<strong>Histories</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> Fig 1.1 Location <strong>of</strong> <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> Town Centre and the suburbs which make up the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> area: Waterloo, Alexandria, Zetland, Beaconsfield and Rosebery. (Source: <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> Town Centre Master Plan, courtesy Landcom, South <strong>Sydney</strong> Development Corporation and <strong>Sydney</strong> <strong>City</strong> Council.)
Chapter 1 – Introduction Chapter 1 Introducing the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> History Project 1.1 The project This project explores the history <strong>of</strong> <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong>, a new name for an old industrial and residential area to the south <strong>of</strong> central <strong>Sydney</strong>. Each author presents an aspect <strong>of</strong> this history, explaining its legacy in the urban landscape today, but also explores important events or developments which have been forgotten, lost or hidden. Together, the essays show that the forces which shaped <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong>’s history are complex, intertwined and ongoing. They tell a dynamic story about environmental change and radical transformations <strong>of</strong> landscape. They track the movement and experience <strong>of</strong> successive waves <strong>of</strong> people, and the meanings this place held for them. So this is a project in urban history—it <strong>of</strong>fers a microcosm <strong>of</strong> the development <strong>of</strong> <strong>Sydney</strong> as a whole. The project was initiated as part <strong>of</strong> a course I teach in Public History (HIST3904) in the School <strong>of</strong> History at UNSW and it was undertaken with the support <strong>of</strong> the then South <strong>Sydney</strong> <strong>City</strong> Council (now <strong>Sydney</strong> <strong>City</strong> Council). The aim <strong>of</strong> this course is to introduce students to public history—history as it is practiced outside the academy—and give them experience in original research for public history projects. Meanwhile, my conversations with Stevan Untaru, Senior Planner at South <strong>Sydney</strong> Council, revealed our shared interest in the importance <strong>of</strong> history in planning, and ways that the two could be linked. This resulted in the idea <strong>of</strong> a group project on the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> area which could then be made available to planners and developers, public artists, future residents and urban historians. The students in this course were asked to devise, select and research topics which would throw light on the history <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> area, both environmental and human. They went on field trips, spoke with council staff, archivists, residents and many others, combed archives, haunted state and local libraries, searched the web and swapped contacts and sources. This volume is the result <strong>of</strong> their research, discussions, thinking and writing. 1.2 <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong>: what’s in a name? <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> itself is a contested name for a place that is partly-real and partly-imagined. As Tessa Endelman relates, it was once the name <strong>of</strong> a tiny, obscure triangular-shaped park named in honour <strong>of</strong> Labor MP, local Mayor and tireless promoter <strong>of</strong> industry and jobs, Frederick <strong>Green</strong>. In the 1990s, ‘<strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong>’ was adopted as a kind <strong>of</strong> rebadging strategy for an area <strong>of</strong> South <strong>Sydney</strong> comprising Zetland and parts <strong>of</strong> © Grace Karskens Grace Karskens Alexandria, Waterloo, Beaconsfield and Rosebery. But these are old working class suburbs and many <strong>of</strong> the residents there do not want their local identity submerged in an imposed new name. So, while you can catch a train to the ultramodern <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> station, standing rather incongruously, as it does, among the car-sales yards and old factories on gritty Botany Road, other than this the name hovers largely as a planning idea and a marketing concept. There is no suburb, no postcode, no entry in street directories for <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong>. So <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> is a brand new name, triggering associations with clean, green, sustainable urban visions. It seems artificial, it has yet to take root, if that was the intention. Why, then, has this history project focused on the new name and area? <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> is more about the future than the past. But that is why recovering history is so important at this time. <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> names a place in transition, a place where the new literally jostles with the old, and where the past is in danger <strong>of</strong> obliteration as the city relentlessly expands, constantly remaking itself. With the decline <strong>of</strong> secondary industry since the 1970s, the twentieth century industrial landscape <strong>of</strong> vast factories and belching chimneys is in retreat. Meanwhile, <strong>Sydney</strong> entered the global city stakes. The property market and finance and IT industries boomed and the city’s population continued to swell. With the traditional house-and-garden increasingly unsustainable, this area was re-envisioned as <strong>Sydney</strong>’s latest high-rise residential area, with sleek, towering apartment blocks housing new generations <strong>of</strong> well-heeled white collar workers. A shimmering town centre <strong>of</strong> futuristic glass and steel was imagined, with wide piazzas, elegant sculpture and fountains, and fast transport to jobs in the city. The most aesthetically pleasing <strong>of</strong> the older industrial buildings are being carefully restored and recycled as part <strong>of</strong> vast apartment complexes like Victoria Park and the Hudson, where even the smallest unit appears to cost over $300,000. While the area still supports manufacturing, high-tech industries, <strong>of</strong>fices, commercial businesses, showrooms and storage facilities are replacing the old heavy industries <strong>of</strong> car manufacturing, foundries, chemicals and brewing, establishments with labour forces that used to run into thousands. In short, at <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Square</strong> we can actually witness the spectacular, strange and <strong>of</strong>ten poignant process <strong>of</strong> social, physical and economic transformation. It is a case study <strong>of</strong> a process which has occurred in <strong>Sydney</strong> since its inception. 9
Change language