North Shore Historical Society research essay competition

About

The North Shore Historical Society is reestablishing its history essay competition to encourage research at the community level and are seeking participation by any amateur history enthusiast.

Your entry should be an original research project based on any aspect of the North Sydney local government area's history in essay form, such as:

Local events of interest, heroes or people of note
Historically significant buildings and developments
Organisations, community groups, schools, churches, and charities
Politicians and political movements
Parks and natural environmental features

Research your own topic or use one of the following ideas:

Photograph a building or person from the area - tell us about the story behind the image
Record a person’s story about living, working, or going to school in the North Sydney area
Timeline – what are some of the events which have happened in the North Sydney area during your lifetime? What was important about these events?
Tell the story of a person, building, event, sporting organisation, school, etc.
Explore how your street has changed over time
How our way of life has changed, e.g. shopping, transport, etc.
Your family’s links with North Sydney's past (family history)
Local weather events such as storms or floods

Prizes

Open category

1 x $1000 for one winning entry of maximum 4,000 words excluding footnotes and bibliography

Secondary school category:

2 x $250 for two winning entries of maximum 2,000 words excluding footnotes and bibliography

Judging criteria

Entries will be judged based on well their work fits the following criterias:

Criteria
How closely the work relates to the history of the North Sydney Council Local Government area. Research may be submitted on any topic that is related to any part of the Council area.
How much original historical research and consultation of primary and secondary sources the work involves. Entrants must submit an original piece of research.
How well the sources used are documented in footnotes and/or in a bibliography.
How much new information, or how many new historical connections or interpretations, the work provides.
How strongly the work adheres to its chosen topic or theme.
The professional quality and the style of the work and ease of comprehension (presentation, layout, spelling, grammar, etc)

The Society reserves the right to withhold the prize awards if entries are judged inadequate. The judges’ decision will be final.

Entries close on 1 October 2024.