Wooloomooloo

Wooloomooloo is a must go place for the tourist, and I love it. We went to it as part of our perambulation yesterday. It was made famous by the Monty Python sketches based on a fictitious Aussie University and people called Bruce. In real life Woolloomooloo was historically a poorer working class district of Sydney. This has changed only recently with recent gentrification of the inner city areas of Sydney. The redevelopment of the waterfront, particularly the construction of the housing development on the Finger Wharf, is stunning.

I turn to my guide for some more information. The origin of the name Woolloomooloo uncertain. It may be from an Aboriginal word 'Wallamullah' meaning either place of plenty or 'Wallabahmullah' meaning a young black kangaroo, or even from the word 'Wala-mala' meaning an Aboriginal burial ground. It has also been suggested that the name means field of blood, due to the alleged Aboriginal tribal fights that took place in the area, or that it is from the pronunciation by Aborigines of windmill, from the one that existed on Darlinghurst ridge until the 1850s.

Woolloomooloo is home to the Finger Wharf building. It was built between 1911 and 1915 and became the largest wooden structure in the world. Commerce was dominated by shipping at the wharf and by sailors & officers from the nearby Garden Island base of the Royal Australian Navy.However, by the 1980s the wharf lay derelict and empty and in 1987, the state government decided to demolish the Wharf. A new complex was approved to replace the wharf in Woolloomooloo Bay, but when demolition work was due to begin in January 1991, locals blocked entrance to the site. The Unions put a stop to it by imposing a Green ban which stopped demolition crews from undertaking work. Paul Keating, the then Prime Minister also lent his weight to the conservation of this impressive building. In the mid 1990s the wharf was renovated into a hotel, restaurant and apartment complex. The actor, Russell Crowe, lives in a $14 million penthouse in the wharf, so we are told. Another famous site is the Andrew "Boy" Charlton Pool, which sits on the western side of Woolloomooloo Bay, amongst the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Walking through it's streets we came across the Juanita Neilson community centre. Ms Nielsen was a campaigner against the indiscriminate development of the area. As a result she came up against the forces of organised crime. She disappeared on the 4th July 1975 and has never been seen since. The case has never been officially solved. Rumour has it that she is under the concrete of Sydney airport runway.

We passed Harry's Cafe de Wheels, the eating place for the stars. Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Marlene Dietrich have been there. There's even a picture of Rolf Harris stuck to the side of the hut. Harry "Tiger" Edwards opened the original caravan cafe, named simply Harry's, in 1938. It closed during World War II while he was in service, then re-opened at the end in 1945.

Harry's specialises in pies and mushy peas. During the 1970s Harry's introduced hot dogs, mostly to appease the American sailors. We'd had lunch, but the pie and peas looked gooood.