40 Years of Community and Union Action, 1971–2011

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Green Bans A r t W a l k 40 Years of Community and Union Action, 1971–2011

“The Mundeys and the Pringles and the Owens and the rank- In Victoria Street after a brutal struggle, low-cost housing was Green Bans Art Map: 9. Tea House, 71 Dowling St [cnr Stephen] 22. Forbes St (cnr with Nicholson St) Architecture Plaque Also of note: and-file have effected one of those rare shifts in public thinking lost with some heritage gain. Juanita Nielsen was murdered Victoria Street and Woolloomooloo that occurs only a few times in a lifetime. Maybe they were mad in mid-1975 and Mick Fowler, the other key leader, died an 10. Workmen’s Houses at 70 Dowling St 23. Red Post Office Boxes, Forbes St A. Memorial Sculpture on Cowper Wharf Road hatters and larrikins – a true Australian tradition – but, by God, untimely death. In Woolloomooloo the Labor Party promised to WALK 1: The Cross Art Projects to First Draft 11. Kindergarten Union, Dowling St [cnr Reid St] Wharfies Square at Nicholson & Forbes St & B. Contaminated former service station site [Cowper Wharf there’s many a Sydney resident who will remember them with ‘Save the ‘Loo’ and won Federal government in December 1972. Depot (easy walk) Woolloomooloo Wharf Rd/Dowling]. love.“ This led to a visionary medium density workers’ housing project WALK 2: First Draft Depot to The Cross Art Denis Winston Place (off Judge St): embracing renewal and new designs. 24. Wharfies Square C. Juanita Neilson Community Centre [cnr Nicholson and Marion Hardman and Peter Manning, Green Bans. The Story Projects (medium walk) 12. Denis Winston Place: Dowling St] of an Australian Phenomenon, Australian Conservation Having a say in the city of the future created a planning START 1: The Cross Art Projects, 8 Llankelly Lane, Kings Cross: 25. 38–40 Charles St, Inhibodress Gallery (1970-72) Foundation, 1975. system revolution, then changed institutions and laws. They 13. Margel Hinder, ‘Aphrodite’, bronze sculpture with fountain, Green Bans Art Walk Exhibition with Fiona MacDonald, Diego D. Gunnery, Cowper Wharf Road. set standards around the world. The state BLF leadership paid 1981 26. Nellie Stewart Square, Harmer, Bourke and Charles Streets Bonetto and historical work by Margaret Grafton, Pat Fiske and dearly. The Federal BLF who saw a greater future working in E. Saving the Finger Wharf Joseph Szabo. 14. 11-31 Judge St 27. Cathedral St over Expressway: Woo/Loo/Moo/Loo cooperation with developers ousted them. The union was de- For four years Green Bans inspired a nation and the world. The Guerrilla Garden F. Pubs [Cowper Wharf Road] registered and the leadership denied the right to work in their NSW Builders Labourers Federation responded to a last resort Victoria Street Green Ban Woolloomooloo Green Ban: Forbes and industry. plea for help from the Battlers for Kelly’s Bush to save remnant Cathedral St/Tom Uren Square START2> First Draft Depot & Big Fag Press, 13-17 Riley St, G. People’s Linear Park 1. 115 Victoria St Woolloomooloo: Green Bans Art Walk Exhibition with Marion harbour bush. “We are builders labourers”, said secretary Jack The Green Bans Art Walk re-activates the fine detail of the 15. Giant Kurrajong, the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ [corner of Forbes Marrison, Michele Blakeney, Pat Armstrong, Mini Graff and H. Sir John Young Crescent: Sydney Coffee Palace/ former Mundey; “not mere builders labourers” as Premier Robert Askin, historic pathways and disconnected walks through the Heart 2. 55–115 Victoria St, 2/30 Brougham St and Hordern’s Place and Cathedral streets]: historical work by Josie Cavallaro and Anne Kay, Alan Davies Eye Hospital (now backpackers) the establishment, media and hot money jeered. of the ‘Loo. On the city side of Victoria Street a network of 3. 202 Victoria St: and Pat Fiske. Thursday to Saturday, 11 to 6. heritage-listed stairs down the sandstone cliff links to laneways 16. Tom Uren Place Plaque (beside Nick’s supermarket) I. John Passmore Gallery: [cnr Crown] the former Merryfield From 1971, thousands of builders labourers voted on over 40 crossing the Woolloomooloo basin east to west. The Walk Hotel. requests for bans from resident groups, the National Trust and/ 4. Butler Steps Plaque, unveiled by Ted Noffs of the Wayside 28. 6 & 8 Riley Street, terrace houses symbolically re-unifies a beautiful area disconnected by rail and 17. Green Bans Murals (1982-1984) or the Institute of Architects. They voted for a big picture: to Chapel freeway structures, ugly site consolidations and looming high- 29. PCYC and Australian Youth Mural [cnr Cathedral & Riley J. Women and The Arts Festival Mural (1980-83), on the keep urban low cost housing and to protect the environment and 18. Linear Park Proposal rise. Butler Steps to Brougham St Streets] Domain Carpark, St Mary’s Road heritage. Environmental green bans were not negotiable; built Forbes Street green Bans were negotiable. They crusaded for safety reforms We propose on-going walking routes, new signage and lighting, 5. Rowena Place (off Brougham) 30. Sylvia Chase Square outside PCYC K. Not Forgotten: St Kilda mansion whose demolition inspired on building sites and wider social issues, such as feminism, gay & the first resident uprising in the late 1950s & St Kilda Lane. restoring existing and adding new Green Plaques, restoring 19. 70 Forbes St, Architecture Plaque black rights, and the impact of international politics. and adding new artworks (and a statue to Jack Mundey) and a 6. St Columbkilles Church [McElhone and Dowling]: 31. Boomerang Street [PCYC to William St] L. Most Mysterious: missing plaques in Sir John Young Cresc ‘linear park’ to create a peoples museum emphasising the area’s 20. 41-47 Forbes St, Woolloomooloo The BLF leaders were disciplined and educated by the 7. Townhouses, 79-85 Brougham 32. Anita Aarons, reclining figure, playground sculpture [in to Robert Louis Stevenson and Tilly Devine who lived residential character. Designation as a special area ensures that workers’ education system and the New Left of the 21. 36 Forbes St, Architecture Plaque Childcare Centre off Boomerang]. here; missing statue of Diana the Huntress with Dog, from the planning system protects significance and character and Communist Party. They led a coalition of working class Woolloomooloo Playground, Sydney Place Springfield Avenue. this is passed on to future generations. We hope to help put residents, seamen, conservationists, lecturers, artists and & Dowling St low-cost urban housing back on top of the action list. Each walk musicians, public servants and libertarians to fight government M. Art & Memorials in the Royal Botanic Garden and the seeks your ideas and responses. 8. Woolloomooloo Playground and Wall Art plans to redevelop urban low-cost housing into commercial Domain, adjoins Green Bans Map developments or freeways. 2

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Green Bans A r t W a l k 40 Years of Community and Union Action, 1971–2011