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Woolloomooloo developed around the shoreline; market gardens grew to feed Sydney and fresh fish were caught and sold on the sandy harbour shore of the Woolloomooloo Bay. In the first part of the 19th Century the Woolloomooloo area was the home of civic leaders, judges and rich merchants. It became a desirable area; close to a beautiful bay and a stone s throw to Government House; imposing houses and gardens were built at Woolloomooloo, just a short carriage ride to the heart of the colony. At the end of the 19th century, as roads and logistics improved business people moved out; and small factories moved closer to the ports. Workers were needed in Sydney and other city areas; and the population balance of Australia changed; big houses became boarding houses and grand homes were demolished to build terraced houses for workers, local shops, cafes and drinking establishments.

After the First Fleet's arrival in Sydney, the area was initially called Garden Cove or Garden Island Cove after the nearby small wooded Garden Island, off the shore. The first land grant was given to John Palmer in 1793 to allow him to run cattle for the fledgling colony on his 100 acre grant. As Colonial Commissary he was responsible for handling all government stores and public accounts. The area at the head of Palmer's Creek, which flowed into Woolloomooloo Bay at its head, was then called Palmer s Cove and was a fine farm of grazing, orchards and boat building, with Mr Palmer's reputation for lavish entertaining spread colony-wide. Creek Street, Busby Lane and Haig Avenue give an indication as to where Palmer s Creek flowed, they no doubt came into being by following the dry creek bed after the trees were chopped down, properties were built and the creek dried up. The original high water mark shoreline then extended 200 metres further south from today s wharf to where 85 Bourke Street now is, despite a small 2 metre tidal differential.



In the 1840s the farm land was subdivided into what is now Woolloomooloo, Darlinghurst and parts of Surry Hills. The area at the head of the bay was sold to a Mr Riley, after whom Riley Street is named, and then totally transformed with a large general cargo and fishing wharf built in the 1860s, which also permanently reclaimed low-lying tidal land. A prominent Fish Market dominated the landscape as the public purchased fresh fish from catches brought ashore daily. Originally the area saw affluent residents building grand houses, many with spectacular gardens, attracted by the bay and close proximity to the city and Government House. The area slowly started to change and become more like The Rocks after expensive houses were built in Elizabeth Bay and further east and a road was needed from Sydney. It was for this reason that William Street was built, dividing the land for the first time.

By 1882 Woolloomooloo was one of the most popular and distinct divisions within the city. Tightly packed streets with modest workers' cottages were interspersed between some earlier mansions. However, the area gradually declined after the severe economic depression of the 1890s and into the first half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, Woolloomooloo Bay enjoyed a reputation for lively lifestyle.

Cowpers Wharf

Between 1911 and 1915, the Sydney Harbour Trust built the Woolloomooloo Bay Finger Wharf as a wool-shipping wharf, one of the world's largest wooden buildings. In use even before it was completed, Woolloomooloo finger Wharf helped Australia to grow on the back of the sheep and farewelled the ANZAC fleet leaving Sydney for Gallipoli. Principally designed for exporting wool cargo it was also later used by the Royal Australian Navy, for post-war immigrant arrivals and ship liners. It is now the largest remaining timber pile wharf in the world. A 1987 government scheme to demolish it met with a virulent political campaign to adaptively re-use it: today it's a glamorous hotel with exclusive, individual marine villa apartments built above the water and overlooking Sydney Harbour. Many original industrial heritage features, including a soaring 41 metre high cathedral roof, massive hardwood beams and wool bale elevators add to its rich character and texture.

In the mid 20th century, many grand old homes were demolished to make low cost housing; although much character remains in the streets, houses and pubs of Woolloomooloo Bay. By the 1970s, government planning bodies and private developers were actively buying up properties and demolishing them, while hatching plans for a high rise suburb of up to 40,000 workers and residents. Strong resistance by the local residents, Green Bans by the unions, and intervention by the Commonwealth Whitlam government combined to stop further destruction of the historic suburb. Woolloomooloo's recent renaissance is based on retention of its collection of 19th century sandstone cottages, layered with heritage hotels, yachts, outdoor dining and waterfront promenades on the cusp of the city centre.

Woolloomooloo Wharf is a haven of serenity away from the bustle of the city centre nearby. Located just a short walk from the city (on the other side of the Domain from Macquarie Street behind the Sydney Hospital), the redeveloped finger wharf boasts fantastic views across the harbour and several upscale restaurants, including excellent steak, Chinese, Italian and seafood restaurants. Perfect for lunch on a sunny day. There are also a number of cafes on the wharf and if you wander a little further afield into Woolloomooloo itself, you'll come across more cafes, the iconic Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel and Harry's Cafe De Wheels, where its famous pie floater is the signature dish.

At the peak of its service as part of the Port of Sydney, Woolloomooloo Bay had a total of 11 berths, four of which were part of the wharf. Built between 1910 and 1915, the 400 metre long structure was built primarily as the exit point for Australia s wool exports. It is the last non-naval wharf in Woolloomooloo and is the world's largest timber-pile finger wharf and the longest jetty ever built on Sydney Harbour. It comprised of four sheds, berths 6 to 9, with each shed having an office block with walls of battened fibro. More information

Since European settlement, Port Jackson, Sydney, with its vast and well protected natural harbour, has served as a major naval base for British and Australian maritime forces. Ships of the Royal Navy's Imperial Squadron were continuously based in Sydney throughout colonial times and it was for many years the premier naval facility of the Royal Australian Navy following the arrival of the Fleet Unit on 4 October 1913.

The naval precinct in Sydney has expanded greatly over the past 100 years, particularly during the war years of 1939-1945. Garden Island, the traditional centre of naval activity in Sydney Harbour, was connected to the mainland during the war when the Captain Cook graving dock was built. A number of shore establishments, such as HMAS Watson and Rushcutter, were also commissioned to support Sydney based naval forces. Several other establishments were commissioned in the post-war period.

Access to Garden Island is restricted, due to it being a military base. There is a Public Access Area on the northern end of Garden Island. The Royal Australian Navy Heritage Centre is located within it. The Centre consists is housed in two heritage-listed buildings: The Gun Mounting Workshop (1922) and the Boatshed (1890). The Public Access Area has a number of relics from Garden Island's past including the initials of the three First Fleeters carved into a sandstone rock. The Public Access Area also includes fortifications from the colonial period, the first grass tennis court in Australia (not for public use), the First Fleet initials (see above), a heritage rose garden, 150 year old trees, grass verges, and picnic tables and seating. More information

Commences at the plateau of The Domain to cross the Woolloomooloo valley and climb up to Kings Cross. It offers an experience of 'The Loo' far closer to its complex urban history than its increasingly trendy waterfront. Quite apart from its spelling, Woolloomooloo is also remarkable for the mix of Georgian and Victorian cottages and terraces and recycled industrial buildings which remain staunchly intermingled with contemporary public housing despite the predations of transport corridors and high rise. More information

For many years, sited between a substation and the start of the Eastern Distributor Tunnel in Woolloomooloo, was a rectangular park elevated above Lincoln Crescent. The grassed area of the park, behind which are the Botanical Gardens, The Domain and The Art Gallery of NSW, covered the roof of two x 280,000 litre capacity oil reservoirs. They were built during World war II for oil storage by the Royal Australian Navy, whose Garden Island base is situated nearby on the other side of Woolloomooloo Bay.


Excavating for the Domain oil storage tanks for Garden Island, August 1942.

Though the park was rectangular, the reservoirs are tapered towards a point at their outer ends. On Lincoln Crescent the 8m high outer wall of the reservoir, with a low chain link fence on top of its mown roof, is visible. Its roof is supported by row upon row of narrow square pillars with box shaped bases and inverted pyramid tops. A dividing wall with square overflow windows separated the two sections. The end wall had been penetrated by roots of trees on the edge of the park/roof.



In 1999, the State Government intended to lease the reservoir, which was de-commissioned and left abandoned in the 1980s, using it as a wine cellar to promote New South Wales wines. The project, which was to be called The Admiral's Cellar, never eventuated. In 2020, construction began in turning the tanks into a 2200 square metre exhibition space for the nearby Art Gallery of New South Wales. It will become an underground performance and exhibition space as part of a $344 million Sydney Modern project to double the Art Gallery of NSW's capacity. One tank will be connected by a spiral staircase to new modern floating pavilions.
Location: Lincoln Crescent, Woolloomooloo. The second tank, the most northern of the two, is earmarked to be turned into a state-of-the-art loading dock for the Art Gallery.

Andrew (Boy) Charlton is the Domain's best kept secret. Located on the fringe of the Royal Botanic Gardens, the pool has the leafy precinct of Mrs Macquarie's Point on one side and Woolloomooloo Bay on the other. Not only is it a great place for a swim, it offers patrons breathtaking views of Sydney Harbour whether they are in the water or relaxing poolside with a coffee or lunch from the Poolside Cafe.

The 50-metre outdoor pool is perfect for lap swimming. It has 8 lanes and ranges in depth from 1.2 to 2 metres. The pool is heated from 1 September to 30 April and filled with chemically treated salt water. The smaller (20 metre) pool is 1 metre deep throughout and perfect for those who are learning to swim or just want to have fun. It is heated to 28 degrees C and also contains chemically treated salt water. This pool has a shade cover to protect your skin from the sun.

Opening hours: Non-daylight saving
Monday to Sunday: 6am to 7pm

Opening hours: Daylight saving
Monday to Sunday: 6am to 8pm
Public holidays: 7am to 7pm.
Closed on Good Friday and Christmas Day.
Opening hours may change on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Please check website closer to the date.

Since the first European settlement in Sydney there have been 11 different bathing establishments in Woolloomooloo Bay. In the early years, the small sandy beach where the Andrew 'Boy' Charlton Pool now stands was reserved for the exclusive use of the military of NSW including the Marines, the New South Wales Corps and any British regiments stationed here.

In the 1820s the use of Woolloomooloo Bay by others was increasing. Two hulks, Ben Bolt and the Cornwallis were moored at the swimming place then known as the Fig Tree. Some dressing sheds were also built but the swimming area was not enclosed. The first swimming facility planned for the area was a floating public baths called Robinson's Hot and Cold Baths. Thomas Robinson was granted a lease for the area in December 1829 but construction of the baths took another ten years to complete.

Beating Robinson to the jump was the wife of Governor Macquarie's coachman, Mrs Biggs. She opened the first ladies baths, which included a bathing machine, in 1833 on a small flat inlet near the north-western corner of Cowper Wharf. The baths went out of operation in the late 1840s. In November 1843, Robinson's baths reopened after a refurbishment which included deepening the ladies pool and the introduction of a shallow children's area. Warm showers and a towel were also available for all bathers. By 1890 there were four baths; the government's ladies and a gentleman's baths and also an independent ladies and gentleman s baths.


Andrew 'Boy' Charlton, 1924

Apart from Australia's first swimming races, the most memorable event to take place in the Domain Baths was in January 1924 when Andrew 'Boy' Charlton swam against Arne Borg of Sweden. A crowd of 6000 came to see him beat Borg over 440 yards, equal Borg's world record and set a new Australian record. Charlton was already very popular in New South Wales when he took on Borg. At the age of 14 he beat Hawaiian swimmer Bill Harris over 880 yards setting a new world record in the process. At 15 years of age he beat Olympic swimmer Frank Beaurepaire and won the NSW 800m freestyle title in world record time talking 19 seconds off the old mark. It was his win over Borg, however, that launched him to national stardom. To show that it was no fluke he beat Borg again over 220 yards and 880 yards at the NSW Championships.

Charlton went on to win the gold medal in the 1500m freestyle event at the Paris Olympics later that year and silver in the 400m and 1500m events at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. His 1924 world record in the Domain baths was the first set there, an achievement which was recognised in January 1968 when, after yet another refurbishment, the pool was reopened and named after him.

The Domain is an area of parkland to the east of the Central Business District beyond the ridge along which Macquarie Street runs, on the slopes to the west of Woolloomooloo Bay. The Domain adjoins the Royal Botanic Gardens.

In its present configuration, the Domain covers 34 hectares and is still a popular venue for Sydney residents and visitors to relax and enjoy views of the City and Sydney Harbour. On any weekday lunchtime, its roads are filled with joggers and its grass used for corporate soccer and touch football competitions. It is also a popular venue for outdoor concerts, open air events and for large gatherings and rallies. More information

The concept of a moving walkway - which you step onto and stand still as it takes you to where you want to go - is older than most people think or expect. The first moving walkway which we know about was seen at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. It ran in a loop down the length of a waterfront pier, transporting travellers to and from a casino. It did have a few major differences to moving walkways we see today. One was that it had two options for travel. Passengers could choose to stand or walk, as we do today, but they could also sit down for the trip.

Very few residents of Sydney know that their city has the longest moving walkway in the Southern Hemisphere, which, when it was built, was the longest in the world. Most moving walkways these days are found in airport terminals and shopping centre, and by comparison are much shorter than Sydney's, which takes pedestrians from one part of the city to another. As its name suggests, Sydney's Moving Walking, also known as a Travelator, is in The Domain, or more correctly, under The Domain. It passes through a tunnel under The Domain, linking The Domain Car Park near Woolloomoloo Bay, to College Street and the northern end of Hyde Park. You can leave the moving walkway on the corner of College Street and either Prince Albert Road or Macquarie Street and from there it is only a short walk to some of Sydney's interesting places, like Hyde Park, Hyde Park Barracks, St Mary's Cathedral, The Queen Victoria Building, Martin Place, The Australian Museum and many others. If you stand still and allow yourself to be conveyed, the journey takes five minutes.



The Domain Moving Walkway is in fact two walkways, one in each direction, side by side. It passes through a tunnel which has been decorated with murals illustrating the story of Sydney from its Aboriginal occupation, the arrival of the First Fleet and on to the 20th century. Why it came to be built is very much a reflection of the times in which it was conceived - the late 1950s-early 1960s. World War II had ended little more than a decade earlier and the world moved into a very forward-looking, positive era of major growth and rapid development. The future looked bright, the sky was the limit, space travel was looking like a possibility, and everybody began dreaming dreaming of the possibilities for the future and how that future might be.

An integral part of their vision of the future was that machines would eventually take over doing the more mundane tasks of everyday life, and so engineers, designers and manufacturers turned their energies toward turning some of those dreams into realities. One such dram that would become a reality was the Moving Walkway. People thought that, in the future, all pavements would move, making getting about really easy. What they didn't count on was that moving walkways proved to be very expensive and difficult to maintain. They also had to be either indoors or in tunnels, because there was no way to make them weatherproof, and perhaps the most important thing of all - that people like to walk.

Around the time the decision to build Sydney's Domain Moving Walkway was made, cars were being purchased at a rate previously not seen, and town planners realised that the city s roads would soon become clogged up with cars unless adequate roads were built to cope with the increase in traffic. Back then, the first suburban shopping centres were only just being built, and apart from the purchase of day to day items, most people still came into the city to shop. So town planners also had to come up with a solution as to what to do with all those cars once they arrived in the city.

Perth and Sydney came up with similar solutions - build car parks around the perimeter of the inner city and provide free transport from the car park into the city centre. Perth did this by building car parks on low lying land around The Causeway, and shipping commuters into the city centre by bus. Sydney was a little more imaginative, due to the lack of useable space for car parks, deciding instead to build a car park under The Domain, and get commuters into the city centre via an underground moving walkway. It was expected to be the first of many similar walkways that would convey commuters underground around the city, thus avoiding the noisy traffic on the streets above. At 207 metres long the Domain Moving Walkway was for a time the longest moving walkway in the world.



Along with the Domain Car Park, it was opened by Lord Mayor Harry Jensen on Friday 6th June 1961. Following his speech and cutting a ribbon, the Lord Mayor took his son for a ride on it. thousands of parents followed his lead, bringing their children into the city for a taste of the future. It was seen as a futuristic novelty and received a lot of use, but wasn't without its dramas. Children getting their fingers caught in the moving handrail; men getting their trousers ripped after getting their cuffs caught in a gap at the end of the footway - the newspapers were quick to document every mishap in minute, gory detail.

This single car park was never going to be enough to service the needs of all the motorists who wanted to come into the city, so the plan was to gauge public reaction to the car park and associated moving walking, and if it was popular, more would be built. Due mainly to the lack of available or suitable sites around other parts of the city, similar car parks and moving walkways were never built and the whole concept was soon forgotten. Besides, most people prefer to just walk.

In time the novelty of the walkway wore off; the roar of the motors, the whine of the rollers and the constant movement became a major turn-off. By the 1990s, the mechanics of the walkway were in need of replacement, and for a time it looked as though it would be pulled up and the tunnel left as a walkway. This did not happen; a company that manufactures conveyor belts for mining companies custom-made replacement belts which is still in use today. The refurbished footway was decorated by the Tunnel Vision  mural, painted by mural artist Tim Guider, indigenous artists, and children from nearby Woolloomooloo. Today, most commuters to the city don't even know the Moving Walkway exists and besides, there are far more convenient ways to reach the city than by driving through the traffic bottleneck of East Sydney, parking your car in the Domain Car Park, then travelling through a half-lit tunnel on a rumbling moving walkway.

Australia's most famous pie cart - Harry's Cafe de Wheels - is a Sydney institution. This iconic pie cart located on Cowper Wharf Road, near the Finger Wharf and Fleet Base East of Garden Island Navy Base, opposite the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel. They are best known for their dish "Tiger Pie", a type of Australian meat pie named after its founder. Harry's is a moveable food van, similar to those found at funfairs, with a hung awning. It has been moved a number of times in its history but the van is now permanently fixed on a masonry base. The caravan walls have been decorated with custom painted murals by Alan Puckett, a motoring art specialist. The inside walls of the cart are decorated with pictures and murals of famous visitors.

The story of Harry's Cafe de Wheels goes back to the depression years of the late 1930's. With the world on the brink of a devastating war, an enterprising Sydneysider by the name of Harry Edwards opened a caravan cafe near the front gates of the Woolloomooloo naval dockyard. Word spread quickly with Harry's pie 'n' peas and crumbed sausages soon becoming a popular part of the city's nightlife - keenly sought by sailors, soldiers, cabbies, starlets and coppers alike. Harry operated the caravan until 1938 when he enlisted in the AIF during World War II.

Upon his return in 1945, Harry realised that Sydney hadn't changed much and it was still almost impossible to get a good feed late-night, so he reopened and the caravan has been operating continuously since. The phrase 'Cafe de Wheels' came about as the city council of the day insisted that mobile food caravans move a minimum of 12 inches a day. Harry dutifully obeyed and thus the name was expanded to Harry's Cafe de Wheels. Before the counci's ruling, the caravan was known simply as Harry's.


Colonel Sanders enjoys a Harry's pie

When its wheels went missing one night, local wags coined the nickname 'Cafe de Axle.' Harry operated the caravan for a further 30 years before selling the business to Alex Kuronya in 1975. It was perhaps Harry's finest moment in 1978, when Rear Admiral David Martin - over a pie and glass of Champagne - commissioned the caravan as HMAS Harry's. In 1974, chicken king, Colonel Sanders, stopped at Harry's and enjoyed the food so much that he ate three 'pies and peas' while leaning on his walking stick in front of the caravan. Elton John has also been a visitor to Harry's over the years and held a press conference from inside Harry's during the 1970's.

A narrow curved laneway named Stream Street in East Sydney, between Yurong and Stanley Lanes, is the only telltale sign that, long before the factory units that back onto it were built, a picturesque creek once wound its way down the hillside here, to the east of what is now The Domain on the western extremity of the city of Sydney into Woolloomooloo Bay. Whilst there are no records to indicate the existence of a creek by that name, it is not only likely but almost certain that this small stream, which is shown on early maps, was called Palmers Creek. The reason for this assumption is that it flowed into Palmer s Cove, now Woolloomooloo Bay.

It was common practice among early colonial governors to give a creek the same name as the bay it flowed into. That name honours John Palmer, purser of HMS Sirius, one of a number of first fleeters who were buried in and have a marked grave in St. Johns Cemetery, Parramatta. Palmer, the colony's first Commissary, was granted the land through which the creek flowed. The creek rose in the vicinity of the intersection of present day Forbes and Bourke Streets. From this point it flowed north westerly down the hillside crossing Crown Street near Liverpool Lane. It then continued north towards the corner of Boomerang Place and William Street where it then followed the line of present day Sir John Young Crescent to enter Palmer s Cove at its head.

In addition to the un-named squiggly line on early maps, the existence of the creek is recalled in Stream Street. Its shape and name are evidence that it follows the course of a small section of the creek as it passed through the area. The western section of Busby Lane also follows the line of the creek. A short tributary of the creek which rose in the vicinity of the site of Sydney Grammar School in College Street flowed along what now is the eastern edge of the fragrance garden of Phillip Park, entering the main creek at the northern corner of Busby Lane. UBD Map 4 Ref N 8.

The now famous 1971 Battlers for Kelly's Bush, in which the middle class women of Hunters Hill had asked the Builders Labourers to place a ban on building the development, was the first of the Green Bans imposed by the NSW Builders Labourers Federation. A short four year period was to shake the building industry to the core. The Builders Labourers imposed their environmental bans on over 40 construction projects valued at more than $4 billion in 1970s terms. At the time there was no heritage or environmental protection legislation. If you owned something you could rip it down no matter how important or historical it was. There was a massive building boom caused by unregulated overseas investment pouring into Sydney. The pro-development Askin government did not stand in the way of lovely old buildings being demolished daily. Union green bans saved The Rocks and Woolloomooloo from being turned into forests of high rise "executive suites".

Late in 1979, artists Merilyn Fairskye and Michiel Dolk, working as City Art Projects, approached the WRAG with a proposal for a series of 16 murals. It was unanimously agreed that at least half of the murals (8 in total), those located in the Housing Commission area of Woolloomooloo, should provide a visual representation to help preserve the unique history of the area. The WRAG enlisted the support of many other groups and directed research. A total of nine artists were involved in a related series of "renewable" billboards covering a variety of themes - not nuclear, 'Boy' Charlton pool, right to work, save rain forests and anti-capital. The project took three years. It included a Children's Mural painted by Woolloomooloo children that remains today, but sadly is locked up "for safety reasons". The Housing Commission donated a large warehouse as a studio and State Rail the pylons.

The murals on the pillars supporting the elevated railway through Woolloomooloo form a gallery about political and social issues of the 1970s especially the Green Bans and redevelopment threats to the area. Eight of these have been preserved, although not repainted: the artists requested the works only be minimally restored to keep their patina of age. Depicted is the forest, the working harbour, protests for land rights and against the redevelopment of Woolloomoloo in the 1970s. In the centre of one mural protesters march under the Green Bans banner, arms linked, feet mid-step. Surrounding the mural is the suburb they marched to save.

The murals were the backdrop for the Midnight Oil music video "The Power and the Passion" although, to the artists' consternation the band didn't ask for permission to film in front of the murals. Nevertheless, the video captures something of the atmosphere of these odd spaces underneath the viaduct, which itself carved up Woolloomoloo, although to nowhere near the extent of the planned developments in the 1970s which were halted by the Green Bans. Robin Heks, Merilyn Fairskye, Michiel Dolk and Tim Maguire were the designers and painters of the Woolloomooloo murals.

• Art and the Woolloomooloo Green Bans



Woman At Work Mural
Domain Carpark, St Marys Road, Woolloomooloo, NSW. This mural was painted for the Women and The Arts Festival, 1982.

Mural painting team for the Domain mural 1982, photo left to right: Marie McMahon; Jan Mackay; Helen Skye;Barbary O'Brien; Carol Ruff & Merilyn Fairskye.

Woolloomooloo was one of the first parts of of Sydney 'suburban area' to be eveloped. That development intensified with the gold rushes of the 1850 - 1860s; the area was significantly settled by the 1850s with a mixture of shops and residences, interspersed with fenced paddocks. This rapid development is demonstrated by the surviving rows of Victorian terracing of a modest scale and character. Remnant warehouses and hotels provide evidence of the port activities particularly in the early 20th century with the reorganisation of Cowper Wharf and the construction of the Finger Wharf.

After surviving the Green Bans of the early 1970s (see below), extensive redevelopment of the Woolloomooloo Basin by the Housing Commission of NSW itook place,and provided a new model for public housing based on the scale and form of Victorian development. The whole area is today a combination of what back then was old and new - densely developed and incorporating one major park by Sydney Place and several pockets of open space resulting from the overlaying of the railway and tunnel access. The area is divided by Palmer Street, now a major traffic route.

The street pattern is essentially a grid layed out in the nineteenth century, however many secondary streets have been lost in the public housing redevelopment. The subdivision pattern has also been extensively eroded in the central part of the area. Pockets of Victorian (predominantly terrace houses) development survive throughout the area, concentrated on the periphery of the Conservation Area as well as a number of hotels from the Victorian, Federation and Inter-war periods. Elsewhere late twentieth century public housing predominates, low scale in the centre of the area with multistorey developments along the Victoria Street escarpment. Remnant industrial developments mostly now commercial, recall port activities in the early twentieth century.

The arrest of Jack Mundey

The now famous 1971 Battlers for Kelly's Bush, in which the middle class women of Hunters Hill had asked the Builders Labourers to place a ban on building the development, was the first of the Green Bans imposed by Jack Mundey's NSW Builders Labourers Federation. A short four year period was to shake the building industry to the core. The Builders Labourers imposed their environmental bans on over 40 construction projects valued at more than $4 billion in 1970s terms. The combination of militant industrial tactics with the internal democracy of the NSW BLF won the involvement and fierce loyalty of the members.

The Jack Mundey team argued for the "social responsibility of labour", that the interests of the working class do not stop at the factory gate, that the "political" is inseparable from the "industrial". As well as Green Bans, builders labourers imposed industrial bans over prisoners' rights, discrimination against a gay student at Macquarie University and in support of a women's studies course at the University of Sydney. The Green Bans were all approved by full branch meetings and never lifted even as economic recession kicked in from late 1974.

After the long post-war austerity period, building heights and foreign funds were de-regulated. The State Planning Authority's Woolloomooloo Redevelopment Plan (1969) for the ridge and basin green-lighted big investment. They saw William Street as a 'grand boulevard', the basin as high-rise commercial (despite it being mostly residential) and Victoria Street as high-rise residential. Developers got height bonuses for packaging small blocks into large areas up to 10:1. This compared with the maximum possible in the city of 12:1 in height.

Developers responded with gusto. On William Street, Westfield's towers and hotel were already underway. Sid Londish of Regional Holdings proposed towers covered the basin. (In three years Londish consolidated 270 properties to 11 acres.) Frank Theeman's Victoria Point Pty Ltd bought up on the city-side (from 55-115 Victoria Street) with plans to demolish and build three 45-storey residential towers over offices, down the sandstone cliff to Brougham Street. On the other side of the street, Parkes Development wanted a tower over Kings Cross Station (former Kings Cross Theatre) and beside 202 Victoria St (Juanita Nielsen's two-storey worker's terrace.) Spatial Holdings, Mainline and Cambridge Credit had high-rise plans for several other sites. In Darlinghurst, Ian Kiernan's company I.B.K and Home-Units PL wanted to build massive Palisades high-rise towers.

Their supporters Premier Robert Askin, Leo Port in council and the Master Builders Association bitterly opposed the Builders Labourers' Green Bans. They used their powers to bully, evict and arrest residents and protesters and to de-register the union. The media vilified them: "do they think they re town planners?" Conservative unions sidelined them, supporting a take-over by Norm Gallagher, Federal Secretary of the BLF. This collusion lifted Victoria Street Green Bans in 1975, but by them the union had already achieved its goal. The same year, the Commonwealth and State Governments signed an agreement to restore the area and changed the zoning of the area back to residential and funded council tasks.

In the Kings Cross / Woolloomooloo area, Butlers Stairs, Hordern Stairs and McElhone Stairs link Victoria Street and Brougham Street at various points along the ridge, giving access on easy access on foot from the high ground of Woolloomooloo Hill (now part of Kings Cross and Potts Point) to the Woolloomooloo foreshore. The neighbourhoods were initially separated by an escarpment, and the divide was social as well as physical. This is seen in the classic 1920s Australian silent film The Kid Stakes, based on the Fatty Finn comic strip, where the rich boy from Potts Point is contrasted with his poorer cousins from The 'Loo.

All the stairs were created during the Victorian era, their names honouring City Council aldermen of the day. Stairways such as these were part of the Sydney City Council's Victorian infrastructure boom, and the sophisticated level to which these stairways are detailed shows a level of civic pride and financial investment in pedestrian infrastructure that had not been undertaken previously in the city. By the end of the Victorian era the public stairway in Sydney had become an important element of the city's landscape, defining what the future pedestrian network of the city would be.


Horderns Stairs

Horderns Stairs link Brougham Street in Woolloomooloo with Victoria Street, Potts Point. Built in 1882, the stairs are named after Edward Hordern, a local resident and alderman, to commemorate his term of office with the Sydney Council.


Horderns Stairs in the 1960s

McElhone Stairs is one of three sets of stone stairs that link Woolloomooloo and Kings Cross. McElhone Stairs recalls John McElhone, a Sydney Municipal Councillor. Near the bottom of the stairs on Cowper Wharf Road is Harry's Cafe de Wheels, a pie cart that's been a Sydney late-night institution for over 50 years. Its walls are festooned with photos of famous patrons, mostly politicians and pop stars, enjoying a meat pie at Sydney's most famous outdoor eatery.


McElhone Stairs

They were called Challis Stairs between 1904 and 1918 because of their proximity to Challis Street. The stairs were renamed to commemorate John McElhone, a merchant and politician who had lived in Potts Point, where he died on 6 May 1898. John McElhone represented Fitzroy Ward in the Sydney Municipal Council in 1878-82. John Henry Challis owned the land by 1858. When Challis died in 1889 he bequeathed a large part of his estate, including the land, to the University of Sydney. In 1890 the land was 'resumed by the crown for wharf purposes'. Today the stairway still provides access from the heights of Potts Point to the wharves and the south side of the stairway still runs along what was the boundary of the original Challis estate.

The stairway of 113 steps was known colloquially as the 'Stairs of Doom' or 'Stairs of Death' not just for the arduous nature of the climb, but also for the vibrant and colourful users, the sexual encounters and the physical dangers that have given them a special place in Sydney's artistic history. They were constructed in 1870 to give access to the high society houses of Pott Point and delights of Kings Cross from the wharf area of Woolloomooloo Bay.

McElhone Stairs was the site of real life drama during the Cold War. The stairway was one of the sites for the espionage activities of Ivan Fedorovich Skripov, First Secretary of the Russian Embassy in Australia. In 1962 he used one of the stanchions of the stairway balustrade as a secret drop-off point to conceal an aluminium message container intended for collection by another secret operative. The container was recovered by ASIO agents. Skripov was declared persona non grata and forced to return to Russia.


Butler Stairs

Butler Stairs also connect Brougham Street, Woollomooloo, and Victoria Street, Potts Point. With 103 steps, they are believed to have been named after James Butler, an Irish alderman, and draper who lived with his family at 148 Victoria Street, Enfield. Butler was Alderman for Fitzroy Ward, from 1 December 1863 to 30 November 1869. He was instrumental in having the stairs laid. Interestingly, there were a number of James Butler's living in the Loo area so there has been a little confusion over the years as to which of them was the Alderman.


Hills Stairs

Hills Stairs (24 steps) give access to McElhone Street from Brougham Street below Butlers Stairs. The stairs were laid in 1869. Their name recalls George Hill, a Surry Hills publican and butcher, the eldest son of former convicts William Hill and Mary Johnson. Hill was a member of the first Legislative Council in 1848-56 for the counties of St Vincent and Auckland, and a member of the Legislative Council from 1856 until his resignation in 1861.


Butler Stairs

The name of Butler Stairs is carved into the stone entry piers of the stairway but there is no plaque to James Butler. Instead there is a plaque to Mick Fowler, a man who made a significant contribution to the area. Mick Fowler was a local resident who lived in Victoria Street and became an activist in the long political and social struggle that began in 1973 and involved 'Green Bans' by the Builders Labourers Federation and resulted in many of the terraces on the street being retained.

Woolloomooloo Tree of Knowledge, Cathedral Street, 1934

Numerous towns in Australia have or once had what was affectionately known as a "tree of knowledge", a term used to describe a tree that, over time, had become the local meeting point for the community. It was here that the local children would gather under its shade and listen to the stories told by the elder members of the community, remeniscing about days gone by, or sharing words of wisdom, expounding their views and advice about the state of things in life.

As was the case in Woolloomooloo, the Tree of Knowledge was more often tan not a giant Kurragong tree. Much loved and admired for its age and beauty, the tree grew beside a lane which once sat at the end of Woolloomooloo Street (now renamed as Cathedral Street) near the Forbes Street intersection. When the Lane was widened, the tree was respectfully left in the road itself. A cast iron outdoor urinal, known as a pissoir, was erected alongside it in the 1880s by the City Council, in part to protect it from being hit by passing traffic. It was one of a number erected by the Council around the city at that time. They were installed due to growing concerns around health and “respectability” given the lack of public facilities available at the time. Men were the main culprits as they would relieve themselves without shame in public.

Sadly, the tree's days were numbered and when work began on clearing a path of the Eastern Suburnds railway line through Woolloomooloo, the old tree and the pissoir were casualities, both disappearing one night without notice. The tree is remembered in photos, artwork and popular culture. Its memory was preserved by the owners of nearby 170 Cathedral Street. When their house was renovated, one of thea rooms featuring the above photo as wall paper.

Mounted on concrete pylons above ground level, the dual line Eastern Suburbs Railway line cuts a swaithe through the suburb of Woolloomooloo. It exits the city via a tunnel under The Domain where it emerges above Sir John Young Crescent. It then passes overhead through Woolloomooloo, before returning underground at McElhone Street prior to entering Kings Cross Station.

The building of the Eastern Suburbs Railway line was one of the slowest projects ever embarked upon by the NSW State Government. Tunnelling for the branch line south from St. James station to Bondi commenced in 1917, but the project remained uncompleted for decades. Government after Government embarked on a bit of excavation work here and there along the route, a token gesture to show supporters that they were working on it, though in reality it was in the "too hard" basket. It wasn't until the vocal minority became a vocal majority in the late 1960s that the Government bit the bullet and spent the necessary dollars to make it happen. On 23rd June 1979, the line became operational as far as Bondi Junction, the last leg being left for a future generation to complete.