CONSERVING THE STORIES OF SYDNEY'S SUBURBS
For heritage advisor and advocate Lisa Trueman, the suburbs tell the real story of Sydney.
The streets of Sydney’s inner western suburbs span over two centuries of the city’s history. Sydney’s CBD is full of easily-recognisable architectural icons, but it’s the city’s suburban fabric that Extent Heritage’s Lisa Trueman is passionate about.
Many parts of the Inner West are identified as heritage conservation areas and listed for their high proportion of retained heritage fabric. This is visible in the buildings, the fences, in the landscapes and streetscapes. Walk down the streets of Balmain, for example, and you’ll find built forms from the early, mid, and late 1800s, from stone buildings of the early days of the colony to Victorian era terraced houses. Go further, and you’ll see well-preserved areas of the Federation and inter-war periods.
“We can see the layers of history being demonstrated,” says Lisa. “These areas show us, and future generations how the suburbs evolved.”
Lisa is a Principal Heritage Advisor in the Built Heritage team at Extent Heritage’s Sydney office. She’s worked in heritage for twenty-five years, and she regularly consults to local councils, providing advice and assessments and acting as an expert witness in the Land and Environment Court. She also sits on the Independent Planning Committees for the Inner West and Burwood Councils, and she’s on the State Heritage Register Committee of the Heritage Council of New South Wales.
Lisa says her passion started early. Her father was a structural engineer with a particular interest in heritage structures.
“So I grew up being dragged round to look at heritage structures, particularly timber bridges, both in Australia and overseas,” says Lisa. “I guess that instilled in me a similar passion.”
When she graduated from university as an architect, she ended up in Florence. What started as a holiday ended up as a career move, as she found work at an architectural firm there for several years, much of which was spent working on a seventeenth century police stables. “In Italy, heritage isn’t really the same thing,” she says. “Their architecture is heritage. You’re working with old buildings all the time.”
On her return to Sydney, she saw the similarities and differences between the European and Australian approaches.
“The stories are completely different,” she says. “‘In Europe I learnt that conservation of built heritage is intrinsic to an understanding of our history and should be accepted as common practice. The historic fabric of Sydney is not as old or perhaps as grand as European cities, but it’s no less important.”
Before long, she’d pivoted from working as a design architect on high-end houses to building a career in heritage.
“There’s a very strong focus on state-listed buildings in New South Wales,” says Lisa. “But it’s local heritage that I’m most passionate about.”
Now, Lisa is an advocate of conserving buildings in areas that have a cohesive historic character. It’s about retaining and sharing the stories that these areas tell. And Sydney’s inner west is full of such stories.
“That’s why I’m an advocate for local history,” she says. “If we don’t protect our local heritage items and heritage conservation areas, we’ll lose our local stories—the stories of our first suburban developments, and the people who lived there.”