The man behind the most famous sign seen from Sydney's Harbour Bridge

The first thing Owen McAloon noticed when he walked into his new apartment was the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. “I felt like a fish in a goldfish bowl,” he says.

McAloon’s seventh-floor, one-bedroom home is parallel to the road deck of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Near the top of the Sirius apartment building in the Rocks, its west-facing aspect not only acts as a funnel for the setting summer sun, but invites everyone crossing the bridge to look in.

“The apartment is like an oven in summer,” McAloon says. “I’m not the type of person who is into window dressings or anything, so I decided to give the world something to look at, provide me with some privacy and also block out the sun.”

After a series of experimental failures, such as using aluminium foil to reflect the heat, McAloon eventually decided on a single white piece of fabric to display his now famous message. The addition of a newsagent’s lightbox means the hand-painted black lettering that says "One way! Jesus" is also visible at night.

“The sign is my way of saying thank you,” he says. “I believe that God put me here in this apartment. In return I wanted to pass on his message in some way.

"It was really designed to be just a talking point for anyone who sees it. To get them thinking: 'What does that mean?' ”

McAloon, 59, has certainly given people something to talk about. His sign has been puzzled over in blogs, photo-sharing websites and newspaper columns.

The mystery harks back to Sydney's "Mr Eternity" who for some 35 years wrote "Eternity" in chalk on the city's footpaths. It was decades before anyone knew his name – Arthur Stace –but Sydneysiders grew to love his one-word sermon, inscribed in a distinctive copperplate.

In 1999 it was replicated on the Harbour Bridge during the New Year's Eve fireworks; nine months later it appeared during the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics.

A memorial to Arthur Stace in Sydney's Town Hall Square

McAloon is oblivious to the interest his sign has produced. He does not own a phone or a computer and has never logged on to the internet. The religious message is derived from the Bible’s book of John, chapter 14, verse six. “Jesus said to him: ‘I am the way, the truth, the life.’ ”

But there are some, especially in the Sirius building, who do not approve of the sign. One resident has said: “When I tell people where I live they say, ‘Oh, you live in that building with the Jesus sign.’ I don’t appreciate being linked with something like that … I know I’m not the only one who thinks that, there are plenty of others in this building who hate the thing.”

A self-confessed recluse, McAloon spends most of his time alone. Although raised in Sydney as a Catholic, he is now not part of an organised religion. He has not been in touch with his family for years and has no regular contact with friends.



 Owen McAloon in front of his home. Photograph: Anthony Brewster

 The only social interaction McAloon has is when he hands out religious literature on Sydney's streets. But these outings are sporadic, mainly because of the verbal abuse he sometimes receives.

“Being out on the street, handing out literature, sometimes it can be dangerous,” he says. “I, on occasion, have been abused for doing nothing more than asking people if they want to talk.

"It takes a lot out of me so, up until recently, I have decided to step back and take some time. Step back and reset a little, but I’m planning on getting back out there soon.”
While McAloon admits his life is not perfect, it is a marked improvement on where it was more than a decade ago when he first entered public housing. By the late 90s his physical and mental state was suffering from decades of substance abuse and a nomadic lifestyle.

He returned to Australia in 1993 after living in Japan. Realising his five-year marriage was ending, he came back for a “break” from what he describes as cultural differences. Within months of his return his mother suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died.
“She was my greatest friend … Her passing tore the guts out of me. And then having to leave Yuka [his former wife], that was another real traumatic experience,” he says.

“When I came back to Australia, I tried to find something new. Everything was gone, and then, suddenly, well, what are we going to do? I tried to find something new and nothing worked. In the end I fell to pieces, quite literally.”

He contracted hepatitis and just before 2000 was diagnosed with depression. He was living in derelict accommodation at the time, but a chance encounter with a social worker at a community centre in Darlinghurst got him on to a priority list for public housing.

He is one of the lucky few to have been caught by the state’s social safety net. He was one short step from homelessness, he says, and if it wasn’t for that placement he might not be alive today.

In March the New South Wales government said it would sell the Sirius apartment building and many other public housing assets in Millers Point. The reaction of residents has been mostly shock and dismay.

The sign – and a new one in McAloon's bedroom window. Photograph: Anthony Brewster

The building has been controversial since it was built in 1980. Designed to house residents displaced by tourist development in the Rocks historical area, the building is now home to an eclectic mix of public housing tenants.

Critics of the complex suggest this type of harbourside accommodation is not an appropriate use of taxpayers’ funds. The NSW government cites the rising cost of maintenance as one of the reasons why the housing should be sold and redeveloped.
McAloon says his apartment has given him more stability than at any other time in the past 30 years. He will have to leave as part of the government’s plans to relocate all residents within two years.

He has not decided whether he will take his sign with him. He may leave it in place and see how long it takes “the authorities” to remove it.


RESOURCED: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/08/the-man-behind-the-most-famous-sign-seen-from-sydney-harbour-bridge