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In the face of local frustration
and anger it was difficult to write
dispassionately about Pyrmont.
In 1982 Michael Matthews, a
local alderman, described a
‘shell shocked, denuded area…
the site of large scale vandalism.’
A heritage study called the
place a ‘sink and a dumping
ground.’ I managed to be no
more circumspect in writing
about it all, observing that ‘the
fabric of community has been
torn to shreds again and again.’
These observations were not
made about the CSR in particular,
but about the deindustrialising
process in general. A group of
residents made the news when
they announced secession from
the Commonwealth of Australia in
1992 on the grounds that ‘in every
way’ their quality of life was being
destroyed and their community
‘completely disrupted.’ They
issued passports for the Republic
of Pyrmont.
But some believed that Pyrmont
had potential that was yet to
be unlocked. The CSR was one
of the last industries to leave
Pyrmont, and by the time the
property passed to Lend Lease in
the mid 1990s a more thoughtful
approach was being taken
to the ways in which renewal
could embrace aspects of the
heritage of the site. Today the old
sugar company site has been
reinvented as a vibrant area that
is enthusiastically embraced by
a new community that enjoys
its residential design, its newly
created public spaces and
community amenities.
Restored wharf precincts
echo past labours, sandstone
escarpments acknowledge past
uses and installations utilising
remnants of industrial machinery,
such as the enormous spherical
digesters located in Waterfront
Park, originally used to produce
hardboard products on this site,
whisper of past work. Enjoyment
of the current Pyrmont need not
obliterate an appreciation of the
contributions and the labours of
those who lived here before.
Dr. Shirley Fitzgerlad
Public Historian
For further reading:
Shirley Fitzgerald & Hilary Golder, Pyrmont &
Ultimo: Under Siege, 2nd edition, Halstead
Press, Sydney, 2009
CHANGING PLACES
CHANGING PLACES
Pyrmont Refinery, circa late 1920s, CSR Limited
Doors were always open: Recollections of Pyrmont & Ultimo
City West Development Corporation and Margaret Park
