The ''New South Wales
Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...
Directory'', also known as Wise's Directories or Wise's Street Directories, was published in
Sydney, Australia. The directory was published from 1886 to 1950.
History
The directory was published every two years until 1900, when it became an annual
publication
To publish is to make content available to the general public.[Berne Conve ...](_blank)
. The directory was originally published by Wise, Caffin & Co.
The directories provided information by locality, individual
surname, government service, and by trade or profession. Early publications included a
street directory
A road map, route map, or street map is a map that primarily displays roads and transport links rather than natural geographical information. It is a type of navigational map that commonly includes political boundaries and labels, making it a ...
for Sydney and its
suburbs, and this later expanded to include Newcastle and West Maitland. Advertisements for local business were also present throughout the directories.
The name of the directory changed over time:
* 1886/87-1893/94: New South Wales Post Office Directory
* 1894/95-1898/99: New South Wales Post Office commercial directory
* 1900-03: New South Wales Post Office Commercial Directory (Wise's)
* 1904-08: New South Wales Post Office Directory (Wise's)
* 1909-15: Wise's New South Wales Post Office Directory
* 1916-30: Wise's New South Wales Post Office Directory including Federal Capital Territory
* 1931-38: Wise's New South Wales Post Office Commercial Directory including Federal Capital Territory
* 1939: Wise's New South Wales Post Office Commercial Directory including
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...
* 1940-50: Wise's New South Wales Post Office Commercial Directory
The directories are a source of information for family history or research on New South Wales from 1886-1950, and are known colloquially as 'Wise Directories' or 'Wise Street Directories'.
The first directory was priced at 47 shillings and 6 pence.
Digitisation
The directories have been digitised in
Trove
Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...
by The
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
.
References
{{reflist
Australian directories
Postal system of Australia
History of New South Wales