Here we could be fooled. The picture in this Sydney "gloryfiorama" is an illustration, not a photograph. Some of the elements could be from photographs, apart from the left-hand corner stunning rendering of the Sydney Opera House, far from being finished when this glorification was rendered. I'd like to draw your particular attention to The Rocks. This is 1963. One would be at a loss to explain this "vision" of tall buildings, next to Circular Quay. 

 

H. F. Jensen was a mayor of visions, fountains and totems. We owe Jensen the Al Alamein Fountain in Kings Cross — a fountain celebrating its 55 birthday this year. Still as good, polished and as inspiring as ever, despite looking like having nothing to do with Al Alamein nor wars of the past, but visions of the future, apart from its dedication.

H. F. Jensen was busy. But was he in bed with developers? That is the BIG question. That is the question which still underlines Sydney's developments, most of them now under the control of the Baird State Government, especially at Barangaroo, where the ultimate skyscraper is going to be a private gaming house, run by a certain James Packer, who made a deal the Liberal (CONservative) government could not refuse. James was given public land to build his casino.

In the days of Jensen, Mayor, the developers were James Wallace Pty Ltd who seems to have convinced the City of Sydney in the merit of demolishing "that" part of Sydney — The Rocks.  A good chunk of it already had been demolished for the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. But to some extend, the building of the harbour bridge was very minimalist in its imprint on The Rocks, this infamous quarter of Sydney, where history was colourful, full of thugs and rampant poverty. 

It is often called the birthplace of Sydney as a city, because this is where one can find the oldest buildings in this town, including Cadman's cottage. 

So Jensen and Wallace, in the name of beautiful glory were about to raze this part of history and replace it with tall buildings.

On the 185th celebration of The Sydney Moning Herald first publication, we need to also concentrate at what happened between 1945 and 1973 — an important period suitably ignored by the Glorious SHM today (18/04/16) as its pre-digested memories jump from 1945 to 1973 in a big tall leap. 

The Rock development, as glorified in the image at top, was stopped by the BLF, the Builders Labourer Union and the people living in the area.

In 1968, the state government gave control of The Rocks to the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority, with the intention of demolishing all the original buildings, re-developing them as high-density residential dwellings. In February 1971, a group of local residents formed the Rocks Residents Group to oppose the plans. They felt that the new dwellings would result in increased rents, which would force out the traditional residents of the area. The residents' group requested a green ban from the Builder's Labourers Federation, who had become increasingly active in preventing controversial developments over the previous four years.

By 1973, the union had imposed the ban, and after discussions with the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority, a 'People's Plan' was developed. By October 1973, it appeared that the redevelopment would proceed as originally planned, using non-union labour. For two weeks, demonstrations by local residents and unionists followed, with numerous arrests being made. Liberal Premier Robert Askin was in the midst of an election campaign, and used the protests as a means of conveying his law and order message to voters. However, the green ban stayed in place until 1975, when the state union leadership was overthrown, and was ultimately successful, as can be seen in the buildings that survive today. Instead of demolishing The Rocks, renovations transformed the area into a commercial and tourist precinct.

 

One name stands out, Jack Mundey. Mundey, the leader of the NSW BLF, saved the history that had been built in stone, in many of Sydney's sites including gardens — from the bulldozers. He was arrested many times by the police but eventually his vision survived.

 

I dare say, Jack also had a vision for Barangaroo, but private interests and developers bypassed his influence and that of the unions, by using contract work and by constant intimidation of the union movement with politician thugs and union powermen.

The best know tustle was between Norm Gallagher, the NSW BLF and the government. Gallagher was after controlling the entire BLF.

 

As Secretary of the union, Gallagher also acted to preserve the distinct Melbourne boulevards such as Royal Parade from development and many historic buildings from destruction including the Regent Theatre and the City Baths. A BLF black ban also protected the historic Bakery Hill site in Ballarat, where huge mass meetings were held in 1854 during the Eureka rebellion, from development.

Norm Gallager faced many protests when he directed the Federal union to intervene in the affairs of the New South Wales branch of the union in the mid-seventies. Many of the democratic measures installed by the NSW Branch leadership by Jack Mundey, Bob Pringle and Joe Owens and others were scrapped and many of the democratically imposed Green Bans were lifted. Officials of the NSW Branch eventually urged members to join the imposed branch, but were themselves blacklisted from the industry by Federal Union officials. The Federal takeover of the NSW Branch was instrumental in calling off many of the imposed Green Bans and the cancellation of the unions commitment to fighting for permanence in the building industry.

Following a Royal Commission into the BLF's business affairs, it was deregistered. Gallagher was convicted of obtaining building materials from construction companies while he himself was building a house in Gippsland. This was the first trial in Victorian history in which a jury was locked up for ten days until they delivered a verdict. Jurors later made statements that they had lost their freedom and were coerced to find Gallagher guilty. On appeal, the trial and verdict were declared "unsafe" and a retrial was ordered. Gallagher was freed after four months in gaol. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Gallagher

 

The federal pursuit of the union movement is still in full swing today.

 

The next election trigger is about the rotten Liberal (CONservative) Turnbull government trying to force the reintroduction of the ABCC, to muzzle the unions, while letting the banks, which have rorted the system a thousand times over, go free.

 

 

Shame Malcolm Shame.