Sydney historical society needs more tour guides to meet demand

The Old Sydney Society, a group that offers historical walks and ghost tours in downtown Sydney, is experiencing a staff shortage.

With busy cruise ship schedules and a rich local history, the group is seeing high demand, but said it has too few tour guides. The society needs at least five additional guides by the beginning of high season this fall.

"We missed out on five to six tours in June because we were still training … tours that could have brought us upwards of $2,500 to $3,000," said Claire Roach, executive director of the Old Sydney Society.

The missed revenue impacts their ability to keep historical properties open to the public. The shortage also limits them from running new programs they hoped to add to diversify programming.

"There are more stories to be told and there's more people that want to be reflected in them," said Roach.

Limited programming

The group has added a tour focusing on local women's history this year titled "Herstory," and hopes to offer the tour every week. But without enough staff, they say their programming remains limited.

Donnie Antle, the society's program director, said business is booming.

"We've added another cruise ship line this year. They've signed with us to do the historic walking tours for their passengers. So we need to hire more guides," said Antle.

The society also hopes that an increase in staffing would help them add to their current programming.

"We can talk about, for instance, the steel plant and deindustrialization," said Antle.

"There are so many stories, not just necessarily the founding of Sydney and the Loyalist background, there are Indigenous stories and there are immigrant stories here."

'Making history interesting'

In the height of tourism season, the Port of Sydney can see up to four cruise ships in port in a single day.

Antle said in the eight years he has worked as a tour guide for the society, they have always run with a shortage of guides. 

"I think there's just kind of a disconnect between people applying, people seeing the job posting and seeing that this is a historic walk … and then thinking to themselves, 'Well I don't really know that much about Sydney history,'" he said. 

Antle hopes applicants will look beyond their existing knowledge base and be open to on-the-job training regarding local history. 

"Really good guides are the ones that can tell a story, that are animated … and can find their own way of making history interesting," he said.

A willingness to learn and a talent for public speaking are the two most important criteria, Antle said.