sounding sydney

8/12/2019 Sounding Sydney

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Sounding Sydney:

Selected sound marks


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Todays listener might chart a

course through central Sydney,visiting these recordings inmuch the same way that onemight visit a monument orlandmark. I think of them as

sound marks, in that they allowfor experiential, earwitnessencounters with the traces of asites recorded geography.

While the recordings areintended for a site-specificencounter, they are not designedto structure your physicalnavigation of an environment.They simply to mark a space-

time, or series of space-times.When you listen, youll hear noinstructions as to which way

you should walk, or which wayyou should look. You might findyourself a bit surprised by the

sense of listening in to whathappened, right here, at anotherpoint in time.

The recordings drawextensively from the collections

of the Australian BroadcastingCorporation (ABC) and theNational Film and SoundArchive (NFSA). I gratefullyacknowledge the support of both

organisations. All recordingscan also be downloadedat sitesandsounds.net.au/soundings

Sounding Sydney:

Selected sound marksARCHIVAL TRACES OF RESONANT SPACES

produced by

Sarah BarnsPRACTICE BASED COMPONENTSOF PHD DISSERTATION


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Radio wavesMartin Place:

15 August 1945 (VP Day)It was 9am Sydney time on August15 1945 when British Prime MinisterClement Atlee announced that Japanhad surrendered unconditionally to

the Allies. The last of our enemiesis laid low he said. PEACE! roaredThe Sun. In downtown Martin Place,massive crowds spontaneously

gathered, to dance and makewhoopie in celebration of theend of the War. The ABCs TalbotDuckmanton was there that day torecord the scenes, describing to hisaudience some of the finer detailsof the setting a Hitler effigy being

hung from the windows of one ofthe banks, circles of dancing womenbefore him (fine looking ladies,too!), the din of a mosquito zoomingaround maniacally over head.

:ABC Radio, 1945.

Unruly cityThe sounds of discontent

Sydney has long been a city well-known for poor planning decisions, reflectinga historically laissez-faire approach to urban design. Planning advocateJ.D. Fitzgerald lamented in 1917 that Sydney was a city without a plan, savewhatever planning was due to the errant goat. Wherever this animal madea track through the bush, he observed, there are the streets of today.

Sydney historian Paul Ashton has subsequently called Sydney an accidentalcity, because its planning history has been shaped by, at best, opportunisticdevelopment and disjointed or abortive attempts at holistic planning. Asdeclared by one frustrated onlooker: There is no such thing as planning [in

the city of Sydney] [ it is] all opportunism on the part of every agency.That can make for some fairly unruly spaces at times, as local residents

and activists have intervened to protect their homes from speculativeproperty development, then and now. A particularly notable period for citizenactivism in Sydney was the 1960s and 1970s, when a colossal developmentboom utterly transformed the city. When developers capitalised on relaxedbuilding height restrictions and relatively low interest rates, much of Sydneys

Victorian-era buildings within the CBD were demolished, replaced bycommercial high-rise.

Residents, activists and builders labourers joined forces at this timedemanding the right for greater consultation in planning decisions. In theirheyday the BLF Green Bans were successful in holding up more than $300m

worth of development across Sydney. They saved many buildings - mostnotably the Rocks, a tourist mecca today - but not all. They also encouragedthe development of stronger participatory planning processes in Australia.But when residents dared to speak out against the loss of their homes, theyencountered the darker side of Sydneys criminal underbelly...


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UNRULY CITYSOUND MARKS

Victoria St

There are a number of sound marks

clustered around Victoria St, dealingwith the tumultuous period between1973-4 when resident action forceddelays to the construction of theVictoria Heights towers overlooking

the city.

1. I built a city of green, the best

youve ever seen:Victoria St soundwalk.

Take a leisurely walk down Victoria St,

listening in to a layered compositionof the streets recorded geography.

c. Micks funeral

In 1979 Mick Fowler died of a heart

attack, five years af ter his eviction.The funeral wake was held at 115Victoria St. Listen in to the ABCsrecording of that occasion, alongwith reflections from his friends and

the sounds of Fowler singing with hisband the Fowlhouse Five.

:

Mick Fowler interviewreproduced with permission ofPat Fiske, featured originally inWoolloomooloo.

Across the Western Suburbs WeMust Wander performed by MickFowler and the Fowlhouse Five.

Seamus Gill and Denis Kevans1973. Accessed through the NFSA.

ABC Radio 1979: Micks Funeral

b. The end of the life of Victoria St

When resident activist Mick Fowler

was evicted from his home in 1974,his supporters held a mock funeraloutside his home to mark the endof the life of victoria st. They burieda casket here labelled The Right

of Low Income Workers to Live inVictoria St. It could still be here, ifyoud like to start digging

Listen in to the speech made byresident activist Wendy Bacon thatday.

: Pat Fiske, Woolloomooloo (1978)


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BLF Green Bans 1973:The Rocks

Listen in to the sounds of the Rocksin 1973, when the BLF were fighting tosave the historic Rocks precinct fromredevelopment.

: Demonstration In Support Of Green

Bans At Rocks & Ivs Jack Mundey,Joe Owens & Norm Gallagher Of

BLF. (ABC Radio 1973) Late Night Live, Ivs Hall Greenland,

Journalist, & Jack Mundey, FormerBLF Secretary, About Activism In1970s, The Green Bans And TheCommunity Activism Inspired ByNick Origlass (ABC Radio 21-Oct-

1998) 23-Oct-1973 Rpt. & Act. Jack

Mundey At Demonstration Re BLFsGreen Bans (ABC Radio 1973)

Mick Fowler and the Fowlhouse Five

Concrete and Glass.

Ill take any bid:The Hotel Australia

Much loved hotel demolished tomake way for the MLC Centre,Australias tallest building between1978 and 1992. Listen in to thesounds of the building being

auctioned to the insurance companyin 1968. Television personality ShirleyAbicair is also featured interviewingproperty magnate LJ Hooker, along

with American Engineer Lynn Beedleextolling the virtues of tall buildings.

: Professor Lynn Beedle, American

Engineer, talks about tall buildings.ABC Radio (ABC Radio 1973)

Shirley Abicair Interviewing RealEstate Magnate LJ Hooker from

his offices in Martin Place (ABCTV 1966)

Interviews with members of the

Rowe St Society recorded by NicoleSteinke, for Radio National HindsightFeature Remembering Rowe St:Technicolour in a MonchromeWorld, ABC Radio 2005.

d. Juanitas home: 202 Victoria StJuanitas love of Kings Cross costher her life. Listen in to her speaking

about why she moved back herefrom London.

: ABC Radio, 1974.


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Building a House:The Sydney Opera House

The piece is narrated by an ABCpresenter, and deals with thetumultuous history of the SydneyOpera Houses construction,beginning with the launch of the

Sydney Opera House Trust atTown Hall in 1958 by the Premier ofNSW Joseph Cahill. It also featuresrecordings of the Sydney Opera

House by architect Jorn Utzon (1957;2004), Nobel-laureate Patrick White(1974), the late Australian modernistarchitect Harry Seidler (2004) andinterviews with construction workersat the site (1960). Also featuredhereare the sounds of the official

opening of the Sydney Opera Houseby Queen Elizabeth II in 1973, a day

when all the ships in the harbourcould be heard celebrating its officialopening.

: This Is Australia: Design And

Construction Of The Sydney OperaHouse (ABC Radio 1960)

Then disappearing:The Pyrmont Incinerator

The Incinerator was loved by itsarchitects, the Burley-Griffings,as the high point of their workin Australia. Marion MahoneyGriffin had this to say of their

accomplishment:The Sydney Incinerator erected

on the high rock promontory ofPiermont [sic] will stand we think asan historical record of 20th century

architecture. It is as beautiful, asmajestic as unique as any of thehistorical records of the past.Historically it records the basic factof the 19th Century civilisation later

emphasised by the smashing ofthe atom.

The incinerator wasdecommissioned in 1973 and left torot, a majestic industrial ruin on the

foreshore of the glit tering harbour. In1994 it was demolished to make way

for the Meriton apartments.I was able to locate very lit tle

audio-visual recordings of the

building. But I know theyre outthere somewhere...

: ABC News 1974.


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Kings Cross Nights:Darlinghurst Rd Kings Cross

Kings Cross has long been a placeto party. This sound piece featurebrings together a series of recordingsmade about the nightlife of what isknown as the dirty half mile during

the twentieth century, and the manychanges this street has witnessedto both its built and social fabric.Voices here include comic performer

Hal Lashwood, the writer RobinEakin (alter Robin Dalton), bohemianjournalist Dulcie Deamer, JoanLindsay, the contemporary socialcommentator Catherine Lumby,and a transsexual nightclub dancerfrom Les Girls called Aysha. It also

includes location recordings datedfrom the 1960s and 1980s, including

a visit to the Whiskey A-Go-Gonightclub in 1968.

:

Dulcie Deamer Interviewed by JohnThompson about her life, especiallyas a Bohemian in 1920s Sydney,ABC Radio 1973

Patrick White, Australian Author,Speaking At ALP Election Rallyat the Sydney Opera House, 13-May-1974 (ABC Radio); Opening OfThe Sydney Opera House Appeal,

Ceremony From Sydney Town Hall,07-Aug-1957 (ABC Radio); OpeningOf The Sydney Opera House ByQueen Elizabeth II 20-Oct-1973

Edited Version Of Queens Speech,Filtered To Reduce Wind Noise(ABC TV); Interview with JornUtzon, 2004 (ABC Radio 2004).

Interview with entertainer HalLashwood(ABC Radio 1986)

Interview with Robin Eakin (ABCRadio 1988) Ayesha InterviewedAs Part Of People Of The Cross,

6(Radio National 1998) Interviews With Joan Lindsay And

Catherine Lumby Sourced FromBohemian Rhapsody (ABC TV

Documentaries, 2002) Sydney Lord Mayor Nelson Meers

And ALP Mp Tom Uren Re KingsCross High Rise Development(ABCRadio 1988)

Location recordings of KingsCross sourced from Within One

Square Mile a radio documentaryproduced for the ABC Listening

Room by composer Paul CharliersHouse. Within One Square Mileincludes recordings made within

one square mile of the composershome in Kings Cross Sydney in 1992.


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