Ceylon Society of Australia - Origins in Sydney

It all started with a "Ceylonophile" who was born and raised in Australia. Dr Chris Puttock was a collector of antiquarian picture postcards of Ceylon - and he has thousands of them.

His partner in this episode was Hugh Karunayanaye, another "Ceylonophile" but with a huge collection of antiquarian books on Ceylon as well as anything related he could get his hands on.

Chris was an avid attendee at antiquarian exhibitions and realised that there were others who collected items on Ceylon and Sri Lanka such as books, postcards, coins and art. There were also others interested in genealogy as well as people who had interests or were researching or writing about the history or heritage of the Island.

A community of people sharing similar interests

He then suggested the possibility of getting a group of people together with an interest in the cultural heritage of Ceylon and Sri Lanka. The idea was to meet periodically, discuss matters of scholarly interest and at the same time develop an informal social network.

Thus was the fledgling Ceylon Society of Australia born on 30 August 1997 at the home of Hugh and Tulsi Karunanayake. The rest, as they say, is history.