The Fight for The Rocks


The BulletinThe beginning of the 20th century presented some very real challenges for The Rocks. In 1900 there was an outbreak of bubonic plague in Sydney, beginning in the western side of The Rocks at Millers Point.

A carter who worked on the wharves in  Millers Point, Arthur Paine was the first to be struck down with the plague and it triggered a heightened smear campaign about the entire area. Many of the landlords who had lived in the area were long gone, living in more leafy outlying suburbs. They paid little thought to maintaining or caring for their properties in The Rocks, and the government didn’t have the power to enforce decent maintenance standards on private property.

 

In fact, George McCredie who was employed by the government to quarantine all plague areas in Sydney wrote, “the Board of Health [has] fallen into a deplorable state from long continued omission of the local authority to execute the amply powers to preserve the public health… The result of this maladministration [is that there is] an executive authority…which is at once uninstructed, indifferent and unguided by the routine of an efficient organisation”.

 

From March to July 1900, The Rocks and other parts of the city, especially the waterfront areas were barricaded off and locals given the task of cleansing, disinfecting, fumigating and lime-washing the buildings in the area. The stigma of slum hung heavy over The Rocks, however of the 103 people who died from the plague, only thrRat Catchers & Dead Rats 1901ee were from The Rocks.

 

As part of the response to the plague  the government of New South Wales resumed virtually the entire headland from Circular Quay to Darling Harbour. Approximately 900 houses were bought as well as the surrounding wharves, bond stores, factories, workshops, offices and pubs.

 

At this time, The Rocks was the cornerstone of Sydney as a port. It was the mainstay of the country’s trade and wealth but had come at a cost. The harbour was hopelessly polluted and the privately owned wharves were atrocious.

 

The Sydney Harbour Trust was formed in 1902 and a report from that year showed what they retrieved from the harbour: “2524 rats, 1068 cats, 283 bags of meat, 305 bags of fish, 1467 fowls, 25 parrots, 23 sheep, 14 pigs, 1 bullock, 9 calves, 9 goats, 5 hars, 3 kangaroos, 162 rabbits, 18 bags of chaff, 8 bales of straw, 3 flying foxes and 2 sharks”.

 

A Royal Commission headed by 11 experts in urban reform was held. Their task was to ‘resume and remodel slum areas’ and ‘provide sites for workmen’s dwellings’. The Rocks was part of this resumed area and could be said to be the birthplace of public housing in New South Wales. While new and innovative housing solutions were being created, much of The Rocks was being demolished.

 

Demolition slowed due to World War 1 (1914-1918) and the Great Depression. Many believed there was more to the resumption than the government was revealing and in 1923 the Sydney Harbour Bridge was begun.  The building of The Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1923 required the demolition of another 300 houses that had escaped the resumption and plans for The Rocks were revisited.

 

The new waterfront was built to world class standards, and it and The Rocks and Millers Point came under the control of the Maritime Services Board.  To accommodate the new landlord, the Commissariat Store was demolished for a new building in 1940.  The Stores had been planned by Lieutenant-Colonel Foveaux and begun in 1808. They were a massive, four-storey sandstone warehouse that was used to store the vital supplies of the colony such as grain and meat.  It also served like a bank, issuing receipts that could  be used like money in exchange for other goods. The building that replaced the Commissariat housed the Maritime Services Board and was converted into the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1991.

Commissariat Store 1935 & Maritime Services Board Building almost Complete c1950 

After World War Two the Cahill Expressway was built in 1955-57 requiring the demolition of dozens of houses and shops. The country was in a boom period and plans for redevelopment of the ‘gateway’ to Sydney, The Rocks were formulated and constantly revised from 1963 until 1973.

 

By the 1970s, locals were concerned about loosing the community and being moved out of the area that they and their familes had been living in for generations. They called on the Union movement and prominent Sydney personalities to help them save The Rocks.  The leading force in this was Nita McRae who formed The Rocks Residents group, Nita could trace her family in The Rocks back to 1800.

 

In the early 1970s ‘Green Bans’ were imposed on the redevelopment of The Rocks, to be lifted only when residents were to received assurance from the Government that local people would be rehoused in the area. 

 

Jack Mundey being removed by Police 1973In 1973, protesters clashed with police in what is now The Rocks Square, when non-union labour was engaged to demolish shed to make way for a theatre.

 

In 1975 a compromise was reached and the bans were lifted. All buildings north of the Cahill Expressway were to be retained, conserved and restored.

 

The Green Bans had far reaching political repercussions as well. In that year the Australian Heritage Commission Act was passed. It set about the identification and protection of both built and natural items considered important to the people of Australia.

 

The Red Ban Add by SCRA 1973By 1977 the NSW Government had passed its own Heritage Act which is still regarded as one of the strongest legislative controls for managing heritage items in the world.

 

In 1998, The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority Act 1998 was enacted to consolidate the work of the Sydney Cove Authority, City West Development Corporation and the Darling Harbour Authority.

SCRA Concept Plan 1971

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