Balcony in the 'Loo

Balcony overlooking Harnett Street, Wooloomooloo

This is my contribution to the Weekend in Black and White community.

Diversify or die!

Farmers are not the only small-business people who have to diversify to keep their head above water.

Yesterday, I highlighted the auto repair shop in the back alley. Their ability to diversity the service they offer is especially limited. They can increase the range of makes/models perhaps.

With the shrinking of the market for hard-copy newspapers and magazines, newsagents have had to join networks, and diversity the range of services they offer their (usually) walk-in/off-the-peg clients. Take this newsagent, in Darlinghurst Road, just opposite the fire-station.

He carries nearly the full range of main newspapers: Fairfax (Sydney Morning Herald,Sun Herald); News Ltd (The Australian, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph). He only appears not to carry the Financial Review, which, my guess is his clientele would have little use for. He is an agent for the NSW Lotteries, and for a range of mobile phone service providers: Telstra, Lyca and Lebara. He is an agent for government bus tickets. He is an agent for the airport shuttle bus, has an ATM and a public phone.He has a money transfer agency and a machine for developing digital photographs.

And ... he also flogs ice. How diversified can you get!

Flash repairs

I'm sure they do not mean 'repairs done in a flash'. Perhaps they mean that their repair jobs are 'fancy'. Who knows? But each of these shops is the sign of a dying breed of mechanical repair shop, that doubles as a smash repair shop. Being squeezed into back alleys through sky-high rents, and out of business by the omnipresent computer system that, I gather, is under the bonnet of cars nowadays.

Originally, I had no idea what 'Spies Hecker' was, but now know it to be a well-known brand of paint finishing for automotives.

I led with the Kings Cross repair shop because I like the font.

This is my contribution to the Signs Signs community.

Craggy

Picture at an exhibition ...

Taphophile Tragics # 8 - The mail coach and the burning tree

In Memory of George Michael Pattison who was accidentally killed by a burning tree falling across the mail coach in which he was travelling from Taree on 31st January 1899 Aged 39 years Erected by the Commercial Travellers of New South Wales Port Macquarie General Cemetery

The final Taree to Port Macquarie mail coach, 1914

The Melbourne Argus next day reported on page 7

The coach was being driven along the road at Heron's Creek by Robert Louis when a tree, which had been burning for several days, fell. Some of the branches struck the coach and two pole horses, killing the horse furthest away from the tree stump, and slightly injuring the near horse. The leading horse escaped uninjured. Louis was killed instantaneously. A passenger, Mr Geo. Pattison, a commercial traveller for Heyde, Todman & Co., tobacconists of Sydney, had both his legs broken. One of his arms was also broken and his head was bruised. The coach was smashed to splinters and was unrecognisable... Mr Pattison had lain there for hours suffering indescribable agony. His cries finally attracted the attention of two men, who were going along by the road shortly after daylight, and they at once conveyed news of the accident to Port Macquarie and Kew. Mr Pattison was taken to Kew where an operation was performed, but he died this evening.

Horses were obviously of immense value in those days.

Heyde, Todman & Co was owned by Wilhelm van der Heyde & George Todman, both pillars of the community in Strathfield in Sydney. Their tobacconist company eventually became W.D. & H.O. Wills which was incorporated into British Tobacco.

George Michael Pattison was the son of William and Elizabeth Pattison.



View Larger Map

On this run, from Taree to Port Macquarie, on today's roads, the coach would have to travel 90 kms.

This is my contribution to the Taphophile Tragics community.

Monday Mural - Sydney Place

Deep in the heart of Wooloomooloo lies a town centre, where the decaying tenements of the early 1970s were demolished. Through roads have been blocked off, parks and playgrounds take their place. It is low-rise all packed together, with a large number of unemployed, indigent, and indigenous inhabitants.


There are a number of murals in the area, mostly with indigenous motifs, which were restored by the City Of Sydney during 2010. Once again, for residents of Sydney, I have included the ubiquitous Sydney Tower in the post to enable you to orient yourself. One of the signs says 'Dowling Street'. I was standing in Sydney Place to take the photograph of the mid-nineteenth century working man's cottage.

This is my contribution to the Monday Mural community.

Chard Stairs

Ever had a memory that flashes in your brain, but you cannot seem to grasp it, to enable closer examination. I have a memory of this 'area'. In 1958, my paternal aunt had a bed-sit in the building on the left. It has been renovated out of recognition, but I have stalked the area, and this is the only candidate. I was 10 and television was oh so new in Sydney. My aunt had her own apartment, and in that apartment was a television. Next to the television was a floor lamp with a scarlet velvet lampshade which cast an eerie red glow. I was very impressed.


Forbes Street runs from Taylor Square in Darlinghurst, across William Street, and into Wooloomooloo where it is stopped by the Plunkett Street housing estate and school. Originally, I guess it to have ended down near the Finger Wharf, about where Harry's Cafe de Wheels stands. It was named in honour of Sir Francis Forbes, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW from 1824 to 1837.

Forbes Street consists of a number of sudden 'dips', and down onto William Street is one of those dips. William Street was widened in 1916 (by demolishing buildings along its south side, the side which now boasts these steps). The steps, built in 1925 totally cut Forbes Street and prohibit vehicular traffic. Mr W.H. Chard was a local land-holder.

Burnished bannister

The Chard Stairs across Forbes Street, 1925

This is my contribution to the Weekend in Black and White community.

The 'poof' factor

The past is an elusive land, that fritters through our fingers. The 1840 Sydney of Joseph Fowles has been no-more for eons. The Darlinghurst struggle-street of Henry Lawson has been botoxed into oblivion. The gentrified and bohemian Macleay Street of Kenneth Slessor has oozed into the sludge of the criminal under-class. So the inner glass-half-full that is me, hummed with positivism during the week when I encountered Jane Cooper Bennett, historical artist.

Having seen my photographic record of the Victoria Street AIDS mural, Jane invited me along to the opening of her latest show in a public exhibition space within St Vincents hospital. She had been asked to record the streetscape of the immediate vicinity prior to the construction of the Kinghorn Cancer Centre. A plein-air historical artist and a photographic footpath flaneur espouse similar urban streetscape values. We trawl the delapidated inner city recording what exists before the wrecker's ball calls 'poof'.

There is a Heritage Fair on 25th February at the Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh, during which Jane will be painting en-plein-air. Come along from 10am 'til 4pm. Watch her canvas tranform before your eyes. Experience the skill and artistry of the forgers of wrought iron. The past is gone, but not forgotten. We lament its passing, but celebrate its being.

The Battle for the 'Loo - the protagonists

Read the post about Juanita Neilsen. Read the post about the history of the murals.

Setting the scene This is a classic battle: people with power and money versus people with neither power nor money. The era was the very end of the ‘60s through to about 1977.

The Location Wooloomooloo is the bay to the East of Farm Cove, on the very edge of the first settlement. It is peopled with those who cannot afford to live elsewhere, but who huddle trapped between a precipitous rocky escarpment, the edge of the harbour, and a small stream being rapidly fouled.

The A Team A combination of the landed political class, property developers, and corrupt coppers (Robin Askin, Frank Theeman, Joe Meisner, Norm Gallagher were notable)

The B Team Residents, unionists, leftist progressive politicians, academics, and journalists (Jack Mundey, Joe, Owens, Juanita Neilsen, Tom Uren, Gough Whitlam)


What happened? The city was bursting at the seams. More office space was required. More high rise residential buildings were required. And here, on the edge of the city, was a valley full of run-down tenement houses, terraces jumbled together as they tumble down the escarpment. Hovels rented to the working class, the criminal class, the unemployed and those on the drug or sex game.

This was the time when Paddington was discovered by the artists who moved into the rundown terraces and a flowering occurred, saving the area. The ‘Loo was closer to the city, and the elite were mendacious. They bought up terrace after terrace, allowing entire blocks to become rundown and rat infested. They waited. They planned. They plotted.

But the residents protested. Loudly. They called in reinforcements in the form of two unions: the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF); and the Federated Engine Drivers’ and Firemen’s Association (FEDFA). Developers brought in strike-breakers, and violence ensued. People were bashed and kidnapped, police evicted squatters, and Juanita Neilson, the editor of a local newsletter, disappeared. The ‘Green Ban’ was born.

Such bans were springing up all over the city, not just the inner city. They were imposed in The Rocks, down near the bridge, and in Kellys Bush on the north of the harbour. A ‘green ban’ is not just the saving of trees, but also of green space, of breathing space, of room to move. Unions simply refused to knock down the old buildings. Refused to operate the machinery of destruction. Marched to the sound of megaphones. Lay down in front of cranes and dozers. Chained themselves to fences and railings.

From 1971 to 1974 42 green bans were applied by the BLF at the behest of resident activists.



Tomorrow, I will end this series with a post about the area as it is today.

Taphophile Tragics # 7 - Though flesh may decay, ego remains

Within South Head cemetery, these plots are within spitting distance. Sydneysiders will recall both men readily, one with begrudged admiration, the other with genuine affection.

The mausoleum is the crypt of the Packer family. I have no idea how many billionaires there are in Australia, or even if the Packers are in that category. But they are up there close. The men are media tycoons; the women, handbags! (Sir) Frank Packer was the one who set it all up for his son, Kerry (who is buried on his polo/horse stud in Scone), and the current family head, James. Although James is more into casinos than newspapers. The interesting thing about Sir Frank, was his tilt at winning that blue water classic, the America's Cup back in the early '60s. He over-spent his allowance on two yachts, Gretel I and Gretel II. Which brings us to his wife, Gretel. This was the only image I could find of her, which is instructive. That portrait of Frank is by Judy Cassab, who must have been bedazzled, as he was nowhere near that attractive!

The second marker belongs to (Sir) Roden Cutler. Totally different kettle of fish. He was a war hero: won a Victoria Cross; lost a leg. Both in Syria. Big bloke, impeccable manner, self-effacing. After the war, he became a diplomat, and eventually was appointed as the Governor of NSW, where he remained for 15 years. Did a good job, I reckon. A state governor in Australia is not like a state governor in the USA. Here it is a ceremonial role, and relates back to Australia's foundation as a constitutional monarchy within the British Commonwealth. So lots of pomp and circumstance, but no power. He also is buried with his wife, although she died in her 60s (he in his 80s), quite suddenly from the affects of meningococcal septicaemia. I suspect he was gutted. Could not find a single image of her to show you. She was attractive, but not flouncey.

Both men married again in their aged widowerhood, after very long first marriages.

This is my contribution to the Taphophile Tragics community.

Monday Mural -The Battle for the 'Loo

Wooloomooloo is a tiny suburb in the very inner city, bordered on one side by a steep escarpment, and on another by the harbour. In the late 60s and early 70s it was the battleground for a no-holds barred war between property developers, residents, and the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF). I touched upon this in my post about Juanita Neilsen for Taphophile Tragics a couple of weeks ago.

In 1973, as the Green Bans were proving pivotal, the viaduct for the Eastern Suburbs railway was also slicing through the southern portion of the area. The viaduct can be seen here near the intersection of Bourke and Cathedral Streets. After the battle was over, the residents and a group of artists coalesced on the creation of 16 massive murals to be attached to the pylons of the viaduct. Over the years, 8 were either lost or destroyed. The preserved murals were rehung last year. The story is too long and involved to rehash here, but those interested may care to read this. The murals have been preserved rather than restored, at the behest of the artists. The complete set of 16 murals, in their original (1983) condition, can be viewed on Matthias Tomczak's Flickr page.

I will show more of the murals on Wednesday and Thursday this week, together with the story of the activists involved. There is also the story of what they were fighting to stop, and what was built instead. Join me then.

This is my contribution to the Monday Mural community.

Greening of William Street

Looking east up William St from Hyde Park, 1890

The replications here are not spot on: mainly because I did not know I was going to treat them as a 'Then & Now'.

Firstly, with the shots I took yesterday, it is obvious that the Lord Mayor's plan to soften William Street is working a treat. There is a way to go before it is a 'boulevard', but I am liking what I see thus far.

As for the 1890 shot, it is from the National Library (oops), so I gather it to be accurate. Hard to believe it is the same street, do you agree? I might wander the street and do a feature on it. Both William and Oxford Streets are in the financial doldrums.

Looking west down William St from the top of the Cross, 2012

Looking east up William Street from Forbes St, 2012

For those who know Sydney, I think the photographer was standing close to the intersection of Park and College Streets, meaning that the forecourt of St Marys has that imposing house, and the tree-lined fence is around the Museum. I am researching for a series. Hang in there.

A fine stamp of a street

Brisbane Street kinks from Oxford Street down to Goulbourn Street, just before Whitlam Square.

This is my contribution to the Weekend in Black and White community.

Sing out!

On days of great national celebration, you are either a 'this' type of person, or a 'that' type of perso. A 'this' person, sorts through all the events on offer, chooses one thing to participate in, or go see. A 'that' type of person wanders around not wanting to miss out on anything, and hoping that something of note falls into their lap. I guess that is a criticism, right? I am a 'this'.


However, on Australia Day, a friend and I wandered around The Rocks to see what was on and what folk were doing. And we chanced upon something quite wonderful and very entertaining. In The Nurses Walk, just off Suez-Canal, deep in the heart of The Rocks, there was a niche put aside for a continuing ring of choirs to entertain the milling mass. The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir was one such choir. It was great to see them flick the switch to vaudeville and really get the crowd onside.

The sign of the Dragon

This week ushered in the Chinese New Year,with 2012 being the Year of the Dragon. The other signs of the Chinese astrology charts are: Rat, Ox, Tiger,Rabbit, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Next year is the Year of the Snake.

This is my contribution to the Signs Signs community.