Produced by Jamie McMechan Maritime Union of Australia Film Unit.
The Hungry Mile
The Hungry Mile is the name harbourside workers gave to the docklands area of Darling Harbour East, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in the Great Depression. Workers would walk from wharf to wharf in search of a job, often failing to find one.[1]
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Wharves on Hickson Rd c.1920
Wharves on Hickson Rd.
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As stevedoring operations moved to ports at Port Botany and Port Kembla, the Government of New South Wales determined that this site should be renewed as an extension of the Sydney CBD with a significant new foreshore park providing recreational areas for a growing Sydney population.[2] This area is being redeveloped into a recreational, business and shopping precinct.
The area was officially known as Millers Point and as part of the urban renewal plans, the State Government reviewed the name in 2006.[3] The Maritime Union of Australia campaigned to renew the "Hungry Mile" name, as an acknowledgement of the site's historical significance to waterside workers. A public competition was held but the name Barangaroo was selected for the new suburb and officially gazetted in 2007. The name honours Barangaroo, an important indigenous woman from Sydney's early history who was a powerful and colourful figure in the colonisation of Australia.[4] She was also the wife of Bennelong, another important indigenous figure after whom Bennelong Point is named, the site of the Sydney Opera House. A section of Barangaroo, Hickson Road between the Munn Street overbridge and the Napoleon Street intersection, was officially designated the Hungry Mile in 2009.[5
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Barangaroo in the foreground, before shipping buildings were demolished
Barangaroo, New South Wales - before shipping buildings were demolished
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Ernest Antony and the Hungry Mile (11 April 2008)
http://unionsong.com/reviews/tenyears/
Union leaders walk the Hungry Mile
http://savemillerspoint.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/union-leaders-walk-hungry-mile.html
The Hungry Miles - Part 1
The Hungry Miles is a documentary made by the Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit. It documents industrial relations on the waterfront since the 1930s and includes dramatised scenes of working conditions during the Depression. It also recounts the background to the Federal Governments 1954 amendments to the Stevedoring Industry Act, which proposed to give shipowners the right to directly recruit wharf labour and bypass the union; shows workers demonstrating; contrasts the gap between industry and workers in the division of profits; and evokes the spirit of the Eureka Stockade in portraying the solidarity amongst waterside workers. It includes voice-over narration by Leonard Teale and employs an orchestral score. Filmed and produced by Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit (WWFFU) members - Norma Disher, Keith Gow and Jock Levy (1955). Posted by Jamie McMechan Maritime Union of Australia Film Unit.
http://www.mua.org.au
The Hungry Miles - Part 2
The Hungry Miles is a documentary made by the Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit. It documents industrial relations on the waterfront since the 1930s and includes dramatised scenes of working conditions during the Depression. It also recounts the background to the Federal Governments 1954 amendments to the Stevedoring Industry Act, which proposed to give shipowners the right to directly recruit wharf labour and bypass the union; shows workers demonstrating; contrasts the gap between industry and workers in the division of profits; and evokes the spirit of the Eureka Stockade in portraying the solidarity amongst waterside workers. It includes voice-over narration by Leonard Teale and employs an orchestral score. Filmed and produced by Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit (WWFFU) members - Norma Disher, Keith Gow and Jock Levy (1955). Posted by Jamie McMechan Maritime Union of Australia Film Unit.
http://mua.org.au
The Hungry Miles - Part 3
The Hungry Miles is a documentary made by the Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit. It documents industrial relations on the waterfront since the 1930s and includes dramatised scenes of working conditions during the Depression. It also recounts the background to the Federal Governments 1954 amendments to the Stevedoring Industry Act, which proposed to give shipowners the right to directly recruit wharf labour and bypass the union; shows workers demonstrating; contrasts the gap between industry and workers in the division of profits; and evokes the spirit of the Eureka Stockade in portraying the solidarity amongst waterside workers. It includes voice-over narration by Leonard Teale and employs an orchestral score. Filmed and produced by Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit (WWFFU) members - Norma Disher, Keith Gow and Jock Levy (1955). Posted by Jamie McMechan Maritime Union of Australia Film Unit.
http://www.mua.org.au
