Friday 26 April 2013

From his castle to his incinerator


Something there is in me that is becoming less and less enamoured of ANZAC Day, its plastic sincerity, and overweening jingoism. But like Douglas and Wilde, this is a perfidy that dare not speak its name, lest I be stoned, and forever regarded as an inner-city latte-sipping leftie. So it was with heavy heart, but tripping feet, that I took my camera for a walk yesterday, not into the den of flowing amber that were the streets of the CBD, but along part of the Griffin Federation Track, through Northbridge down to Bicentennial Park, Willoughby, where stands the reverbrating incinerator that Walter Burley Griffin designed and built in 1934.

My camera leash was relaxed a little, and way allowed to lead onto way. On Sailors Bay Road, opposite the Shore playing fields, I loitered round a series of half-a-dozen shops, no doubt conceived and owned by bright young things with shiny degrees in modernity. They could, of course, be tax deductions for struggling consultants, but that would be unkind of me, not to say libelous. 'The Cookery Book' must surely be blemish-free.

The facade of the building is tawdry, and mangled above the awning, lacking respect and maintenance in equal portion. My interest was aroused by the 'Haron's Building' emblazoned across one wall. Had the 's' been chipped off? Who was Haron? Of course, Google came to the rescue being the repository of a wondrous number of half done family trees. Haron was one William Bede Haron, who entered upon this life in 1846 and departed it in 1926. Initially a drayman, he later became a builder.



5 comments:

head in the sun said...

I'm feeling what you are saying about Anzac Day.
Can't quite put my finger on what it is that makes me give it a wide berth lately?
Maybe it's all the preaching of people telling me how I SHOULD be commemorating it.
Oh, that word "should" - it's a tricky little devil.

Looks like that little tree is trying to escape from the bottom of its pot.

Joan Elizabeth said...

We too passed on the day this year.

Gemma Wiseman said...

Love the journey through this post via your "trippy" expression! I too have mixed emotions about Anzac Day when I see older guys especially become upset about memories - and maybe a little drunk! Is it absolutely necessary to stir their old war wounds? For them, Anzac Day emphasises loss rather than gain! Can't there be another way?

diane b said...

Us too. I can't help think it is glorifying war.

Julie said...

Interesting cross-section of comments here, folks. They vary just a little, but I wonder how wide-spread the reservations are within the wider community. I keep reading that more and more young people are getting involved ...