Poster 1

Glebe 50 years ago

During the 1960s:

• An increasing number of historic houses were being demolished and replaced with “three-storey walk ups” (home unit blocks), with little concern for heritage values.
• The waterfront was industrial land with virtually no public access to the foreshores of Rozelle and Blackwattle Bays.
• The social mix of Glebe was beginning to change. Inner city areas were attracting those who had traditionally chosen to live in middle-class suburbs located further from the city centre.

In the early 1970s:

• Construction of expressways routed through Glebe was to commence. Homes were being compulsorily resumed.
• There were poor planning controls on home unit development by Leichhardt Council.
• The Glebe Administration Board (Anglican Church) proposed to sell to developers some 700 dwellings in the Glebe Estate that housed people on low-incomes.

All these factors threatened to destroy the character of Glebe.

Poster 2

The Glebe Society was founded 50 years ago

Flyer from Bernard Smith collection, Glebe Library. Photograph, Butler Lodge, 165 Bridge Road, 1873 in Smith B & Smith K, The Architectural Character of Glebe, 1973.

‘Early in 1969 people gathered at 23 Avenue Road, Glebe, the home of Bernard and Kate Smith, and it was there that schemes were laid to hatch the Glebe Society. The first General Meeting was held on 19 June, 1969...’ (Max Solling, Bulletin)

Poster 3

Bernard Smith (1916 - 2011) (left), Kate Smith (1915 - 1989) (right)

Fifty years on, the Glebe Society continues to value the huge contribution of both Bernard and Kate Smith to Glebe.

Bernard and Kate were leaders in the movement to set up a Glebe Resident Action Group in 1969. They were passionate about preserving Glebe’s heritage and were fearless in the pursuit of those issues that threatened the physical fabric of Glebe. (Max Solling, correspondence). Photograph: Bernard Smith collection.

Poster 4

Early protesters

Together we stood shoulder to shoulder with others to express our outrage over decisions by Leichhardt Council and the State Government that were threatening to destroy the character of Glebe.

Images

• Jack Mundey, Secretary of the Builders Labourers Federation, arrested during a Green Bans demonstration to save Sydney’s heritage (left).
• Newspaper report of 1,000 demonstrators protesting in Glebe against the planned expressways.(right top).
• Glebe Society members demonstrating outside Lyndhurst against its proposed demolition to make way for the North-Western Expressway in 1972 (bottom right).

Poster 5

61 Ferry Rd: Saved from Demolition.

Houses were being torn down for flat (‘3-storey walks ups’) development.  Two hundred people joined a noisy demonstration organised by the Glebe Society to protest against a proposed high-rise development in Ferry Road.   They were led by Bernard Smith, armed with a loudhailer, on a march from Foley Park to Ferry Road on 6 March 1971.

Poster 6

The proposed expressways that would have destroyed Glebe and Forest Lodge.

From its formation in 1969 until 1977 a major concern of the Glebe Society was the proposal to construct a Western Expressway and a North-Western Expressway that would have totally devastated Glebe and Forest Lodge.

Images from top left:

• The cartoon by Alison McKeown in Bulletin 5, 1972.
• “Paint-in” on 12 February 1972 alerting residents and business owners to the extent of the proposed expressways.
• The map showing the proposed expressways

Poster 6b

Lyndhurst, 61 Darghan Street, Glebe:  back from the brink

Lyndhurst was designed by John Verge and built between 1833 and 1837 for Dr James Bowman, Principal Surgeon of the Sydney Hospital and a son-in-law of John Macarthur.  By the 1970s the building had been allowed by the State Government to fall into almost total decay.  The fact that it was to be demolished in order to save the grandstand for patrons of greyhound racing at Wentworth Park helped to galvanise community opposition to the North-Western Expressway.

Top: Lyndhurst in its derelict condition c 1972.

Below: The same view of Lyndhurst following restoration, the venue for a Glebe Society function in 2004.

Poster 7

Take Your Bulldozers Away

John Dengate (1938-2013), renowned folk singer, tin whistle player, activist and a member of the Glebe Society, penned songs in protest against the expressway plans of the early 1970s.  He performed Take Your Bulldozers Away at the 40^th Anniversary celebrations of the Glebe Society in 2009.

Poster 8

The Glebe Estate

Map of the Anglican Church’s two housing estates, St Phillips and Bishopthorpe, located at the south-east end of Glebe.  Known as ‘The Glebe Estate’ and comprising 723 dwellings and 27 commercial buildings on 47 acres, the Church of England provided low-income housing that supported roughly 3,000 residents in 1975. 

Poster 9

Saving the Glebe Estate

The Glebe Society was instrumental in saving the Glebe Estate, a ground-breaking urban renewal project. In 1972 the Church of England planned to sell the Glebe Estate. The historic estate was threatened with wholesale demolition, displacement of traditional low-income residents and redevelopment.  The Glebe Society took up the cause; ‘…the issues involved are vital to everyone concerned about Glebe – what happens to the church lands affects the appearance, character, community feeling and social cohesion of the whole of Glebe…’. (Vernon Winley, Bulletin 10, 1972). 

Images: Four properties in the Glebe Estate prior to the urban renewal project.

Poster 10

The Glebe Estate – restoration and repair

• Dulux paint colour scheme to be used in the renovation of houses in the Glebe Estate, 1981 (left).
• Bernard Smith, Glebe Society, and project consultants visit the Glebe Estate, 1974 (right top)
• Plaque to recognise the contribution of Tom Uren in saving the Glebe Estate (right below).

Poster 11

Glebe Estate Workshop

The Glebe Estate Workshop was an initiative of Bernard Smith when he was Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Sydney and involved in Glebe as a founder of the Glebe Society. Bernard Smith sought funding for the development of creative arts workshops in the Glebe Estate, including weaving, pottery and painting.

Poster 12

Not just campaigns…but other good things

Social Club or Social Conscience?

‘In the last year the question of our social role and our commitment to the overall well-being of the people of the Glebe has been an issue that has exercised [our] minds’.  (Editorial comment, Bulletin 8, 74)

Both roles were embraced in the early years.

Poster 13

Tom Uren and Jack Mundey, two heroes of the Glebe anti-expressway campaign

Tom Uren (right), formerly Minister for Urban and Regional Development in the Whitlam Cabinet, and Jack Mundey (left), formerly Secretary of the NSW Branch of the Builders Labourers Federation,  played significant roles in the long-fought campaign that eventually resulted in the abandonment of the planned Western and North-Western Expressways.

Poster 14

The Glebe waterfront 50 years ago – a mere 80 metres of public foreshore access

Fifty years ago the Glebe waterfront comprised a mix of genuine waterfront industry, other industry, demolition and desolation. Harbour Lighterage barges supplied the major timber mills with logs, and the Goliath and Camira supplied the cement plants. Other activities included boat building, repair, storage and stripping, fuel storage, and chemical manufacture.

Photographs show the waterfront pre-1970.

Poster 14b

Bellevue

The story of the magnificently sited Bellevue, built in 1896 at the entrance to Blackwattle and Rozelle Bays, is inextricably linked to that of Blackwattle Bay Park.  Bellevue’s survival and renovation in 2007 resulted from the forging of an alliance between the enlightened self-interest of locals, the environmental and heritage policies and determination of the Glebe Society, the practical good-will of the union movement, the blessings of the Heritage Council, and finally the City of Sydney’s ability to make things happen.

Images: Bellevue pre-renovation (top) and after (middle); its location on Blackwattle Bay (below)

Poster 15

Glebe Society Waterfront Proposal 1979

The Glebe Society’s founders had recognised Glebe had well below its quota of open space with little potential for improvement in conventional areas. However decline in genuine waterfront industry, government ownership of waterfront land and temporary short-term leases to non-waterfront industry allowed the Society to argue for open space to be established on the waterfront. Ultimately this has resulted in a total of about 20 hectares of waterfront open space and about 2.5 kilometres of waterfront access.

The 4-page proposal comprised a detailed map and an Action Plan.

‘A proposal has been sent to the two Ministers and the Mayor seeking a series of waterfront parks linked by walkways (on the waterfront where possible) stretching from Johnston's Canal to Pyrmont Bridge Road (Wentworth Park.)’ (Waterfront Proposal, page 2).

−Special issue of Bulletin, 5, 1979).

Poster 16

Bicentennial Park opening, December 1988

Bicentennial Park was created to mark the 200th anniversary of European settlement in 1988. The area of reclaimed land, which was owned by the Maritime Services Board and leased to timber companies, extended the foreshore in front of Federal and Jubilee parks.  It became Stage 1 (east of the canal) of the new park and was opened in 1988.   

After more than a decade of campaigning by the Glebe Society for this wonderful site, the stars suddenly aligned: our need for open space was manifest; the relevant minister (Jack Ferguson) was happy to talk to us and encourage us; the various individual sites had short leases; the Leichhardt Council could not have been more helpful; and suddenly there was money available for Bicentennial Park. .

Blackwattle Bay foreshore walk: The final piece in the waterfront walk jig-saw

The Glebe Society’s vision had always been a waterfront walk right around the bays (hopefully to be linked with a similar walk towards the city at one end and towards Balmain at the other). Thanks to the City of Sydney Council, the walk has been completed to Bridge Road (photos on right), but not without problems at every juncture.

Poster 17

Walter Burley Griffin Glebe Incinerator

The Council Depot included the Walter Burley Griffin Incinerator, built in 1937 (photo top left).

Walter Burley Griffin Incinerator photographed c 2005.  The furnace has been demolished but the front building has been restored and reinterpreted. Image (bottom left) courtesy of WalterBurley Griffin Society

Glebe Society member, David Mander Jones’ sketch (bottom right) of the Walter Burley Griffin incinerator and sheds (Bulletin, 2006). 

Poster 18

Old trams to new

In 1958 the NSW Government ceased tram services to Glebe.  Several retired trams were left to rot in the former Rozelle depot (now known as the Tramsheds) where they were forgotten except by vandals.  In 1974 the Glebe Society published  monograph  No 2  (A Northwestern Railway instead of the Expressway) proposing the reintroduction of trams (reinvented as light rail), using the disused freight railway running from Central through Darling Harbour and Glebe to Dulwich Hill.

In 1976 the Glebe Society organised the ‘Great Train Ride’ – a round trip from Redfern through Glebe.  Locals were invited to check out the route in a train hauled by a steam engine.  The Government eventually saw the merit in the Society’s idea and a light rail service began in August 1997 from Central to Wentworth Park.  It was extended to Lilyfield in 2000 and completed to Dulwich Hill in March 2014. The Glebe Society took part in the celebrations at Glebe and Jubilee Park stops in 2000.

Poster 19

Friends of Centipede – fun fund-raising

‘Friends of Centipede’ was launched in 2012 by the Glebe Society to support the ongoing operation of Centipede, an organisation that provides an Outside School Hours Care service catering for school-aged children on the grounds of Glebe Public School.

• Members gather for the annual fund-raising Friends of Centipede Sunset Soiree at the Glebe Rowing Club, October 2017 (top).
• An auction of artworks at the Soiree, November, 2013 (below).

Poster 19b

Glebe Post Office Rally, 2011

Glebe residents protest, unsuccessfully, against the closing of their local Post Office in Glebe Point Road.

Poster 20

Wentworth Park Community Games

Wentworth Park has for many years been largely the preserve of greyhound racing.  But on 11 May 2008 the thoroughbred hounds were displaced by family mutts competing for the “Wenty Park Mongrel Cup”, and residents old and young from Glebe-Forest Lodge and Ultimo-Pyrmont competed in many and varied sports to win the GUP Cup (actually one red and one blue gumboot mounted on a piece of wood).  The Games continued until 2012.

Poster 21

The Mural in Elsie Walk, Glebe

Elsie Walk is the small laneway between Derwent Street and Derwent Lane bordering the Glebe Primary School. The Elsie Walk mural was painted by two local artists, Auntie Kath Farrawell and the late Elizabeth Rooney.  The Walk and its mural recognise Elsie Women’s Refuge, the first refuge set up in Australia in 1974 providing services for women and children escaping a violent home.

• At each end of the wall are the black and white silhouettes of mothers and children (top).
• After Elizabeth Rooney died her image was painted into the mural, kneeling as if still in the act ofpainting (below).

Poster 22

Schools

A High School for Glebe  

The Glebe Society successfully campaigned for a high school to be built in Glebe.  The Glebe High School (left) was established in 1979, initially housed in demountable classrooms on the industrial waterfront site previously owned by George Hudson.  Permanent buildings were built in the early 1980s.  It was renamed the Blackwattle Secondary College in 2002 and is now Sydney Secondary College, Blackwattle campus. 

Glebe Public School

• Celebrating Glebe Public School’s Sesquicentenary (150th anniversary) in 2008 (top right).
• River Song Mural at Glebe Public School, design and theme by Aunty Elaine Russell (below right).

Poster 23

For the community

Clockwise from left:

• Have a chat café at the Old Fire Station: Laurie Murphy who looks after the café once a week, with some attendees.
• Sewing for good project: Glebe Society members at the Glebe Town Hall sewing bags for the Asylum Seeker Centre in Newtown.
• Kitchen Starter Pack Project: A completed starter pack donated by Glebe Society members for a family of four moving from Elsie Refuge to their own accommodation.
• Christmas Gifts for members of the wider community, collected at the Glebe Society Christmas Party.
• Nick Hespe (1950 – 2017), remembered as our community’s outstanding Neighbourhood Service Centre Manager. 

Poster 24

Glebe Tram Mural Project

The Tram Mural is located at the corner of Glebe Point Road and Hereford Street.

• City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore at the mural’s unveiling on 8 March 2017, with contributors to the project (top)
• The completed Tram Mural at the corner of Glebe Point Road and Hereford Street, painted by Kelly Wallwork. (centre)
• Family and friends of one of the contributors of personal recollections written on the mural (below). 

Poster 25

Mark - the dog walker and local hero

Mark is well-known for his friendly greeting of locals and strangers alike on the 431 bus, and as a dog walker along the Glebe foreshore.  He was recognised by the Lord Mayor for his community work in July 2013.

Poster 26

Candidates meet the electors

The Glebe Society has sponsored ‘Meet the Candidates’ events as far back as 1987.  All members and local residents are invited to hear what their candidates in Local Government, State and Federal elections have to say on issues of importance to them, and to ask questions.

Images from top:

• Candidates for the State seat of Balmain meet local citizens at Glebe Public School in March 2011.
• Tanya Plibersek, sitting member and candidate for the Federal seat of Sydney, at the Glebe Town Hall, in 2016
• Candidates for the State seat of Balmain at Glebe Town Hall in March 2019.

Poster 27

Robyn Kemmis (1943 – 2015) – much loved and remembered

As Deputy Lord Mayor and Councillor in the City of Sydney, and a committed member of the Glebe Society, Robyn Kemmis worked strategically and tirelessly for effective outcomes in planning, heritage and community.  The sudden death of Robyn in December 2015 touched many of us and she will long be remembered for her personal and public contribution to Glebe.

Poster 29 

Art and About – Kite Kaleidoscope, 2005

Peter Travis, an internationally recognised artist, designed a vast array of kites which were installed at locations around Glebe including at St John’s Church, the Broadway Shopping Centre, and many shops.

• Kites designed by Peter Travis for Art and About’s Glebe Kite Kaleidoscope in 2005.
• Peter Travis
• The Glebe team for Glebe Kite Kaleidoscope.

Poster 30

A collaborative and inspirational artwork!

Decorating the M.J. Dougherty Reserve, on the corner of Mitchell and Wentworth Streets in Glebe, was the objective of an artistic collaboration co-ordinated by community artist Karen Weiss.  In 2010 local residents of all ages and cultural backgrounds made clay tiles, then designed, decorated and attached them to the Reserve’s concrete walls, creating a work of art for themselves in their own environment (left top and centre).

Skippedy Skip

Glebe Public School’s front fence (bottom left) was transformed into the colourful public art work Skippedy Skip as part of the Sydney City Council’s Glebe Point Road Project.  Designed by artist Noah Saad, 2009. 

Lord Mayor Clover Moore with Glebe Public School’s Principal, Vicki Pogulis (right).

Poster 31

A Music Festival in Glebe - every year!

 The Glebe Music Festival grew out of the many informal musical soirées held since the late 1960s at the early 19th century house Margaretta Cottage

Clockwise from top left

• Dr David McIntosh, founder and Artistic Director of the Music Festival, with Ted McKeown, the Glebe Society.
• Sekaa Gong Tirta Sinar Balinese Gamelan Group at Margaretta Cottage, November 2004.
• Czech Philharmonic Children’s Choir at the Great Hall, University of Sydney, November 2015.

Poster 32

Glass Artists' Gallery on Glebe Point Road

The Glass Artists’ Gallery has been a fixture in Glebe since the late 1980s. Owner Maureen Cahill has brought to Glebe some of the best international and Australian contemporary glass exhibitions.

Poster 33

Getting down and dirty

Glebe Society members take part in Glebe litter and graffiti removal campaigns.

• ‘War on graffiti’ in Glebe Point Road, June 2002 (left)
• Glebe Society members at Blackwattle Bay for the annual Clean Up Australia campaign, 2005 (top right)
• Community recognition for Mark Weisser, 19 July 2013 on the Rozelle Bay foreshore. Deputy Lord Mayor Robyn Kemmis read a letter from the Lord Mayor thanking Mark and acknowledging his ongoing work clearing our streets of litter (centre right). 

Poster 34

St Helen’s Community Garden

St Helen's Community Garden is open for anyone in the community to join and work together with other members to grow herbs and vegetables in communal plots and share the produce.

Images: Members collecting the late summer produce, March 2019.

Poster 35

Naming of Glebe’s lanes

Clockwise from top left:

• Bernard Lane – off St John’s Road along the back of Broughton Street houses.  This lane honours the contribution Bernard and his wife Kate made to Glebe as founding members of the Glebe Society. Members of the Smith family were present for the official opening by the Lord Mayor Clover Moore on 22 September 2013. 
• Elsie Walk – short path along the western boundary of Glebe Public School   The Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, officially opened Elsie Walk on 28 May 2012 to honour the establishment in 1974 of Australia’s first women’s refuge.
• Dave Sands Lane – between Denman Lane and Mitchell Lane west behind Philip Street.  Dave Sands Lane was officially opened by  Robyn Kemmis, Deputy Lord Mayor, on 26 July 2015 to acknowledge Dave Sands’ significant contribution to the Glebe community and his achievements as a successful Aboriginal boxer.
• Melina Lane – between St Johns Road and Norton Street.  Glebe remembers Melina Galluzzo, a well known and loved member of the Glebe community who, with her husband Frank, worked in Galluzzo’s Fruiterers for over 50 years. The Galluzzo family was joined by friend Her Excellency the Governor Marie Bashir and Federal Member for Sydney, Tanya Plibersek at the official opening on 5 May 2013 by Deputy Lord Mayor, Robyn Kemmis.

Poster 36

The Architectural Character of Glebe

This iconic record of Glebe’s architectural heritage by Kate and Bernard Smith was published in 1973 and reprinted in 1989.

Poster 37

Recollecting the past

Grandeur and Grit: A History of Glebe (top left) Lord Mayor Clover Moore launching Max Solling’s book,  at the Glebe Library in October 2007. .

Unveiling of the Barton plaque (centre left), commemorating the birthplace in Glebe of Edmund Barton, Australia’s first Prime Minister.  University Footbridge.  21  March 2009. Eva Rodriguez Riestra, Public Art Program Manager, City of Sydney, Liz Simpson-Booker, Glebe Society, and Clover Moore, Lord Mayor 

Past Presidents and friends (bottom left). Photograph taken at the 40^th anniversary of the Glebe Society at Margaretta Cottage, June 2019.   From left to right: Andrew Wood, Neil Macindoe, Mavis McCarthy, Bruce Davis, Robert Armstrong, Jeanette Knox, John Buckingham, Jim Coombs, Edwina Doe, Andrew Craig, Jan Macindoe, Tom Uren, Jack Mundey, Albert Mispel, Peter Strickland, Albert Renshaw. 

Glebe Point Road - Main Street Study, Cover of Stage 2 Report (right)  Glebe Point Road is of great historical and architectural importance as a largely intact example of a 19th century Australian suburban main road. The Glebe Society was an active participant in Stage 2 of a Glebe Point Road Main Street Study (1991).  The Study provided a leap forward in the identification of the heritage items in Glebe Point Road and proposals to retain its essential character and significance..

Poster 38

Time for a new project for our main street?

Photographs of Glebe Point Road in 2019:  the good, the bad and the vacant!

Poster 39

Commemorative Ceremonies

Each Anzac Day and Remembrance Day the Glebe Society is involved in a commemorative ceremony to honour our servicemen and women. 

• The largest ever crowd attended the Anzac Day service at the Diggers Memorial in Foley Park on the centenary of the Anzac Day Landing, 25 April 2015 (bottom left).
• For the Anzac Day Service in 2018, red poppies, knitted or crocheted, one for each Glebe resident who served in WWI, were placed on the iron fence.(top left)

We campaigned to bring our ‘Digger’ home

The RSL joined forces with the Glebe Society to mount a campaign to return the statue of the WWI ‘digger’ to its original site at the Tramsheds, where it had stood from 1916 until 1958.

Take a stroll in the Tramsheds’ garden and view this now beautifully restored memorial to those tram depot workers who lost their lives at Gallipoli and the Western Front during 1915 and 1916  (right).

Poster 40

Temple and Churches Walk (left)  Visit by Glebe Society members to Sze Yup Temple, St Scholastica’s Convent chapel, St James Catholic Church and St Johns Glebe, March 2010.

All aboard the Waratah tug, (right) refurbished by Heritage Fleet volunteers, October 2010.

Glebe Society members enjoyed a trip on Waratah tug refurbished by Heritage Fleet volunteers, Sunday 31 October 2010. The convenor of the Blackwattle Cove Coalition, John Brooks, provided the commentary.  The wind was strong but the weather held fine!

Poster 41

Visits to art galleries and local artisans

• Book binders David Newbold and Terry Collins at Newbold and Collins, formerly located in Glebe. Glebe Society member (top and centre right).
• Lydia Bushell admires the craftsmanship of book binder, David Newbold, 2010 (top right).
• Glebe Society members gather around the life-size clay models of members of the Inner City Clay Workers Gallery in St John’s Road, 2011 (centre left). 

Glebe Walks

• Explore the heritage suburb of Glebe on foot, with a self-guided walk on your smart phone or tablet. You will find links to Google Maps, photos to illustrate each stop and a short commentary on the stories behind our streets, parks, houses and public buildings.  See glebewalks.com.au

Poster 42

Glebe locals enthral their audiences.

• At Yuga Florists and Café, Setsuko Yanagisawa demonstrates the principles of cut flower care and arrangement. Glebe Society Art Galleries Walking Tour in November 2011 (top).
• David Gaunt, co-owner and founder with Roger Mackell of Gleebooks, explains the challenges and joys of bookshop ownership at a Glebe Society New Members night, 2011 (below).

Poster 43

Social activities bringing people together

Clockwise from top left

• Robyn Kemmis, John Dengate, Jack Mundey and Lesley Lynch at the 40^th party.
• An ‘antique road show’ event at The Retreat, Leichhardt Street, Glebe.
• Christmas Party, St Scholastica’s Convent, Toxteth House, 2011.
• The Glebe Society’s 40^th anniversary party at the Woolcock Institute, Glebe, June 2009.

Poster 44

Welcome to Glebe

A photo collection by Tom Psompotragos and Eulalie Moore capturing the many different faces of the community in Glebe, 2019.