Heritage Festival events

The Australian Heritage Festival is the nation’s largest community-driven heritage event, an annual celebration of natural, historic and Indigenous heritage. 2024 marks the 44th year of the Festival, with this year’s theme being ‘Connections’.
 
An exhibition celebrating Mosman residents and business owners will be staged as part of the Heritage Festival. Faces in the Crowd: More Mosman Stories is showing at Barry O’Keefe Library from 24 April to 19 May. 
 
The focus is the unique stories of three locals: Les Peterkin, teacher, potter, musician, and namesake of a portrait prize; Harry J. Weston, designer, artist, and teacher who established one of the country’s first commercial art studios; and Elizabeth Reimer, designer, and manufacturer of mid-century costume jewellery. Highly respected by their contemporaries, each established successful businesses, shared their skills, and influenced the development of design and culture in the local and wider community. 
 
The library service is also inviting residents to learn more about homes and historical names in free 30-minute sessions on 16 May. Before Mosman’s houses had identifying numbers, many had names, each with a story to tell about the house or its owners. 
 
One of the most common enquiries Mosman Library Service’s local studies team receives is from residents wanting to know if their house had a name, be it in the Victorian era when figures in classical mythology and ship names were popular; the Federation period with names of Australian flora and Indigenous words trending; or post-World War I, with houses often named after battlefields in France and Gallipoli. Bookings essential; call 9978 4101. 
 
The Australian Heritage Festival is organised, promoted, facilitated, and led by the National Trust.