Newtown, New South Wales

Newtown's vibrant King Street at night.

Sydney Park (the City's third largest) lies at the Southern end of Newtown, and was once a vast brickpit, then a rubbish tip.

Newtown is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 4km south-west of the Sydney central business district. Newtown straddles the border between the Local Government Areas of the City of Sydney and Marrickville Council. The postcode is 2042.

Geography and setting

King Street runs along the spine of a long ridge that rises up from the coastal plains around Botany Bay. The street reputedly follows an ancient Aboriginal track that branched out from the main western track (which is now covered by Broadway and Parramatta Road) and which continued all the way to the shores of Botany Bay. According to the colonial diarist Watkin Tench, when Europeans arrived in Sydney it was possible to walk easily all the way from Sydney Cove to Botany Bay in a few hours, through a grassy and lightly-wooded area that Tench described as being like English parkland. Template:SydneySuburbBox2

South end of King Street, Newtown. Visible in the distance are the iconic brickworks chimneys of Sydney Park.

Although it was originally a relatively prosperous suburb (the legacy of which is the numerous lavish Victorian mansions still standing in the area), Newtown and its surrounds gradually became a working-class enclave. For much of the 20th century, Newtown was a low-income blue-collar suburb, often denigrated as a slum, which after World War II became home to a large migrant population.

The physical character of the area has changed significantly since the 1950s. Prior to World War II, Newtown was heavily industrialised, and the area was dotted with factories of all kinds and sizes. Notable among these was a large fruit preserving factory owned by the IXL company, located near Sydney University. The area was also home to many smaller factories, workshops and warehouses.

The single largest industry in the area, until the 1970s, was the Eveleigh Workshops complex, one of the main construction and service centres for the NSW railways. During the heyday of the steam train railways, the site occupied an area of several acres, bounded by North Newtown, Erskineville, Redfern, Alexandria and Chippendale. Many Eveleigh workers lived in the area, but many lived in other suburbs and until the 1970s and commuting workers alighted at Macdonaldtown Station, located in the middle of the complex. In 1995, many years after the age of steam was over and the rail workshops had moved to Enfield, the NSW Government, the University of Sydney, University of Technology, Sydney and UNSW transformed the former Railyards at Eveleigh into the Australian Technology Park.

Another major industry in the area was the large brickworks that formerly occupied the site now known as Sydney Park, on the corner of Mitchell Road (Now Sydney Park Road) and the Princes Highway at St Peters Station. The brickworks closed after World War II, and for most of the Sixties and Seventies the site was used as a rubbish tip, and the vast clay pits were eventually filled by domestic and commercial refuse. After the tip was closed in the 1980s, the area was covered, landscaped and revegetated, and several large artificial hills were created that have sweeping views South to Botany Bay and North to the city. Four towering chimneys that carried exhaust from the brick kilns remain standing and have been incorporated into the Sydney Park site, as have some of the kilns and various pieces of large brickworks machinery. The site is now one of the major landmarks in the South Sydney area.

Many other industrial and commercial sites were vacated in the 1960s and 1970s, as rising rents and property prices, along with other factors, saw many businesses relocate to outlying areas of the city. Many of these former commercial sites have since been re-developed as housing, including the Silo development near Newtown Station, and the Alpha House and Beta House apartment complexes on King Street, which were formerly both multi-storey warehouses.

In the 1970s and 1980s, due to its proximity to the main Camperdown/Darlington campus of University of Sydney and its relatively low rental prices, Newtown gained a reputation as a student haven and bohemian centre, with a strong student, gay and lesbian population. The atmosphere of tolerance and diversity has also attracted a number of other cultural subgroups such as Goths, although Newtown has become increasingly gentrified in recent years. It is also home to the Anglican seminary Moore Theological College (the building in North Newtown in which it is housed was once the White Horse Hotel, a favourite watering hole for university students) and Mary Andrews College.

Commercial area

The main shopping strip of Newtown is King Street, and is sometimes referred to as "Eat Street" in the media due to the large proportion of cafés, pubs and restaurants among the clothing and book shops. King Street and Enmore Road, which branches away to the South-West at Newtown Bridge (where the road passes over the rail line at Newtown Station), together comprise a 9.1 kilometre round-trip of some 600 shopfronts.

History

King Street and Newtown train station from a coloured postcard approximately 1906

Early years

The Aboriginal history of the Newtown area is ancient. Recent archaeological discoveries suggest that Aborigines have lived in the Sydney Basin for as long as 20,000 years (and possibly much longer). Artefacts found during the construction of the Alexandria Canal in the late 1800s indicated local Aboriginal occupation dating back at least 8000 years.

The Newtown area was well-frequented by the local Eora people, who ranged across the entire are from Sydney Cove to Botany Bay in the south and Ashfield in the west. Tragically, the arrival of white settlers in 1788 and the subsequent introduction of European diseases like smallpox decimated the Eora people and their neighbours, and it is estimated that by the early 1800s more than 90% of the Aboriginal population had died from disease or had been killed by settlers.

Newtown was established as a residential and farming area in the early 19th century. It got its name from a grocery store opened there by John and Eliza Webster in 1832, at a site close to where the Newtown railway station stands today. They placed a sign on top of their store that read "New Town Stores". Passers-by took this to mean that the area was called New Town and the name caught on, with the space gradually disappearing over the years to form the name Newtown.

Newtown's reputation as a retail precinct was established early. Marcus Clark, one of Australias leading retailers was based there.

On December 12, 1862 the Municipality of Newtown, covering 480 acres (1.92 square kilometres), was incorporated and divided into three wards: O'Connell, Kingston and Enmore. In 1893 a plan was discussed to rename the area 'South Sydney' (as two municipalities North of Sydney Harbour had merged to form North Sydney three years earlier), but nothing came of it.

The area was rapidly developed in the late 1800s, with many former farms and other large properties being subdivided and developed as row-houses. With its predominance of Victorian-era houses and shopfront styles, with balconies, ornate architectural decorations and elaborate iron lace, Newtown is similar to other well-known inner city suburbs like Glebe, Paddington and Balmain.

Newtown always had a significant proportion of low-income residents, many of whom worked at the local shops, factories, warehouses, brickyards and at the nearby Eveleigh Railway Workshops during the late 1800s the Newtown area prospered. Several large estates and many imposing Victorian mansions were built, as well as many rows of single-storey row houses and two-storey terraces. Regrettably, as in many other historic areas of Sydney, some of the largest and most important houses, such as Erskine Villa (formerly on Erskineville Road, and which gave its name to the suburb of Erskineville), were demolished and the estates subdivided. One of the most impressive surviving sets of 19th Century housing in Newtown is the line of imposing terraces along Warren Ball Avenue in north Newtown, where five elegant five-storey mansions run the entire length of the street, facing onto a park.

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Warren Ball Avenue, Newtown: 19th Century mansion terraces.

Victorian-era terrace houses, Gum and Jacaranda trees in South Newtown.

Early 20th century to 1970s

Although it prospered in the late 1800s, during the first half of the 20th century, and especially during The Depression, the area became increasingly run down, with wealthy Sydneysiders preferring to settle in newer and more prestigious areas like Strathfield, Burwood, the North Shore and Eastern suburbs. Like many now-prestigious inner-city Sydney suburbs such as Glebe and Paddington, Newtown was for many years regarded as little better than a slum.

In the post-war period, the low rents and house prices attracted newly-arrived European migrants, and Newtown's population changed radically, becoming home to a sizeable migrant community comprising Greeks, Italians, Lebanese and many other nationalities. Many of these families opened and ran restaurants, cafes, milk bars, grocery stores and other business along King Street. In recent years, as the families aged, many of these longstanding postwar businesses have closed and the shops have been sold or redeveloped, with property values increasing astronomically over the last twenty years.

In 1949, Newtown was incorporated into the City of Sydney. In 1968, a controversial redistribution of local government boundaries by the Sir Robert Askin State Liberal government saw part of Newtown placed under Marrickville Council.

Because of its proximity to Sydney University and the Sydney CBD, the comparatively low rents, and the availability of a wide range of cafes, pubs and restaurants, Newtown began to attract university students in the 1960s and 1970s. The area became one of the major centres for student share-households in Sydney and it became a mecca for many young people who had grown up in the relatively staid atmosphere of Sydney's outer suburbs.

1970s

From the 1970s, as the post-war population prospered, raised families and aged, many moved to outlying suburbs to build larger houses. As longtime residents retired or died, a supply of picturesque and relatively cheap terrace houses and cottages entered the rental market, to be occupied by students; thus creating a new social phenomenon: student share-housing.

Many university students who moved into the area fell in love with the area's Victorian charm, its easy-going Bohemian atmosphere and the abundance and diversity of cheap, high-quality eating places: many young Sydneysiders enjoyed their first tastes of Lebanese, Italian and Thai food here. After these students graduated and moved into the workforce, many decided to buy houses in the area, leading to a gradual process of gentrification.

Lovingly restored grand 19th Century house, South Newtown.

Like other similar inner-Sydney suburbs (most notably Paddington and Glebe) the trend of gentrification has led to another significant shift in Newtown's demographics, and a remarkable renewal of its former prestige. Inevitably, this has led to a dramatic increase in property values (which have more than trebled in value in the last ten years) and growing pressure to redevelop many historic properties and buildings. Many residents are becoming increasingly concerned about the pressure and pace of development in the area and the huge influx of new residents as developers rush to convert former factories, warehouses and other industrial and commercial buildings into multi-apartment developments.

There is also growing concern about a related trend which has seen unscrupulous developers acquire the few remaining free-standing houses in the district, some of which are among the oldest in the area. In the case of several of these properties, developers have acquired them and have then found that they are unable to demolish and redevelop them due to the council's heritage by-laws. This has led to several of these historic houses being deliberately left open and derelict, with the predictable result that a number of them have been destroyed by arson.

Fortunately there are also many exceptions. Others, like the one pictured have been lovingly restored and represent some of the best examples of nineteenth century architecture in Sydney.

Like many Sydney suburbs, the northern end of Newtown (closer to the University and the city) is considered the more prestigious, with house prices and rents in this part of town often higher than those for similar properties in South Newtown, Enmore or St Peters.

1980s and later

During the 1980s the many pubs in the area housed a thriving live music scene, notably the The Sandringham in King St. One of the best-known Australian bands to emerge from this scene was The Whitlams, who held down a formative residency at "The Sando" for several years.

Musician John Kennedy wrote a tribute to the area in the mid-1980s and his single "On King St I'm A King" namechecked familiar Newtown landmarks and local figures of the time, including "The Wire Man" (a local eccentric who collected wire and wire coathangers), Maurice's Lebanese restaurant, and the Coles' New World store (which occupied the site of the current Dendy Cinema).

During the 1990s many long-established businesses closed, including Brennan's Department Store, a charming old-fashioned general store founded in the 1800s, and one of the last relics of the heyday of Victorian Newtown.

The rise in property prices and rents has also led to an increasing rate of turnover in local businesses due to spiralling annual rent increases. In the case of popular local Italian restaurant Camo's, the business operated very successfully for several years until the landlord abruptly raised the rent by 110 percent, making the business unviable overnight.

Other significant changes to the area include the recent redevelopment of the grain silo and flour mill complex located on the site of the original Newtown station, just west of the present station. Rather than demolishing the silos and building a new structure, the developers undertook a major reconstruction of the building and created a series of circular apartment spaces, augmented by the construction of more traditional apartments on the lower levels.

One of the most notable (and once perhaps infamous) local landmarks is the Hub Theatre, located opposite Newtown Station, next to the old Newtown Town Hall. It was rebuilt in the 1930s as a cinema, on the site of an earlier vaudeville theatre, but from the early 1970s onwards, with the relaxation of Australia's repressive censorship laws, it was used to screen pornographic films and for the staging of live "adult" sex shows, including the long-running and now legendary "Little French Maid". The Hub closed as a 'porno' venue in the late 1980s and had been vacant for some time; the owners of the Dendy chain attempted to secure the venue for its Newtown cinema, but were unsuccessful. Recently, the Hub has been home to live comedy shows and other such performances, seeing a rejuvenation of the building.

In the 1990s, Newtown High School was chosen by the NSW Department of Education and Training as the site for a new specialised performing arts high school, which would combine traditional academic subjects with music and theatrical performance education. The school was renamed as Newtown High School of the Performing Arts. A significant proportion of the student body is now recruited through a selective and highly competitive audition process, although local families (at present) retain the right to send their children there.

Cafe at the Newtown Performing Arts School

In its new guise the school has been very successful, although there is concern among local parents that there is increasing pressure from non-resident families to make the school 100% selective, thus forcing local parents to send their children to other neighbouring high schools if their children cannot pass the rigorous audition process.

In 1986, the northern end of King St was significantly improved thanks to the "Wires Away" project, a collaboration between Sydney City Council (which then administered that section of Newtown), telecommunications provider Telstra and Energy Australia (the privatised incarnation of the former NSW Electricity Commission). In this innovative public works program, almost all the overhead electrical and telecommunications wiring, which for decades had criss-crossed upper King St street and cluttered the streetscape, was rationalised and gathered into bundles which were run out of sight along the tops of shop awnings.

Also in the 1990s, following the demolition of many smaller city-centre theatres and music venues, the Enmore Theatre in Enmore Rd evolved into one of the busiest and most popular medium-sized concert venues in Sydney. The Enmore Theatre now presents rock, pop and multicultural concerts on a regular basis, and many local and international acts have performed there over the last decade. In 2003 it was the venue for the first concert in the Rolling Stones Australian tour.

Population statistics

In the 2001 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing, the population of the Newtown postcode area was 15,027 people, in an area of 1.9 square kilometres. The population was 49% females, 51% males. 33% of the population was born overseas. The eight strongest religious affiliations in the area were in descending order: No religion, Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox Christian, Buddhism, Uniting Church, Presbyterian and Reformed, and other Christian. The 3 most common forms of dwelling were in decreasing order: a semi-detached, row or terrace house, or townhouse; a flat, unit or apartment; a separate house.

Transport

Newtown railway station.

Newtown railway station is located on the Inner West line of the CityRail network. Travelling towards the city, the railway stops in order are: Macdonaldtown, Redfern, Central, Town Hall, Wynyard. Travelling west towards Strathfield, the stops are Stanmore, Petersham, Lewisham, Summer Hill, Ashfield, Croydon, Burwood, and Strathfield.

Newtown Station opened in 1855, as one of the original four intermediate stations on the Sydney to Parramatta rail line (the others being Ashfield, Burwood, and Homebush), and it was soon serviced by ten steam trains per day. In 1878 the station was moved from its original location at the end of Station Street to its current location by the fork of King Street and Enmore Road.

Although well served by trains, the station's accessibility is far from ideal, since the present station was built into a deep, narrow cutting under King St, with the result that the platforms are several metres below street level and can only be accessed by a steep stairway. In July 2006, the NSW state government announced an upgrade to the station including the installation of lifts, which will finally make it accessible to disabled passengers.

Until the 1960s (when trams were phased out in many parts of Australia) Newtown was a major hub for train-tram transfers; a number of regular electric tram services were centred there and the old Newtown tram depot (long vacant and now largely derelict) still stands next to the station.

The trams were replaced by regular bus services which inherited the old route numbers -- 422, 426, 428 -- and follow the old tram routes that run along King Street and Enmore Road, going inwards to the city and outwards to Tempe, Dulwich Hill and Canterbury respectively. Since then the 423 service from the city to Kingsgrove via Newtown and Marrickville has been added. There is also the 352 service that goes east through Surry Hills, and Paddington to Bondi Junction and the 370 service running north to the University of Sydney and Leichhardt and south-east to the University of New South Wales and Coogee.

Politics

Like most of central and inner-city Sydney, Newtown is one of the traditional 'heartlands' of support for the Australian Labor Party. As a result, while Newtown and other areas were within the City Council boundary, the ALP was able to control Council for several decades.

The Liberal Party state government of Robert Askin, which came to power in 1966, was keen to see Labor's control eliminated, so in 1967 Askin abolished Sydney City Council, installed a tribunal of administrators, and undertook a controversial redistribution of the city's boundaries, which saw much of the former ward of Newtown re-allocated to the neighbouring municpalies of South Sydney and Marrickville -- thus moving a signifcant portion of the Labor-voting population out of the Sydney City Council electoral area.

For Federal elections, Newtown lies partly in the electorate of Grayndler, currently represented by Anthony Albanese of the ALP, and partly in the electorate of Sydney, currently represented by Tanya Plibersek, also of the ALP.

Both of these electorates saw strong Green votes in the 2001 election, and it was expected that the Green candidates, rather than the Liberal Party, would provide the main opposition to the ALP in the 2004 election, although the Liberals ultimately did narrowly retain their lead over the Greens in these electorates.

For State elections, Newtown is predominantly in the State Electoral District of Marrickville, which was represented by Deputy Premier Andrew Refshauge until his resignation on August 10, 2005.

The resulting by-election, held on September 17, was won by Carmel Tebbutt, the wife of Anthony Albanese and state Minister for Education and Training, who was previously a member of the Legislative Council. Notably, the Greens significantly improved their electoral standing, gaining 39% of the primary vote.

Local events and culture

Newtown today is a vibrant Sydney suburb with over 600 stores, 70 restaurants, 40 cafes, pubs and entertainment venues along King Street and Enmore Road.

Live music

Newtown has traditionally been a hub for live entertainment. Throughout the 1990s it was particularly known as a centre for indie rock, with the suburb both home to many musicians and several live venues. In the late nineties it boasted a handful of venues: Goldmans / Newtown RSL, The Globe, Feedback and The Sandringham -- all of which had closed by the late 1990s due to noise complaints or other factors.

However since the new millennium, the suburb has enjoyed a renaissance with the return of live music to The Sandringham (dubbed by regulars as "The Sando"), the re-opening of the former Newtown RSL (now taken over by Petersham RSL Club) under the name of @Newtown, the opening of the intimate venue The Vanguard, and the continuing popularity of the lyric-sized Enmore Theatre.

Theatre

The New Theatre was formed in 1932, and is now Australia's oldest continuously performing theatre.

Newtown and its surrounding areas have the highest concentration of independent theatres and live performance spaces in Sydney. Theatres include:

• Enmore Theatre: 130 Enmore Road, Newtown
• New Theatre: 542 King St Newtown
• Newtown Theatre: Cnr King & Bray Sts, Newtown South
• PACT Youth Theatre: 107 Railway Pde, Erskineville
• Seymour Theatre Centre: Cnr City Rd & Cleveland St Chippendale
• Sidetrack Theatre: Addison Road Centre 142 Addison Rd, Marrickville

as well as the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, one of the leading Performing and Visual Arts schools in Australia. Combined, the 8 venues in the area boast 12 stages and 4,153 seats. Each year sees 3,500 performers staging 1,6000 shows for an audience averaging 5,000 a week resulting in an annual ticket income of $8.9 million.

Newtown in film and TV

In the late 1960s, Newtown was the setting for the ground-breaking Australian TV drama series You Can't See Round Corners, which starred Ken Shorter as a draft dodger hiding out in Newtown.

In the mid-1980s, a well-known service station on King St (built in the Spanish Mission style) was used as a location for scenes in the Ray Lawrence film Bliss, which was based on the novel by Peter Carey. In the film, the service station was used as the childhood home of Harry Joy's wife (played by Lynette Curran).

Two other recent films located in and around Newtown are Garage Days directed by Alex Proyas, depicting a fictional indie rock band based in Newtown, and Erskineville Kings, starring Hugh Jackman, which features extensive use of locations in Newtown and Erskineville.

The ABC television drama, Love Is A Four Letter Word, starring musician-actor Peter Fenton and featuring live bands each episode, included extensive location shooting at the Courthouse Hotel in Australia Street.

Newtown Festival

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The Newtown Festival in 2004.

The Newtown Festival is a community festival of music, events, workshops, and stalls which has been held annually since 1981. Held in Camperdown Memorial Park adjacent to St. Stephens Church, it features free live music, market stalls, food and drink from many local restaurants and cafés, and other entertainment, and always draws a large crowd. The purpose of the Festival is to raise funds for the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, an association which provides services to the aged, people with disabilities, people from non-English speaking backgrounds and people on low incomes.

Feastability

Feastability, Newtown's Food and Wine Festival, showcases the eclectic international cuisines of the Newtown Precinct along with Australian wine, local pubs and brewers, bakers and confectioners. The festival, which is held on the last Sunday of each September, started in the mid 1990s as 6 stalls outside the legendary Hub and has grown to become a major event of the inner west. It now takes place in the grounds of Newtown High School of Performing Arts, has over 40 stalls and features all-day entertainment from musicians and artists as well as kids activities. The festival is organised by Marrickville Council.

Under the Blue Moon Festival

An alternative community festival held in Newtown, and occurs in September. The event usually begins at 10:00am and continues well into the evening, with a variety of entertainment; live music, discussions, street performances, fashion shows and other subculture presentations, especially those of the Goth community. Local business and special interest groups provide a diverse variety of entertainment, including a local alternative hairdresser and even the local mortuary with a display of coffins. The festival is not one for the faint of heart, but well suits the accepting nature of Newtown.

Newtown Jets

Newtown Rugby League Club -- the "Newtown Jets" -- was Australia's first rugby league club. Founded as the Newtown RLFC on January 8, 1908 it was known as the "Newtown Bluebags" for most of its lifetime; the "Jets" nickname, adopted around 1973, refers to Newtown's proximity to Sydney Airport.

Newtown competed in the NSWRL's premiership from 1908 until 1983, winning on three occasions, before being suspended from the competition due to financial difficulties. They currently compete in the NSWRL Premier League competition, a tier below the NRL's national premiership, and enjoy strong support in the local area and good crowds at their home ground of Henson Park, Marrickville.

Famous residents and local identities

• Mary Reibey (1777-1855), Pioneering entrepreneur who graces the $20 note.
• Eliza Emily Donnithorne (1826-1886) believed by some to be the inspiration for Charles Dickens' character "Miss Havisham" in Great Expectations.
• Thomas Browne (1826-1915), son of Sylvester. Under the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood he wrote seventeen novels including the classic Robbery Under Arms.
• Sir Reginald Marcus Clark (1883-1953), Chairman and managing director of retailer Marcus Clark & Co. Ltd.
• John Villiers Farrow (1904-1963), Academy Award winning Australian film director and father of actresses Mia Farrow and Prudence Farrow.
• The Whitlams, successful pop band of the 1990s and 2000s. Still performing together and releasing albums.
• Youth Group, an Australian pop rock band mostly known for their hit remake song 'Forever Young'.
• Murray Cook, one of the members of renowned Australian children's group The Wiggles
• Adam Spencer, mathematician, science broadcaster and radio and TV personality
• Ignatius Jones, entertainer and former lead singer of legendary 80s rock band Jimmy & The Boys
• Monica Trapaga, singer, entertainer and children's TV presenter

Graduates of Newtown High School of the Performing Arts

• Nathan Foley - part of the cast of Hi-5.
• Abe Forsythe - played the role of Cam Todd in the Seven Network drama series Always Greener.

External links

• Newtown Neighbourhood Centre
• The Newtown Project, historical documents from Newtown
• Marrickville Council website
• Council of the City of Sydney website
• Newtown Jets Rugby League Football Club
• Newtown Precinct: Information about theatre performances and other live entertainment
• Newtown Festival
• Enmore Theatre
• The Vanguard
• Newtown CityPoem, a mural in Newtown