USyd education officer’s midnight arrest condemned as “oppressive”
(See p. 20)
Meet historical Sydney gangsters while you eat
(See p. 24)
PUBLISHED DATE 9 MARCH 2023
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When St Vincent’s Hospital purchased the Green Park Hotel in late 2020 the local community mourned the loss of a much loved pub and safe LGBTQ+ space, but were somewhat ameliorated by the health provider stating that they intended to establish an Urban Health Centre and Safe Haven Cafe on the site. Two years on and there has been no movement towards these goals and the building is suffering.
Executive Director, Public Affairs, St Vincents’s Health, David Faktor said “Due to significant roof damage, which has been complicated by recent weather events, St Vincent’s is required to undertake comprehensive roof repairs before internal refurbishment can begin.”
“It’s sitting there on the corner looking like a lousy old hooker,” Duncan McNab, resident, said.
“It took them the best part of a year to lodge the DA, and then they let the place rot until the beginning of the first week of August 2022, and then they lodged the DA and the Council (City of Sydney) turned it around in nine weeks and yet it haven’t happened.”
Despite evidence to the contrary, St Vincent’s lay the blame for any delays firmly at the feet of the City of Sydney when it said “Development applications for the roof repairs and the refurbishment works were both unfortunately delayed by Council for months, and were only approved as of October 2022.
“The consent for refurbishment works in particular were delayed by Council for close to 12 months.”
The City of Sydney and documentation of the DA trail shows this is a misunderstanding of the timeline.
“The DA for the Green Park Hotel was lodged on 29 December 2021,” a City of Sydney spokesperson said.
The application then went on exhibition for 21 days.
“The Green Park Hotel application faced the unique challenge of needing to retain its heritage significance, while ensuring it met modern building standards,” the spokesperson said.
“This was in addition to the building’s social importance to the LGBTIQA+ community.”
St Vincent’s then made some amendments and lodged these in mid-April, but were advised in May that further changes were necessary to address the CoS’s original concerns. The applicant provided further updates to the plans in July, before making the final requested changes to the application in August.
“In September, we prepared a report on the revised DA for the local planning panel,” the City of Sydney spokesperson said.
would have thought that they would have had a structural survey done,” McNab said.
The Green Park Hotel has been an integral part of the Darlinghurst area for over 100 years.
For much of the last century it was an early opener for workers at St Vincents and the nearby ice-works.
Its clientele changed in the late seventies with the influx of artists, musicians and tradies to the area, and again in the mid-eighties when many hundreds of early AIDS patients spent their last days in St Vincent’s Ward 17 South or the nearby hospice.
“This was the pub that we all went to when we were visiting St Vincent’s, talking to our mates and lovers,” McNab said.
“You would go to the Green Park afterwards and have a beer and sort your way through it.
“The panel reviewed and approved the DA in October 2022.”
In fact, in October 2022 the City of Sydney approved two DAs for the site, one to change the use of the site to a medical centre and the other for “Alterations to roof of Green Park Hotel building including replacement of roof tiles, roof flashing, gutters, downpipes and awning roof sheeting”.
The General Heritage clause of the DA states explicitly “The fabric and features to be retained by the proposal must be properly protected during the process of demolition and construction”.
“They (St Vincent’s) bought the building in 2020 and after that they announced that they had structural issues, but you
“I think this was the most perfect mental health facility at the time.”
St Vincent’s now say that work on the building will commence in time for Mardi Gras and Sydney WorldPride.
“Having finally secured these approvals, St Vincent’s is now set to commence building works within the next fortnight,” David Faktor said.
Local state member Alex Greenwich added “The refurbishing of the building for its future use as a health service should start late February and is likely to take some months.”
Let’s hope that St Vincent’s give the building the same love and care that it gives daily to its hundreds of patients.
the building’s social importance to the LGBTIQA+ community The Green Park Hotel is suffering while waiting for refurbishments to take place. Photo: John Moyle
The change would mean that landlords need to supply a reason for why they are not allowing pets in their property, and cannot refuse pets with no cause.
Paull thinks that the current model should be flipped, and allowing pets should be the default for landlords, with the option for landlords opt out if they have an adequate reason.
“If a renter wishes to include a pet in the rental, that should be the default position… instead of no pets being the default position” she said.
In recent months Labor has unveiled a policy that would “streamline” applications for renters with pets. Both major parties are zoning in on tenancy laws ahead of the upcoming election. As the number of renters in Sydney is on the rise, making housing easier for renters with pets is a hot button topic for many Sydney residents.
Linda Paull from the Animal Justice Party (AJP) spoke with City Hub about why making a change to rental laws in NSW is so important.
In NSW, landlords are currently allowed to reject tenant applications to have pets in rental properties without suppling a reason. The Animal Justice Party introduced a bill to change tenancy laws that allow for blanket ‘not pet’ clauses.
Council s looking for additional community representatives to be members of the Waverley Local Planning Panel (WLPP). The WLPP is responsible for assessing and determining a range of development applications for Council as required under legislation. Members of the panel receive remuneration for attendance at panel meetings. Applicants must live in the Waverley LGA, have an understanding of the Waverley LGA and issues of concern to the local community, have the capacity to form independent views and to contribute constructively to the determination of applications, are able to demonstrate a basic level of understanding of the planning system, are committed to following the Code of Conduct for Local Planning Panel Members and the Local Planning Panel’s Operational Procedures and attend local planning panel meetings and completing panel business in required timeframes. Existing members of the panel will continue as normal and are not required to submit an expression of interest. Mayors, Councilors, property developers and real estate agents are not eligible for appointment. Any questions should be emailed to wlpp@waverley.nsw.gov.au and EOIs can be submitted online
Paull is running in the upcoming NSW state election for the inner-city seat of Heffron. Heffron, which includes major suburbs such as Waterloo, Alexandria, St Peter’s and Mascot, is home to a large population of renters.
With rental stress on the rise and vacancy rates at all-time lows, allowing pets in rentals would remove barriers for many Sydney residents in accessing safe and affordable housing. Paull explained that owning pets can often be a barrier
at haveyoursay.waverley.nsw.gov.au/local-planning-panel
Submissions close at 5pm, Wednesday 5 April. Details: haveyoursay.waverley.nsw.gov.au/local-planning-panel.
Bondi BounceWaverley Council is inviting the community to provide feedback on the five new temporary parklets we’ve installed between Bondi Junction and Bondi Beach as part of the Bondi Bounce Streets as Shared Spaces project. The parklets each have their own distinct colour scheme and help break up the 3.6 kilometre walk from the Bondi Junction interchange and the beach. They are located off Bondi Road and Campbell Parade in Waverley Street, Ocean Street, Watson Street, Boonara Avenue and Wairoa Avenue. They will remain in place for a trial period of six months, and if you have seen or used one these urban ‘mini parks’, we want to hear from you! The Streets as Shared Spaces program aims to provide more and improved public space that improves walkability and connection to quality open, green and public spaces in urban areas, while increasing footfall for local businesses. Feedback closes 30 April at haveyoursay.waverley.nsw.gov.au/bondibounce.
Expressions are now open for businesses to register their events for Bondi Festival Local, our annual celebration of local artists, live venues and grassroots organisations within our iconic neighbourhood. Bondi Festival Local is an exciting way for local businesses, organisations and groups to present their very own satellite shows, workshops and events across the Bondi Festival dates. We welcome all submissions from music gigs and author talks to open-mic nights, art exhibitions and
Waverley Customer Service Centre: 55 Spring Street, Bondi Junction. Ph: 9083 8000
to safe a secure housing, particularly for vulnerable people.
“People who suffer from homelessness and housing generally do come from the most vulnerable sectors of our community. And people like that often turn to animals for comfort,” Paull explained.
“There’s a complexity in a range of issues that are associated with homelessness or housing stress.”
One of the issues that the AJP’s bill would address is helping people who own pets to escape from domestic or family violence situations. In a submission to the NSW government on tenancy laws, the Tenant’s Union of NSW identified no pets laws as a major issue for people escaping violence in the home.
“People with animals often delay leaving violent circumstances because they are unable to find a new home where they can take their animals,” the union said in their submission.
Paull said that in NSW alone, 10,000 animals have been euthanised due to homelessness.
“That’s just a tragedy,” she said. “We want to stop that from happening.”
everything in between. Expressions of interest close 11.59pm, Sunday 9 April 2023. For more information, along with the application form, visit https://haveyoursay.waverley.nsw.gov.au/bondifestivallocaleoi
Waverley Council is holding a community meet and greet for local creatives at Bondi Pavilion on Tuesday 28 March from 6–7pm in the Yalagang Room. Join us for a drink and a catch-up about what’s happening for artists and arts workers in Waverley. Network with other local creatives, meet the Pav’s new artistic director Chris Bendall, and learn more about the exciting opportunities ahead for arts and culture programs. Chris is a nationally respected and award-winning arts leader, artistic director, programmer, producer and dramaturg. Prior to his appointment at Bondi Pavilion, he held the role of Director and CEO at Critical Stages Touring, connecting outstanding professional theatre and live performance with regional and metropolitan audiences across Australia and New Zealand. Refreshments will be provided. Registration to this free event is essential. Details: https://events.humanitix.com/waverleylocal-creatives-meet-and-greet
Know someone who works selflessly for the community or who stands out because of their community work, generosity and commitment to others? Nominate them now for the Waverley Local Hero Awards. Nominations close 5pm, Monday 13 March. so share the news. See our website for details.
Paula Masselos, Mayor of Waverley
Stay in touch: waverley.nsw.gov.au/subscribe waverley.nsw.gov.au
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That’s just a tragedy
“Look, really, why I chose the word ‘Pluto’ was because it’s such an outer planet and it’s the 12th planet out,” DJ Gemma is describing what a typical Pluto Beat gig, her latest sound installation, might have in store for punters, “so that means you don’t know what you’re going to get. It’s out there. So it could be ambient or it could be dance floor.” DJ Gemma sits back on the lounge and laughs, a lounge aptly placed on stage in Addi Road’s Gumbramorra Hall, just metres away from where she’ll be weaving her delicious musical web on the 10th of March for the Multicultural LGBTQI+ Carnevale.
“Johnny and I started Club Kooky. It was about saying that we also want to hear other kinds of music.”
“I just want to say on a positive note, it was fantastic,” DJ Gemma qualifies, keen to keep credit and respect where it’s due, “Oxford Street was awesome, but we really needed other things.”
27 years, and many wonderful musical incarnations later, DJ Gemma brings her Pluto Beat to the Multicultural Carnevale at Addi Road, a perfect opportunity to see this amazing performer in action.
What might we expect?
“Carnivale is really about sharing,” Gemma explains, “and wanting to share an afternoon of a hopefully multicultural kind of vibe in a LGBTQI+ context. But of course, everyone is welcome.”
“The music will be very mixed and very global in what I’d like to bring to the table.”
Bring it on.
ERKMEN SAVASKAN
“There is a certain level of praising one type of image about asylum seekers and refugees, despite the fact that it is actually one of the most colourful and most diverse communities in Australia.”
Probably best known as co-founder of one of Sydney’s most beloved dance events, Club Kooky, DJ Gemma has blazed her own trail for many years. Breaking out of Oxford Street’s musical confines in the mid 90’s, she defined her own unique playlist of Arabic and culturally diverse material, presenting it to an ever burgeoning LGBTQI+ group, eager to hear more than what was being offered at the time.
Erkmen Savaskan, a passionate advocate for queer asylum seekers and refugees, describes how poorly supported and misunderstood these groups really are. Being a queer asylum seeker himself, he knows this story only too well.
He’s informed, driven and just plain fascinating.
“None of us look like each other, act like each other, come from the same background and so on.” he continues, explaining some of the clichéd categorisiation surrounding the
perception of refugees and asylum seekers.
Being boxed into a stereotype must be difficult for a self-described “misfit?” He concurs.
“That doesn’t leave much place for people like me, for people who are modern individuals, don’t do folkloric or ethnic [clothing, appearance etc.], are white, queer, confident, educated, can speak English and so on.”
Savaskan set to champion the cause of a group virtually ignored. But being a queer refugee posed its own unique challenges.
“As an asylum seeker, I would never think I’d find myself as a misfit as well as an advocate. So that’s why I decided to go out there for only queer asylum seekers and refugees, which seems to be the most neglected, least heard group among asylum seekers and refugees, because that’s basically why I became an asylum seeker.”
As well as his work with queer asylum seekers and refugees, Erkmen
Savaskan is also an accomplished interior designer, a skillset being put to great use in setting up Gumbramorra Hall for Multicultural LGBTQI+ Carnevale at Addi Road on the 10th of March.
The Carnevale sounds like it’s going to be amazing?
“I am trying to say the heteronormative and ethnically (or religiously) accentuated stereotype of an asylum seeker, much more than often doesn’t say anything at all about my genuine identity. I cause a short circuit in the stigma. And I am not the only one who feels like that, especially among queer asylum seekers.”
Savaskan goes on to describe the circumstances that led him on the road to seeking asylum in Australia.
“If you would tell me in 2016 that I would become an asylum seeker, in 2017, I would laugh.
So it happened so suddenly, I was thrown at it. It was thrown at me by life, basically. “
“I’m quite a prominent face back in Istanbul, and it came to a point where actually anyone like me was not socially wanted anymore.”
Turkey’s loss was Australia’s gain, with
“It’s not sounding,” Savaskan corrects emphatically, “ it is going to be amazing.”
WHAT: Multicultural LGBTIQA+ Carnevale
WHEN: Friday 10th March, 5pm-10pm
WHERE: Gumbramorra Hall, 142 Addison Road, Marrickville, Sydney
PERFORMANCES BY: MC Nicole Barakat, DJ Gemma/Pluto Beat, Betty Grumble, Nana Miss Koori, Miss Rosie Rivette, 3awadi and more!
COST: Free and inclusive, thanks to a Multicultural NSW grant awarded to Ethnic Community Services Co-Operative
allows developers to fast-track the rezoning of a site. Submissions must have a minimum of 1000+ units to be eligible.
The proposal will mark Meriton’s third attempt to rezone the site: Randwick Council previously rejected a 22-story, 1,900-dwelling development in 2020, while an independent Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel found it unfit in 2021. The panel concluded that the bulk, scale and density were unsuitable for the area.
Parker says providing Meriton with a third opportunity to change the master plan is “simply outrageous”.
assessment of new submissions would be possible for those previously rejected. The department says that consultation with the relevant council and community members would remain in the preapproval stage.
The program allows the minister for planning or an authorised representative for the department to approve the proposal.
The Department of Planning will require that experts for Randwick Council sign a confidentiality order to prohibit sharing information on Meriton’s preliminary plans for Little Bay Cove.
In a statement, the NSW Government said that council staff with expert knowledge of a proposed development site could access project information
by signing a “conflict of interest and confidentiality deed”.
Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker, said the confidentiality agreement is “keeping communities in the dark and gagging public servants”.
The department said they consulted Icac to avoid any potential corruption risks.
Meriton’s renewed application for Little Bay Cove follows the development of a new state government planning scheme, the Rezoning Pathways program, which
The award-winning master plan – which came with Meriton’s purchase of the site in 2017 – includes 224 mediumdensity homes. The site currently stands undeveloped since its purchase. In December last year Minister for Planning Anthony Roberts said the rezoning program was intent on “accelerating the rezoning of key housing areas” to help meet a state government housing target of 70,000 new dwellings.
Additional material later clarified that the
Parker says the NSW Government should urge Meriton to “get on with the job of building to the existing approval” rather than satisfying their “high-rise fantasies”.
A spokesman for Save Little Bay, Olde Lorenzen, stated in a letter submitted to the Planning Minister that the group maintained their full support and encouragement of the original master plan.
The community group recognised that a new proposal would not befit the eligibility criteria of the pathways program, given it had already been rezoned and could not be considered a new site for redevelopment.
Name: Comet
Age: 11 months (est)
Sex & Colour: Female Tabby & White DSH
Comet will love you to the moon and back! This playful little girl is bound to please, with her sweet nature and gentle headbutts, Comet will have your heart in orbit. She can be a little shy around strangers and will need a moment to settle in her new home but before long she’ll be enjoying snuggles on your lap. This dainty little kitty just loves to play, and her forever home will be packed with plenty of toys to keep her on her toes. Comet especially loves laser toys and you will be endlessly entertained watching her dance around after the red dot. This pink-nosed cutie wants to be the centre of your universe and the only feline in your life so she can lap up all your attention. Comet is best suited to an indoor-only forever home to protect her pale features and so her special diet can be monitored. You’ll be counting your lucky stars to have Comet sharing your couch!
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Rehoming Organisation Number: R251000224
Independent member for Sydney
Alex Greenwich is looking to be an unassailable candidate once again for his inner-city seat.
Since first winning the seat in 2012, after the then independent Clover Moore was forced to stand down for holding her parliamentary position along with her role as Lord Mayor of Sydney, Greenwich has proven the naysayers wrong by increasing his majority each election cycle.
The electoral district of Sydney, which has recently undergone boundary changes, comprises of the suburbs surrounding the CBD and to Surry Hills in the south and Paddington in the west.
It has a population of around 55,000 with a growing CBD demographic as large apartment projects in places such as Barangaroo come online.
Over the past 20 years or so the area has also seen areas such as Ultimo and Surry Hills change from a solid working class base to one more upwardly mobile.
These are all changes that Greenwich seems to be able to navigate with ease, as he has lived in the inner-city since since his parents immigrated to Australia from New Zealand.
“I was born in New Zealand, and my family came over here in ’87, when I went to Fort Street Primary and Sydney Grammar before uni,” Alex Greenwich, member of the Legislative Assembly said.
“Basically I have been living here my entire adult life.”
Each election cycle brings its own series of major issues that sit alongside local issues that a local member need to address.
“I think an immediate concern for people is the cost of living pressure, and that means the rent that people are paying, the interest rates that people are paying, the cost of food and electricity and the impact that is having on people, particularly linked to housing and the need for greater investment in social and community and affordable housing in the inner city,” Greenwich said.
Greenwich has a long record of supporting a ban on no fault evictions in NSW, which allow landlords to evict a tenant without reason at the end of or during a lease, thus allowing the property to be relet at a higher price.
“For a long time I have supported getting rid of no-fault evictions, there are just too many stories of people being kicked out of their home to make way for renters who can pay more, and this is a pathway to homelessness,” Greenwich said.
In concert with Jenny Leong, Greenwich put forward legislation to this effect, with support in principle from Labor and the cross bench, only to have Labor refuse to have the bill debated.
be a greater investment in people’s health and wellbeing,” Greenwich said.
Greenwich also says that much more can be done on setting bolder emissions reduction targets, including making sure that renters also have access to cheaper solar energy.
Dying legislation, the decriminalisation of abortion in NSW, plus working with local parents to get a new high school on Cleveland Street.
Recent years has seen the state Liberal government sell of large areas of social housing in inner city areas such as The Rocks and Glebe, claim public foreshore areas for casinos and support zoning for higher office projects in historic areas such as Observatory Hill.
Added to the over development for office space, large and important social housing projects in the Sydney division, such as Northcott Surry Hills, have been suffering from years of physical and social services neglect.
With the boundary changes Northcott Estate now falls into the boundary of Sydney, and Greenwich is determined to see positive changes for this social housing complex of over 1,000 people.
“There is a real backlog on repairs and maintenance, and we know there needs to
“We have to incentivise landlords to make sure that rental properties and apartments have access to solar,” Greenwich said. As an independent Greenwich has chosen his fights carefully, and has an impressive track record on major reform, despite having being accused early in his career of being a single issue politician.
In his two terms he has been successful in supporting major LGBTQ+ issues, including marriage equality, a health strategy for the community, a Special Commission of Enquiries into LGBTQ+ hate crimes and the roll out of the monkey pox vaccine.
“Sydney has an MP and because he is LGBTQ+ he understands that large part of the community and I have been proud to deliver for them,” Greenwich said. Greenwich has also had recent wins with the passing of the Voluntary Assisted
“There have also been the bad laws that we have stopped such as hunting in national parks, stopping deforestation that also protects koala habitat and progressing law reform,” Greenwich said.
“After 10 years I am able to show that not only will I continue to champion the LGBTQ+ community but also all of Sydney’s communities.”
Most recently, efforts by Greenwich have seen both major parties support the end to gay conversion practices, along with anti-discrimination of teachers and students in the education sector, plus bringing both sides of parliament to the table on reducing gambling harm. Not being a part of a major party means that Greenwich can pick and choose his political battles and respond to Sydney constituents’ concerns with an agility that is seldom possible for the bigger political machines.
Alex Greenwich has just been shortlisted for the 2022 McKinnon Prize Political Leader of the Year that recognises the positive impact of a politician on their community.
I have been proud to deliver for them
As your local representative, I can assist with enquiries or problems you have with Federal Government departments and services like Centrelink, immigration, superannuation, Child Support payments, Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS), Veterans’ Affairs, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the National Broadband Network (NBN), universities, employment, training, Commonwealth funding and grants.
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My office can arrange messages of congratulations for people who live in my electorate and are celebrating their golden (50th) and diamond (60th) wedding anniversaries; and 90th and subsequent birthdays. Please allow for 6-8 weeks for congratulatory messages from dignatories.
City of Sydney councillors have passed a motion opposing the redevelopment of Sydney’s historic market district, Paddy’s Markets. In December of 2022 Sydney Market Limited (SML), the current operator of the market, proposed a redevelopment that would see 3000 square meters of the iconic market be sublet to Doltone House, a luxury venue company.
Yi Ming, a stallholder and shareholder in Paddy’s Market for over 25 years, said that he was not consulted about this change.
“There was a lack of duty towards us as shareholders,” Yi Ming said.
“How can you take away my possession to give to others?”
10 years ago, Yi Ming paid $300,000 to buy his stand, a significant economic investment due to the stand’s prime location. Now, himself and others are being forced to move to the storage area of the market to make way for Dontone’s high-end food precinct.
The plan is to transform Paddy’s into a “high-end food and beverage precinct”.
City of Sydney Deputy Mayor Sylvie Ellsmore put forward a motion at a recent council meeting to protect Paddy’s from redevelopment, which passed unanimously.
Ellsmore said that “tens of thousands of people have signed petitions in support of the markets”.
“The community concerns include gentrification of the markets, loss of an important social value heritage market in the city, concerns about food security if one of the few low-cost food markets in the city is lost, and the treatment of the historic stallholder.”
Newtown Greens MP Jenny Leong criticised the decision to remove longstanding stallholders from the markets.
“Proposals like this are framed as ‘renewals’ but threaten to displace the very communities that make Chinatown special”.
SML sent relocation notices in December of last year informing owners they would be relocated on March 20, 2023.
“No one wants to buy my stand now”, Yi Ming stated.
“We lost everything.”
Cr Ellsmore addressed in the council meeting how rising prices are becoming the norm in Sydney, while also criticising that the privatisation of public infrastructure.
“Everything across the City is becoming more expensive. Handing over of public land across the City to private companies is part of the same issue,” Ellsmore said. Paddy’s Markets has existed in Sydney since 1834. It has brought tourism and attraction to Haymarket in various forms for over a century.
The location of the market is a public land site managed by the NSW Government, under current arrangements with private operator SML, marking a continuous trend of controversial privatisation and gentrification of Sydney’s historic sites. The plan to change a market that exists for over a century must have Sydney residents wondering which institution will be next.
The assessment also found that all sediments tested held potential acid sulphate soils, which are naturally occurring and common along the NSW coast, however can become harmful when exposed to air.
“The potential acidification from oxygenexposure to sulphur containing soils could also have a significant environmental impact. This could turn water in the bay acidic (reduce the pH), which could itself lead to further fish kills,” Professor Khan explained.
Sydney Council recommended that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) carry out a peer review on the proposed Remediation Action Plan and “any further contamination reports prepared for the site”.
The EPA recommended in their own submission that a water quality management plan be developed prior to the removal of the sheet-piling, which they say if removed is “likely to disturb sediments and could generate a turbid plume, potentially containing elevated levels of contaminants”.
BY ERIN MODAROConstruction is well underway at the site of the new Sydney Fish Markets, where a feat of engineering has pumped over 100 million litres of water out of a new construction dam, called a cofferdam, in Blackwattle Bay.
The watertight structure was created through removing the equivalent of 40 Olympic size swimming pools of water from the harbour, exposing 20,000 square metres of seabed, and making way for construction of the new building that will house the markets.
While the NSW government has branded the project an “engineering feat”, submissions to the development application received back in 2019 reveal a common worry over the uncovering of toxic heavy metals and polluted sediments that lie at the bottom of Blackwattle Bay.
However, the NSW government and the Environmental Protection Agency affirm that measures are being taken to tightly manage the harbour’s water quality and minimise the impact that stirring up polluted sediment might have.
Sydney’s Harbour represents both a glittering gem of renown, and also a longstanding reminder of the foreshore’s industrial past. A 2015 Parliamentary report into pollution in Sydney Harbour revealed that it has some of the highest levels of toxic heavy metals in its sediments in both Australia, and the world.
Since colonisation, Sydney’s Harbour
has been a hub of pollution and industry due to its uses for transport and access to water for industrial processes. Historically, the harbour was a dumping ground for sewage, industrial run-off in a time before regulation, slaughterhouse refuse, and general waste.
In recent years, stormwater run-off has been the largest contributor to pollution in the harbour.
bed and interface risks associated with existing pollutants”.
The process of dredging, which includes scooping up contaminated sediment in large qualities off the floor of the harbour, was thrown under the microscope last year when it was going to be used to construct new underharbour tunnels. Water quality experts came out in fierce opposition to the technique due to the disturbance of large amounts of toxic sludge, posing a risk of dramatically reducing water quality.
This much can be said with certainty- the process of construction in the harbour is going to stir up at least some of the contaminated sediments that exist in Blackwattle Bay.
However, the state government and the EPA agree that risks can be adequately managed through mitigation techniques and careful monitoring of water quality.
One of these techniques includes the use of ‘silt-curtains’, which the NSW government has employed during construction. Silt-curtains are vertical barriers placed in the water to filter out fine material like sediment from entering water outside the construction area.
In a summary of submissions received by the DPE in 2019 for the Fish Market’s stage 2 development application, the NSW government revealed that 26% of all submissions listed “contamination” as a concern for the development- it was the third most objected issue with the designs, coming behind traffic and parking concerns.
The City of Sydney highlighted concerns over the exposure of heavy metals and acid sulphate soils to oxygen, which they said can “cause harm to marine flora and fauna if disturbed, exposed to oxygen and then re-submerged during piling”.
Piling refers to the marine construction technique of marine piling, which is the process of driving large piles into bedrock as a foundation for over-water buildings.
Piling is primarily used for wharf structures across Sydney Harbour, and is a common construction technique. A 2019 EIS for the new fish markets said that piling was chosen over dredging to “minimise disturbance to the sea
While the NSW government claims that marine piling is favoured over dredging, UNSW researcher and water contamination expert Professor Stuart Khan explained that “any construction that impacts the floor of the harbour will re-disperse sediment”.
A sediment characterisation assessment carried out for the new fish markets found that “elevated heavy metals were reported in sediments across the extent of the investigation footprint”.
“The primary heavy metals of concern comprise copper, lead and zinc, with population data sets typically exceeding the adopted GV-high sediment contaminant thresholds,” the assessment reads.
Professor Khan said that the heavy metals can pose a risk to marine life.
“Metals like lead, copper and zinc can accumulate in aquatic organisms (fish and other species) and can be toxic to these species. They can also make the fish unsuitable for human consumption.”
A spokesperson from the Department of Planning and Environment told City Hub that “water quality was a key consideration of our assessment, and a range of conditions were placed on the project to manage the project’s impacts, including the preparation and implementation of a Water Quality Management Plan and the use of silt curtains throughout the works to minimise disturbance of sediments and contaminant”.
As per EPA recommendations, the Water Management Plan must be prepared ahead of the removal of the cofferdam sheet piles.
The EPA confirmed to City Hub that the NSW government is following its recommendations.
“Consent conditions to manage potential environmental impacts for the redevelopment of the Sydney Fish Markets have been put in place by the Department of Planning and Environment following recommendations by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).”
primary heavy metals of concern comprise copper, lead and zincNew Sydney Fish Markets construction site. Photo: Fontalis Project Services
Parents and students at Orange Grove Public School in Lilyfield are fighting to keep grassland for children to use for outdoor play.
In 2012, the need for more classrooms to cater to the growing demand at the public school was recognised and the P&C, Government Architect, and Department of Education got to work developing a set of principles for redevelopment in 2012 and 2015.
However, it was only by chance in the middle of 2022 that parents and the school community discovered a predevelopment application lodged by the NSW Department of Education with the Inner West Council.
According to local resident and member of the Save Orange Grove group, Angela Rheinlaender, it was a total “contradiction to the principles previously adopted” and threatened to remove the open green space at the school.
“A group of concerned parents and citizens delved further into this proposal, through research, obtaining expert advice and using Freedom of Information legislation,” she told City Hub.
“They discovered that further masterplans had been developed in total secret and without the knowledge of the school community in 2018, 2020 and 2022.”
“The first of these adopted the principles previously agreed through a consultative process with all the relevant parties. The last two ignored all previous work and proposed building over the much-loved open green space.”
The Department of Education organised
a consultation process in response to the growing opposition but according to Rheinlaender, “the views of angry and frustrated parents were dismissed and questions not answered”.
“This was further exacerbated when the school Principal advised the P&C she was not authorised to provide any information,” she told City Hub.
As a result, hundreds of students, parents, and local and state politicians gathered outside the school’s gate in protest.
Local member for Balmain Jamie Parker was in attendance. Members of the Inner West Council were in attendance including Mayor Darcy Byrne, Independent Councillor John Stamolis, and Greens Councillor and Greens candidate for Balmain Kobi Shetty.
The Mayor spoke with City Hub and stated that once he was alerted to proposal, he “requested a briefing from the State Member and the Government.”
“When that briefing was eventually arranged, I expressed my strong opposition to the proposal and insisted that they go back to the drawing board and involve the parent community in the design of better plans,” Mayor Byrne said.
“I remain completely opposed to the overdevelopment proposed by the NSW Government and hope that the whole parent community will be listened to and included in coming up with a better plan that will improve the facilities for students.”
Cr Shetty echoed similar sentiments, telling City Hub that “as a parent at
the school and as a local councillor representing the community,” she’s been involved since the beginning.
“Along with helping organise the campaign and protest, I’ve also worked with the parent body to express to the Department of Education the importance of the green space for our children, and the need to reverse plans to build over it,” she said.
“A recent inquiry into the planning and
nor are they in a heritage conservation area.”
“External historians and heritage experts were able to quickly confirm that this building had been substantially altered in 1927 and that much of it destroyed and altered after a major fire in 1938 which left little original fabric,” she said.
“Subsequent information gained through Freedom of Information legislation revealed a flawed heritage report, which had formed the basis for the Department’s heritage claims.”
delivery of school infrastructure in NSW found that the planning process lacks transparency. They have made two recommendations, that the Department of Education improve consultation with school communities, and that they abolish the use of NDAs for parent representatives on project working groups.”
The Department of Education has cited that it can’t build the classrooms anywhere else due to a heritage-listed classroom. However, heritage architect expert Dr Peter Watts disputes this claim.
“[The classroom] burnt down in 1938. There’s almost nothing left of the building except a little bit of a brick wall in the middle,” Dr Watts told A Current Affair Rheinlaender says that “it’s curious” that the Department of Education “went to great lengths with their heritage excuses when neither the school nor its grounds have any official, recognised heritage listing or interim heritage order
The P&C conducted a survey, which showed an overwhelming support by parents that the open green space needed to stay. And despite repeated requests, no further information has been given by either the government or school management.
“The community is at a point where they feel that no matter what we do, the government railroads through with its development proposal,” Rheinlaender said.
“Some have already removed their protest signs from their houses because they feel let down and have given up. People have lost trust in the Department with its lack of transparency and feel that cost savings are the motive behind the new scheme, leaving the community and environment out of the equation.”
“Having City Hub bring media attention to the issue gives the community hope that people in power get alerted, or people power is generated, and that this set course of action comes to a hold.”
City Hub contacted the Department of Education for comment.
masterplans had been developed in total secretMP for Balmain Jamie Parker speaking with parents outside Orange Grove Public School. Photo: Supplied
David Hetherington has been an Erskineville local for 16 years- this year he has put his name forward in the race for the seat of Newtown in the upcoming state election. Hetherington is a strong supporter of public education. Having served as CEO of the Public Education Foundation, Hetherington saw a fourfold increase in scholarships to disadvantaged students and developed campaigns for fully funded public schools.
Hetherington said that he is “passionate about public education and health”.
As Vice President, and then President, of the Erskineville Public School P & C, Hetherington is closely involved in local education in the Newtown area. Hetherington, as part of the P&C leadership, oversaw the growth of the popular Erko Berzerko fair.
Hetherington supports Labor’s push against privatisation in the public sector, and was Chair of the People’s Inquiry into Privatisation, which uncovered how selloffs have impacted public sector capacities in areas such as hospitals, vocational training, waste collection and electricity.
However, Hetherington says the number one issue being raised in his electorate is housing affordability.
“I’ll be fighting for more public, community and affordable housing.”
Hetherington said that the Greens approach of implementing rent freezes is not the way to go.
He added that while rent freezes are an attractive slogan, they will only result in
a reduction of rental housing capacity. Hetherington says that his Greens opponent for Newtown Jenny Leong, “comes up with great slogans – like freezing rents – knowing she will never have to deliver them”.
“If I’m elected and part of a new Labor government, I’ll be in the room when the big decisions are made, fighting for our community,” he said.
Labor’s approach to addressing housing
affordability will help renters by ending secret rent-bidding, banning no-grounds evictions, introducing portable rental bonds, and supporting renters’ rights to pets.
Hetherington is also focusing on the public health system, which he says is struggling. Labor will commit to introducing enforceable minimum safe staffing levels in public hospitals, scrapping the wages cap on health care workers, recruiting an additional 1,200 nurses and midwives, doubling funding for Women’s Health Centres, and providing free breast cancer nurses to every person experiencing breast cancer.
“I know David Hetherington well, and he’d be a great representative for the people of Newtown,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“As part of a NSW Labor Government, David would be a strong and effective representative for Newtown, working within the Government for change, not protesting on the sidelines”. If elected, Hetherington will also push for urgent action on the climate crisis, and support Labor’s commitment to listening to First Nations people on a treaty and the Voice.
I’m running for our community to give you stronger representation and get action on the things which matter to locals.
I’ve lived in Erskineville with my wife and two children for 16 years. I'm a past P&C President, manager of Marrickville Red Devils kids’ teams and CEO of the Public Education Foundation.
I want to make sure that there is concrete action to tackle the climate change emergency Renters must be given a fair go, and I will fight for more affordable and social housing for local families. If elected, Labor will deliver quality public education and health services, and will listen to Indigenous Owners on a Treaty and the Voice Newtown needs a local representative in a Labor Government to put these plans into action.
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne corrected his annual disclosure of interests for a second time at a recent Council meeting.
He has now added a $5000 debt to Sydney Water and a residential lease, both of which he failed to disclose in his annual return signed in August 2022, to his paperwork.
Every councillor and senior member of staff is required to complete an Annual Disclosure which is then published on the Council website. This is a key accountability measure designed to encourage transparency.
Any Councillor or senior staff member who lodges a return that they know or should reasonably know is false may be investigated by the Council itself, the Office of Local government or the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, however this only happens if there are complaints.
Councillors usually get it right the first time. So, you would expect that the Mayor’s gaps in his returns in 2022 and other years and his explanations would be a matter for discussion at Council. But this is difficult at the Inner West Council where the Mayor exercises his power as Chair to control debate.
Independent Councillor John Stamolis and five Greens councillors have previously expressed their concerns about the lack of accountability and transparency raised by the Mayor’s reporting of his handling of his interests.
In his explanatory note attached to his new disclosure, Byrne stated that he became aware of the $5000 debt to Sydney Water when he read a City Hub story that included information about the debt. We published a screen shot of the bill that was sent to us by more than one anonymous source. The same story reported that Byrne had finally declared his $15,000 rates debt to the Council after failing to do so in previous years.
Given Byrne’s explanation, it seems reasonable to assume that this information would not have become public if City Hub had not reported it. As previously, Byrne’s fresh disclosure was accompanied by a written explanation. Byrne blames his solicitors and his own lack of understanding of the rules for these failures. He became the owner of a property in Balmain in September 2018 but he claims not to have known that because his solicitor didn’t tell him. Council received a notice that Byrne was liable for the rates as far back as 2020. Again, Byrne claims not to have known this or that he was liable for the rates.
This explanation is odd because Byrne’s own declarations show that he acknowledged an 100% interest in the property as early as 2018/2019. Byrne has never explained who he thought would be liable for the rates and water bills between 2018 and 2022 if it was not him.
been brought forward. I am somewhat surprised that there is a need to have a discussion in relation to this …I will listen very carefully to the debate on this.”
Stamolis, who has previously voiced his concerns about Byrne’s approach to accountability, indicated that he would not speak but would vote against acceptance of the contents of the disclosure.
Byrne also states that he didn’t see any rates notice until the current General Manager Peter Gainsford sent it to him in March 2022. but why didn’t he ask to see the rates bill after he discussed it with the previous General Manager Brian Barrett who warned him of potential proceedings to recover the debt in March 2021. He knew about the debt then even if he did not see it.
Bryne has stated that he paid all outstanding bills after the Balmain property was sold last October. This should end the matter at least as far as Council meetings are concerned but last week’s discussion about the disclosure sounded a sour note. When the agenda item was reached, Labor Councillors Mark Drury and Phillipa Scott moved acceptance of the fresh declaration. Drury made his displeasure clear: “I think this is a very unremarkable circumstance where an amendment of a disclosure has
Greens Councillor Liz Atkins then said: “I don’t wish to speak against it (the motion) because I appreciate that we are just noting your amended annual disclosure. I would like to note that it is second or third time that you have done this. That has been brought about because of questions rightly asked by an independent news outlet. I understand that in voting …”
Before she could go any further, Drury jumped in with: “Point of order’ – I think there is insinuation in relation to your [Byrne’s] motivation for bringing this forward which is not in accordance with the code of meeting practice – yeah 15.11”
The Mayor then said he would seek advice from the Council governance officer on Drury’s point of order.
Rather than rule on the point of order, the governance officer deferred to the Mayor. Byrne then said to Councillor Atkins, “Out of magnanimity, please continue.” In this way, Byrne cast himself as the generous one prepared to overlook a ‘naughty’ act.
After 12 years as a Councillor, Byrne did not know leases are a type of property interest. If in doubt, a Councillor can
quickly look up how property interests are defined by doing a quick google search to find Part H of the Guidelines that list leases in the category of property interests.
In August 2022, City Hub explicitly referred to the need to declare leases. Bryne told the meeting that the Water NSW had sent the bill to the wrong address. This is because he did not inform Water NSW of an address where he could receive the bills for an empty house he has owned for four years. He focused on City Hub’s publication of a screenshot of the bill and said that he had contacted Water NSW who told him that it would not have provided the bill to any other person and that the only way that the bill could have fallen into other hands is by ‘mail theft’. As reported above, the bill was sent by anonymous sources. It does occur to us however that if you don’t clear you mail box for a long time, letters can end up on the street.
Bryne ended with: “I sincerely hope that the discussion of my dead parents’ home can desist.” Byrne seeks to personalise the issue to engender sympathy. No one has focussed on his parents.
Councillor Drury had the last word: “I too hope that this matter ends. This has not edifying in one iota. Mayor has sought to be clear to best of his ability and and best of his understanding about his interests. He has ...made amendments. They should be accepted and I urge all Councillors to vote in favour.”
The new declaration was accepted 13 votes to two with Councillors Stamolis and Langford voting against the motion.
questions rightly asked by an independent news outletInner West Mayor Darcy Byrne. Photo: Facebook
BY HENRIQUE MONTEIRO
Despite being set to close on February 25, Glebe residents were happy to hear that the Glebe Markets will remain open for the future as a new interim operator has put up their hand to take over.
“Thank you to the thousands of people who signed my petition to save Glebe Markets. When nobody else would, our community stepped up,” Inner West Deputy Mayor Philippa Scott said.
our community stepped up
The new operator is Organic Food Markets, who have been given an interim license of 12 months to run the 30-year institution of the Glebe Markets by the NSW Department of Education. The new custodians expressed their interest in continuing to operate the markets side by side with stallholders, as was done under the previous management of David and Naomi McCumstie who cited “personal reasons” for ending their own contract last month.
Balmain MP Jamie Parker announced via Facebook that a new interim operator was found to run the Glebe Markets for the foreseeable future.
“An interim operator has just been named to take over the markets”, Parker wrote.
Even though the current solution is temporary, Parker stated he was confident about the future of the Sydney institution.
“My office has already been contacted by almost a dozen operators who are keen to take over management of the markets long-term,” he said.
A one-week break will be given on March 4 to ensure Glebe Public School can perform essential maintenance upgrades to the markets’ grounds. The markets will resume on March 11 and continue for the foreseeable future.
Despite a positive breakthrough, Labor candidate for Balmain and Inner West Councillor Philippa Scott has warned that improvements are needed when it comes to the markets.
1. The proposed facility consists of the addition of new 5G equipment and associated works as follows:
“We need a fair and transparent tender for a long-term contract, including a proper traffic management plan, to put the needs of the Glebe community first,” she said.
The NSW Department of Education has announced that a traffic management plan will be included in the new contract to address the conflicts
between pedestrians and vehicles, ease traffic and ensure residents are less hindered by the high number of weekend visitors.
“I’m hopeful that today’s announcement will reassure everyone in the community that this iconic inner west institution will be alive and kicking well into the future,” Parker said.
PROPOSAL TO UPGRADE OPTUS MOBILE PHONE BASE STATION WITH 5G AT THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS
Existing Facility (Level 10), 1-19 Oxford Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 Optus Ref: S0209, www.rfnsa.com.au/2010024
Rooftop Facility, Lakes Business Park, Building 2, 2-26 Lord Street, Botany NSW 2019
Optus Ref: S0490, www.rfnsa.com.au/2019001
2. The proposed facility consists of the addition of new 5G equipment and associated works as follows:
3. The proposed facility consists of the addition of new 5G equipment and associated works as follows:
• Reconfiguration of existing equipment on the facility and within the equipment shelter
4. Optus and Vodafone regard the proposed installations as Exempt Development in accordance with State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure) 2007 based on the description above
5. Notification is being undertaken in accordance with Section 7 of Industry Code C564:2020 Mobile Phone Base Station Deployment
Contacts: linda.paull.ajp@gmail.com
6. Members of the public may obtain further information on the proposed work, and we invite you to provide written comments about the proposal. Further information and/or comments should be directed to Optus’ representative c/- James McIver, Catalyst ONE Pty Ltd; phone: 02 4022 9533; email: consultation@catalystone.com.au and post: PO Box 1119, Crows Nest NSW 1585 by 26 February 2021.
1. The proposed facility consists of the addition of new 5G equipment and associated works as follows:
• Installation of three (3) new 5G panel antennas (0.81m in length)
• Replacement of three (3) existing 4G panel antennas (2.68m long) with three new 4G panel antennas (1.5m long)
• New ancillary equipment including remote radio units, cabling and antenna mounts
• Reconfiguration of existing equipment on the facility and within the equipment shelter; the antennas are at level 10 plant room
3. The proposed facility consists of the addition of new 5G equipment and associated works as follows:
• Installation of three (3) new 5G panel antennas (0.59m long)
Linda is standing for election in the seat of Heffron because she is determined to raise awareness of how our current treatment of animals and the environment is affecting our own existence.
• New ancillary equipment including remote radio units, cabling and antenna mounts
• Reconfiguration of existing equipment on the facility and within the equipment shelter
• The antennas are at rooftop level and there is a slight increase in the overall scale of the facility
1. Saving our wildlife including urgent action to save koalas from extinction, protect kangaroos from the commercial industry, ban shark nets, end land clearing and save our native forests
• Optus regards the proposed installation as a low-impact facility in accordance with the Telecommunications (Low-impact Facilities) Determination 2018 based on the description above Existing Monopole, 19 Harris Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009
Optus Ref: S5576, www.rfnsa.com.au/2009001
• Optus regards the proposed installation as Exempt Development in accordance with State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure) 2007 based on the description above Rooftop Facility, 65-71 Belmore Road, Randwick NSW 2031
2. The proposed facility consists of the addition of new 5G equipment and associated works as follows:
• Installation of three (3) new 5G panel antennas (0.59m long)
• Installation of three (3) new 5G panel antennas (0.81m long)
2. Protecting our beloved pets including protecting renters’ rights to have pets, shutting down puppy farms, and rolling out Veti-care, like Medicare for animals, which will benefit those on lower incomes by making vet care more affordable
• Installation of one (1) new 4G panel antenna (2.69 m long)
• Replacement of two (2) existing 4G panel antennas (2.53m long) with two new 4G panel antennas (2.69m long)
Optus Ref: S0041, www.rfnsa.com.au/2031005
4. The proposed facility consists of the addition of new 5G equipment and associated works as follows:
• Installation of three (3) new 5G panel antennas (0.59m long)
• Installation of three (3) new 5G panel antennas (0.81m long)
• Provision for three (3) future panel antennas (up to 1.5m long)
3. Ending factory farming and releasing hens from battery cages
• Provision for three (3) future panel antennas (up to 1.5m long)
• New ancillary equipment including remote radio units, cabling and antenna mounts
• New ancillary equipment including remote radio units, cabling and antenna mounts
• Reconfiguration of existing equipment on the facility and within the equipment shelter
4. Declaring a climate emergency, so no new oil and gas, 100% renewable energy by 2030, and supporting farmer to transition to sustainable agriculture.
• The antennas are at rooftop level and there is a slight increase in the overall scale of the facility
• Optus regards the proposed installation as a low-impact facility in accordance with the Telecommunications (Low-impact Facilities) Determination 2018 based on the description above
• Reconfiguration of existing equipment on the facility and within the equipment shelter
• The antennas are at rooftop level and there is a slight increase in the overall scale of the facility
• Optus regards the proposed installation as Exempt Development in accordance with State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure) 2007 based on the description above
5. Notification is being undertaken in accordance with Section 7 of Industry Code C564:2020 6. Members
nsw.animaljusticeparty.org
Anything could happen. Everywhere I go at the moment – from Dubbo to Darlinghurst, from Gunnedah to Glebe, from Annandale to Armidale – it feels like NSW politics is about to crack wide open.
Not in a coming-apart way. More like coming together. It’s as though communities across the state, tired to death of the same old rusted-on politics of self-interest, are yearning to talk about the big-picture. What is the connection between fracking the Liverpool Plains and buying a lettuce in Newtown? Between sweltering cities and obesity? Between Sydney’s rent crisis and gas royalties, or between koalas and the fifteen-minute neighbourhood? These are conversations we seldom have. Federal politics is too abstract and state politics, as a rule, too tribal, self-interested and venal. But if covid and climate change teach us anything, it’s that we’re all in this together, unavoidably interdependent. So understanding the overall patterns and connections becomes critical to survival and wellbeing. This is why the upper house matters.
The NSW upper house is something most people consider only when actually in the polling booth, confronting that mile-long ballot paper. It never gets much press attention because it is regarded as little more than a rubberstamp. But that’s changing. The upper house can and does introduce legislation and is critical to the passage of any bills. Plus, because it represents the whole state, it enables us to have these big-picture, interconnected conversations.
That’s why, almost a year ago, we first considered running for the upper house. But how do you run an election campaign across an area twenty-five times bigger than Belgium? Especially without a party machine?
We were at the foot of an unclimbed Everest. No independent has ever been elected to the NSW upper house. It’s easy to see why. Traditional lower house campaigns still rely heavily on doorknocking and letterboxing, while upper house campaigns rely heavily on those in the lower house, supported by cashedup party machines. We weren’t looking at the lower house and you clearly can’t doorknock the whole state. What to do?
Give up - that was one option. But I was reluctant to walk away so easily.
I called Justin Field, the only current upper house Independent. Smart and likeable, he’d been elected as a Green and had switched to Independent status mid-term. Would he stand again?
Justin’s response was immediate and unequivocal. No way. Without a party, he explained, you don’t even get your name above the line and must persuade your voters to select an anonymous box. But establishing a new party is huge and onerous – and in any case, because parties must be registered for a full year before election day, it was already too late.
Again, we considered walking away. Calling it all too hard, having a life. Instead, I googled ‘registered parties NSW’ and found, to my surprise, a party in need of a new home.
The Open Party had been Keep Sydney Open but, having achieved its aim, was available for rehoming. I knew some of the people, just vaguely, and gave them a call. Fast forward to now. The Open Party is now revived and rebranded. Keeping many of its supporters, we have added many new ones and renamed it Elizabeth Farrelly Independents – which sounds contradictory but is necessary to be named above the line. We’ve also registered a full ticket of sixteen fabulous and independently-minded upper house candidates, including a Gunnedah farmer, a Braidwood community arts producer, an Armidale teacher-organiser-activist and a
company director and rights advocate in the Upper Hunter.
We have held some wonderful events: a launch in Millers Point, an art auction at Simon Chan’s Art Atrium in Botany and a fundraiser at the home of actor-director Rachel Ward. We’ve held policy launches - Planning for Public Health in Parramatta, focussed on the huge issue of urban heat and Water: Floods, Droughts and Heatwaves at Michael Mobbs’ Sustainable House in Chippendale.
Throughout, we have deliberately expanded the conversation to connect city and country communities, drawing the critical links between economics and environment, between healthy ecosystems and healthy food.
Biodynamic farmer and expert in the renewables Bruce Robertson spoke at our fundraiser and our Water Policy launch featured Liverpool Plains farmer Rosemary Nankevill, brilliantly recounting her experiences with mining company
aggression, climate change and water depletion. Speaking at our planning policy launch, meanwhile, were two Doctors Against Climate Change - Western Sydney GP Dr Kim Loo and child psychiatrist Dr Cybele Dey on the health dangers of urban heat - and Dr Jennifer Wilder from GUST (Grow Urban Shade Trees), describing her brilliant program of guerrilla
Cities, like forests, are ecosystems. It’ all linked: complicated but also really simple. Even without climate concerns, for economic and health reasons alone, we have to end our addiction to fossil fuels The soaring prices of petrol and gas – deliberately sustained by international cartels – inflate every commodity, especially food. This in turn drives interest rates, which send thousands into mortgage stress. Add farmland fracking, depleting and polluting the groundwater, and a few 50degree days
to evaporate what remains, and that’s how a Newtown lettuce can end up costing $15. What must we do? A few things. End coal and gas mining by 2030. Meanwhile, charge proper royalties (which on gas alone would have reaped NSW an extra $25bn just for last year). Use that to establish a sovereign fund to transition to clean jobs. Invest in a statewide electric rail network for freight, getting trucks off roads. Stop development of fertile farmland, floodplain and forest. Invest in the missing middle – low-rise medium density walkable villages, in cities and regional towns. End developer access to governments and close the gaping loopholes. Rewrite the Planning Act to pivot on the public interest. Use citizen juries to establish priorities up-front in the planning process.
To make this happen, whoever you support in the lower house, vote 1 above the line in the upper house on election day for Elizabeth Farrelly Independents.
No independent has ever been elected to the NSW upper houseElizabeth Farrelly (left) with Quentin Dempster (right) at a campaign launch. Photo: Supplied EFI fundraiser at the home of Rachel Ward. Photo: John Vaughan/Supplied
BY SHARLOTTE THOU
The City of Sydney’s waste workers
– members of the NSW Transport Workers Union – took to striking over poor pay and working conditions imposed by waste management giant Cleanaway.
NSW Transport Workers Union (TWU) Secretary, Richard Olsen said that it was the “council’s responsibility to set things right by intervening to ensure that Cleanaway comes to the table on sustainable conditions”.
Olsen maintains that working conditions are worse in the City of Sydney compared to other council areas. The TWU estimates that the City of Sydney workforce at Cleanaway is 30-40% understaffed, and that workers employed in the City of Sydney council were paid at least $4 less per hour than workers in other areas.
When asked to account for this discrepancy, City of Sydney Councillor
Yvonne Weldon said she was “not sure” why the City of Sydney’s service standards had “deteriorated” in comparison to other LGA’s.
Weldon described the LGA’s streets as “filthy”, adding that “there is a growing rat infestation in the city”.
He believes that the waste management company has a “track record of treating its workers like dirt”, with workers in Queensland, Erskine and Randwick having previously taken industrial action. “This appalling, unchecked behaviour by Cleanaway has gone on long enough, it’s time for the council to step in. After all, they are responsible for this contract and the essential service Sydney residents rely on. It’s not good enough for the council to wash its hands of this situation which has reached crisis point,” he said.
Looking forward, Weldon recommends that Council move away from outsourcing, and utilise it’s “in-house cleansing and waste team to better manage their] contract with Cleanaway and to fill gap in service as required”. She also believes Council should allow “residents to drop-off household goods to [Council] depots”.
This sentiment has been echoed by some locals, who have commented on
1. The proposed upgrade to the existing facility includes:
• Installation of nine (9) new panel antennas (less than 2.8m in length) for both Vodafone and Optus at heights of 34.95m, 34m, 33.85m (antenna centreline) mounted to the rooftop within a new shroud
• Reconfiguration of existing equipment within the shroud and equipment shelter
• Installation of ancillary equipment associated with operation of the facility, including antenna mounts, GPS antenna, new shroud and works within the existing equipment shelter
2. Vodafone and Optus regard the proposed installation as Low Impact under the Telecommunications (Low-Impact Facilities) Determination 2018 and does not require Council development consent based on the description above.
3. In accordance with Section 7 of C564:2020 Mobile Phone Base Station Deployment Code, we invite you to provide feedback about the proposal. Further information and/or comments should be directed to: Emma Lachlan at CommPlan Pty Ltd on 02 9363 3815 or at emmal@commplan.com.au or send document to PO Box 267, Edgecliff NSW 2027 by 5pm 23rd March 2023. Further information may be obtained from the RFNSA website at www.rfnsa.com.au/2024001
social media that the issue was “another example of failed outsourcing”.
The Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore met with Cleanaway to discuss their contract and service delivery issues, with a focus on “ensuring Cleanaway’s service returns to the high standard the City and our residents expect”.
The Lord Mayor also confirmed that an offer between Cleanaway and its
employees had been made, and the “process for taking this to a formal vote by employees has commenced”.
It was determined that the CEO would develop and brief Council on the proposed community engagement process that will “provide Council with community information on the best ways to manage and monitor domestic waste”.
Proposed termination of Strata Scheme No. 1465 being property situated at 126-128 Australia Street Camperdown NSW 2050
Notice is given of an intention to apply to the Registrar General for an order terminating the above Strata Scheme and the consequent winding up of the Owners Corporation pursuant to section 142 of the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015 (NSW).
Any person having any claim against the Owners Corporation of the above Strata Scheme or any estate or interest in or claim against any of the lots comprised in the Strata Scheme is required, on or before 27 March 2023, to send particulars of the estate, interest or claim to N.C. Coombes & Co Solicitors of 293 Victoria Road Marrickville NSW 2204.
UNSW Education Officer Cherish
Kuehlmann was arrested at midnight on February 17 following a snap protest for justice against the rental and housing crisis.
The Education Officer was arrested at an Eastlakes unit around 12.30am and detained at Day Street police station on charges of aggravated trespass. She was held in custody overnight before being released at 4am the next morning.
Kuehlmann released a public statement through the UNSW Education Collective’s Facebook Group, criticising the midnight arrest by the police, calling their attempt an “extreme measure” to “impede on the right to protest in NSW”.
Kuehlmann explained the reason for the protest against Commonwealth Bank and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), writing in her statement “low-income renters and working-class homeowners are the ones feeling the brunt of this housing crisis”.
“This is because greedy landlords jack up rents or refuse to give up their investment properties to renters at all,” she said.
Kuehlmann spoke to City Hub denouncing NSW Police’s actions, deeming it “outrageous” that the “cops are out to protect Philip Lowe and politicians by arresting me in the middle of the night and that they’re trying to intimidate young people protesting the housing crisis”.
“It was a deliberate choice to wait until midnight to come to my house, wake me and my housemate up and detain me for hours because I was involved in protesting against the hugely wealthy institutions that are profiting from the cost-of-living disaster,” Kuehlmann said. She declared that it was an “attack” on the right to protest and “all young people facing rent increases, threatened with evictions and homelessness, and working families with rising mortgage interest rates”.
Kuehlmann was recently freed from her bail conditions at the Downing Centre Local Court with the Magistrate deeming the charge “inappropriate”.
She was charged with a single count of trespass, “Aggravated Unlawful Entry on Inclosed Land”, which included facing imprisonment for maximum 12 months, and/or a fine of $13 200.
Kuehlmann was granted strict conditional bail which stated that she must reside at a designated address in Eastlakes and not go within 2km of Sydney Town Hall except in cases of “legal or medical appointments”.
Her lawyer argued for the removal of
the strict bail conditions which was successfully granted by magistrate Clare Farnan who told the court that she “didn’t understand” why the police had imposed bail considering Kuehlmann was charged with an offence with a maximum penalty of $5500 and had no previous convictions.
The UNSW Ed Officer spoke about being held in custody, stating that she had spent “hours and hours in a tiny police cell”, and that “no one should have to do that”.
Activists gathered outside the Downing Centre prior to Kuehlmann’s court hearing, with demands to “Free Cherish”.
The event was hosted by the ‘Democracy is Essential – Restore the right to protest in NSW campaign’, where speakers protested the charges and condemned the police for “clearly imposing intimidation tactics onto student activists”.
“These laws have given the NSW Police the ability to know that they can act without any accountability. That they can go as hard as they want because there is a unity ticket with the Liberal national party and the Labor party when it comes to giving police the ultimate power to crack down on protesters and that is shameful,” she added.
She was charged with “Aggravated Unlawful Entry on Inclosed Land”, which, under the Inclosed Land Protection Act 1901 (NSW) and the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), includes facing imprisonment for maximum 12 months, and/or a fine of $13,200.
Kuehlmann’s lawyer Sidnie Sarang asked for the removal of the bail condition which restricted her from executing her role as Education Officer with UNSW. Sarang told the court that her job with the student union was dependent on liaising with “different stakeholders” and organising events like “protests, rallies” that served the interests of students.
Kuehlmann was planned to chair a housing crisis speak out last month but was unable to attend due to her bail conditions.
“The purpose of bail conditions isn’t to prevent one from attending a protest, it’s to prevent a bail concern. This is the first time she’s been charged”, Sarang said. Kuehlmann is set to appear at her sentencing hearing on October 25. She is set to plead not guilty.
Kuehlmann denounced the housing crisis and the market in which “housing is a commodity, something that you can use to accumulate wealth in society, rather than something which is already essential to survive”.
“It is an attack on democracy that the Perrottet government and the Labor government have passed anti-protest laws in NSW, that they’re locking up climate protesters in solitary confinement and sending them to prison for simply trying to draw attention to the fact that our planet is on fire”, Kuehlmann said. Greens Member for Newtown Jenny Leong offered support to Kuehlmann and denounced the “police crackdown” on student activists and protesters.
“We know that when they crack down on people, they do it in such a cowardly and dangerous way. They go in the dark at night to a young woman’s house and arrest her at midnight. That is a disgrace.”
Leong raised the recent passing of the anti-protest laws which saw climate activist Violet Coco sentenced to 15 months in prison (with a non-parole period of eight months), for blocking a lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, condemning the increased powers given to the NSW Police.
Randwick Greens councillor Kym Chapple expressed her disdain for Kuehlmann’s arrest via a Tweet.
Chapple captioned her post, “Arresting a student activist in the middle of the night days after a protest is oppressive and unnecessary but that’s exactly what happened to UNSW education officer Cherish Kuehlmann last night!”
The Greens councillor commended the student activist for “standing up against banks gouging people and greedy landlords”, emphasising the “fundamental right” to “peaceful protest” in NSW. Chapple condemned attacks from both the Liberal and Labor parties, and their backing of the antiprotest laws which has seen harsher penalties for protesters.
In April last year, both houses passed the Roads and Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 where the expanded offence now covers roads, train stations, ports and public and private infrastructure.
People who have been charged with protesting illegally on “public roads, rail lines, tunnels, bridges and industrial estates” will face a maximum penalty of 200 penalty units ($22,000) or imprisonment for two years, or both, as per the amendment to Section 144G.
It was a deliberate choice to wait until midnightUNSW Education Officer Cherish Kuehlmann being arrested by NSW Police. Photo: Twitter.
As letter boxes throughout the country are taken over by snails and Australia Post reports a loss of $189.7m in the delivery of letters in just the first half of 2022-23, it seems the letter itself is in danger of becoming extinct. Once a staple of human communication and at times, literary expression, the humble letter as we once knew it could well disappear forever.
We are talking something handwritten, typed or printed on paper, stuck in an envelope and with a stamp affixed on the front. Remember those? It was once a daily ritual to hear the postman’s whistle, often greet the postie outside your residence and receive a welcome bundle of assorted letters. Sure there were bills, government notices and junk mail but there were also birthday and Christmas cards, wedding invitations and photos from abroad, and best of all those heartfelt messages from a relative, a lover or a pen pal overseas.
Whilst the parcel delivery side of Australian Post flourishes due to rapidly expanding online sales, the delivery of actual letters has slumped to the
point where many services have been reduced to a few days a week. Now the Government is giving consideration to stripping that home delivery back even further.
The once noble art of creative letter writing could well disappear forever, replaced by the crude, abbreviated neo babble of texting and colourless emails. Maybe it’s time to fight back and if everybody made a point of spending a
measly $1.20 a week on a stamp and sending a letter, the postie would not disappear from our suburban streets and the snails might seek an alternative haunt to chew up the pizza coupons. Here are just a few suggestions that might keep the postie’s bag full, at least for the foreseeable future.
THE GENTLE HOAX: All Australians love a leg pull and back in the 1960s it was not uncommon for some unsuspecting
suburbanite to receive a letter saying they had been appointed ‘nuclear warden’ for their particular street.
THE CHAIN LETTER STING: Chain letters have now been declared illegal but were once a popular form of low scale pyramid extortion. They asked you to send money to the person on top of the list whilst adding yours to the bottom, with the promise that you would eventually receive hundreds if not thousands of cash filled envelopes.
THE RECYCLEABLE GREETING CARD: Let’s start sending cards again, for Christmas, for birthdays and for just about anything Hallmark has in their catalogue. The trick would be to write the message in a soft pencil that could be easily erased. The card could then be recycled numerous times.
And finally:
THE LETTER TO YOURSELF: Your neighbours are still getting letters and you feel horribly left out as you haven’t had a delivery for ages. Why not write yourself one, say something sweet and complimentary, and smile at your nosey neighbours as you retrieve it from your letter box.
It’s amidst one of the city’s worst rental crises that Sydney moves into the upcoming state election. When Jenny Leong was elected to represent the brand-new seat of Newtown in 2015, she was already well aware of the housing issues that inner-city residents face.
“Advocating for rental rights for tenants is something that I’ve been doing since before I was elected,” Leong said. The MP has been with the Greens for over a decade now, having previously worked with Amnesty International and as Manager of Community Arts and Cultural Development at the Australia Council for the Arts.
Leong is very familiar with the electorate she was chosen to represent- both the smallest, and one of the most progressive, having lived, studied and worked in the inner-city for over 20 years.
Newtown, with its long-established LGBT+ community and blossoming collection of funky vintage shops and cafes, is home to an eclectic mix of Sydneysiders.
“The electorate of Newtown... has at its heart the desire to want to really have a positive and significant influence on shaping not just the way that we do politics in our community and in our local area, but also how we do politics across the state, across the country,” Leong said. On top of a drive for social change, Newtown residents are unified by another key statistic; nearly 2/3 of people living in the electorate are renters. 59.2% of people living in the electorate are tenants of landlords, with another portion making up the blocks of public and social housing that have marked inner-city Sydney for decades. In fact, the Newtown electorate has the highest proportion of tenant dwellings in the state.
Leong said that during her most recent campaign, she listened to a multitude of stories from renters facing difficult situations.
“It’s impossible to door knock and or to have conversations with people on the street, in Newtown or anywhere across our city, and not hear a story that someone has of a rent hike and unfair eviction or a completely unacceptable treatment that they’ve experienced from a landlord,” she said.
Over the last year, rents in Sydney have seen their steepest ever annual growth. One Redfern resident was slapped with a $700 fortnightly rent increase last month. Vacancy rates are at an all-time low, with many renters facing tough competition to be approved for properties.
According to Domain, only 0.8% of rental properties were available to lease nationally in January.
For Leong and the Greens, bringing relief to renters who are struggling is a top priority.
“I will move on the first day back of Parliament a bill to freeze rents in New South Wales,” Leong said. She said she wants to “create the space for a longer conversation about implementing rent controls, establishing an independent body that has oversight of those issues”. The Greens are looking to establish an independent body to have oversight over rents in NSW - a measure that will be adopted to swing laws in favour of renters.
“The reality is that our laws are set up to favour the rights of big investors and property developers over the interests of people that rent in our city,” Leong explained.
Australia is in fact lagging behind other countries when it comes to renters’ rights, as it represents the only OECD nation to still allow no-grounds evictions. Tenancy laws manifest in and around Newtown in observable ways. Leong says it’s often hard for renters to stay in one home long enough to settle into a community.
“The impact on our local communities... is that people aren’t in a position to be able to put down roots in a community,” she said.
University students are moving back home to live with their parents, families are forced to relocate many times just to find affordable housing.
Ending no-grounds evictions, where landlords in NSW have the right to evict tenants with no cause (in many cases which they employ to significantly hike up rent), has been a key focus for the Greens since 2014. A bill introduced to NSW Parliament last year that would outlaw this practice was shut down by both Labor and the Coalition in November.
“Talk is cheap,” Leong said at the time. “Renters are the ones who will pay the price.”
“That’s not healthy for society.”
Leong is not only focusing on relief for renters- she is also zooming in on the looming issue of the sell-offs of public land, and a quickly diminishing supply of public and social housing in the inner-city. On this issue, Leong said that “The Greens position is very clear. We believe that any sell-off of significant amounts of
a reshaping of the way we’re approaching housing in this statePhoto: Supplied
public housing on public lands needs the approval of Parliament.”
Leong is referring to a slew of new developments on blocks of publicly owned land in Redfern, Glebe, Waterloo and Eveleigh, where the government has fast-tracked rezoning processes and sold public land to private developers to build high-density housing.
In most cases the current government has employed a 70/30 model, where 70% of the new high-density housing will be private, and the remaining 30% is left designated for social, affordable and public housing.
The issue with this model for Leong is that it “involves the reduction of the amount of public housing, and it does not include an integrated plan for how they’re going to increase transport and active pedestrian pathways.”
On top of that, Leong criticised the lack of planning for social infrastructure such as schools and community services.
The Rezoning Pathways Program, introduced last year, allows for large planning decisions to by-pass local councils. Planning Minister Anthony Roberts announced the rezoning of 10 major sites across Sydney, one of which was a block of public housing on Explorer Street in Eveleigh.
Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore
criticised the state government’s take-over of planning decisions for the site, and sent a letter to the planning minister requesting that control over Explorer Street be handed back to council.
“There are examples just locally in Redfern where we know that there are rezoning and development plans being put in place through a state significant development process that actually have been rejected multiple times by council, and opposed by the community because of safety concerns of how high the building could be built on that site,” Leong explained.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet described the rezoning pathways program as “one important lever that we are pulling to get the ball rolling on more housing supply across our state”.
Leong said that inner-city residents know they can expect to live in areas with a significant amount of high-density housing- however, this is not the issue that communities have raised.
“Yes, we absolutely need to recognize that development is going to happen in our city, but it needs to be happening in the interests of the community, not in the interest of the property developers who for too long have been getting special treatment from successive governments.”
In regard to supply, Leong said that pre-pandemic NSW had record levels of supply while simultaneously seeing record levels of homelessness.
“Supply alone does not solve the problem” she said.
For the Greens, the discussion around housing in Sydney lies in shifting the conversation.
“We need to have a reshaping of the way we’re approaching housing in this state,” Leong said.
“And that means ensuring that we are putting the interests of people to have a safe, secure, sustainable and affordable home over and above the idea that investors should be able to profit out of other people’s misery.”
public social and affordable housing but also improving the rights of renters so that people don’t feel that owning their own home is the only way they can have housing security,” she said.
“The balance is tipped so far in favour of the landlord that the only way to escape the hell of greedy landlords, dodgy investors and horrific treatment by real estate agents is to try and own your own home.”
Leong said this March offers a real opportunity for NSW to put the Greens in a place to represent what the community wants.
“I think there’s a there is a real opportunity this election to not just kick the Liberals out, but actually to see stronger Greens representation in the Parliament, and potentially hold a balance of power that pushes a future government in the direction that our community wants to see.”
The Greens remain in a strong position to retain the seat of Newtown, and are fighting hard for neighbouring electorate Balmain as longstanding Greens MP Jamie Parker steps down. Kobi Shetty, a current Inner West Greens Councillor, is vying for this seat for the Greens. On a positive note, Leong said that she sees a real sense of positivity from her constituents, even in the face of rising rents and cost-of-living.
For young people who are facing a future where they might never be able to buy into the housing market, Leong said that renting should be just as viable as owning property.
“The solution in part is for actually us to be upping significantly the amount of
“What is so wonderful about our community is that almost nobody is disengaging with a sense of hopelessness.”
Leong is running against Labor candidate David Hetherington, Liberal candidate Fiona Douskou and Sustainable Australia candidate Christopher Thomas for the seat of Newtown in the March 25th state election.
We absolutely need to recognise that development is going to happen in our city, but it needs to be happening in the interests of the community, not in the interest of the property developersPhoto: Mark Dickson
Madonna recreated Marilyn Monroe’s famous routine from the 1953 film, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, in her video for “Material Girl”, but it would be hard to find a more dazzling rendition of “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” than Georgina Hopson’s absolute show-stopper in the Hayes Theatre’s new stage adaptation. Not to take anything away from Hopson’s co-star, Emily Havea who has all the sass, stage presence, and sex appeal of Jane Russell (Monroe’s movie co) but with soaring vocals to boot. It’s a synergetic pairing that lifts this show above and beyond the fairly banal narrative.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes tells the story of besties, Lorelei Lee (Hopson) and Dorothy
If you think you’ve seen it all, think again. Clichéd as that sounds, it’s true for this wild and raunchy assortment of sweet pleasures that is Dirty Laundry. Presented by those incorrigible boys from The Briefs Factory, Dirty Laundry is 90 minutes of the most hilarious, astonishing, grotesque, saucy, sensual entertainment you can have this early in the evening.
It begins when you walk in, with members of the troupe clad in dusky pink satin, tantalisingly short dressing gowns bearing fairy-lit baskets flit about selling raffle tickets to the audience.
Illustrious host, Fez Faanana (aka Shivanana) opens the show with a warm, embracing welcome and a few house rules that this rugby player trapped in a drag queen’s wardrobe threatens to enforce.
Shaw (Havea) who, by the grace of Lorelei’s betrothed heir to a button-manufacturing fortune, Gus Esmond Jr (Tomāš Kantor) are given passage to England on a luxury cruise liner. The usual Hollywood musical shenanigans, all come together in a combustion of comedy, romance, and spontaneous songs.
The cast and production are much better than the script. In addition to the aforementioned Hopson and Havea, who really are a powerhouse team, it’s a stunning ensemble. Kantor, who is the geeky Esmond, also does time as a lithe, ripped jock. Octavia Barron-Martin is delightful as Mrs Spofford, swilling champagne at every opportunity, against doctors orders and to the disapproval of
her eligible bachelor son, Henry (Matthew Predny). Henry is clean-cut and unassuming, the unlikely suitor to party-girl Dorothy.
Monica Sayers is the tightly-stitched Lady Beekman who has lost grasp of a very expensive tiara and an equally elusive husband, Sir Francis, played like a classic British comic character actor by Thomas Campbell.
Leah Lim does double time as aspiring dancer, Gloria and crew member, Robbear. White-haired and lean, Tomas Parrish also
plays multiple roles providing some great visual humour – along with the rest of the cast – which includes subtle winks around gender and sexuality.
As usual, musical director, Victoria Falconer, just can’t keep off the stage, but her intrusion is most welcome. She is not only an extraordinary musician but a charismatic performer with good comic sensibility. Until Mar 18, Hayes Theatre, 19 Greenknowe Ave, Elizabeth Bay, hayestheatre.com.au
Then, as if a fuse has been lit, the anticipation begins and the ensemble moves through a teasing sequence of dance routines and truly mind-bending juggling, hula hooping, floor routine, aerial hoop, aerial straps, balloon sculpting, with various articles of clothing being dropped along the way.
This show is a hybrid of cabaret, burlesque, comedy, vaudeville, circus, suds and underwear. Whatever you are there for, you’ll get it.
At the beginning of the show, MC Shivanana explains how, in their 13 very successful years as an independent, hard-working arts organisation, Briefs has never been able to get a government arts grant. Apparently, they are “unable to show artistic merit”. Seriously? See this show when it’s next in town and see how wrong those grant deciders are.
BY JOHN MOYLESurry Hills has many secrets in its long history, but few are more colourful or as vicious as Kate Leigh, one of the world’s few female gangland leaders, and the subject of Vashti Hughes new performance piece, Dinner with Kate Leigh, the Gangster Queen In the 1920s and ‘30s, Leigh ruled Surry Hills and nearby suburbs in concert with a gang of brutal razor wielding thugs in a world permeated by cocaine, sly grog, prostitution and gambling.
Once Sydney’s wealthiest female, Leigh’s world came crashing down in 1954 when the tax office bankrupted her over unpaid taxes, and she was forced to seek the help of her nephew, William Beahan, who ran a green grocer’s shop at 212 Devonshire Street,
while Kate kept the grog flowing out the back.
That premises is now the Jazzy Cafe, and on Saturday March 18 and Saturday 22 April the premises will be redolent with history once again as Vashti Hughes, Ross Johnston and Dale Truman bring Leigh and her cronies back to life with music, food, booze and maybe blood.
Limited to 20 people, Dinner with Kate Leigh starts at 5.45pm on the corner of Little Riley Street and Steel Lane before proceeding to the Jazzy Cafe for anti pasta dinner and main performance, to be followed by a hero dessert, and yes, there will be grog as Jazzy cafe is licensed.
Mar 18 & Apr 22, Jazzy Cafe, 212 Devonshire St, Surry Hills, www.eventbrite.com.au
Enthusiasts of extreme sports should not miss the Freestyle Kings Capital Tour presented by Freestyle Kings and TEG Van Egmond which revs into Sydney for one spectacular show at the Qudos Bank Arena.
Ten of the biggest names in Freestyle Motorcross will join forces to present an octane charged and heart stopping 2 hour family show that should not only satisfy but overwhelm the legion of fans.
Ryan Williams is a professional awardwinning Aussie scooter and BMX rider who has joined the tour. At the tender age of 13 he was showcasing his skating ability on his very own YouTube channel. In the years since his popularity has skyrocketed and he now has a huge following on social media.
“People who come to this show can expect to see the highest level of Motorcross riding and, from my end we’re going to be pushing the boundaries of
The original bad boy of the kitchen, Marco Pierre White is sharpening his knives and heading down under to tour his live on-stage show, Out Of The Kitchen
White is universally regarded as the first celebrity chef and the prototype for the kind of irascible, surly, highly-strung chefs that have become popular in recent times. He also trained many high profile chefs including Mario Batali, Shannon Bennett, Heston Blumenthal, Gordon Ramsay and Curtis Stone, and has been an inspiration to many more.
Born in Leeds, England, White decided in his teens that he would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a chef. By age 26, White had opened his own restaurant and received a highly coveted Michelin star. A year later, he received a second Michelin star – no
easy feat. His career continued on its steeply graded upward path until, at age 33, he became the first British chef and youngest chef ever to be awarded three Michelin stars.
Only four years after achieving his Michelin stars, White untied his apron strings, retiring from the kitchen to become a very successful restaurateur. When reality TV took off in the late 2000s, White found new stardom as a celebrity chef, featuring in big name shows in several different countries including Masterchef and Hell’s Kitchen in Australia.
In Out Of The Kitchen, White will share his experiences as a chef, restaurateur and TV celebrity, inviting the audience to celebrate the joy of food.
May 25, State Theatre, 49 Market St, Sydney, lateralevents.com/theatre-events
BMX and see what we can do,’ enthused Williams. “You’re going to see the best tricks from both worlds of BMX and Motorcross.”
There will be choreographed deathdefying stunts including front flips and double backflips performed to pyrotechnics, music and fire-breathers. “Audiences always get the best
entertainment when we’re trying something new. The stunts are very dangerous however we’re very calculated in taking those risks. We always ask ourselves, is the risk worth the reward? For the audience the risk is definitely worth the reward!”
Mar 18, Qudos Bank Arena, 19 Edwin Flack Ave, Sydney Olympic Park, www.freestylekings.com
The 2023 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade made a triumphant return to its home on Oxford Street and Anzac Parade last night. A massive contingent of 208 floats, including many overseas entrants, walked the much-trodden route from Hyde Park to Moore Park to a several hundred thousand strong crowd.
In mild temperatures under a clear sky, more than 12,500 parade participants donning feathers, fur, sequins, satin, leather, lace, and myriad other materials, pranced and danced behind spruced up trucks.
Notable faces in the parade included Prime Minister Anthony Albanese –the first sitting PM to ever participate; Tanya Plibersek MP; and ABC Chair, Ita Butrose AC, OBE.
The parade was opened with a First Nations smoking ceremony and led off, following a long standing tradition, by the Dykes on Bikes, 78ers and First Nations floats. Other floats included the familiar QANTAS jumbo-jet nose, primped for WorldPride; police, ambulance, fire fighters, defence force; front line workers; and many not-for-profit and community based organisations.
Along with these were dozens of unique, creative, humorous and cheeky floats from independent entries.
This 45th anniversary Mardi Gras Parade was made all the more special by the pairing this year with Sydney World Pride. While the parade is considered an apex event it doesn’t mark the end of festivities with a whole event-packed week still coming up.
Two of Australia’s finest pianists will play together and solo on two magnificent grand pianos in an evening of exquisite musical entertainment. Presented by The Sydney International Piano Competition (The Sydney), the concert will be held in Melbourne and Sydney and feature the outstanding talents of Tamara Anna Cislowska and Gerard Willems AM.
awards, Gerard is recognised as a preeminent specialist of the first Viennese school.
Featuring a selection of the most popular and esteemed composers across centuries, the program is an absolute crowd-pleaser: Mozart’s Overture from The Magic Flute; Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 in A; Grieg’s Solitary Traveller, Morning Mood, and Butterfly; Liszt’s Abschied 1885 (to Siloti), and Concert
Multi award-winning pianist, Tamara Anna Cislowska has performed and recorded world-wide to critical acclaim as a recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist, earning international prizes such as the Rovere d’Oro, and touring internationally as cultural ambassador for Australia.
Gerard Willems AM is an Australian living legend of the piano whose performance and teaching career spans Australia, Asia and Europe. Boasting multiple ARIA
Paraphrase on Verdi ‘Rigoletto; and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
The concerts in each city will also include an up close and personal conversation with the two musicians conducted by ABC Classic FM hosts Mairi Nicholson in Melbourne, and Damien Beaumont in Sydney.
Sydney Concert: March 23, 7:30pm, City Recital Hall, 2 Angel Place, Sydney, www.thesydney.com.au
Joan Sutherland would be pearlclutching in her grave if she could see what was happening in her name-sake theatre. Reuben Kaye and a band of errant Opera Australia singers take an already extreme artform to its outer limits in this delightful night-cap show. Opera Up Late is a 60-minute romp through some of opera’s favourite tunes plus one or two pop songs. It is irreverent, super camp, and utterly hilarious. Master of ceremonies, Reuben Kaye, is indeed just that - a ceremonial master. Flamboyant, charismatic, with a razor wit that occasionally nicks and draws blood, Kaye has the audience in his thrall. With him on stage are five prestige Opera Australia artists who prove that opera isn’t as serious and high-brow
and many people might think. Annie Aitken, Tomas Dalton, Angela Hogan, Benjamin Rasheed, and Cathy-Di Zhang are like a troupe of seasoned burlesque/vaudeville players, hamming it up, dressing it down, and being so out there’s no turning back. Performing hits from Carmen, La Traviata, Turandot, Lakmé, La Bohéme, and more, with some Lady Gaga thrown in for good measure, these singers, along with Kaye, have true comic delivery and timing while still bringing the big opera vocals. Music director and pianist for the show, Paul Fitzsimon, and music director and pianist for Kaye (because he’s a diva) Shanon Whitelock get right into the spirit. Presented as part of Sydney WorldPride but hopefully destined to be a regular gig.
The evolution of Henry Rollins has been like an ageing fine wine. Except the wine is high-octane fuel and Rollins an unrelenting V8 redlining on the highway to Hell. And he has kept up this phenomenal output without reprieve for decades on end.
From physical juggernaut and vocal powerhouse of hardcore punk bands, Black Flag and the Rollins Band, to spoken-word artist, author, radio-host, actor, presenter, comedian, activist, itinerant troubadour, and absolutely anything else he conceives to be;
Henry Rollins is impossible to pindown with labels.
His Good to See You Tour will be hitting Australian shores in June this year.
“It’s just me onstage, talking at a high rate of speed,” says Rollins.
“Luckily, enough crazy things happened where I was living to give me some lively material.”
Travelling provides a sobering lesson on life for Rollins. He has seen up close the kind of “normal” that people from various parts of the world experience.
“Places where there’s bullet casings on the ground from wars
that never end, bad water sources, food insecurity,” says Rollins, describing some of the places he has visited.
With his wealth of experiences and his appetite for story-telling, Rollins will not fail to entertain audiences. He’s known for his humour and insight and in a world that is developing at an unprecedented rate, the pool of material for him to draw from is almost inexhaustible.
(Read our full interview with Henry Rollins on our website)
Jun 28, State Theatre, 49 Market St, Sydney, frontiertouring.com/henryrollins
“This is in a courtyard where nobody else gets to see, the public don’t get to see it, you know, and if it gets around a bit more it’ll be seen more, and promoting hand-painted signs and murals - that’s what we wanna do, you know,” says Elbourne matter-of-factly.
Around seven years ago, Elbourne started working with Opera Australia painting scenery, backdrops and props. He is currently also working on designs and artwork at Luna Park with resident artist, Ashley Taylor, as well as painting various props at Taronga Zoo.
When Scott Maidment, owner of The Grand Electric, was in the process of refurbishing it, he called Lacey Malice, a highly sought-after scenic artist and prop painter working in theatre and film. However she had just got a gig on the upcoming The Fall Guy film and recommended Elbourne. (Malice later came back to do the final ageing on the murals as that’s her expertise.)
At first, Elbourne and the designer, James Brown, seemed to have difficulty understanding each other’s visions. “We got together and worked it out and decided on Art Deco, Art Nouveau - stuff of that age. Keep it all in a theatrical theme with an emphasis on champagne,” says Elbourne. “That building is the old railway union building…so one of the signs on the big wall is the actual motif of the union, which is on the front of the building on Cleveland Street - they’ve still got this big steel sign up there. Scott wanted to keep that in the story.”
It meant he could draw beautiful old cars and trains, and also a giant cruise ship.
MAX ELBOURNE is a signwriter who comes from a family of artists: his mum was an artist, his dad was a letterer who worked with traditional printed newspapers. Elbourne thinks signwriting is a good job for someone who likes art; he also does the occasional mural. The way he talks about it, you would never guess that Elbourne is responsible for some extremely impressive wall art around the city. In fact, he has been asked to put in a submission for the Sulman Prize this year for his mural work in the courtyard of The Grand Electric Theatre in Surry Hills.
“The idea of the cruise ship is because they [Strut & Fret, Maidment’s theatre group] do cruise shows on giant cruising boats.”
The courtyard is quite a small tight area with varied surfaces, so it wasn’t an easy task. Elbourne’s son, Jimmy helped out, and Lacey Malice, as mentioned, did all the distress work. Rachel Hallet from Opera Australia also lent a hand.
“Scott was amazing to work for in that he gave me the freedom, but also he helped me the whole time, whatever I needed he just got for me,” says Elbourne, ensuring he credits everyone involved.
“Don’t forget my wife [Kathe Payne] - she did all the research.”
The Grand Electric is at 199 Cleveland St, Surry Hills. Elbourne’s murals are in the courtyard.
There was no reason to expect that the sitting of Federal Parliament on October 9, 2012 would be in any way remarkable - and it almost wasn’t. But a careless barb by the then opposition leader, Tony Abbott was the final spark that ignited a tinderbox of dried, seasoned anger for Prime Minister Julia Gillard. She then delivered a spontaneous, chamber-rattling speech that would resonate world-wide and etch itself into history as “the misogyny speech”.
Julia Gillard’s speech has been analysed, critiqued, rendered in artworks, set to music, parodied on social media, converted into memes and GIFS, and revered.
The Misogyny Speech is at the core of a new play, Julia, written by acclaimed playwright Joanna Murray-Smith.
“It’s so magnificently composed, it was
brilliantly given…it was one of the most inspiring political speeches we’ve heard in this country and, you know, it went viral around the world,” says MurraySmith.
Murray-Smith was offered the commission to write the play by Sydney Theatre Company artistic director, Kip Williams. She was initially lukewarm about the idea. Up to that point, she’d never felt a personal affinity with Prime Minister Gillard.
“I wasn’t a true believer. I had voted for her - I am a Labor voter - but I wasn’t particularly enamoured with her. I was pleased that there was a woman prime minister, but I was not uncritical of aspects of her leadership, particularly with regards to refugees,” explains Murray-Smith.
It wasn’t until she started reading and researching in earnest, that MurraySmith began to really appreciate what
Gillard had had to endure as Australia’s first female prime minister; the antagonism levelled at her from other politicians, journalists and members of the general public.
“And the absolute miracle of her emerging out of her leadership in tact as a human being, and in fact more than in tact, able to do great things in the world which is what she’s doing now,” says Murray-Smith, who shifted from indifference to utter awe and respect. “I was completely fascinated by this rather extraordinary woman who does not appear to be extraordinary on the outside.”
What sealed the deal was getting the okay to write the play from Gillard herself, with whom Murray-Smith had a several-hour long interview.
“I was kind of overwhelmed during that interview by how generous she was,” says Murray-Smith.
The resulting play, Julia, is a one-woman show in which Gillard directly addresses the audience, jumps across timelines, and shares personal thoughts and memories, not necessarily factual but informed by Murray-Smith’s research and interview with Gillard.
Justine Clarke is playing Julia Gillard and Murray-Smith could not be more thrilled. “I have wanted to work with Justine for a long time, I think she’s one of our very, very best actors in the country, and wonderful on stage,” beams Murray-Smith. “[She’s] the perfect actor to do it because you sort of love her from the get go. She’s just adorable. She’s deeply intelligent and very, very reflective but she’s very human, she’s got a beautiful sense of humour.”
Mar 30 - May 13
Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point www.sydneytheatre.com.au
Antmann was persistent and eventually Draxl relented and invited him to the studio. Antmann was impressed; he bought a piece of art off the wall and put Draxl in touch with David Rex-Livingston who owns a gallery in Katoomba. Rex-Livingston, in turn, was also impressed with Draxl’s work and invited him to put on a solo exhibition at the gallery.
“And I jumped out of my skin!” says Draxl. “It’s kind of something that I’d always dreamed about happening, you know, that a gallery owner would see my painting somewhere and say ‘hey you’ve got talent. We should do a solo exhibition.’”
That exhibition, In Between/The Act of Painting, was held at the beginning of 2021, and it was a success. “They all sold. Every single piece. So that was incredibly exciting…it’s such a weird and wonderful feeling…it’s hard to explain, you know, when somebody else acknowledges something that you’ve produced yourself in that way and wants to own it and hang it in their home.”
Draxl’s second exhibition, Ten Degrees, also at RexLivingston Gallery in Katoomba, was held at the end of that same year. Unfortunately, COVID struck again and, though the paintings had been hung in the gallery they could only be viewed online. It didn’t hinder sales, however, and again, every painting was bought.
BY RITA BRATOVICHAsoliloquy, in theatrical terms, is a solo speech given by an actor. Soliloquy is also the title of Tim Draxl’s third solo art exhibition. The multi-talented Draxl, better known for his acting, singing and dancing, is now making an impression on the art scene. His two previous solo exhibitions, In Between/The Act of Painting and Ten Degrees, completely sold out and there’s no reason to expect this third show won’t follow suit.
Draxl studied visual arts in high school and has pursued painting as a hobby ever since, only fairly recently becoming professional. It was around four years ago that Draxl’s partner encouraged him to rent a studio.
“I think mainly because he was tired of my paints lying around the house,” laughs Draxl, but admits it’s something he himself has always wanted to do. “Having a studio meant that I could be there all day and be creative and kind of let loose.”
He first tested the commercial potential of his artwork when he held a small exhibition in the Minnamurra general store/cafe around three years ago. All the paintings sold. It was very encouraging.
Draxl, of course, still had a thriving theatre career. He had just spent months in rehearsals as the lead in Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s production of A Chorus Line, due to open in March, 2020. Alas, COVID restrictions saw the show cancelled on opening night. However, Draxl had formed a friendship with Darlo’s publicist, Jansson J. Antmann, who saw a photo of one of Draxl’s paintings and was keen to see more.
“I kept putting him off because I really wasn’t confident enough to have anyone come into the studio and critique my work,” says Draxl.
Continuing his alliance with Rex-Livingston Gallery, Draxl is holding his third exhibition there from March 3 this year. He chose the title, Soliloquy, because it ties in with his acting practice and because it resonates with him trying to find his own voice as a painter. Draxl says he also has a constant internal monologue going while he paints.
The works capture the colours and shapes of Morocco as well as the vibrant atmosphere: ochre, red, amber, dusty pink tones contrasted with the bright blue which was the colour of doors in the desert.
“There’s a lot of memories wrapped up in my paintings.” Technically, Draxl says, his style is abstract expressionism, though he feels it’s really pure expressionism.
“There’s a free-flowingness to it. It’s more like a stream of consciousness to me.”
He cites Spanish surrealist, Joan Miró as one of his favourite artists and a huge influence on his work.
The paintings themselves were inspired by a trip to Morocco Draxl took with his mother recently.
“Having all this pent up energy from three years of not being able to travel to then kind of like be thrown into the deep end in Morocco - it was just so stimulating on so many levels, culturally and visually.”
From March 3
ARTIST’S VIEWING WITH TIM DRAXL, 2pm March 12. Rex-Livingston Art + Objects, 182-184 Katoomba St, Katoomba www.rex-livingston.com
“To me it’s about colour and texture and finding that balance between the two, it’s a mixture of solid colour and more like colour washes, mixed with more solid, structured forms,” Draxl says, explaining his process.
Painting provides a very different creative, emotional and intellectual outlet for Draxl.
“To be in a studio and to paint is wonderful, because it’s unlike any other medium that I’ve worked in, whereby you’re completely independent and reliant on your own sensibilities, your own tastes, your own style… you can do whatever you want.”
That also means there are no guidelines, no prerequisites, no deadlines. So how does he determine when a painting is complete?
“Those are the kind of moments that I kind of hope for - that moment when I’m working on a piece and I can just step back and know instinctively that it’s done.”
The first WorldPride to be held in the southern hemisphere concluded last weekend with a kaleidoscopic bang. The program, packed solid with over 400 events, has kept locals and visitors frenetic for three weeks and seen the city of Sydney swathed in a multitude of colours.
After a mild and often wet start to the season, the weather finally remembered what Sydney summers were supposed to be like, and its timing was perfect. There were lots of huge outdoor events (and quite a few feathery costumes) that would have been ruined by inhospitable rain, but it seemed the weather Gods and Goddesses were up for a party too. Sydney WorldPride brought lots of tourists to town, and apart from the festival itinerary they were able to enjoy sights, activities and the glorious beaches this city has to offer.
Everybody was getting into the act and whether it was performative or genuine, it still meant that queerness was being seen and celebrated in the mainstream. While the annual Mardi Gras Parade is always been a major news item for a few days, Sydney WorldPride attracted supportive media coverage across the country and around the world for months.
Shopfronts unabashedly displayed progress flags and Sydney WorldPride logos. Public transport, street furniture, buildings, icons, almost anything that could bear the weight of a ribbon was adorned in the colours of the rainbow.
WorldPride is one of the biggest Pride festivals held anywhere in the world. A city that hosts a WorldPride event can expect a massive influx of tourists as well as active participation from locals.
Sydney WorldPride was no exception. After the horrendous mini-Dark Age of the pandemic, it was good to see the city once again alive with activity and celebration.
Sydney WorldPride helped circulate loads of pink dollars through the economy giving the city a welcome stimulus.
The breadth and variety of cultural events that comprised the festival program was staggering. Virtually all the theatres and cultural venues in the city hosted at least one Sydney WorldPride related event. From main stage musicals like Rocky Horror Show at Theatre Royal and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at The Hayes, to experimental and alternative
performances like 24-hour Grumble Boogie at Carriageworks, to the beautiful choral magic of the expanded Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir/Sydney WorldPride super choir in Out & Loud & Proud
Musical recitals, art exhibitions, live performance, theatre - it was all in the program.
The air above Sydney was electric for three solid weeks as it hosted a continuous open-door celebration where everyone was welcome. There were huge outdoor parties including the massive opening and closing concerts in The Domain and the Bondi Beach Party, plus countless Pride Amplified events hosted by almost every venue in the city, as well as harbour cruise parties and pop-up street events.
Sydney WorldPride alone was a powerful advocate for the LGBTQI+ community, but the festival program also included a three-day Human Rights Conference with an agenda that addressed atrocities and inequalities still experienced by LGBTQI+ people around the world with a special focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
While there were many free and low cost events, there were complaints that the major events were priced out of possibility for a large number of people.
Reports from attendees at some of the outdoor events suggest that there weren’t enough food trucks and toilets, resulting in very long queues and a less than pleasant experience.
Overall, the vibe was one of feeling welcomed and safe, but there were a notable number of incidents of slurs being yelled, physical intimidation, and covert and overt homo/trans phobia.
The final analysis is that Sydney WorldPride brought much-needed radiance and vibrancy to the city, nurtured inclusion, and raised the international profile of Sydney as a progressive city that knows how to throw a party.
performance as Mr Rodney Williams, a man who disappears from the office as he desperately attempts to learn how to enjoy his remaining days.
The first half of the film introduces audiences to Williams, a placid yet authoritative man who runs a tight office and demands respect from his office workers. Poignant and slightly heart wrenching at times, the mindset of a dying man is explored.
BY MARTIN FABINYI BY MARK MORELLINIThis rather sombre and sympathetic British movie asks: Is it too late to live life to the fullest when you’re told you only have 6 months left to live?
From Nobel prize-winning author
Kazuo Ishiguro and based on Akira Kurosawa’s film Ikiru, the story centres on a veteran civil servant who has lived a cheerless and somewhat banal life and the changes he makes once he discovers he’s dying from cancer.
Bill Nighy delivers a career-defining
The second half deals with the sympathetic reactions from those people he worked with, and why his death genuinely stimulated them into becoming more productive at work with heightened work ethics.
This is not a film for mainstream audiences and it may only cause a ripple at the all-important world-wide box office. However, it’s a masterfully produced movie, astutely directed comprising what may be the most meaningful and inspiring script written in recent years.
In cinemas March 16
Sam Mendes’ ode to the magical, luminous world of cinema joins a host of cinema-centric features. Empire of Light doesn’t attempt to encapsulate the history of cinema but rather show how cinema-going can soothe the soul. Here, the central character is no actor, but the fractured Hilary Small (played superbly by Olivia Colman) duty manager of a beachside cinema during the Thatcher years. When she becomes attracted to Stephen (played by Micheal Ward) a new member of staff and a Black man, the two begin a physical relationship. Hilary is bipolar and stops taking her medication, believing she has found her soulmate. She rejects sleazy advances by her boss, played by Colin
Firth, and enjoys her moment in the sun. When she spins out into a manic phase, Hilary is institutionalised. She returns to work only to witness skinheads violently attack Stephen. He recovers, and Norman the projectionist (Toby Jones) brings him into the world of film Norman so lovingly inhabits. Sam Mendes wrote, directed and produced Empire of Light, and his overarching message of the belief in light and its strength to bring order into a hostile environment becomes somewhat preachy. But the performances, in particular Olivia Colman’s, elevate the film beyond its curly plotlines; she shines beyond the character she inhabits.
In cinemas now
BY MARK MORELLINIThe French Film Festival returns this year with a curated program consisting of 38 of the best quality and most popular French language films produced last year.
This is the most popular European Film Festival in Australia, evident from the incredible 153,000 tickets sold last year. The opening night movie is Masquerade is about a dancer with high hopes who suffers a debilitating injury. He loses his mojo and decides to seduce older and much wealthier women to provide for his luxurious lifestyle. But what happens when he meets a beautiful young woman?
For something completely different, Final Cut should deliver plenty of screams of horror, especially for the squeamish, as zombies rule in this outlandish comedic blood fest.
Family tensions and romance collide in The Innocent, a hilarious comedy that should have lovers of comedic movies laughing hysterically throughout.
Two Tickets To Greece, which tells the story of three estranged women who reunite in Greece, is another comedy that should be a crowd-pleaser and a must-see.
“Audiences can learn a lot about France by watching these movies”, says Karine Mauris, Festival Artistic Director. “It’s a way of travelling quietly and there are so many wonderful and talented actors and actresses in these films. I also think that it’s very important to include the young generation in this film festival so there are several movies for younger and family audiences.”
Mar 7 – Apr 5
Screening at all Palace Cinemas www.affrenchfilmfestival.org
BY MARK MORELLINIThis enthralling documentary details the expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton to Antarctica, the most uninhabited and unexplored continent on Earth.
The expedition set out in 1914 on a ship named Endurance with a crew of 28 men, and what commenced as a glorious expedition to the last unexplored continent quickly transformed into a nightmare. The Endurance became trapped in an ‘ice prison’, completely crushed under the pressure of millions of tons of ice. The mission to cross the Antarctica quickly altered to a quest to reach the closest land which was a distance of 346 miles. This led to a gruelling and death-defying journey on ice, trekking through mountains and sailing
the rough seas.
This story of courage, resilience and the desperate need to survive is presented by modern day explorer/adventurer Tim Jarvis, who recreated Shackleton’s expedition detailing the extremities and hardships endured by the crew of the Endurance Utilising archival footage and photographs from the doomed expedition, the film helps audiences experience the tragedy that befell these unfortunate souls as weeks of isolation and desperation turned into months.
Against all odds after an incredible 2 years of isolation the impossible was achieved and each of the 28 men triumphantly returned to civilisation.
In cinemas now
EARLY VOTING STARTS: SATURDAY 18 MARCH
Need to vote before election day, Saturday 25 March?
Here’s your voting places:
• Pyrmont - Doltone House, Tribeca Room, 26 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont 2009
• City North - 139 Macquarie Street, Sydney 2000
• City Centre - Club York, Sydney Function Room, Level 2, 99 York Street, Sydney 2000
• City South - Sydney Masonic Centre, 66 Goulburn Street, Sydney 2000
• Potts Point - Rex Centre, 58 A Macleay Street (enter near Baroda Street) Potts Point 2011
Early Voting Opening Hours: Sat 9am - 5pm / Mon-Wed, Fri 8.30 - 5.30pm / Thurs 8.30am - 8pm
Find your election day voting booths at AlexGreenwich.com/vote
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Authorised by Adam Worling, 55 Brisbane St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010