Yearly Archives: 2022
Glebe’s Blue Plaque Nominations (Part 5): 97 Derwent St, once home of Bessie Guthrie
Posted on 6th July 2022In September last year the NSW Government called for communities to nominate places linked to notable personalities and events for recognition as part of the NSW Blue Plaques program. The Glebe Society made a number of nominations. The fifth site nominated by the Society is 97 Derwent St Glebe, lifelong home of Bessie Guthrie (1905-1977), designer, publisher, feminist and campaigner for children’s rights.
Preschoolers get up close to invertebrates in the classroom
Posted on 6th July 2022Last year, courtesy of a grant from the Glebe Society, Explore and Develop Annandale Early Learning Centre acquired several new invertebrates. The animals were quickly adopted into the school menagerie.
Have you caught the ferry yet?
Posted on 7th July 2022Use it or lose it! The trial of the Blackwattle Bay ferry continues. Find out what you can do to help make the service permanant.
Community planting for National Tree Day
Posted on 7th July 2022Celebrate National Tree Day on Sunday 31 July by attending the tree planting event at Federal Park.
33rd Annual Glebe Music Festival – Saturday 4 November to Sunday 27 November
Posted on 7th July 2022The 33rd Annual Glebe Music Festival will take place from Saturday 4 November to Sunday 27 November. The program this year consists of eight concerts, ranging from blues to baroque. See the program and booking links.
Glebe Art Show 2022 – Character of Glebe Prize
Posted on 6th July 2022This year’s Glebe Art Show had176 entries from local artists in Glebe, Forest Lodge and the Inner West – and record sales! The Character of Glebe prize, sponsored by the Glebe Society, was awarded to Julie Keech for her watercolour, Glebe Point Rd, Streetscape.
Chaos on Bridge Rd ahead
Posted on 6th July 2022What happens when you move a busy fish market, visited daily by hundreds of trucks and vans, buses and thousands of private vehicles, from a side street to a major arterial road? Traffic chaos, with an expected double the number of customers as the current Sydney Fish Market and almost double the retail space. The Glebe Society has also deep concerns about the impact of early morning fish industry traffic. The new market will have one vehicular entrance, opposite Wentworth Park Rd.
Harold Park Community Hall to host Pyrmont Community Centre
Posted on 7th July 2022Community spaces – centres, town halls, libraries – belong to us, and must operate for our benefit; they should not be treated by Council as revenue raisers. Friends of Pyrmont Community Centre are celebrating a victory in their campaign for an alternative home while Pyrmont Community Centre closes for 70 weeks for renovations. Many of its regular events are moving to the Harold Park Community Hall at the Tramsheds. Glebeites and Forest Lodgers are welcome to attend.
Who worked in your street? Gordon Page Barton (1929-2005)
Posted on 7th July 2022No.1 Arundel St Forest Lodge was once the offices of express transport giant, IPEC. Gordon Barton and Greg Farrell bought the Adelaide-based Interstate Parcel Express Company (IPEC) in 1962, and grew the business into the multinational express freight company it is today.
Glebe Society Guided Walk: ‘Radical Glebe’ – a report
Posted on 7th July 2022The ‘Radical Glebe’ Guided Walk took place on 5 July. Meredith Bergmann, along with her long-term student friends and fellow activists Helen Randerson and Heather Goodall, shared their personal insights and contributions to the many aspects of Glebe during the 60s and 70s.
The raison d’être of the Glebe Society
Posted on 9th October 2022Reflections written in 2010 (with some factual updates since) on the social and economic conditions in Glebe in the 1960s and the factors that saw the birth of the Glebe Society. In the intervening 50 years, the changing demographics of Glebe have also played a role, arguably both positive and negative. By long term Glebe Society member and former Planning Convenor, Neil Macindoe.
Running the gauntlet on the Bridge Rd cycleway
Posted on 11th June 2022The Bridge Rd pop-up cycleway was a temporary expedient initiated in September 2020. At the end of March this year the NSW Minister for Active Transport, Rob Stokes, announced it was to be made permanent despite there being no solution to the many safety and access issues. The government must reverse its decision.
From the President – June 2022
Posted on 8th June 2022Catch up on some of the things we’ve been doing over the last month. As well as a meeting with Lord Mayor Clover Moore, the Society made detailed comments on Council’s proposed Community Strategic Plan. Our annual biodiversity lecture featured Professor Dieter Hochuli from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, talking about ‘how nature survives and thrives in urban environments, and why it matters for the future of our cities’.
Environmental news from the Blue Wren Subcommittee
Posted on 6th April 2022The Glebe Society’s annual biodiversity lecture will this year feature Professor Dieter Hochuli talking on ‘How nature survives and thrives in urban environments, and why it matters for the future of our cities’. It is on 25 May. Also read news from the Glebe bushcare groups.
Caroline Jones and the Glebe Estate, ‘This Day Tonight’ 1972
Posted on 10th June 2022In 1972 when she was a reporter on the ABC’s ‘This Day Tonight,’ Caroline Jones’s report on the Glebe Estate shocked viewers, many of whom were seeing for the first time what living in poverty looked like in Australia. The landlord, the Anglican Church thought that the best solution to its problem was to sell the Estate to developers, knocking down the historic cottages without concern for the community that had taken root there. Thanks to Tom Uren that did not occur and it was bought by the government. Unfortunately, today it’s not safe from further predations by developers, while the current NSW Government turns a blind eye to ‘demolition by neglect’.
Early photographs wanted
Posted on 12th June 2022Do you have any old photographs of 39 Lodge St showing its original verandah?
2022 Glebe Art Show @ Tramsheds, 23-26 June
Posted on 7th June 2022Now in its 25th year, the Glebe Art Show returns to the Tramsheds at the end of June after a two-year COVID absence. Entries are now being accepted online via the Glebe Art Show website, from artists in the City of Sydney and Inner West Council local government areas. We look forward to welcoming you to what we believe will be our best ever Show. Come along to celebrate the Glebe Art Show’s return and support local artists.
Glebe’s Blue Plaque nominations, Part 4: Elsie Women’s Refuge
Posted on 10th June 2022The fourth site nominated by the Glebe Society for a Blue Plaque is Elsie Women’s Refuge at 73-75 Westmoreland St, Glebe. It was the first women’s refuge to open in Australia. In September 2021 the NSW Government called for communities to nominate places linked to notable personalities and events for recognition as part of the NSW Blue Plaques program.
NAIDOC Week 2022 and book launch
Posted on 11th June 2022On July 7 during NAIDOC Week, Gleebooks is hosting the launch of Yvonne Weldon’s new book, Sixty-Seven Days. Yvonne Weldon, a Wiradjuri woman who grew up in Sydney, was elected in 2021 to the City of Sydney Council, the first Aboriginal person on Council since its establishment in 1842. She was named NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year in 2022. NAIDOC Week this year is from 3 to 10 July and the theme this year is ‘Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!
Glebe Society submissions on development applications
Posted on 12th June 2022Information about recent Glebe Society submissions on Development Applications in Glebe and Forest Lodge.
Going, Going, Gone
Posted on 6th June 2022During the last two weeks, 17-31 Cowper St, Glebe has been demolished. Its delightful courtyard and fountain are gone forever. A backward step for conservation, residential amenity and the environment.
A Glebe first – Mobile parklet wins Sustainability Award
Posted on 6th June 2022Readers may remember the ‘parklet’ that popped up outside six Glebe Point Rd venues in 2015. The parklet was a cut-down shipping container modified to provide outdoor seating surrounded by potted greenery. Late last year, the mobile parklet won Architecture & Design’s Public, Urban and Landscape Sustainability Award.
Mystery photo (June 2022)
Posted on 10th June 2022Last month’s Mystery Photo competition featured Glebe’s former and current post offices. In 2011, despite massive public opposition, the Glebe Post Office was closed and a post shop opened in Broadway Shopping Centre.
Because of you we were able to help so many families!
Posted on 12th June 2022Thanks to the generosity of the Glebe Society donations last year, the Glebe Youth Service was able to provide food relief to many families in need in Glebe through 2021, including food hampers and cooked meals, an essential shop and drop program and Coles e-gift cards.
From the President – May 2022
Posted on 7th June 2022Catch up with what we’ve been doing by reading the President’s Report. This month has included meetings with Council, and the Anzac Day service at the newly cleaned Glebe War Memorial. The NSW Land and Housing Corporation’s ill-considered plans for development in Glebe continue.
From the President – April 2022
Posted on 6th April 2022Catch up with what we’ve been doing by reading the President’s Report. This month has seen us attending meetings with Council and other groups with similar goals to ours. Our program of Guided Walks is also going strong.
Blue Plaque nominations for Glebe and Forest Lodge (continued)
Posted on 6th April 2022The Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre was established in 1975 at St James Hall, 153 Bridge Road, Glebe as a full-time training program to encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to take up professional dance. It launched the careers of many dancers and performers, and raised the profile of Aboriginal dance on the international stage. The Glebe Society has nominated St James Hall to have a Blue Plaque commemorating this history.
The threats to Glebe’s urban and social fabric continue
Posted on 8th June 2022The NSW Land and Housing Corporation have advised that they are investigating the opportunity to renew (ie demolish) 82 Wentworth Park Road in order to ‘understand its potential to deliver more social housing on the site’. Like 17-31 Cowper St, 82 Wentworth Park Rd was designed in the late 1980s by the NSW Housing Commission. It is a fine building which respects the character and topography of Glebe while providing great amenity for residents. Moreover, it is in a heritage conservation area.
