Marrickville Heritage Society – Foundations (40th Anniversary)

Marrickville Heritage Society is 40 years old. We look back at its formation and events which forged its activities in the early days.

The 1980s were tumultuous times in Marrickville. 

Bare-knuckle politics lead to the sacking of the Marrickville Council in 1982, and the Marrickville Historical Society – formed in 1963 – disbanded, primarily due to a lack of membership. 

This remains a common problem for local societies when people with deep links to an area are replaced by newcomers who have less interest in or knowledge of it until they themselves have been there a long time. 

However, while these negative events were unfolding, Fox and Associates were conducting a Heritage Study of Marrickville Local Government Area, commissioned by the Department of Environment and the Council. At the launch of the study, Marrickville’s chief town planner Peter Arnett invited interested people to meet again to form a society. 

And so about 45 people met in the Town Hall on 28 April 1984 forming the Marrickville Heritage Society (MHS). The founding members included born-and-bred residents, like Chrys Meader, Laurel Richardson (later Horton), and Lu Bell; people who had lived here for a long time; academics such as Barbara Little (later Le Maistre) and Ian Tyrrell and politicians such as Eve Sharpe (first woman on Marrickville council) and Richard Cashman (ex-councillor).   

Immediately people set about looking into the history of other buildings to add to the conservation list or to submit to the National Trust for listing. But this would be interrupted by the need to preserve what had already been noted as significant buildings.

In August 1986 and June 1987 two such buildings (both covered by ‘no demolition orders’) were illegally demolished. First, Rose’s Emporium at 524 Parramatta Road and then ‘Brockleigh’ at 86 Illawarra Road. 

Rose’s demolition began, suspiciously, at 4.15am on a Sunday and ‘Brockleigh’ began early on a Saturday morning. MHS members were directly involved in having the demolitions stopped initially, but were ultimately unsuccessful in both cases.    

The destruction of these buildings galvanised the society and a delegation met with the Minister for Planning and Environment and for Heritage, Bob Carr, who agreed to visit Marrickville and address the community. 

In September 1987 the minister, with an MHS contingent, was driven around Marrickville by MHS member Bruce Welch and shown houses and streets. Bruce remembers Mr Carr being shocked on seeing Gordon Street, Stanmore and exclaiming ‘these houses are better than Paddington’.

Later at the town hall in front of about 200 residents, Mr Carr noted there had only been two breaches of the 1977 Heritage Act in its first 10 years, both in Marrickville. 

He then announced a number of actions including placing 130 ‘no-demolition’ orders on buildings in the Marrickville area and a request to Marrickville Council to expedite the preparation of a Local Environment Plan (LEP) to ensure heritage items were properly protected. The Fox and Associates study was finally implemented as an LEP by Marrickville Council in 1990.

As a direct result of these demolitions, Marrickville Heritage Society established a Heritage Watch committee. This committee monitors Development Application’s to see if they are related to buildings within the LEP/Conservation Plan or whether they are significant but unrecognised. The society then makes submissions seeking their retention or considered development. For many years the committee has been headed by heritage architect and current president, Scott MacArthur.

Once established the committee was almost immediately spurred into action over the old Town Hall on Illawarra Road. The building had been neglected since passing from the Department of Education (it had been part of Marrickville Public School) to the Department of Housing. Years of neglect and wrangling were to follow until the building was finally listed on the NSW State Heritage Register in 1999. MHS President, at the time, Judith Matheson and member Bruce Welch played leading roles in highlighting the hall’s plight and ensuring that it was kept safe from vandalism.  

However, they were unable to stop the theft of two ceramic lions that sat on pedestals at the entrance to the hall. These were removed in broad daylight and have not been seen by Marrickville residents since 1990.

Over the last 40 years the society and individual members have taken up the cause of many buildings and other heritage items in our area. 

But the harsh reality of heritage conservation is that heritage is not well valued; culturally or financially. It costs – and finance always wins.

Our area has seen some shocking examples of this. A church left standing after the destruction of a large part of Sydenham (more on this later) was due for demolition by Marrickville Council. It had started life back in the 1880s and was expanded in 1901 as the Tempe Park Methodist Church. In 1969 it was purchased and consecrated as the Coptic Orthodox St Mary & St Mina Church, making it the first Coptic Church in Australia and the first Coptic Church outside Egypt.

Eventually the congregation relocated and the land, now owned by the Federal government, was presented to Marrickville Council. Although a number of uses were proposed, the building sat there until council engineers said its condition was too bad and it should be demolished.

Along with members of the Coptic Church community, the Royal Australian Historical Society and others, MHS (in particular Lorraine Beach and Scott MacArthur) lobbied for the preservation of the building. After 12 years the deed was done and, as predicted by the society 10 years earlier, it was replaced with a “remembrance to the church”. As local Federal MP, Anthony Albanese, said at the time, “If a church built in the 1880s, the first church purchased by the Coptic Orthodox community outside of the Nile Valley is not heritage then what is?” 

As every Marrickville resident knows aircraft play a prominent role in the soundscape of our area. Ever since the creation of Kingsford Smith Airport people have been affected by air traffic.

Florence (Lu) Bell, a founding member of MHS, attended Petersham Public School in 1945 when an aircraft exploded overhead, killing both pilots. Lu has been instrumental in ensuring that this event is remembered by our community. There are a number of plaques in the grounds of what is now Petersham TAFE. Lu donated all her papers relating to the crash and her work to Marrickville Council in 2005 and in 2006 received the, first ever, Marrickville Council Special Achievement Award in recognition of her efforts. 

Publicity about the Petersham disaster brought to light a 1946 air crash. This time a plane crashed into Lewisham Hospital, killing the plane’s observer and two young workers from the hospital kitchen. Iris Thompson was 19 years old and Jack Smith was 17. MHS member Richard Blair took up the task of recognition. MHS held a commemoration on the 50^th anniversary and liaised with Marrickville Council to produce a memorial plaque. This was unveiled in 1997 by deputy mayor Carmel Tebbutt. 

From very early on MHS had been involved in opposition to the third runway at Kingfsord Smith Airport. 

In its submission on the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) the society emphasised the significant increase in aircraft noise “and the decline and ultimate loss of items of environmental heritage significance.“

Many might think that this was drawing a long bow and just more Nimbyism. However, as far back as the 1970s there had been discussion about demolishing Marrickville Public School (1864) because of aircraft noise. Better to demolish and rebuild was the argument, thankfully lost in this case.

Demolition was also seen as the answer to aircraft noise generated by the new runway, which would affect Sydenham. It was thought easier and quicker to build the runway immediately and pay residents to move. The Badgery’s Creek proposal was kicked down the road for another 25 years.

Today, people may not realise that the areas known as Sydenham Green and Rainbow Park were, in fact, thriving communities for over 100 years.

Comprising well over 120 houses, the area was levelled and the community dispersed, gone forever. Except for MHS members Harry and Del Stone. 

They lived in a house built for Harry’s grandfather, Heinrich Stonz (name changed after WW1) in the late 1800s. Three generations of Harry’s family had lived in the house and ran a business in the shed/factory at the back. For a while Harry and Del became media sensations, particularly after the release of the movie ‘The Castle’. They did manage to preserve the house. But their friends, neighbours, and community had gone.  

It is hard for many today to see heritage in this way. Now that everything is monetised, it is often assumed that people concerned about heritage are really just trying to preserve their ‘assets’, not their history and built heritage.  

Marrickville Heritage Society’s focus has always been on the built and cultural heritage of our area. Not every development is opposed; we highlight developers of the past who helped create Marrickville.

The latest anti-heritage catchphrase is “we don’t live in museums.” But of course we do live with our history all around us – good and bad. Many of us live in houses and shop in buildings that are at least 100 years old. Ask the people of Rome (Italy), Istanbul (Turkiye), New York (USA), Quanzhou (PR China), Samarkand (Uzbekistan), and Djenne (Mali) whether they are living in museums or not.  We are no different.

What is special about our area is that it is a living museum with a mixture of houses from all periods of its growth. It is a fine example of how things have developed over time. Marrickville Heritage Society remains committed to preserving it for future generations.

Rod Aanensen

I wish to say a big thank you to those ‘veterans’ who have helped with this story and to all those who have worked so hard for the society and Marrickville over the last 40 years. You may not have been mentioned in this story but you have not been forgotten.