Yearly Archives: 2020

Sisters in Crime

by Rodney Hammett, 1 August 2020 Neighbours Sarah Peninton and Doris Flanagan living respectively at No 13 and No 11 Bridge Rd were partners in crime when hauled before the Magistrate at the Glebe Court on Tuesday 3 September 1929.1 On an afternoon in August, both women were accused of having used insulting words, from […]

Local, Brooke Green, wins national composition prize

by Virginia Simpson-Young, 1 August 2020 Congratulations to Glebe local, Brooke Green, who won the 2019 Jonathan Blakeman National Composition Prize for her work, From the Heart. Brooke Green was inspired by an issue of national importance. From the Heart is inspired by the ongoing contention in politics and the media surrounding the Uluru Statement […]

31st Annual Glebe Music Festival

The Artistic Director of the Glebe Music Festival, Dr E. David McIntosh AM AMusA, is also an infectious diseases specialist and vaccinologist. He is based in London, Amsterdam and Brasilia, and is currently developing vaccines against the pandemic coronavirus. Because of the travel restrictions to and from Australia, David has had to cancel the visits […]

Community Development Subcommittee members needed

by Janice Challinor, Convenor Community Development Subcommittee Okay, you won’t get to feed a baby elephant, BUT you will get to make Glebe a better community! The Community Development Subcommittee is looking for new members. If you’re interested in finding out more about what would be involved, contactcommunity@glebesociety.org.au.

NAIDOC Week 2020

National NAIDOC Week 2020 celebrations will be held from the 8-15 November. The postponement from July was aimed at protecting elders and those in our communities with chronic health issues from the disastrous impacts of COVID19. The 2020 NAIDOC theme is Always Was Always Will Be. This year, the NAIDOC Week poster features the artwork […]

Bob Connolly remembers local opposition to the Hereford Lodge YHA

Bob Connolly was living across the road from the Hereford Lodge YHA in the early 1990s. Our editor interviewed him about action taken by a group of locals to address the problems arising from a large YHA in a residential street:

Vale Peru Perumal

Sadly, the Glebe Society’s second president, ‘Peru’ Perumal died on 26 May 2020. Below is a copy of the speech given by Tony Strachan in support of Peru’s nomination for life membership at the Society’s AGM in 2003 (Bulletin 7/2003). I am delighted to be here today and honoured to have been asked to present […]

Glebe Youth Service Update

The team at Glebe Youth Service (GYS) continue to provide a high level of a support, averaging around 120 boxes of fruit and vegetables per week to around 125 households each week. The food relief program fulfils the dual aims of ensuring food security and providing social connection. When GYS staff and volunteers deliver food, […]

Blackwattle Bay and its creeks

Since Blackwattle Bay is currently threatened with overdevelopment this may be the right moment to look back at a little of its history and that of the creeks that drained into it. A little exploration inland from Sydney Cove when Philip and the ‘First Fleet’ arrived would have brought them to a freshwater creek running […]

A Blackwattle Bay Circular Walk

  There have been calls for many years for a Foreshore Walk around Blackwattle Bay. A circular walk around the whole bay for pedestrians and cyclists would be an attractive and much needed active transport route. We have seen recently the desire of the community to walk, run and cycle and the more attractive that […]

State government putting profit ahead of the public interest and common sense

Message from Glebe Society President, Janet Wahlquist, on 13 June 2020 I am writing to you about the future of Blackwattle Bay and the NSW Government’s plans to ‘revitalise’ it.   The Glebe Society objects to the plan on the following grounds: The proposed 45 storey buildings would tower over the Bay, casting long shadows […]

Born in Glebe: Mothers, Midwives and Medical Men

30 June 2020 Download ORDER FORM Intrigued by a small group of midwives working in the suburb of Glebe in the late nineteenth century, the author sets out to discover the identity of these women and the nature of their midwifery practice. Along the way, investigating those who were present at a number of birth […]

Centipede – can you help?

30 June 2020 Like many organisations, Glebe Public School’s out of school hours care program, Centipede, is facing a cash crisis as a result of COVID-19. A further blow to their bottom line will result from the cancellation (for safety reasons) of the Friends of Centipede annual Soiree, normally held in November. Please read this […]

Glebe Community COVID Souvenir Sing

30 June 2020 Download the lyrics sheet here. Our Bulletin for July 2020, gives details of the wonderful initiative of Liz and Albert Lecoanet. If you’d like more details – check out the Bulletin here.

Planning scenarios for Blackwattle Bay: revitalisation or overdevelopment?

Two very significant steps in the redevelopment of the Blackwattle Bay foreshores have been made public in the last two weeks. Firstly, Infrastructure NSW released a glossy brochure, ‘Revitalising Blackwattle Bay’, setting out its ‘Blackwattle Bay Precinct Planning Scenarios’, as the basis for an intensive period of community ‘engagement’ on the redevelopment of the Pyrmont […]

Valé Jack Mundey: The Builders Labourers’ leader who saved Glebe

The true saviour of Glebe and inner-city Sydney, Jack Mundey, died on Sunday 10 May, aged 90. We residents owe our pleasant and convenient lifestyle to Jack and the rank and file members of the NSW Builders Labourers’ Federation (BLF). Sydney would be a very different place if the BLF had not saved green space, […]

Progress on the Johnstons Creek Naturalisation Project

Another fox sighting in Glebe

There are occasional reports of foxes being sighted in Sydney, including Glebe. I recently sighted a fox literally in our back yard in Allen St, Glebe. It was 7am two weeks ago (May 2020) when I opened the back door and noticed an animal running from the backyard down our narrow lane. It was light […]

E-waste collections now kerbside

Did you know that you can order a pick-up from your footpath in Glebe – for your e-waste which is much easier than going to Alexandria. Booking is also pretty simple via the City of Sydney website. The website says that this is what can be picked up in the new e-waste collection: Electronics: TVs, […]

Report of community action on WestConnex

Since 2015, members of the local community and the Glebe Society have been actively involved in fighting WestConnex construction issues that affect our community. It is always very difficult to have wins with State Significant Infrastructure (SSI) sites. The WestConnex plan has moved from its original plan of tunnelling under Glebe/Forest Lodge (University of Sydney […]

Glebe Island Bridge – Demolition by Neglect

The old Glebe Island Bridge sits at the entrance to Blackwattle Bay, permanently open and looking neglected, with grass growing through the cracks, peeling paint and rotting wood – ignored in the Blackwattle Bay Revitalisation Plan. The Glebe Island Bridge was built in 1903 and is regarded as a twin to Pyrmont Bridge which has […]

The demise of the Hanson batching plant, May 2020

Demolition of Hansen cement batching plant to make way for the development of the new Sydney Fish Market.

Glebe Art Show 2020

The Glebe Society has been informed that the Glebe Art Show committee has made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s (2020) Glebe Art Show. Fiona Verge, Secretary, said they made this decision because, due to COVID-19, the organisers could not be certain that public gatherings will be allowed later in the year. She said […]

Glebe Music Festival 2020

Assuming it can go ahead, the 31st Annual Glebe Music Festival will take place from 1 to 22 November 2020. It will feature: trumpet and organ in an ‘Enchanted Evening’ with the Nexas saxophone quartet and harpist Emily Granger; Austral Harmony in a concert entitled ‘Floral Sentiments’; Thoroughbass performing Scandinavian folksongs and folksongs re-imagined by […]

News from the Blue Wren Subcommittee: Special Johnstons Creek edition (May 2020)

Something to do as you exercise in Glebe during the COVID-19 times of home-stay by Judy Christie I thought I’d pass on a Birdlife Australia webpage with some Birding at Home ideas. I have started doing a regular exercise activity/bird survey based on the Birdlife Australia preferred protocol of recording bird species and numbers for […]

An inspiring local story – Glebe Youth Service response to COVID-19

The April Bulletin had a letter from Keiran Kevans, Coordinator at Glebe Youth Service (GYS), reaching out for community support to pivot their services for vulnerable people in the Glebe community during these pandemic times. Judy Vergison provides an update on the achievements of GYS’s COVID-19 response as GYS adapted their service delivery model and […]

Lord Mayor responds to GTH Community Centre proposal

On Tuesday 28 April 2020 Lord Mayor Cr Clover Moore convened a Zoom meeting to discuss our proposal for a staffed Community Centre at Glebe Town Hall (GTH). Glebe Society President Janet Wahlquist and I also attended, as did City of Sydney (CoS) staff members Mariana Ivantsoff (Policy Officer) Kirsten Woodward (Manager, Social Programs and […]

Active Transport during COVID-19

The advent of the Covid 19 Crisis has seen a marked increase in active transport. By this I mean walking and cycling. This has seen Inner West Mayors telling residents to avoid walking and cycling in places such as the Bay Run in Leichhardt/Drummoyne. It has seen crowded scenes on our own Foreshore Walk. It […]

Update on new plans for Ernest Pedersen Reserve

The City exhibited its revised plans for Ernest Pedersen Reserve in Ferry Road, which incorporated elements from the original design as the front garden of the adjacent house, Rothwell Lodge.  The community feedback to the City was enthusiastic as the overall design was much improved on last year’s proposals. There was, however, concern about the […]

COVID-19 Pandemic in Glebe & Forest Lodge

All photos by Phil Vergison