Across the Border: Rushcutters Bay: Animal Life: Pablo the Dalmatian

Pablo the Dalmatian is no stranger to posing for the cameras, having already appeared in a Tropfest shortlisted, short film. 

Typical Darlinghurst dog, really. I bet Pablo sits around drinking coffee at Uliveto (do click on the link) on Bayswater Road while ''working'' on his script. That's when he's not playing guard dog at the mechanic's garage on Roslyn Street, across the road from the St Canice Catholic Church. He's so cool.

Across the Border: Rushcutters Bay: People: Lester Sinclair

I received an email recently from Canberra-based writer Chris Vening who is writing a biography about Australian author Lester Sinclair (above), who wrote and published children's books during the war years under the pen-name John Mystery. Sinclair was born in the UK in 1894 and migrated to Australia from New Zealand, where he had joined a circus.

Sinclair wrote about 300 John Mystery books and they were massively successful. According to historian Derrick Moors, between 1944 and 1946 Woolworths supermarket chain signed a contract with Mystery's publisher, Publicity Press, for 9.5 million copies of around 230 different titles. 

Many of the books were printed on poor quality and yellow paper because that was all that was available during the war. Moors notes that in My Little Sailor's Book, Mystery wrote a note to his readers apologising for the shortage of books and reminding them that, ''the fighting services must of course, come first in everything and, therefore, paper for my books is not so easy to obtain as in normal times . . . the government has been good to us, and everyone is doing everything possible to give you books.''

Moors also says one of the ''enduring'' aspects of the books is Mystery's Dear Cobber letters, in which he encouraged his young readers to write to him at Adventure Castle, Sydney:

Sinclair built the folly, Adventure Castle, at Illawong on the Georges River in Sydney's southern suburbs and lived there with his wife, Ellen Sinclair, who was a cook book author and food writer with The Women's Weekly in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Unfortunately the castle has since been demolished and replaced by units, although some of Sinclair's commissioned animal carvings, by artist Ilja Chapman, still survive in the sandstone cliffs of the property. 

Before Sinclair moved to the castle, he lived at The Alexander apartment building on Bayswater Road in Rushcutters Bay. And that is why Vening wrote to me. 

According to Vening, Sinclair lived at 11/67 Bayswater Road between about 1938 and 1942 and this was the period when he met Ellen. I'm afraid I was not much help to Vening as I could find absolutely nothing about the Alexander building in the usual archives that I trawl. 

But I did refer him to Trove and other online archives and he was able to find a reference to The Alexander from 1919, when it was apparently 35 Bayswater Road, not number 67. I actually think the building looks like it's from a later period, say late 1920s, early 30s, but I am no expert on architecture. 

I was going to buzz number 11 and see if I could convince the resident to let me have a look for Vening's sake, but then I really don't want to enhance my reputation as a local weirdo any further.

Anyway, if you know anything about The Alexander, its history and residents, specifically in the period when Sinclair lived there; or if you have any old photographs of the building, please contact Vening: vening@netspeed.com.au

Sinclair died on October 5, 1974. I can't wait to read Vening's book, as Sinclair's life sounds quite colourful. 

*

Sinclair Picture Source: State Library of Victoria

Adventure Castle Picture Source: Sutherland Shire Council Library

John Mystery: The Nation's Storyteller, by Derrick Moors

Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: Beare's Stairs

Beare's Stairs

- Register of the National Estate

The Register of the National Estate was established in 1975 and is a list of about 13,000 items across the country that are culturally, aesthetically and historically important. Darlinghurst is home to 24 of those items and one of those is Beare's Stairs, which links Caldwell and Surry streets.

The Register was frozen in 2007 and will be dissolved in 2012, with the listed items then falling under relevant state, territory and local government heritage registers.

Thirteen of the 24 items in Darlinghurst have already been listed under the NSW Heritage Act, while the remainder - and some additional 295 items - are listed with the City of Sydney Council (both lists can be found if you search here).

The listing essentially means that if developers or individuals purchase one of the properties, heritage recommendations are attached to any development application for the site. In some instances that means walls, ceilings, cornices, joinery, fireplaces, doors and windows should not be altered or removed, but conserved or restored to their former glory, to preserve the heritage for future generations.

The City of Sydney Council list of 319 items appears comprehensive and includes dozens of terraces, apartment blocks and commercial buildings, but I was still surprised at the number of places that weren't included, such as my former home, 40 Hardie Street, and my present residence on Royston Street.

Items on the council list include the Ballina flats, at 5 Darley Street, the gorgeous Mont Clair apartment building, at 347 Liverpool Street, and the Rushcutters Bay Stormwater Channel No 84, which runs through Rushcutters Bay Park and is listed as partly being in Darlinghurst.

One day I will hunt down that section of the stormwater channel and the other 318 items on the list, but for my first adventure I decided to seek out the shorter list of 24 buildings and structures on the Register of the National Estate.

I originally began this exercise as one post but after a while I realised I was supposed to be writing a blog post, not Shantaram, or some other epic. So I have divided my ramble through the National Estate Register in Darlinghurst into 24 posts, one for each item, and I will post them over coming days and weeks.

After I have tackled those two dozen posts, random heritage items listed under the NSW Heritage Act and the City of Sydney council will appear.

Because it was close to home, I began my walk at Beare's Stairs, which for some reason has not made it on to either the state or local government registers. In fact I could find little reference to Beare's Stairs anywhere online, but I have to assume they were named after the same Beare of Beare Park (in nearby Elizabeth Bay).

Beare's Stairs fall within the Barcom Avenue Heritage Conservation Area, of which I have devoted an entire post to here, with information taken directly from the valuable NSW Heritage Branch website.

My heritage item posts should not be relied upon as a comprehensive history or for architectural detail; I have merely plucked out the pearls that I found interesting. I found a wealth of information from a range of websites, which I acknowledge here:

Sources: NSW Heritage Branch, Dictionary of Sydney, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Library of Australia - Archive of Australian Newspapers, State Library of NSW, Wikipedia, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, NSW Public Schools, Government Schools of NSW from 1848,

NSW Department of Health.

Darlinghurst: How I Love Thee So

I dreamt up this blog last Thursday evening after a month of travels in Alaska, Canada and California. It was my last night before I was due to return to Australia and I was lying awake in my Hollywood hostel bed, unable to sleep because I was consumed with thoughts of home.

I so missed my little apartment on a hill in Darlinghurst. I missed my bed, the view of Rushcutters Bay from my kitchen, the patchwork of Paddington's terrace-house rooftops spread out before my sunroom, and the stamp-sized squint of Sydney Harbour from another window. I wanted to sit in the sun in my favourite cafe. I longed to walk the streets. I even missed the 311 mystery-bus.

And I'd only been gone for one month.

So this is my little ode to the neighbourhood I love and long for.

Perhaps it will also be a small picture of a place and time.