating items from weapons, to uniforms, to maps, to instruments, to flags and to medals, all collected over the historical periods presented on the timeline. We then moved to the lower level where the Ubique Gallery displays many fascinating exhibits relating to wartime engineering across Australian military history. Finally we entered the Large Technology Gallery with its incredible fleet of military engineering vehicles adapted to a variety of battlefield purposes, like bulldozing, repair and maintenance, transport and mine...
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