Apply historic images to hoardings and scaffolding covers
When you need to do this
Our code of practice for construction-related temporary structures on and above roads requires the use of historic images on structures surrounding heritage building developments or located in heritage conservation areas of significance.
To help you meet this requirement, a design template to lay out images is available. A selection of high resolution images is also available from City Archives through a self-service function, or you can supply your own images of the relevant building or streetscape.
The use of this template and our curated images is free of charge.
What you need to do
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Review the guidelines
Read our code of practice. If you need assistance, we also offer professional advice.
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Select historic images
You can do one of the following:
- Standard approach – choose free images preselected by the City Archives. These are grouped for specific locations and themes. They are all available in appropriate file sizes for large scale printing. They can be used on both hoarding site fences and fascia sections. Image citations to accompany each image on the hoarding are included.
- Bespoke approach – for special sites you can create your own bespoke historic hoarding design that tells the unique story of your building, site or surrounding precinct. This could be a display of historic images sourced from the City of Sydney Archives combined with images from other relevant libraries or archives. Or it could be a site-specific depiction or interpretation of relevant source materials by an artist working with a historian or heritage consultant. Contact us if you’d like to pursue this approach.
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Download the design template
The historic images hoarding design template creates a standard gallery for the display of historical photographs to be printed and applied to eligible hoardings.
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Use the template for your design
The black frame contains placeholders for both landscape and portrait orientation imagery and a standard style and placement for image citations.
Landscape and portrait images can be placed end-to-end in various combinations to suit a variety of different hoarding dimensions.
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Lodge your temporary structures application
Complete an application for construction-related temporary structures and nominate that you are proposing to use historic images.



People love reflecting on the past and imagining the future. You can help Sydneysiders to step back-in-time to reimagine our urban environment with life-size archival images from our City Archives. There’s a whole new layer of Sydney just waiting to be discovered.
– City Historian


