5 E Essays—

12 essays — Getting the read of Sydney

1 7 Birth of a city Ditch the surfboard Mutiny and bounty Exploring the inner-city by John Birmingham, by Dan Poole, author Monocle

2 8 Just add water Cup of life The lure of seafood Drinking up Sydney by Terry Durack, by Jamie Waters, restaurant critic Monocle

3 9 If not here, where? Independent state Living in Sydney Small is beautiful by Carli Ratcliff, by Matt Alagiah, journalist Monocle

4 10 Cinema paradiso Sydney’s cast of characters Savouring the small screen Tales of the unexpected by Marc Fennell, by Hilary Bell, film critic author At least I have some 5 11 good stories to read Staying power The boats that rock Boutique hotels Sydney by Josh Fehnert, by Andrew Mueller, Monocle Monocle

6 12 More than meets the eye Class act Sydney’s architecture Power of performance by Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore, by Mikaela Aitken, journalist Monocle

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in turn. These were the early winners and essay 01 Sydney novels losers in a neverending battle to control the essay 02 — place where, even now, vast flows of global Birth of a city 01 ‘Wet Graves’ by and human capital enter and leave the Just add water Peter Corris great southern land. Power in Sydney Mutiny and bounty Murder mystery set in Sydney. The lure of seafood 02 ‘The Harp in the South’ remains a shifting, protean thing and has — by Ruth Park been since the displacement of the first — The first settlers brought Life in the 1980s in Surry Hills. people who lived here. From buckets of prawns 03 ‘Looking for Alibrandi’ That ceaseless flow of people, the rum and uprisings, which by Melina Marchetta and crab on toast to a pile Coming-of-age story. rush of convicts and then migrants from set the template for all over the world, is another defining of Sydney rock oysters, modern-day Sydney. The theme of the city. Sydney’s peoples have the waters here run city still has its tensions but rubbed up hard and chafed against each deep if you know where is bound up with pleasure and hedonism. other from the start. all those willing to embrace Twenty years to the day after the white The enlightened first governor Arthur to dive in. its diversity – and ideally men planted their flag more white men Phillip dispatched punitive raiders to launched a small coup, toppling the spread terror in Aboriginal lands. Irish bring rum – are welcome. convicts rose up by Terry Durack, infant colony’s governor William Bligh “The early days (yes, of Mutiny on the Bounty fame) and in revolt and were restaurant critic are only three put down with by John Birmingham, instituting a military junta, in part because he was spoiling their fun. The officers who lifetimes removed bludgeon and author ran things in Sydney had made a killing so it’s not bayonet in the first trading rum and Cap’n Bligh’s anti-fun years of settlement. surprising that The city’s white policies were harshing their mellow. Bligh they still shape had also cracked down on the large land natives rioted grants they’d all been giving each other the city so against Chinese and even English If there wasn’t a founding orgy, there and favoured the interests of the little guy powerfully” Say Sydney and most people see should have been. Robert Hughes’s (aka the convicts) over the military; but migration; all of The Fatal Shore is a gripping tale of this was Sydney and so we remember this the tensions of the current anti-Muslim water: the bobbing yachts in the the settling of . It gives a vivid uprising as the Rum Rebellion and not the movement are nothing but echoes of blue harbour, surfboards rising account of the epic debauch by drunken land grant coup. anti-Italian and anti-Greek feeling after on the swell off or convicts and their military overseers upon The early days are only three lifetimes the Second World War. But the city takes little ferries tootling under the them in and the city comes to love them the ’s 1788 landing in what is removed so it’s not surprising that they Harbour Bridge like sea beetles. now Sydney, after the long and dangerous still shape the city so powerfully. Even the all. She always has. — (m) voyage from England. Hughes sketches geography of Sydney was laid out in those I see food. a gaudy, Hogarthian picture of a riotous, first moments of settlement, with the It’s not that big a stretch: the rum-sodden bender that first night on officers grabbing up all the best land to sea is full of food. And Sydney shore. Historians grumbled and the east of and exiling the does it so well that when the harrumphed that no direct evidence convicts to the barren slopes of The is shining, the day is wasted if of any such orgy existed apart from the Rocks on the other side of the little inlet. complaints of Reverend Richard Johnson, It’s an east-west divide in wealth and it’s not spent by the sea, eating an especially uptight churchman who was power that persists in the city’s physical seafood. It doesn’t have to be more than capable of crying “Orgy!” structure to this day. a tourist platter piled high with should one of his parishioners take an The power structure of the metropolis lobster. A dozen oysters chilling extra sip of communion wine. is very much of the New World. The on ice, a fat fillet of simply grilled It hardly matters. Even if Sydney ossified class systems and hierarchies didn’t actually earn her party cred that did not take here in its thin sandy , i fish, picked spanner crab on first night, she got there soon enough. A despite the best efforts of the first ruling about the writer: John Birmingham’s Leviathan: garlicky toast or a bucket of city of laughter and forgetting, a paradise the Unauthorised Biography of Sydney won the elite; just as the officers swept away National Award for Non-fiction at the Adelaide doll-pink prawns will do the trick; of water and blue sky, much of her history Governor Bligh, so they were swept away Festival of the Arts. as long as there is water nearby.

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Without the curling 240km King prawns, tiger prawns and – 1. The rooftop tables of Icebergs shoreline that encircles the world’s our best-kept secret – school prawns Terrace in Bondi Beach for an essay 03 most beautiful natural harbour (small, sweet, wild-caught estuarine early morning post-swim breakfast If not here, where? (Sydneysiders say cocky things prawns in the markets from October of avocado smash and smoked Living in Sydney like that all the time), this would to May) are all brilliant. Check them ocean trout on sourdough, and be just another hot, dull, bland out at the Sydney Seafood Market, a supergreen smoothie. — modern city. With it we have along with scallops, sea urchins, So what if living presence; we have history; we have scampi, mackerel, snapper, sardines, 2. The fun-for-all-ages ground costs are high, the drains fresh air at every turn. We don’t giant tuna and swordfish being floor of the Coogee Pavilion, a sometimes overflow just have a life, we have a lifestyle. carved into sashimi. Crab? We have reinvented pub in the beachside and you can’t always Everything here is defined by blue swimmer, spanner crab and suburb of Coogee, for mini lobster get a late-night drink? the harbour: the civic landscape, mud crab, in ascending order of rolls with lemon mayo followed by architecture, public transport, price. Sustainable, high-end farmed a punishing game of table tennis. Sydneysiders know property prices, air quality and fish such as Petuna ocean trout, there’s no place climate. We attach meaning to it Cobia and Glacier 51 toothfish (the 3. The Cured and Cultured like home. every time we latter known as the Kobe beef of the counter tucked inside Bennelong, “Every single sail a yacht, sea) are revelatory. Just be sure to the glittering showpiece restaurant by Carli Ratcliff, person who drive over toss back any menu that promises of the on journalist visits Sydney Sydney either basa (catfish) or vannamei . Go for Sydney wants to eat Harbour prawns. Both are farmed, frozen rock oysters and pepper granita Bridge, stroll and imported from Asia. or kingfish crudo with iceplant, seafood by the along the Next, know where to eat your a native coastal succulent. sea while they foreshore seafood. Try wandering through It sparkles. You never get a bad coffee or a tasteless sandwich. Even average food are here. And or attempt Walsh Bay, Woolloomooloo Wharf, 4. The rear deck of the Fast is above average. From a desk in the cbd so do locals” to stand on Jones Bay Wharf and the new during the peak-hour evening it’s an easy hop, skip and a jump to the the loo seat Barangaroo precinct that has commute from Circular Quay to beach. It’s even less to a pool and there of a new apartment to reach the given us great new stretches of Manly. There’s naught to eat but are three to choose from, right on the window, straining to see the harbourside dining on the western you can buy a cold tinnie from the edge of the harbour. I am quite possibly the least patriotic glimpse of blue water that was side of the city. Or – I’m going to kiosk and watch the sun set over Australian you are likely to encounter: promised by the property agent. regret this – check out one of my the harbour, with wind in your I don’t drink beer or watch cricket and I Therein lies a problem. Every personal “fishing” spots. hair and icy beer in your throat. don’t know the words (except the chorus) single person who visits Sydney Sometimes that’s enough. — (m) to the national anthem. I spend most of wants to eat seafood by the sea my life on planes bound for elsewhere and while they are here. So do the Top fish and chips when I’m not travelling I am plotting my — next escape. I am, however, a Sydneysider locals, and we usually get there 01 The Boathouse by both birth and choice. It’s a bit of a Shelly Beach first and book it out (sorry). But Beer-battered flathead in misnomer, as an expat mate recently in the spirit of decency and fair a dreamy Manly setting. observed: “You never meet anyone in play, I’m giving you a head start. 02 The Newport Sydney who is actually from Sydney.” She Reimagined pub with has a point. We are a city of immigrants. fantastic fresh fare. First, know your seafood. Few of my friends, colleagues or 03 The Fish Shop i Creamy little Sydney rock oysters Get a takeaway to neighbours grew up here. Most came as are the go-to mollusc, followed by eat harbourside. about the writer: Terry Durack is a restaurant critic, children with their parents, fleeing the author and director of Australia’s Top Restaurants awards deep-shelled, flinty Pacific oysters. who lives near the sea – and the seafood – of Sydney. turmoil of their homeland or simply

072 073 Sydney Sydney 5 E Essays— —Essays E fleeing cold and dark European winters, “bottle-o” (off-licence) on a summer’s gentrification (I kid: the coffee drawn by the promise of eternal summer. day to drink on the ferry home across the essay 04 isn’t that pungent). Walking down Some came as adults, “love refugees” harbour. Drinking, the national sport, is – in love with the Emerald City and the tolerated almost everywhere but if you Cinema paradiso the stairwell to the theatre below lifestyle that it affords. want to enter a bar or a pub for a drink Savouring the small screen street level has a genuinely Which, as an adult choosing to live after 01.30, you will have a challenge on transformative effect. It’s like here, is precisely the point. Sydney has your hands. — stepping into another time. The “lifestyle” in spades but there is plenty Despite the nanny-state alcohol laws, This city has an array of walls are clad with velvet and that it doesn’t afford. This is not a city you poor drainage and baffling property beautiful movie theatres choose to live in because it provides value prices, Sydneysiders seem pretty the brass tables reflect so much for money: groceries, housing and utilities happy with their lot. Indeed, many are that have stayed open warmth that you start to see can be eye-wateringly expensive. Nor is it sentimental or downright gushing about despite encroaching everything in sepia tone. the town of choice if you are determined their hometown. They talk openly of the property developers and The adjacent bar is the size to make a global mark – New York, pangs and the tugging of the heartstrings of a war bunker and is fitted out London and Hong Kong are better for experienced when they approach home in multiplexes. And when with a David Lynchian compound professional pursuits. Living in Sydney a Qantas jet. They become misty-eyed as the summer arrives, the is purely about the pace (relaxed), the they spy the glistening sails of the Opera of cosy booths beneath a sprawling sunlight hours (long) and the access to House, the grandeur of the bridge and the action just moves outside. incandescent chandelier. It’s salt water (ready). shimmer of the certainly something to stare It’s not all shiny. Take real estate, “Living in harbour, and you by Marc Fennell, at as you down an Old Fashioned the locals’ small talk of choice. It is not Sydney is purely can almost hear and bite on an upmarket toastie of considered remotely untoward to ask a the collective sigh film critic Sydneysider what they paid for their about the pace of relief across the gruyère, pickle and pastrami. house. The answer will most likely be (relaxed), the cabin: “home”. This Sydney icon was batted back in seven figures, accompanied sunlight hours Is this sentiment developed by -based by shaking heads. (long) and the induced by jet lag? outfit Right Angle Studio, which And when it in Sydney, it’s Or is it the “we are The tiny Golden Age Cinema basically a scene from The Rains Came. access to salt young and free” had successfully run a rooftop The State Emergency Service is put on water (ready)” strain of our was built by Paramount Studios cinema at Curtin House in its high alert and office workers resort to much-loathed in 1940 in an area once known hometown. When the collective wellington boots to navigate the gutters national anthem, the one strain that we all as the “Hollywood Quarter” was looking to set up a similar of . It is also front page news, know, coming into play? The newness and in what is now the increasingly programme at the Paramount with The Sydney Morning Herald photo freedom of the country – and our city swanky neighbourhood, Surry editors dispatching teams to shoot locals – appreciated by lovers of lifestyle who Building it ran afoul of Sydney’s struggling with umbrellas in the wind. keep boarding planes for elsewhere yet Hills. These days the late art deco notoriously Nimby residents. There is, however, the undeniable always choose to come home? We are a 55-seat theatrette’s nightly That was when it realised that the joy of collecting a post-work beer at the relaxed lot who tolerate tough flight times programme consists of both new building itself had its own cinema if it means that every Friday evening starts releases and chief programmer with a beer on the ferry. — (m) Kate Jinx’s selection of “Classics, Quintessential Cults, Creepies and Cheapies”. Blockbusters Sydney experiences filmed in Sydney — Cheapies? Much-loved movies — 01 Bondi to Coogee walk with ticket prices lowered to what 01 Mad Max Beyond Stroll the rugged headlands of Thunderdome (1985) the eastern beaches. they cost when the film premiered. 02 Dark City (1998) 02 Cross “The Coathanger” The cinema can only be 03 The Matrix trilogy, Traverse the Sydney Harbour i (1999-2003) Bridge on foot. accessed by walking through an 04 Moulin Rouge (2001) 03 Balmoral Beach about the writer: Carli Ratcliff is a freelance writer airy glass-fronted café that bustles 05 X-Men Origins: Lay out a towel on a specialising in food, travel and design. She has written Wolverine (2009) sunny day. for monocle from Sydney for nearly a decade and during the day and bears the despite job offers from New York to Stockholm doesn’t see herself living anywhere else. strong scent of coffee beans and

074 075 Sydney Sydney 5 E Essays— —Essays E and decided to turn it into what “We once had on by putting The world’s largest short-film is surely Sydney’s most unusual an array of on multiplex- festival, Tropfest, is held in essay 05 viewing experience. beautifully style fare and February. Some 90,000 people Staying power In truth, Sydney is now a events; both pack out Centennial Park to Boutique hotels multiplex town. We once had an ornate are utterly watch seven-minute films and array of beautifully ornate cinemas cinemas that transfixing. argue about their virtue, while — dotted around the city that would would play The Orpheum consuming cask wine at a rate A new breed of smart play classic movies and house classic movies refers to itself of litres. Moonlight Cinema – establishments are proving festivals. There was the Roxy and and house as a picture showing a mix of new releases, to be more than just my personal favourite the Valhalla festivals” palace and it feel-good films and singalongs places to rest your head: on the leafy western edge of the lives up to the – operates in the same parklands these creative retreats city centre. As a young film critic name. Built in from December to March. I spent weeks at a time in the the 1930s with seating for 1,735 But for pure drama, the Open are transforming sleepy foyer of this more-than-slightly people over two levels, it has played Air Cinema is impossible to beat. neighbourhoods. dilapidated theatre judging short- host to live theatre productions and You are seated on the edge of the film festivals or chairing q&as. The allegedly even Australia’s national water at Mrs Macquarie’s Point; in by Josh Fehnert, foyer was a suspicious shade of ballet company. front of you is what I like to call Monocle orange but when it was bustling Each of its six cinemas is “the complete postcard”: the with people for, say, the hip-hop decorated differently and has its Opera House, the Harbour Bridge film festival or – weirdly – the own identity. Given the chance and the water. Gradually the sun bicycle film festival, it was riotous. aim for Cinema One: the Rex. sets, as minutes turn to hours and One by one these cinemas Before most films are screened hours turn to rosé. A screen (usually in plum locations) have a Wurlitzer organ rises up from levitates from the water in the What’s the first thing you did when you settled on the idea of visiting Sydney? fallen, only to rise again as below the stage, complete with harbour – inflating before your After entertaining a few ill-founded fears upmarket apartments in a city an organist who plays before the eyes – and you are ready to begin. about sharks in the shallows and spiders that has no idea how to deal film starts and then magically Sure there are outdoor cinemas in the sink – and perhaps perusing your with an influx of people wanting disappears back into the floor. around the world, but this one – T-shirt inventory – you likely considered to live close to the cbd. Some When it’s cold and wet, Sydney spectacular, showy, utterly prone to where you’d be setting down your suitcase for the duration of your stay. It’s not a survive: the Chauvel on the shuts down. As the host of a the elements – is without a doubt decision to take lightly. quieter, fashion-brand-friendly nightly TV show, I love it; our the most Sydney. — (m) Sydney’s hospitality scene has long end of Oxford Street lives on, Sydney ratings go up across the been plagued by charmless 1970s-built partly as a passion project of board from May to October. And behemoths, touting imported (and deeply the Zeccola family, who run one yet, when the summer months un-Australian) experiences. You know the culprits: the establishments that are the of the stronger independent beckon, the collective mood of the preserve of beleaguered bellboys sporting cinema chains. city recalibrates. The teal and inappropriately warm uniforms, pacing Perhaps the most surprising peach gradient of sunset seems to around overly lush lobbies and pointing survivors are the city’s two last for hours – or at least it would, tourists to the nearby Harbour Bridge and remaining art deco cinemas: except you’ve now started Opera House. Even hosting the Olympics in 2000 did little to redress the lack of the Ritz in Randwick and the measuring time in bottles of wine i independent, idiosyncratic or, for that Hayden Orpheum in the cultural consumed. We love summer, we about the writer: Marc Fennell is an author, matter, remotely interesting spots. wasteland that is north of the drink it up and that’s when the broadcaster and film geek. He’s the film critic for But hospitality is finally on the up Australia’s national radio station Triple J and host . Both cling cinema moves outside. of sbs TV’s nightly news programme The Feed. down under. A spate of new openings

076 077 Sydney Sydney 5 E Essays— —Essays E are looking beyond the cbd and unlocking Back in the city, The Old Clare Hotel some of the city’s more storied Top hotel bars (see page 18) is another new-opening that’s essay 06 neighbourhoods. There are finally a few — given visitors a flavour of a less-trodden places for travellers keen to experience 01 Pier One, The Gantry terrain – the once-scruffy Chippendale More than meets the eye Restaurant & Bar the city’s soul as well as its spas. Charming harbourside haunt. neighbourhood. Part of Loh Lik Peng’s Sydney’s architecture If you’re set on harbour views the low- 02 Clare bar, all-conquering Singapore-based Unlisted slung Park Hyatt Sydney (see page 19) is The Old Clare Hotel Collection, the hotel hosts three — a blissful exception to the big-brand Unwind with a cocktail restaurants, a decent ground-floor bar and This city may have drudgery but for something more or craft beer. 62 well-thought-out rooms. But step 03 Henry Deane bar, a bunch of celebrity surprising check in to the Hotel Palisade Hotel Palisade outside and you’ll find the enthralling (see page 21) in Millers Point. Renovated Rooftop refuge. White Gallery (see page 95) with its constructions but there in late 2015, the one-time boozer still vast collection of contemporary Chinese are architectural curiosities hosts a homely ground-floor pub and has art, or the Patrick Blanc-planted green to be found tucked away an elegant Sibella Court-designed rooftop Point” outside the federation-era cottages walls of One Central Park building (see bar to boot. There are nine smallish but for sale are stark, honest and emotive page 105) next door. Not to mention the in unexplored quarters. characterful rooms but it’s not just the reminders of the cost of gentrification. tantalising delights of Spice Alley’s Come and take the tour. feel, fittings and fixtures that make it It’s a dilemma that exposes much southeast Asian street food stalls and the interesting: the spit-and-sawdust about the challenges and opportunities panoply of buzzy bistros and chirpy cafés neighbourhood is one of the nation’s facing Sydney today, the complexities and that seem to pop up here on a weekly basis. by Clarissa Sebag- oldest and most intriguing. compromise that Sydney stares down as it The point here is that hotels aren’t just Montefiore, Millers Point was once known as comes to terms with its own success. It’s places to bunk in: they can be portals to the Hungry Mile because the “wharfies” more than you’d learn in identikit room- seeing and understanding the city and its journalist (dock labourers) who lined the shore, in-a-hotel development that looks as if it suburbs – and getting beyond the clichés looking for work on the ships moored could have been shipped whole from Los and inauthentic experiences. Sydney is here. Today the winding streets are home Angeles or London. bigger than its Opera House, harbour or to terrace houses dating back to the 1830s Getting away from the big box hotels beaches – your trip isn’t over once you’ve (see page 130), the doesn’t mean depriving yourself of seen a fat lady sing (or swim or cross a On Victoria Street, where I live in and a smattering of folksy pubs, which Sydney’s best sights. The QT Bondi bridge). So ditch the dull hotel chains and Sydney’s , a line of include the city’s longest-running opened in 2015 and is an enviable diving- grotty hostels, try the new hotels and taproom, the Lord Nelson. off point from which to embrace the city’s embrace the neighbourhoods they nudge handsome 19th-century terrace But the area’s intrigue isn’t just most talked about beach. Carving a niche you towards. There’s plenty to be said for houses perch on the edge of a historical, there’s a debate raging about in smart and authentically Australian sleeping around in Sydney. — (m) plunging escarpment. its future too. While the Hotel Palisade experiences, QT already has seven spaces From their balconies and windows was restored with a sensitive touch, other across the country from Port Douglas to unfold panoramic views across the buildings here have not fared so well. Melbourne, plus two in Sydney. A government decision to evict publicly- The Bondi property has an easy and city skyline. These houses hold the housed residents and sell off swathes of unpretentious feel that runs through the key to an unsolved mystery. In the land to developers has caused ire and 69 Nic Graham-designed guest rooms; 1970s they were almost knocked unrest. Many oppose the controversial an unerringly tasteful procession of vivid down to make way for an apartment Barangaroo South white spaces, lined with pastel-hued accents block but heiress Juanita Nielsen, an “Sydney’s new project – a planned and hardwood finishes. Bondi-based Shaun spate of hotels casino, hotel and Gladwell’s digital artworks and installations activist, publisher and resident, was aren’t just places commercial riff on the hotel’s seaside location and outspoken about her opposition to to bunk in: they development – gently undermine the larger-than-life i the project and refused to move out that will neighbourhood’s clichés (think surfboards of her home. can be portals dramatically about the writer: Josh Fehnert is monocle’s Design/ and ). The hotel is a successful Edits editor and touched down in Oz in January Nielsen’s campaign to crack to seeing and change the celebration of the suburb within which it 2016 to report and oversee this very guide, alongside understanding area. The resides and crucially shows an Australian (he insists) a number of magazine assignments. down on corruption cost her her the city and plaques reading brand of wit and charm that adds much to Fehnert’s daily rituals during his visit involved life. On 4 July 1975 she went “Save Millers breakfast at Bourke Street Bakery and protecting his its suburbs” the experience of staying here. arachnophobic colleague from eight-legged intruders. missing, presumed kidnapped and

078 079 Sydney Sydney 5 E Essays— —Essays E murdered by the Kings Cross Big and brazen, elegant yet In Chippendale, a once-poor organised-crime gangs in cahoots audacious, when first opened in suburb that is undergoing vast essay 07 with the developers. Her body was the 1930s and 1970s respectively urban regeneration, take note of Ditch the surfboard never found. they broadcast Australia to the the hanging vertical gardens of Exploring the inner-city Sydney is renowned for its world. The latter’s lustrous off-white apartment block and mall One sweeping coastline, azure harbour glazed tiles are designed to look like Central Park (see page 105), located — and sublime beaches. When nature sails; to me, the building seems to on the site of a former brewery and Sydney’s beaches are has been so generous, few would emerge out of the seas like a designed by Sir Norman Foster and rightly celebrated but think to travel here to see the kind magnificent shimmering shell. Jean Nouvel. linger on them too long 0f urban design Nielsen wanted to Most of Sydney’s architectural “Do a little Just across the and you risk missing out protect. Yet Sydney’s relative youth gems, however, are not of the road is the home on some cultural and – it was founded in 1788 – has show-stopping variety. To find them digging and of philanthropist provided it with an architectural you have to ditch the car, walk and Sydney’s Judith Neilson, culinary gems. freedom not afforded to much of prepare to be surprised. Allow time architecture the founder of Europe. Far from the chocolate-box to zigzag across the topsy-turvy reveals a White Rabbit by Dan Poole, perfection of Paris or the grandeur topography, be sure to drink in the story of Gallery (see page Monocle of London, Sydney is a mishmash dramatic vistas and don’t be afraid a city still 95) who has of colonial buildings, soaring to turn down small alleyways. underpinned skyscrapers and workers’ cottages. Some of the best buildings are finding much of the Do a little digging and, like tucked away on lonely, windy its feet” area’s new- the Victoria Street terraces, the clifftops: the modest candy-striped found wealth. architecture reveals a story of a 19th-century Hornby Lighthouse This controversial home is designed city still finding its feet. Sydney near picturesque Watsons Bay is to be an inhabited sculpture with Sand is overrated. It’s fine for putting in bags to bolster flood defences and has its has come of age in the new world; one example. Nearby is a Georgian low-hanging concrete swoops and place on a golf course as part of a recurring sometimes it’s brash, sometimes sandstone cottage; built in 1860, severe heavy curves. bunker scenario but that’s about it. To that bold, sometimes beautiful and often, it commands views over the ocean. Frank Gehry, too, recently end, whoever decided it would be a good despite the eternal sunshine, darker Other jewels in Sydney’s crown unveiled his first building in idea to put the stuff directly next to seas and than it first lets on. showcase its industrial past. One Australia, the Dr Chau Chak Wing oceans and encourage people to walk on it with wet feet needs a stern word in their ear. For the majority of visitors it such example is the 1880s Eveleigh Building (see page 106) at the Of course, given that there’s no getting is the Harbour Bridge and Opera Railway Yards located in the University of Technology Sydney. away from this arrangement, the sensible House that sum up Sydney’s soul. working-class suburb of Redfern, The wonky “treehouse” made from thing to do would be to avoid all seas and since transformed into the more than 300,000 bricks has been oceans entirely when dragged to a beach cavernous contemporary-arts space compared to a squashed brown against your will. Yet I’ve seen people Architects of note Carriageworks ( ). Another paper bag. However, as the leaping into them on a regular basis, — see page 99 apparently oblivious to the fact that said 01 Harry Seidler is the newly opened urban walkway governor-general said, it is still waters are home to currents that could, on Considered one of the last The Goods Line (see page 107), “the most beautiful squashed brown a whim, decide to gather you up and kill orthodox modernists. you at any moment. 02 Jørn Utzon Sydney’s answer to New York’s paper bag I’ve ever seen”. — (m) The Danish architect designed High Line. Once a railway lugging Given these issues you could argue the Sydney Opera House. coal, timber and wheat, today it that when my wife Sarah and I decided to 03 Francis Greenway i move from London to Sydney a few years Convict architect famous for transports only pedestrians, who can about the writer: Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore is a ago, it’s odd that we ended up living in an colonial buildings. stop off to lounge in the park or play UK journalist who, after spending four years surviving apartment by the Tasman Sea. We went the smog in Beijing, decamped to Sydney in 2014. She ping-pong on public outdoor tables. loves its blue skies, clean air and azure seas. from being pasty Brits residing in a poky

080 081 Sydney Sydney 5 E Essays— —Essays E flat in a dodgy east London suburb to heads, wonderful whiskeys and a floor from Perth who’d moved across the being pasty Brits living but 30 seconds’ strewn with straw and peanut shells. essay 08 Nullarbor to attend university, I walk from Manly’s waterfront. As tempting as it is to dwell in Surry And look, I tried. Within days of arriving Hills (we haven’t even set foot in Thai Cup of life tackled the bright lights of this big I strode down to the surf club and booked restaurant extraordinaire Spice I Am, see Drinking up Sydney city not through its galleries, rugby myself in for 10 lessons. I even got as far as page 38), there are more inner-city delights games or nightclubs but its cafés. completing three of them before deciding to digest. You — Every weekend my Perth buddy that the horrific amount of energy required “A year of can head to There’s no better way and I would head to a different to paddle out far enough to struggle onto sea-shunning Paddington, home for new arrivals to get the board and fall off again seconds later to two of the city’s coffee spot in a hitherto-unexplored couldn’t be justified. On another occasion, and beach- finest cinemas in a taste of Sydney than part of the city. Sydney transformed Sarah and I managed a moonlit walk on the berating later we the shape of the by spending time in its into an orienteering course dotted beach but we got bored after five minutes decided to move Chauvel and cafés and taking part with porcelain cups instead of and went to the pub. into the city” Verona, a café- flags. Bondi was sipping flat whites A year of sea-shunning and beach- cum-bookshop to in the national pastime: at Jo & Willy’s Depot while our berating later we decided to move into the rival Bondi’s Gertrude & Alice in the form indulging in great city to escape all this coastal nonsense. We of Ampersand and more boutique clothes boardshorts were still wet and found a flat just off Crown Street in Surry shops than you can shake a coat hanger at. coffee. Surry Hills meant perching on an Hills and in doing so uncovered the most Or you can spend a morning in Glebe, outside bench at Gnome Espresso glorious of truths: plenty of Sydney’s best grabbing brunch at Clipper Café before by Jamie Waters, and Wine Bar. Glebe was all about bits are nowhere near the water. You’re wandering down to a market that sells gulping down a concoction called unlikely to see any of these neighbourhoods everything from leather bags to David Monocle featuring in tourism ads but the absence Bowie T-shirts. “cold brew” while balancing on of crashing waves by no means detracts Then there’s Chippendale, where you crates at The Wedge Espresso. from their charm. can lunch on a salmon-and-cream-cheese Darlington was a piccolo latte on Our local in Surry Hills, for example, bagel at Café Giulia or kick back in one of the street at The Shortlist Espresso was a pub called the Gaslight Inn, home to a Sydney’s best beer gardens (and there are A friend of mine once remarked, fabulous Cheers-style round bar, an inspired surprisingly few of them) at The Rose. And Bar. And the cbd? Sitting beside jukebox selection and friendly types pouring let’s not neglect Newtown, where you can in a moment of clarity (and murals in Marlowe’s Way. the drinks. Further down the road is Shady while away a whole day eating ice cream at caffeination), that Australians do In hindsight, it wasn’t a bad Pines Saloon. It’s one of those bars that Gelatomassi, getting lost in Gould’s Books their most important socialising tactic for getting to grips with the reveals nothing of itself from the outside Arcade, supping a negroni at Kuleto’s and over coffee. He had a point. Yes, city. As well as being relatively (purely designed to make you look like an people-watching in Victoria Park. we frequent bars and knock back arse when you unsuccessfully try to seek it By all means come to Sydney and bask affordable – a good flat white will out with work colleagues in tow) but once on or near its beaches. There are, after all, schooners of beer in pubs but, when set you back around AU$4 – many within you’ll find a Western-themed some crackers: Bondi, obviously, as well as there are things to be straightened of Sydney’s greatest assets come bacchanal complete with stuffed animal Bronte, Coogee and the aforementioned out – relationship troubles, work together in its cafés. Interior Manly (and be sure to enjoy the walk around conundrums or daily niggles – architects design sleek spaces to Shelly Beach if you visit the latter). But a flat white in a nicely-fitted-out don’t say I didn’t warn you about the sodding (see Brickfields in Chippendale Top spots in Manly (preferable), independent (essential) away from the beach sand – and don’t forget to turn heel and head by Smith and Carmody) and chefs — inland or you’ll risk missing out on getting a coffee shop is the order of the day. dream up outstanding brekkie 01 Mortar and Pestle true sense of what this city is all about. — (m) This applies whether you’re Terrific Thai restaurant that’s dishes that often reference Sydney’s nowhere near the sand. in laidback Perth, trendsetting multicultural makeup (case in 02 Four Olives Deli Melbourne or sunny Brisbane but, Gourmet fare in town centre. point: Michael Rantissi’s shakshuka 03 Jah Bar i for me, Sydney will always be the with tahini at Kepos Street Tapas joint with kick-ass king of cafés: a metropolis of calamari – and no sea views. about the writer: Dan Poole is chief sub editor at Kitchen). Innovative hospitality monocle and lived in Sydney between 2009 and 2012. perfectly-balanced brews. This is models – a linchpin of this young, He now lives in Surrey’s Walton on Thames, nice and far away from the beach – if a little too close to the river. because as a bumbling 20-year-old entrepreneur-driven city – can also

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drinking coffee was also tailored to It hasn’t always been easy. Bricks-and- Unusual brews the national penchant for hunkering essay 09 mortar shops have had a torrid time over — the past two decades. For starters, the 01 Gumption by Coffee down: you won’t find many Italian- Independent state Aussies took to online retail like a surfer Alchemy, CBD style standing-only bars here. to water and the country remains the Pour-over method from Japan. Small is beautiful 02 Edition Coffee Roasters, This Australianisation of coffee tenth-strongest market for e-commerce. Darlinghurst has become one of the nation’s — What’s more, Elixir cold brew with a texture most valuable exports. Indeed, the William Street in “A group of Sydney is the likened to whiskey. spiritual home 03 Bean Drinking, Crows Nest streets of London’s Shoreditch, Paddington is a haven for pioneering Cascara tea made from coffee residents of many of the cherry pulp. laneways of Manhattan and rues small, independent shops. shopping-mall of Le Marais in Paris are strewn The survival of this retail snubbed the brands currently with slick cafés manned by baristas sector during tough times municipal taking on the be seen in spades (The Grounds of sporting Aussie twangs and authorities by world. Although Alexandria’s sprawling city-farm). dishing out flawless flat whites. is a tribute to Australian turning their they are associated entrepreneurship. with US Nowadays it’s a given that, Like the front-room consumerism, whether at home or abroad, we “We Aussies Italians, though, windows into shopping centres Aussies have unforgiving standards have unforgiving our cafés have by Matt Alagiah, storefronts.” have been when it comes to coffee (every standards when remained perfected Monocle by Australian companies. One in commuter in London has heard an it comes to independent. particular stands out: Westfield. Antipodean whinging to their mate coffee” Of all the In 2003 the Scentre Group, which that “you can’t get a good flat white elements operates Westfield, opened Bondi Junction in this bloody place”). But the shared by coffee shops from in the Eastern Suburbs followed in 2010 strangeness of this notion tends to Adelaide to Sydney, not being with another outlet in the cbd. The latter be overlooked: the idea that an part of a big chain is the most A wander down William Street in the is a 360-shop spectacular. Good news well-heeled suburb of Paddington is for shoppers, many thought, but these island in the middle of nowhere important. We have even resisted arguably Sydney’s most enjoyable competitive newcomers (effectively – far removed from the plantations the seemingly-indomitable shopping experience. This leafy lane just straddling Paddington) were bad of South America and the historic expansion of Starbucks. A recent off the city’s main eastern thoroughfare, news for high streets. coffeehouses of Europe – has come survey revealed that 95 per cent of Oxford Street, is lined with picturesque Prior to Westfield’s construction, to be a world-leader in the art of our 6,500 cafés are independently Victorian terrace houses. Yet for all its Oxford Street was the go-to destination prettiness, William Street has long been a for fashion brands; within the space of making a cup of joe. owned. As Glen Bowditch, battleground in Sydney’s hard-fought war a decade, however, most had left. We have the Italians and Greeks co-founder of Three Williams in to keep independent retail alive. And William Street, which joins Oxford to thank for this. In the 1950s Redfern, says, “Sydney cafés are today, it stands as a monument to the Street at its southern end, was also immigrants fleeing postwar an extension of our living rooms pluck of those who have survived. devastation brought their love for – spaces to meet and share stories The street became a haven for with friends and family.” He’s right: independent shop-owners more than 30 Three shops to espresso-based coffee down under. years ago, when a group of pioneering visit on William Street: Subsequent generations of drinking good coffee and having a residents snubbed the municipal authorities — 01 Belancé: Menswear Australians absorbed this passion chinwag in an intimate spot is by turning their front-room windows into accessories and tailoring and made it their own, turning Sydney to a tee. — (m) storefronts. Family-owned chocolate shop belance.com.au dark-roasts lighter and pioneering Just William was one of the first to open 02 Just William: Confectioner back in 1984; manager Suzanne Francis justwilliam.com.au the sans-froth-cappuccino, i 03 Watson 3 Watson: remembers there only being one or two Womenswear store otherwise known as a flat white about the writer: Jamie Waters grew up on the other retailers on the street when she opened. watsonxwatson.com.au (although you’ll find a Kiwi or two beaches of Perth and moved to Sydney to study law. Today there are 30 or so independents, from When not working as a researcher at monocle he can who will dispute this). The act of be found people-watching in cafés around London. fashion brands to antique shops.

084 085 Sydney Sydney 5 E Essays— —Essays E blighted by this exodus. But a few crucial he pined for his people and six ingredients kept retailers here hanging on. essay 10 months later succeeded in escaping. Sydney’s stars The relatively small store spaces meant — rents were more affordable. While some Sydney’s cast When he sent word inviting 01 William Chidley Phillip to a ceremony at Manly The sex reformer was locked up shops did close down, by and large the of characters for preaching taboo subjects. retailers dug in their heels – those that did the governor was speared in the 02 Rosaleen Norton shutter made space for keen start-ups. Tales of the unexpected shoulder as an act of retaliation. It The 1950s were laced with But most important is the sense of — was a statement: Bennelong would scandal thanks to this occultist. community on William Street. Many of 03 Arthur Stace Mixing indigenous return but on his own terms. Phillip Stace is remembered for the retailers still live above the shop. Take penning the word ‘eternity’ on Nicholas Minton Connell who runs the culture with new arrivals built him a hut on what became walls and footpaths. florist Pollon Flowers at number 21 or has thrown up a roll known as Bennelong Point, where Genevieve Reynolds who grew up at call of eccentrics and the Sydney Opera House now number 14 and has now turned part of stands. Bennelong was even taken to who appointed him harbour her family home into a gallery and pop-up oddballs. And while their London and presented to King watchman and gave him land at retail space. These characters have a stories may not all end greater stake in the fortunes of the street George III. However, on returning what is now known as Blues Point. than a rent-a-space retailer might. well, the nonconformist to Sydney after three years’ absence, Billy also became harbour ferryman Now, what can the example of William is still celebrated. he said, “I am at home now.” but he wasn’t overly fond of the Street tell us about Sydney? For one, its There is conjecture about work and capitalised on the position, story shows that shopping here is quite Bennelong’s fate. Some reports have smuggling rum for which he was unlike anywhere else. Rarely does a city by Hilary Bell, offer such formidable mall retail alongside author him addicted to alcohol, a mere convicted yet again in 1818. outdoor shopping strips, the kind that curiosity to whites and rejected by When not sleeping in his boat combine mom-‘n’-pop shops with young his own people. Others claim that Billy could be seen strolling down independents. That mix ensures healthy he re-established his leadership and George Street in an old coat and competition and thriving high streets. But the tale of William Street also A city is only as interesting as the returned to the River. top hat, demanding men hail him as speaks to Sydneysiders’ entrepreneurial people who call it home – and Whatever the truth, Bennelong was “commodore” and women curtsey; verve. It was entrepreneurs who turned unsurprisingly for a town born of the first Australian to negotiate those who declined copped a torrent the street into a retail hotspot. And it’s rebels, ne’er-do-wells, utopians and between two cultures. of insults. Despite this behaviour entrepreneurs who were investing in opportunists mixing with members When it comes to celebrities, the old maverick was publicly bricks and mortar when few would bet on its viability. These start-ups of the oldest living culture on Earth, Billy Blue was mourned on his death in 1834. have sold us a strong message about Sydney has given rise to more than “Sydney has among the most Another famous pedestrian from how to keep independent retail alive, its fair share of colourful characters. given rise to flamboyant. this era was Billy King, “The Flying a message that echoes well beyond One of the most important more than A West Indian Pieman”. He thought nothing of the Emerald City. — (m) people in Sydney’s history is living in walking the 58km loop from Sydney Bennelong, a Wangal man from its fair share London, to Parramatta; he once did it the Parramatta area. In 1789 of colourful working as a carrying a goat. He would sell his Bennelong was kidnapped by characters” labourer and pies to commuters boarding the , the governor of the chocolate- steamer at Circular Quay and then first settlement, who was frustrated maker, he was sentenced to seven hotfoot it to Parramatta, arriving by his unreciprocated efforts to years transportation in 1796 for before the boat and plying the same i communicate with the Eora people. stealing sugar. After serving his time commuters as they disembarked. about the writer: Matt Alagiah is monocle’s business editor and had the pleasure of delving Bennelong was curious about the he took on odd jobs around the Sydney’s women are no less Sydney’s dining and retail scene for this guide. Europeans, quickly adopting their settlement. His banter made him a remarkable. Two of the city’s most He’d recommend topping off a day of shopping with a meal at 10 William Street in Paddington. language, dress and manners. But favourite of Governor Macquarie, nefarious characters were Tilly

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Devine and Kate Leigh, duelling known as “The Lump”. The trip took metal-hulled and equipped with cafés, razor-gang queens of the 1920s essay 11 anything up to a week. indoor plumbing, free wi-fi and room It’s quicker than that now. Circular for 1,100 passengers – are more than who staked out their territory in The boats that rock Quay to Parramatta is a little under an twice the size of hms Sirius, flagship of Woolloomooloo and Surry Hills. hour and a half in a RiverCat, one of the First Fleet, which carried the initial A ladies’ agreement ensured that seven twin-hulled craft named after cargos of criminal riff-raff across barely Devine stuck to brothels and Leigh — famous female Australian athletes: explored oceans. to the sly-grog shops (unlicenced From old-school crafts swimmers Dawn Fraser, Shane Gould There are swifter vessels connecting that came complete with and Nicole Livingstone; sprinters Circular Quay with Manly, including the liquor stores) but occasionally their Marjorie Jackson, Marlene Mathews and new Manly Fast Ferry. These, in truth, are spheres overlapped and the blood oars and sails to today’s Betty Cuthbert; and tennis player Evonne poor value: they cost slightly more and would flow down Palmer Street. vessels that are as swift as Goolagong. But the RiverCats – and mean you get to spend less time looking Among these tales of struggle they are sleek, Sydney’s vessels of the other (mostly) enclosed at Sydney Harbour en route. And they is the success story of Mei Quong catamaran classes, the HarbourCats and are a woefully inferior substitute for Tart, a Chinese boy informally ferries have been – and SuperCats – are not really proper ferries. the best-loved previous express option: always will be – the way to Though svelte and comfortable, they the magnificent, deafening, hopelessly adopted on the goldfields by a Scot. feel too modern and, more crucially, unreliable hydrofoils, retired in 1991, Tart grew up with a passion for experience the city. too indoors. A proper ferry ride is one which (when they worked) would rear Robert Burns, a talent for the undertaken on the outside deck of up out of the water on their supporting bagpipes and a marked Scottish by Andrew Mueller, one of the more old-school boats. aileron like some body-boarding burr. A philanthropist, a campaigner The present-day prides of the fleet Transformer, coating anyone clinging Monocle are the double-ended Freshwater class, to the rail on the rear outside deck with for the suppression of opium all named after ocean beaches in Sydney’s roughly equal quantities of salt water imports and a liaison between north: Freshwater, , Collaroy and engine smoke. the Chinese and European and Queenscliff. These make the longest Though the Manly Ferry is the first communities, he was also proprietor journey in the ferry you should take on leaving your Sydney is not short of the kind of things “Sydneysiders schedule – about hotel room, the inner-harbour routes are of salubrious tea rooms. In 1887 the 40 minutes also delightful. These are mostly run by Chinese emperor made him an that someone familiar with a great have used their metropolis might recommend to a visitor: harbour as a between Circular the nine sturdy putterers of the First Fleet honorary mandarin for his services it is abundantly blessed with attractions Quay and Manly class, named after the earliest convict to the Chinese diaspora. natural, cultural, architectural and highway more or – and sail ships or their Royal Navy escorts: Supply, So if you find yourself in historical. It is arguably unique among less since the first unsheltered waters, Sirius, Alexander, Borrowdale, Charlotte, major cities, however, in that despite its bewildered navigating the Fishburn, Friendship, Golden Grove Woolloomooloo eating a pie at harbour entrance and Scarborough. The Harry’s Café de Wheels as you gaze myriad obvious enticements the most boatloads of inspiring and enriching activity that any seasick convicts between North route – which also stops at Milsons Point, at the harbour, think of The Flying tourist can do is go commuting. Head and South McMahons Point and Balmain East – Pieman, Tilly and Kate, Billy Blue Sydneysiders have used their harbour were disgorged at Head. They permits a view of Sydney Harbour and Bennelong. To walk around as a highway more or less since the first Circular Quay” entered service bewildered boatloads of seasick convicts in the mid-to-late Sydney is to follow in the footsteps 1980s, replacing the venerable of these eccentric, uncompromising, were disgorged at what is now Circular Top three sights Quay, the hub of the modern ferry service class. Some of these had originally been from a ferry often unpalatable, but never boring, cradled by the Goliath’s coat hanger of commissioned as steamships before the — Second World War and creaked and 01 men and women. — (m) the Harbour Bridge and the origami Sandstone defence facility built accordion of the Opera House. The first croaked ominously on days when a decent in the harbour in the 1850s. ferry service linked the then-Sydney Cove swell was rolling in through the Heads, 02 Downtown Sydney i with the fledgling inland settlement of offering the faintest understanding of life Seen from a Manly ferry as it at sea for Sydney’s reluctant founding rounds Bradleys Head. about the writer: Hilary Bell is a playwright Parramatta via a convict-built oars-and- 03 Pacific Ocean and librettist, as well as the author of illustrated sails contraption that was officially population two centuries and change ago. A reminder of what’s beyond books Numerical Street, Alphabetical Sydney and christened the and It is sobering now to contemplate that the harbour. The Marvellous Funambulist of the Freshwater ferries – aside from being and Other Sydney Firsts. more commonly and less affectionately

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Bridge from underneath, which somehow largest Aboriginal community in visit the National Black Theater. makes the structure appear even more essay 12 Australia. “Aboriginal people found Founded in 1968, the Harlem-based monumental and less probable. The Neutral Bay run offers Admiralty House Class act safety in numbers,” says actor and company aimed to inspire audiences and , respectively the Power of performance cultural activist Bronwyn Penrith to participate in the battle for Sydney residences of Australia’s governor- in Darlene Johnson’s 2014 equality through entertainment. general and prime minister. The Mosman — documentary The Redfern Story. Maza became consumed with Bay route bounces against the shores In 1960s and 1970s “We didn’t have a choice because this new non-violent weapon in the of what may be the most desirable Australia, theatre and residential inlet in the city, although of prejudices in trying to find struggle against oppression and, inhabitants of the Watsons Bay route activism combined in accommodation and the lack with the help of co-founder Jack along the harbour’s southern shore may unique non-violent of public housing at that time.” Charles, Maza staged a political dispute this; among them is politician protests that fought for The absence of citizenship rights satire in Melbourne called Jack Malcolm Turnbull, who when he was had rendered Australia’s indigenous Charles is Up and Fighting. After elected prime minister declined Kirribilli the citizenship rights of population powerless. Police seeing this play in 1971, the Redfern House on the grounds that he didn’t wish indigenous Australians. to move to a smaller place. violence and poverty were daily activists invited Maza to move to Really, though, the best reason for realities, despite a 1967 referendum the epicentre of Australia’s nascent taking the ferry is taking the ferry, even by Mikaela Aitken, vote to prevent discriminatory Black Power movement. – especially – just to go out and come laws. In the face of these issues and Maza’s Redfern living room back. The best time to do it is sunset or Monocle thereabouts, as the sky to the west of the inspired by Malcolm X and the became the headquarters for Black bridge blazes orange and the office towers radical Black Panthers in the US, Theatre and the civil-rights activists. and apartment blocks of the Central a group of young Redfern-based The so-called Black Caucus would Business District and north Sydney activists founded the Aboriginal gather at 181 Regent Street and light up. The windows of the homes Legal Service, the country’s first plan how to disseminate their of those residents who have won A kookaburra cackles in the Sydney’s eternal race to the waterfront free legal-aid centre. The Aboriginal dissent through theatre. For their resemble the glowing eyes of a crowd, background while a young Medical Service soon followed. first act the group performed clambering over each other to witness Aboriginal man – all bare chest, It was at this time that Aboriginal pantomimes about the incursion something marvellous. — (m) wild hair and white teeth – grins activist Bob Maza returned home to of mining companies on traditional into the camera: “Good morning, Melbourne. He had travelled to the land. But the moment that propelled I am a human being”. It was 1973 US to discuss indigenous Australian Black Theatre onto the world stage and Australia’s first all-indigenous living conditions at the Congress of took place in January 1972. television show Basically Black had African People in Atlanta and while In response to prime minister just beamed onto monochrome there made a trip to New York to William McMahon’s announcement screens around the country. that his government wouldn’t grant The politically minded sketch Aboriginal land rights, members of show was a radical voice at a time Contemporary cultural highlights the Black Theatre went to Canberra when Aboriginal land and civil — and pitched canvas fixtures on the rights were being debated in 01 Black Comedy Satirical TV series. lawns of Parliament House, i parliament and the media. But the 02 Spear creating the Aboriginal Tent story behind this broadcast began Stephen Page-directed film. about the writer: Andrew Mueller is monocle’s 03 Redfern Now Embassy. The group protested Australian-born contributing editor. He is the author several years earlier on the streets Political TV drama. through stunts and pantomime. of three books – Rock & Hard Places, I Wouldn’t of the Sydney suburb of Redfern. 04 Our Stories Start from Here, It’s Too Late to Die Young Now – and Documentaries from emerging The peaceful ploy was disrupted sometimes plays in a country-ish band called The In the late 1960s this rough-and- film-makers. and the tents dismantled but a result Blazing Zoos. The first thing he does whenever he’s back in Sydney is take a ferry ride. tumble neighbourhood became the of sorts was achieved: now the world

090 091 Sydney 5 E Essays— was watching. Black Theatre “In those a pilot series of members returned to Redfern and days if you Basically Black seized the opportunity to capitalise in 1973. The on the new wave of national were a Black first episode support. Maza and his growing Power activist – written by troupe created a string of satirical making and starring skits called Basically Black. speeches you indigenous The show, which the company encountered Australians performed at the Nimrod Theatre in a high level – aired in prime Kings Cross to predominantly white time. It never audiences, was a pointed revue of of hostility” progressed attitudes towards the indigenous beyond its pilot population. The humour disarmed season; perhaps it was too cheeky viewers, allowing for education and and irreverent but it paved the way ultimately a shift in public attitude. for Aboriginal representation in “In those days if you were a mainstream media. Black Power activist making The company returned to the speeches you invariably encountered theatre and produced a number a fairly high level of hostility to what of hits before closing in 1977. Its you were saying,” says former pioneering members continued Basically Black actor Gary Foley. to shape contemporary Australia “Whereas you could say almost the by holding senior positions at exact same thing on a stage and organisations such as the Aboriginal make people laugh at it.” and Torres Strait Islander The final performance fell Commission and the Aboriginal on the night of the 1972 federal Medical Service. “We believed that election. Afterwards the cast and we could change the world,” says audience gathered in front of TVs Foley. “I look back now and in the Nimrod’s foyer to watch we did change our world.” Labor leader Gough Whitlam Black Theatre fostered confidence deliver his victory speech: “We will in being Aboriginal. And to this day legislate to give Aborigines land the Tent Embassy, first set up in rights. Not just because their case 1971, still rests proudly beneath is beyond argument but because all the eucalypt trees opposite Old of us as Australians are diminished Parliament House. — (m) while the Aborigines are denied their rightful place in this nation.” Interest in Black Theatre’s productions grew as its role in the i about the writer: Mikaela Aitken is a researcher and fight for civil rights was cemented. writer for monocle’s books series and returned to her The Australian Broadcasting motherland to report on this guide. She spends far too much time binge-watching Australian-produced TV Corporation commissioned while she’s on home soil.

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