Seeking Sydney is a podcast that travels to the landscapes and landmarks of Sydney, adding the people and their stories. I will publish one episode every month for ten months. Episode 2 is now available!

In this episode we’re in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. From Christina Stead at Watson’s Bay in the 1930s, to the Aboriginal people living around what came to be known as ‘Sydney Harbour’. On to Redleaf on New South Head Rd, and a book published in 1949 that includes a casual story showing that the colonisers did know that the myth of Aboriginal people dying out was, indeed, a myth.

On to Rushcutters Bay and Paddington, seeing them through descriptions from the 1850s, and up to Kings Cross and Darlinghurst. Note the voices for these descriptions, and for Watkin Tench earlier. They were all carefully researched and narrated by Peter Barley. Thanks Peter!

And, although I couldn’t squeeze them in, as in episode 1, there are Patrick White connections in this episode too. Not far from Redleaf is Cranbrook, school for Patrick White and a plethora of other Whites, co-founded by Patrick’s father, home and death-place of Patrick’s great-uncle, James White. Then, about halfway up the hill between Rushcutters Bay and Macleay St lies White’s childhood home, Lulworth House. It is now residential aged care, and is the place where Manoly Lascaris, White’s life partner, died in 2003.

Then we’re at 115 Victoria St. If you want to see the 1888 map that I refer to, it’s here.

In 1973, 115 Victoria St featured in the battle for Victoria St. It’s where a group of people, including Wendy Bacon, squatted for many months to try to save the houses from demolition. A local resident action group approached the BLF (Builders Labourers Federation) and a green ban was imposed to try to protect the houses – both because they provided low-income housing and because of their heritage value. It was a vicious and protracted battle, only ending in 1974, very violently, when the police threw out the squatters. In the following year, 1975, newspaper editor Juanita Nielsen lost her life fighting that battle. Wendy’s longer account is here.

Running parallel to Victoria St is Macleay St where you will find the El Alamein fountain – site of a very different sort of battle on June 24, 1978. On this date the institution that we now know as the Sydney Mardi Gras was born. Again, police violence was on show. Diane Minnis and Gary Dunne tell the story, from unpromising beginnings to upswellings of gratitude and appreciation. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, makes a guest appearance.

Interviewees for episode 2: my thanks to you all

Paul Irish, historian and archaeologist, author of Hidden in Plain View

Wendy Bacon, https://www.wendybacon.com/

Diane Minnis, ‘78er

Gary Dunne, ‘78er

Acknowledgements

Bronwyn Mehan, Spineless Wonders

Martin Gallagher, Echidna Audio: sound design

Zoe Hercus: publicity

Bettina Kaiser: artwork

Christina Stead, For Love Alone. Virago, 1978. First published by Peter Davies Ltd, 1945.

Watkin Tench, 17 August 1788. A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson in New South Wales. London, 1793. In Sydney’s First Four Years, Angus & Robertson 1961, p134.

G Nesta Griffiths, Some Houses and People of New South Wales. Ure Smith, Sydney, 1949, p131.

JB Gribble: Sydney Morning Herald 13 May 1880, p3. Viewed on Trove 2/3/25 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13459977?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FS%2Ftitle%2F35%2F1880%2F05%2F13%2Fpage%2F1427699%2Farticle%2F13459977

Paddington in the 1850s: Norman, LG. Historical Notes on Paddington. The Council of the City of Sydney, 1961 pp2, 3.

Mardi Gras: David Marr, ‘A Night out at the Cross’. In The National Times, 8 July 1978 [reprinted in David Marr, My Country: Stories, Essays and Speeches, Black Inc. 2018 p263]