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Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: a history of Pyrmont and Ultimo
Rapid change
Overdevelopment or urban village?
The peninsula has seen enormous change in the past 30 years, with the population climbing from a low of 1590 in 1981 to almost 14,000 in 2004.
As Sydney continues to expand, suburbs such as Pyrmont and Ultimo have been identified as suitable for high-density housing. During recent re-development, the challenge has been to maintain a sense of community and preserve local heritage.
A diverse neighbourhood: a little farm of mung beans
Generations of arrivals to Australia have found their first homes in Pyrmont and Ultimo. May Sue Kee Ng and her two youngest children joined her husband in Harris Street in 1968. Mr and Mrs Ng established a business growing and selling mung beans, supplying many Chinatown restaurants. They grew the beans in 40 buckets in their backyard. It was hard work growing, washing, sorting and sprouting the beans. The exhibition has a video interview with May Sue Kee Ng and her son-in-law Ze Tao Zheng in which they describe their lives here during the past 30 years.
A diverse neighbourhood: a suburb of dreams
If Pyrmont was home to major industries, wharves and wool stores, it was also home to thousands of workers.
Brother and sister Ray and Jennice Kersh, vividly recall their childhood in Ways Terrace, public housing in Pyrmont in the 1950s (pictured, below left) in a 12-minute video interview in which they share fond memories of the close-knit community in which they grew up in and around Ways Terrace.
Their mother Edna and her parents were born in Pyrmont. Everything happened at the family kitchen table. Their mother was remembered in the name of Ray and Jennice's Sydney restaurant: Edna's Table, pictured above.
Pyrmont Bridge: linking the city and the peninsula
In 1858, Pyrmont was connected directly to Sydney by a low wooden toll bridge across the entrance to Darling Harbour. Although an important transport link, the bridge also kept ships out of Darling Harbour just when increased exports made harbour access vital. The solution was to rebuild the bridge so that it could open and allow ships to pass through.
Photograph, Pyrmont Bridge, from half plate glass negative,
Kerry and Co., Sydney, c1907.
Among the many horse-drawn vehicles depicted are hansom cabs, omnibuses and commercial and private wagons. A Metropolitan Ice Company Ltd vehicle can be seen in the foreground travelling towards Pyrmont. Waugh's Pyrmont omnibus service can be seen in the background. Other vehicles are carrying materials such as wool, wood and boxes and bags of supplies. The background of the image depicts the densely developed uban environment of the Sydney city business district. Town Hall can be seen in the upper right of the image and the dome of the Queen Victoria Building can be partially seen in the upper left side of the image. Steamers can be seen docked at Darling Harbour on the left side of the image.
Kerry and Co images such as the one above and below
are part of the Tyrrell Collection.
The NSW government bought the old toll bridge and held an international competition to commission a replacement. The new bridge, designed by NSW engineer Percy Allan, was eventually built in 1902. The innovative timber truss system used on the bridge became known worldwide as the 'Allan Truss'. This bridge was powered by electricity from Ultimo Power Station (now the Powerhouse Museum), and could open and close in 44 seconds.
Mystery bridge model - can you help?
The bridge model, pictured below, is still something of a mystery to the Museum. It was acquired by the Museum in 1896 for five pounds. It is thought to have been one of the entries submitted in the international competition to build a new Pyrmont Bridge.
Do you have any information that may help us to untangle this mystery? If so, please email Anni Turnbull, the curator of this exhibition on annit@phm.gov.au.
Personal stories
There is a 12-minute video interview in the exhibition in which Narelle Thirkettle describes the transformation of Ultimo since she moved here in the 1980s. She also talks about campaigning for open space in the suburb.
In the video interview artist Jane Bennett (pictured at left in her studio) documents the changing nature of Pyrmont, from the last remnants of the Industrial Revolution to the new entertainment, leisure and gambling industries. The exhibition also displays paintings by Jane Bennett, including one painted at the top of the Anzac Bridge (no mean feat, for Bennett has vertigo). To gain the best vantage point for her paintings she has also climbed to the top of the old Pyrmont power station and climbed part of the CSR building. Her subjects, painted in the early morning and late at night, record a decade of demolition in Pyrmont and Ultimo. From 1986 to 1996, Bennett worked all over the peninsula.
Protest on the peninsula: traffic and development
The freeway developments of the 1970s, '80s and '90s physically divided Pyrmont and Ultimo and threatened to destroy all sense of community. One of the first protests was in the 1970s against the demolition of terrace houses in Fig Street for the North Western freeway. There was also a resident blockade of Jones Bay Road to protest against the casino development and demolition of the Pyrmont Power Station.
Housing a community:
past and present
Ways Terrace, designed by Professor Leslie Wilkinson and built in 1926, is an early example of public housing.
The shared clotheslines and verandahs overlooking neighbours' kitchens were intended to foster a sense of community. The Meriton apartments (above right, at the left of the freeway overpasses) were built in the 1990s on the site of old quarries beside the freeways and Anzac Bridge.
