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.

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.