Save the Heritage and The Community of Millers Point, Dawes Point & The Rocks before it’s all GONE.
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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?' ”
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 SquareMcAloon 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.
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.
For more than a decade, Owen’s three-word ministry has intrigued the people in the one million vehicles that cross the Harbour Bridge each week, but tonight his ONE WAY JESUS sign will shine for the last time. Housing NSW is “relocating” Owen away from The Rocks. He did not want to go but felt he could no longer resist their pressure on him to leave. Owen’s flat in the Sirius apartments has been one of the few still occupied in the central tower on the western side. Over the past few days, neighbours have been farewelling him, and like others who have left, he will retain ties with the area.
Buildings are an asset but people are a cost. That's how the O'Farrell Government sees social housing - especially in valuable parts of Sydney, like Millers Point, writes Evan Jones
In October 2012 the O’Farrell Government announced that it intended to sell off the entire public housing stock at Millers Point in inner Sydney.
Millers Point is of enormous historical significance. It was the hub from which Sydney Cove traded with the Old World and housed the coastal shipping link to other colonial settlements. It was the early home to merchant princes and the long term home to the labour that moved the goods.
Millers Point is bordered on its east by the commercialised touristy neighbour, The Rocks, under which latter name it is regularly subsumed.
Carved out from historic Millers Point on its west is Barangaroo. Formerly East Darling Harbour, or "the Hungry Mile" to its wharfies, it was destined for redevelopment with the decision to move all commercial shipping to Botany Bay. Contrary to public and expert opinion, the O’Farrell Government is planning a white collar enclave (plus high roller casino) for Barangaroo.
"Inevitably, when considering the future of Millers Point, the government needs to consider it in the context of all of the surrounding areas, including the Barangaroo redevelopment area."
It appears that public housing tenants give off a bad odour. The poor are always with us, but preferably far removed.
The humble residents of Millers Point have perennially been playthings in the hands of a succession of authorities. In 1900 the State Government resumed the area, ostensibly because of the outbreak of plague. But historians Shirley Fitzgerald and Christopher Keating highlight that the reasons lay elsewhere.
The first reason was to nationalise the wharves and modernise them, and the Sydney Harbour Trust (SHT) was created towards this end. The second was to facilitate reclamation for the ultimate construction of a harbour bridge (with significant dislocation in the 1920s).
Much housing was demolished as the Point was reshaped, centred on the present-day Hickson Road. But the wharves needed labour, and readily available. Thus the SHT came to build more residences after 1908, and shops and even hotels to service the residents. The SHT (after 1936, the Maritime Services Board) became the landlord, if reluctant, to local residents.
The SHT/MSB’s partial neglect had mixed implications. Internal repairs and alterations were done by tenants at their discretion, and many tenancies became hereditary – contributing to a local sense of "ownership" and social cohesion.
More housing disappeared (and the point itself of Millers Point) during the 1960s as the MSB accommodated container shipping, and the Harbour Control Tower was built in 1974.
The 1960s also saw developers sniffing out virgin territory for high rise. Such development was already creeping up from the southern end. The Askin government created the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority in 1968 but developer optimism ran into the unexpected brick wall that was the Green Bans movement. The hostile invasion was repelled.
A Public Service Board audit in the early 1980s forced the MSB to divest non-port related land. Residents became Housing Commission (now Housing NSW) tenants by default. There is a change of status, subtle but important, from state-owned housing to public housing.
Housing NSW never adjusted to its peculiar inheritance of Millers Point with its historic and irregular real estate and the historic and non-subservient community that resided therein. It proceeded to systematically neglect required maintenance, often strategically so. It closed shops and closed the post office to disadvantage tenants.
As Finance Minister Pearce claimed in October:
"Much of the Land and Housing Corporation's portfolio at Millers Point is poorly suited for social housing, being heritage-listed older houses which cannot be modified to meet modern requirements, particularly access requirements, and are expensive to maintain."
If Housing NSW had committed itself to responsible maintenance from the beginning of its tenure as landlord, costs might have been better under control.
Interviews conducted by Penelope Bowyer-Pont in 2011 for a Macquarie University thesis disclose that maintenance is not the landlord’s only foible. Residents highlight that officers have been consistently inaccessible. This in spite of the Mission Statement, "We are committed to transparency in all of our business endeavours".
The Green Bans and Wran Labor’s 1977 Heritage Act saved most of the buildings, but not the people, who remained fair game. Ditto for the Heritage listing of all properties in 2007.
In 1985 Unsworth Labor handed over the Walsh Bay precinct to private developers. In 1988-89 the Greiner Coalition Government attempted to sell off some housing plus a couple of hotels, including the iconic Hero of Waterloo. That attempt, symptomatic of the Greiner era, was then too brazen to succeed.
In 2006, Iemma Labor proposed the 99-year lease of 16 properties, the revenue purportedly to contribute to the public housing budget. The properties went in 2008, with the then Housing Minister noting that the government needed "the most bang for our buck". This was supposed to be a one-off. But another 20 properties were added in 2010-11. And now the lot.
Housing NSW’s PR screed for the de facto sell-off in 2007 claimed "prestigious, heritage-listed properties … located in a stunning part of the city". Robert McCuaig, of Colliers International, consultant to the Government, claimed that the housing involved “lazy assets”, an “extremely inefficient waste of capital and resources”.
Lazy assets indeed. As Bowyer-Pont reported from a new resident of Millers Point opining to an old, the former having sunk their hard-earned into an expensive renovation: “Why do you think you have the right to stay here?”
For the authorities, and particularly the predatory real estate agents, the tenants exist at best; they don’t inhabit. Here is a latter day terra nullius. As for the idea of community, that intangible glue that gives a landscape vibrancy, humanity – inconceivable for public housing. Lacking acculturation, public housing tenants thus can live anywhere, and they will live anywhere because it is at our discretion.
Housing NSW is now a division within the Department of Family and Community Services, and the Land and Housing Corporation (created in 2001) was moved into the Department of Finance and Services when the O’Farrell Government took office in April 2011. The people (a cost) and the real estate (a valuable asset) have been administered separately, and without a Minister for Housing.
Here is the bureaucratic cultural divide: Family & Community Services, a bottomless pit of human casualties and unsolvable problems, is an endless drain on the Treasury. The Government wants to shift public housing in its entirety (and child care) onto the federal budget.
The City Council, under Mayor Clover Moore, has long been involved with the residents and has supported retention of the area for social housing. But the State Government, disdainful of Moore’s Council, refuses cooperation even on a simple integrated cycleway, let alone on Millers Point.
Early in 2013, the O’Farrell Government engaged a consultancy to do a Social Impact Assessment Survey of the impact of the planned sell-off and dispersal of the residents. Rather than being passive bystanders, a group representative of residents, CoRE, was established to provide input – people with experience, involvement, memory, a legacy, and (inextricably!) a collective consciousness.
Options that CoRE has offered to the LHC include conversion to a Cooperative structure or restructured under a Community Tenancy Association. Currently vacant houses would be sold to finance renovations and development of the alternative structure. The consultation process continues.
Two unexpected developments occurred in early August. An Auditor-General’s report, Making the Best Use of Public Housing, exposes the budgetary crisis. Nevertheless, the report claims that LHC’s de facto response of selling off properties (budgeted at $165 million for 2012-13) and rationing capital/maintenance expenditure "is not financially sustainable long-term".
More, following the sacking of the troubled Greg Pearce from the Finance Ministry, LHC has been (desirably) relocated to FACS. The FACS website plays a straight bat:
“This change will allow for better coordination of policy settings across tenant and asset management to improve services and lives for vulnerable people in NSW.”
Millers Point embodies both the general financing dilemma of social housing and a legend in state/social housing provision. Can wholesale gentrification of Millers Point be resisted?
A guest appearance today from our Executive Officer, Julie Foreman on the importance of the Sirius apartments in Sydney's heritage.
“A landmark building”
“Housing is more than real estate”
“Cities should not be enclaves of the rich”
These are just a few comments from the speakers of a forum I attended last week. Held at the NSW Parliament, the forum shone a light on the social and historical importance of the Sirius building. Speakers reflected on important themes – many of which have been left out of the Government’s analysis and policy development regarding the Millers Point sell off.
Sirius apartments, watercolour and ink on board. Powerhouse Museum collection 2013/36/1
Panel members at the forum were the architect of the Sirius building, Tao Gofers, the Chair of Urban Planning and Policy at University of Sydney Professor Peter Phibbs, the Director of City Futures at University of NSW Professor Bill Randolph, curator and architecture writer Charlie Pickett, and Millers Point resident Mary Sutton.
They led an insightful discussion about the importance, and the history of social and affordable housing in NSW. I learnt much, including the fact that the compact kitchen we enjoy in apartments today was the result of the design and development of public housing in Holland in the 1920’s!
We heard about the iconic importance of Sirius - purpose built by the then Housing Commission. Tao Gofers, the architect talked with enthusiasm of breaking new ground with the design, which had input from the Resident Action Group and the Government.
The design is practical and beautiful; with murals in the entrance inspired by Spanish cave paintings, a photographic mural of the city skyline captured in 1978 hangs in the community room and pictures of the Harbour Bridge in various stages of completion adorn the walls of each of the floors. The roof visible to many via the Harbour Bridge became an important part of the design with roof top gardens.
Professor Peter Phibbs was the peer reviewer for the social impact assessment for the Millers Point sales. He expressed his astonishment that the Sirius building which was not included in the social impact study was then included in the sale proposal! No subsequent social impact of the sale of Sirius has been undertaken.
Peter noted that Sirius did not raise the same repair and maintenance issues as other homes in Millers Point. In fact it was a shining example of a number of Government policy directions – aging in place, need for smaller social housing stock and social mix.
He described the sales as a ‘clumsy and cruel’ policy particularly because of its impact on elderly tenants and because there are other financially viable alternatives. Options such as: · building new purpose built homes for Millers Point residents or · relocating residents from Millers Point to Sirius to maintain their social connections or · slowing the sale process to allow residents to age in place or conducting a partial sale and using the funds to facilitate the sustainable upkeep of the remaining dwellings. [At least twoindependent, expert reports have identified financial viable alternatives]
Professor Bill Randolph broadened the debate to discuss the impact of the sale on all of Sydney and put it in an international context. His research demonstrates that Sydney is polarising, both socially and economically. Moving away from the more egalitarian city that existed 30 years ago, inner Sydney is set to become an enclave for the rich. Bill acknowledged that the real estate boom has only assisted a few and that Treasury today views public housing as a financial asset to be exploited rather than a social asset. You would have to agree with him that that seeing a city as “purely as real estate shows no imagination or maturity”. Sirius is a social asset paid for by all of us and belonging to all of us.
This is certainly how my father thought. As a child he would bring the family in by train from Wiley Park to enjoy the Rocks and Millers Point and proudly say to his children that this belonged to all of us. He didn’t feel jealous and he didn’t mind contributing taxes from his meagre wages to create a better city for all.
Bill also highlighted how the Treasury approach contrasted with trends in European and American cities. New York has inclusionary zoning, for example. European countries are expanding access to affordable housing in their cities.
Bill stated that the Millers Point and Sirius policy was another brick in the wall of social divide, noting that a disparate group - President Obama, Pope Frances and the head of the IMF cautioned against such policies, that encouraged social exclusion and led to further social and economic costs.
Charles Pickett confirmed the importance of Sirius in Australian architecture history and hailed its success as a public housing building. In the early 1900s the government built model workers public housing in the area - low rise and terraces. Critics at the time said it would become slums! Charles concluded that Sirius is the last major piece of architecture built in this tradition and must be retained.
Mary Sutton gave a detailed history of the building which we hope to soon bring to you on the blog.
If like me you value our social history and want to live in a socially inclusive city let the Minister for Heritage know and ask him to save our sirius.
Sydney’s historic inner suburb, Millers Point, will receive greater protection after proposed amendments to the City of Sydney’s planning controls.
The new Local Environment Plan (LEP) restricts changes to the existing height and floor spaces for Millers Point Heritage Conservation Area properties.
Minor increases to these dimensions will be allowed if the changes are consistent with heritage recommendations.
These changes to the LEP mean historic buildings will be protected as new owners move into the area.
With 293 total potential sales of government-owned and heritage-listed properties in Millers Point, the NSW Heritage Council called for a review of the area’s planning controls.
Lord Mayor Clive Moore says, “We are trying to provide consistency and certainty for future home owners in Millers Point, while protecting the area’s irreplaceable history”.
“This proposal helps protect these buildings as they move into private ownership, and has the strong support of the Central Sydney Planning Committee,” Moore says.
The City will be holding a 28 day public exhibition period if public exhibition is approved by the NSW Minister for Planning, Pru Goward. This will give a chance to the community to voice their opinions on the proposal.
Millers Point was Australia’s first public housing site, developed between 1810 and 1930 for the maritime industry workers, better known as wharfies. Since the 1980’s, the NSW Government has used Millers Point for social housing, and the iconic suburb has been able to keep its character intact throughout the years.
In an event hosted by Clover Moore and Lee Rhiannon today, the City of Sydney celebrated Jack Mundey’s election to the council thirty years ago, his contribution as an alderman and before that as BLF Secretary when Green Bans halted plans to demolish The Rocks, Victoria Street (Kings Cross), large parts of Woolloomooloo, and sections of Glebe. The city would have been a very different place without Jack Mundey and the BLF Green Bans, Nita McCrae and The Rocks Resident Action Group and the independent councillors of the City of Sydney. We thank them all for the city they have delivered to us, and for their continuing efforts to protect it and the residents of Millers Point and The Rocks.
Earlier this week, a coalition of inner-city groups, including the Friends of Millers Point, rallied outside the NSW Parliament in support of public housing. There was strong support from the Labor Party, the Greens and independents, and it was heartening to see many politicians from all levels of government standing up for public housing and the community of Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks.
Legendary Green Bans Campaigner Jack Mundey has been named Patron of the Friends of Millers Point ahead of this week’s Save Public Housing Rally at NSW Parliament House.
“The community has again turned to Jack Mundey for support, and we are delighted to announce he has agreed to be the first Patron of the Friends of Millers Point,” said Convenor, Kelli Haynes.
“We certainly need people across the community to rally once again behind Jack and Friends of Millers Point to save the people and the heritage of The Rocks, Millers Point and Dawes Point."
“Not only are the residents at risk, but also so is the purpose-built worker and social housing constructed in this area throughout the 20th century,” Ms Haynes said. "The destruction of a well functioning community where private owners and public housing tenants live and support each other, is also a terrible waste of tax payer's money and a loss of public assets."
“We believe most of the workers’ accommodation will be lost, including the terraces of Windmill Street, the flats of High Street and most disturbingly, the Sirius Apartments which were built as a direct result of the Green Bans.
“The Rocks Green Ban was only lifted in order to allow the building of the Sirius Apartments, which now stand as a monument to the power of ordinary people - workers and residents to join together and shape the environment in which they live.'
“The State Government needs to come up with a better plan for public housing than turfing vulnerable people out of an area many have lived in throughout their lives.”
The Rally: With the rally to be held in Macquarie Street at noon this Wednesday (19 November),Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks Public Housing Tenants Groupspokesperson and long term resident Barney Gardner welcomed Mundey as Patron.
“I hope Wednesday’s rally draws the same inspiration from the power of collective community action that Jack helped make famous in the 1970s Green Bans movement.
Mr Gardner said this week’s rally is calling on the State Government for more money for more public housing rather than funding it through selling existing properties in affluent areas such as The Rocks.
Background:Forty years ago Jack Mundey and the BLF joined local communities in environmental activism. This was the birth of the Green Bans. One of the first and most hard-fought Green Bans was the struggle to save The Rocks.
In the early 1970s, money was pouring into commercial and speculative property development, and old buildings were in the way.
In The Rocks, Jack Mundey and the BLF fought alongside Nita McCrae and The Rocks Resident Action Group for the preservation of this community and the buildings which are now considered some of the most significant heritage buildings in our country.
Film afternoon
Rocking the Foundations
Pat Fiske’sRocking the Foundations is being screened at the Abraham Mott Hall at 3:00pm on Saturday 6 December.
John Hinde said it is “an exhilarating and complete account of the Green Bans – one of the most important developments in union history. An uplifting film for the sheer energy of the people involved.”
Rocking the Foundations includes stories of the 1970s Green Bans, Jack Mundey and local identity Nita McCrae who together fought to save The Rocks from developers and from plans for high-rise office towers.
Joining Pat Fiske in discussion after the film will be Jack Mundey, Sirius architect Theo Gofers, and filmmakers Helen Barrow and Blue Lucine who have each been filming in Millers Point for many months. Free entry (or by donation).
Visit the Save Millers Point Facebook page to see who is coming and add your name to the list.
The sale of public housing at Millers Point is set to raise the the NSW government hundreds of millions of dollars. Photo: Tamara Dean
Thousands fewer Sydney families are living in public housing, as demand grows and the government demolishes and sells homes just to keep the system afloat.
New figures reveal about 139,500 NSW households live in public housing, or 2300 fewer than two years ago.
The NSW government has demolished or sold about 6000 properties in the past four years, as its bill for repairs rises towards half a billion dollars.
In the same period, the number of new homes the government builds each year has more than halved, to 440 in the past financial year.
Hal Pawson, a Professor of Housing Research and Policy at UNSW, said the figures showed the state government was being forced to use more of the federal government's grants for building homes instead to pay for day-to-day repairs.
"The government is addicted to sales," he said. "Funding used to be used for investment in new housing, but over the past 10 years the growing deficit means none of that is available. They're having to use all of it just to balance the books.
"It means there's going to be fewer houses available."
Sale of public housing has been under way for a decade but reached a peak last year and will rise again in the coming two.
The housing waiting list grew about 3.5 per cent to nearly 60,000 this year; it will grow to more than 80,000 by 2016 according to projections.
And the shortage is hitting Sydney's major growth in the south-western suburbs the hardest, analysis by the state opposition shows.
About 670 more Bankstown families are seeking public housing now than three years ago but in that time the number of local houses available to them has fallen by about 220.
In Campbelltown there are 1400 fewer houses and about 130 additional families.
"Society's most vulnerable, the elderly, frail and low-income families are missing out," opposition housing spokeswoman Sophie Cotsis said.
Numbers on the waiting list represent about half those who need housing, according to the NSW Auditor-General's report in 2013.
Deputy CEO of the NSW Council of Social Services John Mikelsons is lobbying the state government to devote money from the privatisation of assets to new housing: "It is clear NSW is becoming less and less capable of meeting demand."
The sale of 206 homes at Millers Point alone is, on some estimates, likely to raise up to $500 million for government coffers.
Family and Community Services Minister Gabrielle Upton has refused to say specifically where it might be spent, except to guarantee it would go back into the social housing system. "We can reinvest the proceeds into more new homes," she said.
Forecasts by the NSW Auditor suggested a total of 4000 homes may be up for sale in 2014 and following three years.
Mrs Upton said the government inherited a housing system with deep structural problems.
The minister said next year's budget allocated $121 million for new homes, and $491 million for property maintenance and upgrades, a 30 per cent increase on previous years.
"The budget of $121 million in new supply will see the commencement of 759 public housing dwellings and the completion of 443 dwellings," she said.
But Professor Pawson said it was questionable how much would be used to buy more houses.
"It's very notable that no clear commitment has been made," he said. "You can only draw the conclusion that the priority is entirely about keeping the system afloat".
He said federal government funding was not enough to bridge the gap between what poor tenants could pay and the cost of running houses
The government's maintenance bill last year hit $220 million and a further $180 million was spent on upgrades.
The Sirius building at The Rocks turned 35 this month, but its architect fears its days are numbered.
The concrete brutalist building, which rubs shoulders with the Harbour Bridge, has been lobbed in with the government sell-off of public housing in the Millers Point precinct, sparking fears the new owner will look to capitalise on its prime position by knocking it down.
The state government has refused to release any detail about the plans for the block, other than reiterating it is "committed" to the sale.
Future unknown: The Sirius building in The Rocks is part of the state government's sell-off of public housing. Photo: Steve Lunam
Architect Tao Gofers said he would be "very pissed off" if the government allowed the next owner to flatten the building.
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It was a sentiment echoed by most of the speakers on an expert panel convened at Parliament House in Sydney on Thursday.
The forum was organised by state MPs Jan Barham, from the Greens, and Labor's Sophie Cotsis to discuss the future of the building and its residents
The staggered brown building is an example of Brutalist architecture. Photo: Rick Stevens
Known by many for its "One Way Jesus" sign, which has greeted Harbour Bridge motorists for the past decade, the block of 79 apartments has attracted a fair share of criticism over the years.
When it was unveiled in 1980 the National Trust dubbed it "the lump on The Rocks", while the minister for planning at the time described it as "damned awful".
At the time Mr Gofers told the Sydney Morning Herald he was "not worried about the criticism. People will accept it in three to four years".
Mr Gofers only regret is the colour: the original plan was for it be white like the Opera House.
"When we were finally starting the concrete works they came to me and said 'we have to save $200,000; let's take the white cement out', and I agreed," he said.
"I have kicked myself for 35 years."
Curator and architecture writer Charles Pickett said "Sirius is a great success of public housing".
"It is a very special building and it deserves to continue to be part of The Rocks," he said.
The building was purpose-built for ageing public housing tenants who had been displaced during the redevelopment of The Rocks in the 1970s. Its approval marked a compromise between the state government and Green Bans activists who were fighting to keep working-class people in the area.
The head of developer lobby group Urban Taskforce, Chris Johnson, said Sirius was "a building of its time" and the government should allow the new owner to give it a "radical makeover".
"The government needs to make sure it is not encumbered by heritage restrictions that would prevent it from becoming a better building," he said.
"It would dramatically limit the value of the building if it had to stay as it is."
Asked whether the State government would prevent the new owner from knocking the building down, the Minister for Family and Community Services, Gabrielle Upton, said: "Arrangements for the sale of the building are yet to be determined."
She also said that "the City of Sydney's planning and building controls will apply".
On Thursday, City of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore vowed to support the campaign to prevent the eviction of Sirius tenants.
"The city very strongly supports the campaign to prevent this loss," she said.
"The whole thing is really depressing."
One of the residents, Myra Demetriou, is deeply troubled by the government's eviction plans.
"I've been with my ophthalmologist and my GP for 25 years and they are in the city, so I am not about to go anywhere else," she said.
The 88-year-old is legally blind and can't climb steps.
"[Sirius] is just wonderful for me, I've got a ramp to go in and two lifts and what more could you want?" she said.
Ms Demetriou said it would be "an absolute disgrace" if the government allowed the building to be torn down once the residents had been evicted.
Ms Upton said "the funds realised by selling the Sirius building will assist many people needing public housing".
However, given the land is currently owned by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, it has not been made clear how funds from the sale would flow to the Department of Family and Community Services.
Government Property NSW is handling the sale, which will occur within the next two years.
For sale: 287 homes needing million-dollar makeovers, most in spitting distance of Sydney harbor and its iconic Opera House. Wanted: Somewhere to shift a low-income, angry community.
A shabby three-bedroom house offering a view of Sydney Harbour Bridge from a small upstairs window earned the New South Wales state government A$2.3 million ($2 million) in September, after lying vacant for almost two years. It was the fifth auction in a mass sell-off of public housing that’s displacing central Sydney’s oldest working class neighborhood.
“One of the reasons we wanted to move here is it’s full of character, it’s a mixed community,” said John Bulford, 53, a former banker who paid A$1.75 million for a 99-year lease on a rundown house in the area three years ago. “This could just become a ghetto for lawyers and bankers.”
Australia’s most populous state, eager to protect a AAA credit rating amid a ballooning housing budget deficit, has unearthed a goldmine in the district that was once home to deported convicts.
While surging property prices have created the nation’s most valuable public housing stock, the sell-off comes at the expense of residents who once thought they had subsidized homes for life in the former slum, now nestled between the central business district and a A$7 billion development of a new financial precinct.
Brutalist Block
The state has spent almost A$7 million maintaining the homes over two years, with costs more than four times the average for New South Wales public housing, it said when first announcing the sale in March. For every property sold in the program, which includes 79 apartments in the concrete brutalist Sirius building in the historic Rocks district, three could be built elsewhere to help accommodate 59,000 households waiting for public housing, it has since said.
Barney Gardner, 65, who has lived in Millers Point his whole life, isn’t convinced.
“It’s a planned attack by the government to get rid of us; by not doing maintenance the places have deteriorated,” he said. “It’s basically eviction by dereliction.”
In Gardner’s home, natural light is scant and his backyard is a narrow alleyway. In the bathroom and second bedroom, parts of walls are without paint after lacking proper maintenance for at least a decade, he said. Tenants pay a quarter of their income in rent, in Gardner’s case about A$108 a week.
Six-Star Hotel
From his front porch, Gardner regards another world. Where wharves that supported Sydney’s shipping industry sat for more than a century, workers hired by Lend Lease Group are building Barangaroo, a new financial district of skyscrapers, luxury apartments and a six-star hotel and casino.
“It’s morally the correct decision; it’s taxpayers’ money that’s been subsidizing the housing here,” said Blair Hayden, 63, who co-owns the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel, the nation’s oldest pub brewery, in the Rocks district. “Whilst I feel for the people tremendously, things move, things change.”
A road alongside the pub will be one of the main walking thoroughfares to Barangaroo when it’s finished, he said.
Millers Point was among the first areas of Sydney to be settled by Europeans after Britain established a penal colony in 1788. It prospered as one of the city’s most important maritime areas, until the bubonic plague hit in 1900, and the state government seized thousands of properties to disinfect them, Shirley Fitzgerald and Christopher Keating wrote in “Millers Point: The Urban Village.”
Wharf Workers
In the 1920s, the state rented the homes to wharf workers, creating Sydney’s first public housing. Residents could make their own improvements and pass the homes on to their children.
“The properties were definitely assumed to be secure, not only for their own use but for their children and descendants,” Fitzgerald and Keating wrote.
The rest of Sydney looked on the area as a slum, until a 1960s construction boom had developers coveting its water views and proximity to the city center, according to the book. The threat to its heritage and close-knit community drew protests, and the city designated Millers Point a residential precinct, putting pre-20th century buildings on a preservation list.
The push to offload state-owned properties in the area started in the late 1980s when the government, amid protests, began advertising some hotels and shops for sale to raise funds to provide other homes. It irked locals further in 2010 by offering 99-year leases on a further 36 homes.
“The fact that the government is willing to clear that area of anyone who can’t afford A$1.5 million or A$2 million for a home is the sort of thing that governments shouldn’t be in the business of doing,” said Bill Randolph, director of the University of New South Wales’ City Futures Research Centre. “It’s government sponsored gentrification.”
Authorities say proceeds from the sales will be spent on new homes and maintenance.
‘Strong Connection’
“While the government understands that Millers Point tenants have a strong connection to the area, it needs to balance this against its obligation to make sure that public resources are used to benefit as many people in need as possible,” the Department of Family and Community Services said in an e-mailed response to questions. “All proceeds of the sales will be invested in the social housing system.”
Still, a lack of detail about plans for new housing has failed to convince critics that supply will increase.
“I don’t trust that commitment at all,” said Darcy Byrne, a councillor and former mayor of Leichhardt Council, an inner Sydney suburb about 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) southwest of Millers Point, which has joined with surrounding councils in a campaign against future public housing sales. “They’ve yet to identify a single example of where new housing will be built.”
Surging Prices
Six of the Millers Point properties have been sold in closed auctions as part of a pilot round of sales that raised A$15 million. Three more homes are to be auctioned next month. The state is benefiting from Sydney house prices that RP Data Pty said jumped 14 percent in the year through October, taking the median tag to A$792,000.
Millers Point’s median has soared 34 percent in the past year to A$1.38 million, according to Domain Group, and RP Data named it Australia’s fourth-priciest suburb. Still, many homes being sold require about A$1 million of renovations, estimates Bulford, who had to fix a leaky roof, falling plaster, a collapsed floor and damp in the basement.
Some of the heritage-listed properties are located under the Harbour Bridge, meaning residents must put up with the steady roar of commuter trains passing overhead. For Gardner, who like other residents is being offered relocation expenses, it’s the only home he’s ever known.
“What if they offered me a penthouse somewhere?” he said. “Nah. This is where I was born.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Nichola Saminather in Sydney at nsaminather1@bloomberg.net; Chris Bourke in Sydney at cbourke4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net Edward Johnson
The custom-built assisted living complex Sirius celebrated its 35th birthday this month, but the milestone could be its last in light of the State Government’s Millers Point sell-off.
For more than three decades, the complex has combined aged and family units in the one development, providing an invaluable service to Sydney’s vulnerable community.
However despite its importance, the historic development is now under threat as the State Government prepares to sell the 79-room apartment complex along with public housing in Millers Point.
Sirius residents in the complex’s in-house community centre.
Friends of Millers Point member John Dunn said the Government’s proposed sale of Sirius was unjust.
“We knew Millers Point was at risk earlier in the year but when they announced Sirius was going to be sold as well we were stunned. It was just slipped into the proposal and that was that.
“It had never been included in any studies and had never been talked about at meetings. It was just tossed in.”
Mr Dunn said the apartments play a vital role in the housing and protection of Sydney aged and vulnerable residents.
Sirius celebrated its 35th birthday this month.
The Millers Point community has rallied to try and save the area’s public housing.
“There are very few places around the city which can accommodate people with accessibility issues – the only other place nearby which really could is Darling House but that is closing down as well,” he said.
“There is one local resident, Myra, who is in her 80s and is blind. She has lived in the area for years and she gets around OK because she knows Millers Point.
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If she were to be moved she would have no idea of her surroundings and her independence would be lost.
“I have a full study in my possession that was undertaken that proves Sirius doesn’t need money spent on it, it is in fabulously good condition and any comments that say otherwise are simply false.
“The State Government looks set on moving all the residents out so they can sell the complex as a single package despite the important role it plays and its historic value to The Rocks community.”
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and State independent MP Alex Greenwich show solidarity with Millers Point residents when the sell-off was announced in March.Source: News Corp Australia
30 Argyle Pl was auctioned for $1.71 million.Source: Supplied
This rundown home at 23 Lower Fort St sold for $2.685 million.Source: Supplied
Created by Tao Gofers in 1975, the Sirius apartment was designed and built as a consequence of the Green Bans of the early 1970s and community opposition to plans to demolish the historic buildings along the western side of Circular Quay.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Family and Community Services said there had been no time frame announced for the sale of Sirius apartments.
The State Government have also announced the sale of three more Millers Point properties in the lead-up to Christmas, all situated on Argyle Place, one with Harbour Bridge and North Sydney views.
The three properties, which date from the mid 1840s, are scheduled to go to auction through McGrath Estate Agents on December 4.
The six Millers Point properties sold to date have netted the State Government over $15 million.
Sirius resident Myra is blind and unsure of what her future holds.
Darling House in Millers Point may close down following the NSW government’s decision to remove a long-standing rent agreement.
This agreement, called peppercorn rent, is a nominal rental sum used to satisfy legal requirements. Darling House, an aged care home, has been paying $5 a week rent in a deal set more than 20 years ago and served to benefit the elderly. The facility will close in March as ageing residents seek new places to live.
The move has been made as the NSW government looks to earn market value for buildings such as Darling House. Other inner city community service sites are attempting to negotiate this removal. The Glebe Youth Service could have a decision as early as this week.
Some peppercorn rent agreements were as low as $1 per year, allowing services to focus on the support of the community.
Councillor Irene Doutney told City Hub thatthere were rumours about the removal last year but nobody believed the government would go through with it.
“Darling House is a beautiful house, it’s got 9 people living in it, why would they do it? I think it’s appalling to do this to seniors.”
Cr Doutney is concerned this will impact more non-profit community groups.
“It’s not just Darling House; in the report I read they talk about all peppercorn rents so that’s going to affect other public services and threaten community centres. The government removed the peppercorn rent so they can make money.”
Chairman of Darling House Aged Care Association Jim Warren informed City Hub that few members of Darling House have come from the Millers Point area, so it would not be particularly important to the wider community. He also didn’t agree that rent changes were the reason for closure.
“It would be quite incorrect to in any way suggest that Darling House is closing because of the pending removal of the peppercorn rent.”
Mr Warren was of the view that Darling House would have closed either way. He admits that while it is unfortunate, the service enjoyed a longer run than everyone expected.
“The removal of the peppercorn rent was only one of a number of factors considered by the Board in reaching its decision to close, and it is likely the same decision would have been made regardless of the rent.”
John McInerney, Chairman of the Millers Point Residents Actions Group, said he doesn’t agree with Mr Warren’s assessment.
“He may believe that. It has been a community funded and community supported organisation since the start, over 21 years ago. If you change the rent from 250 dollars a year to 200,000 dollars a year it has certain implications. It doesn’t make any logical sense really.”
A Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) spokesperson gave City Hub the following statement: “FACS is committed to retaining current leases based on existing conditions when they expire while any negotiations take place on new lease agreements.” Deputy Lord Mayor Robyn Kemmis told City Hub that the closing down of Darling House is a tragedy and believes the peppercorn rent decision impacted the Millers Point service.
Millers Point has been at the centre of housing controversy of late, with squatters being evicted from an Argyle Place property in September as the government plans to sell hundreds of public housing homes.
Cr Doutney is focused on assessing all options to support the community, regardless of why the services are closing.
“I’ll be putting up a notice of motion to see if there is anything we can do. It was suggested to me that the only thing we can do is buy Darling House and I don’t think we could afford to do that.”
Cr Doutney believes all community services and centres will be threatened, especially in Millers Point.
“Millers Point is being cleansed, it is being wiped out. I hear over 40 percent of the residents are gone, so they’re being very successful. And when you’re dealing with older people, you’re too old to fight anymore, and it’s a terrible outcome to move all these people out, and to me it bodes badly for what is going to happen to other heritage housing in the future.”
Mr Warren was asked if there had been discussions between the government and Darling House.
“We have been advised the Government is reviewing all its rental arrangements. This review is ongoing, and new rentals are unlikely to be determined until about July next year. Darling House continues for the time being to enjoy a peppercorn rent.”
The timing of the decision is an issue for the residents currently living on the premises, and one that Cr Doutney doesn’t understand.
“What’s the hurry? It just looks like a big disaster. Where are those residents going to live?” said Cr Doutney.
Battles are now raging over controversial developments around Sydney Harbour. Private investors, mostly from overseas, have now bought up much of the inner city property, and are joining a corporate campaign for major new developments around Sydney Harbour.
The Lands Department building, 23-33 Bridge Street, designed by James Barnet was built in two stages in 1876-1880 and 1888-1893.
That campaign is currently focused on the Western Harbour Precinct, the city’s old industrial and residential waterfront area west of the Harbour Bridge.
A recently released report by development accounting firm PwC claims that a massive redevelopment of the area “could boost the city’s economy more than $100 million annually, … grow the western precinct into NSW’s second largest economy after the central business district … [and] boost the area’s economic potential by 3 percent to 4 percent, equalling an additional $1 billion in returns over the next ten years”.
Development lobby groups want high-rise towers to dominate in any redevelopment of the area. Chris Johnson, CEO of developer organisation Urban Taskforce told a Fairfax journalist people should stop “wimping out” about high rise towers west of the Bridge.
A representative of one major architectural practice has stated that towers up to 450 metres should be built around stations on a new metro rail system in future redevelopment.
Arguing that going ever higher is the only way to deal with urban sprawl, he said “Sydney has a 235 metre height cap – the underside of Centrepoint Tower. Do we really want a 1970s icon to be the most visible point in the city? Sydney’s population is growing … We need to cap sprawl. It is not sustainable.”
Who pays the piper?
The competition for accommodation around the harbour and in inner Sydney is pushing up real estate prices, while the government is simultaneously abandoning inner-city public housing.
At Millers Point the government is proceeding so rapidly with its plan to sell off its historic houses that many dwellings formerly occupied by aged, long-term public housing residents are now unoccupied.
The government is also cancelling an arrangement under which the Department of Community Services has rented out about 1,200 buildings for a peppercorn rent to non-profit organisations for decades. The government now wants to charge all their occupants market rental.
As a result Darling House in Millers Point will close next March, forcing its aged residents into a desperate struggle to find other accommodation. The NSW Council of Social Services and the Glebe Youth Service will also be ejected. Greens MP Jamie Parker described the government’s move as “a cruel ideological attack that will inevitably see these critical services close”.
The federal government also has a stake in the future development of Sydney Harbour. Its organisation, the Federation Trust, has custodianship over a number of former military sites dotted around the Harbour.
One of the most spectacular is at Middle Head, right opposite the harbour entrance. The area retains much of its natural bushland, but a group of unoccupied former military buildings is now the subject of a commercial proposal to convert them to a commercial aged care centre.
The local council, the National Trust, the Headland Preservation Group, and local residents (including Tony Abbott’s sister) oppose the proposal because it would involve demolition of heritage buildings, contravene the previous plan for a public park on the headland, and set a precedent for commercial exploitation of all the former harbour defence sites.
The proposal requires approval by the Trust and federal environment minister Greg Hunt. However, the Trust’s chief executive Geoff Bailey has already advised the Council to drop its opposition, because, he says, the proposed institution’s residents would appreciate the “soothing quality of the natural setting”.
A Trust board member also appears to have a conflict of interest, being the chairperson of Retirement Living Today, a digital company that advises businesses which target elderly citizens.
Nevertheless, the federal Minister and the Trust are virtually certain to give the proposal the nod.
History’s not junk, it’s a commodity
The Abbott government is also considering residential development of one of Sydney’s beachside national parks at Malabar Beach headland, as well as the nearby Anzac Rifle Range, although it has promised the NSW Rifle Association it won’t have to leave the range until the government provides another site.
History is repeating itself. In 2012 after vigorous objections by the Association the Labor government abandoned plans to incorporate the range into the national park.
Earlier, in the 1970s a geological survey by the state and federal governments found that deposits of the excruciatingly expensive prime “yellow block” sandstone needed for maintenance of historic government buildings existed below the rifle range.
However, a scheme to quarry the stone was dumped after very active lobbying by the users of the rifle range, and by NSW sandstone quarrying firms, who argued that it would drastically affect levels of employment in their areas.
Speaking of sandstone, last week the state government called for expressions of interest in the long term lease of two of the city’s most impressive late 19th-century sandstone structures, the Lands Department and Education Department buildings, and in their conversion to boutique hotels.
The project would strip the city of two landmarks that have historic associations with both these critical government functions. It would also involve a massive cost in relocating the two departments to new rented premises.
However, the government is now treating its assets as commodities which should be sold off if that would benefit the private sector. State Finance Minister, Dominic Perrotet, declared: “It makes no sense to waste those sandstone buildings housing bureaucrats in prime CBD real estate. This decision means they will be open to the public and open to tourism across the world”.
Carrying the minister’s argument to its logical conclusion, the two departments would presumably be relocated to an area where rents are cheapest, outside the CBD. That says everything about the approach of the Coalition, which has little respect for public education, the public service in general, or the public itself, for that matter.
Unless the coalition is removed from office, the monstrosity of Barangaroo is likely to be repeated around the harbour and throughout the inner city, and that would be a disaster for the entire nation.
