Darlinghurst: Plant Life: Plane Trees

To most people this tree appears harmless, some might even say it looks beautiful, but for me, and thousands of other Sydney-siders, the Plane tree is evil.

The London Plane tree, or Platanus x Hispanica as it's known to horticultural geeks, is a deciduous tree that grows to 30-50m in height and is native to the northern hemisphere.

Because of its drought tolerance and hardiness in harsh urban environments the City of Sydney Council decided it would be a fine idea to plant hundreds of the bastards around Darlinghurst, Potts Point and Surry Hills. And they continue to do so.

When I see Plane tree saplings, newly planted in the area and propped up with wooden stakes - like this recent arrival on Craigend Street - I have the urge to snap their trunks.

How does a tree inspire such hatred?

Because every year around September, the Plane trees decide to dump their load of pollen and hair into the atmosphere, creating a war-zone for allergy sufferers.

After inflicting their initial damage, the pollen and fine yellow hairs then hide in crevices, gutters and footpaths laying in wait for stray wind gusts to launch them back into the atmosphere for further lethal missions:

This goes on for about two months, maybe three, and despite managing to avoid their deadly assaults this year, today I wasn't so lucky.

I had just left home and was walking along Darlinghurst Road in Kings Cross, on my way to a lunch date and in high spirits when, without warning, they attacked. On what was a supposedly fine day, a cruel wind gust, loaded with Plane tree ammunition, launched itself towards me. There was no time to duck for cover before it struck me in the face and along my body. It was like being shot at by a pellet gun. Then, just as quickly as it arrived, the wind and its nasty master disappeared around the corner down Roslyn Street.

The effects were felt immediately. First I tried to pluck the dust from my eyes, then my nose became clogged, my throat felt sore and my arms and legs grew itchy.

Over lunch, I continued to rub my eyes, blow my nose and drink lots of water to calm my throat, but the symptoms did not abate. It didn't matter what I did, because the pollen was in my hair too. Then it brought upon a headache.

It is only now, hours later, and since I have returned home, had a shower and shampooed my hair, that I am starting to feel clean again, and a little better.

I'm having a beer too, in a bid to lift my mood.

This year the Plane trees also dust-bombed my car, infecting the glove-box and boot, despite the windows and doors being shut tight. That time I had a friend clean the dust out for me, so I could take her on a drive, but I worry about when the next attack will occur.

I worry too about the people who are actually allergic to the trees, because strangely, I am not.

About four years ago I was at Kings Cross Markets (located right near the Macleay Street Plane tree district in the photograph above) and there was a little desk with a sign that said, Free Plane Tree Allergy Testing. The testing was being undertaken by Euan Tovey of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in a bid to find allergy sufferers to take part in an 18-month study.

I wasn't really interested in becoming a guinea pig because it involved clipping a nasal sampler inside one's nose to catch dust and pollen particles.

But I was keen to know if I was allergic to the dreaded Plane tree. And as it turned out, I wasn't. Dr Tovey said I merely suffered from Plane tree irritation.

But I already knew that.

So if I have such a terrible reaction to Plane tree pollen, just imagine what life in Spring is like for true allergy sufferers.

Yet the City of Sydney Council continues to plant Plane trees and appears to be in denial about their public health risks, posting this on their website:

''In response to some residents raising concerns about the allergenic properties of Plane Trees, Council has received independent advice from medical and horticultural experts, including allergy specialists. Allergy experts at Royal North Shore and Concord Hospitals have advised that Plane Trees are not generally recognised by either of their allergy clinics as a particular problem.''

When the City of Sydney Council invested dollars in a beautification of William Street in 2005, their plans included an avenue of Plane trees, prompting University of NSW Professor Mike Archer, Director of the Australian Museum and Dean of Science at the University of NSW, to declare the idea ''disastrous''.

"It's like putting in rabbits and saying they're pretty,'' Prof Archer told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It's like planting brick statues. Nothing eats them, no native birds go to them.''

The Asthma Foundation also opposed the council's plans but the Plane trees went in regardless:

Gardening Australia devotes a page on its website to Plane tree allergies and highlights their risk to public health. Wisely, Gardening Australia's Jerry Coleby-Williams also lists half a dozen or so native trees (the Plane tree is not indigenous) that have proven successful in urban environments, but which don't cause allergies or irritation. City of Sydney Council take note: these trees include the Illawarra Flame, Blueberry Ash, Water Gum and Broad-Leaved Paperbark.

The Gardening Australia page also contains this interesting point:

''Plane tree pollinosis sufferers can also develop food allergies. Once the immune system is activated by Plane tree pollen it will recognise similar plant proteins in foodstuffs.

Hazelnuts and celery have similar proteins in them, and so eating these foods can also cause an allergic response but can happen at any time of the year.''

It's frightening stuff. And as the City of Sydney Council continues to carry on planting in ignorance, I can only recommend allergy sufferers follow the techniques used in the following instructional video:

And if that YouTube link doesn't work, click here to learn How to Kill a Tree in 15 Minutes.

Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: Darlinghurst Public School

Darlinghurst Public School

- Register of the National Estate, City of Sydney Council Heritage List

Within the grounds of Darlinghurst Public School, near the old lunch bell, is a stone embedded in the ground, carved with 1883 - the year that construction began on this Victorian Romanesque-style building at 350 Liverpool Street.

Darlinghurst Public was one of three schools designed by Charles Mayes (Forest Lodge PS, near Glebe, and Double Bay PS, in Sydney's east, were the other two) during a boom time of government school construction, following the introduction of the Public Institution Act in 1880.

The act made attendance at school compulsory for the first time and introduced the structure of Superior Public Schools, High Schools and Evening Public Schools.

The schools built during this period were designed to demonstrate the supremacy of state education over denominational education and Darlinghurst Public School was an example of this.

The two-storey school building was officially opened by Minister for Education and Member for Darlinghurst George Reid in 1884, and by 1931 the school had over 1200 enrolments.

Additional two-storey, inter-war buildings were added to the grounds in the 1920s.

Between 1939 and 1942 the school was the first in the state to provide special education for migrants, most of whom were German refugees.

Today the school has only 173 pupils, showing just how different the suburb is from the early 20th Century, when there were probably a lot more children living in the area.

If I ever have children I imagine I will send them to Darlinghurst Public but the one drawback is the large Plane trees, which are spotted throughout the site and whose Spring pollen is a major irritant. I think any child of mine will have to take themselves to school during those months.

*

Darlinghurst Public School

350 Liverpool Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

02 9331 4295

www.darlinghur-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: Iona

Iona

- Register of the National Estate, NSW Heritage Act

From St Johns Church I ducked down Tewkesbury Avenue to the imposing gates of Iona, a 30-room mansion, whose actual address is listed as 2 Darley Street.

The 1888 Victorian Italianate pile was bought by filmmakers Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin - of Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge and Australia fame - for a neat $10 million in February, 2006.

I once knew someone who lived in The Hopes apartment building, at 251 Darlinghurst Road, which backs on to Iona. One evening while I was visiting, a very fluffy grey cat arrived at the person's door and was grandly introduced as Baz Luhrmann's Cat. I think the Hopes resident spent about one year befriending the cat just so he could make such introductions to impress his guests.

Back before the cat, in the mid-nineteenth century, the site was home to Iona Cottage, which was first occupied by Elizabeth Grose and later, Robert Carter, who in 1879, extended and improved the small dwelling to become worthy of the title ''gentleman's residence''.

In 1888, the year of Australia's centenary, wealthy businessman and farmer Edward Chisholm purchased the property and was responsible for building the two-storey mansion with verandas, still known today as Iona. He lived with his family at the grand palace until his death ten years later.

Another decade on, in 1908, Iona was purchased by Adela Taylor, wife of former Sydney Mayor Allen Taylor (of Taylor Square fame), and renamed, for reasons unknown to me, Wootten.

Over the next 70-odd years the building changed hands three times and was used throughout as a private hospital with the respective names, Wootten PH, Winchester PH and Hughlings PH.

During this period the building and site also underwent minor alterations and additions, including the construction - in 1935 - of a seven-room nurses' residence, which was demolished in 1984.

In the 1970s and 80s the site fell into the hands of developers who variously wanted to raze the grounds and build three, 60-storey apartment blocks (can you imagine!), or convert the residence into 13 apartments.

The projects failed for a number of reasons, mostly financial, but it was during this time that the National Trust successfully campaigned for Iona to be included on the Register of the National Estate.

Iona is now listed on the State Heritage Register (with a permanent conservation order), the Local Environment Plan and the National Trust register, so no one can mess with it.

Yet most people don't have a chance to see it either.

It would be good if Luhrmann and Martin opened the grounds to the public for one day each year.

Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: St John's Church

St John's Anglican Church

- Register of the National Estate, NSW Heritage Act

From Beare's Stairs I skipped to the grounds of St John's Anglican Church, whose front doors open at 120 Darlinghurst Road, and whose pulpit backs on to Victoria Street, with a driveway running alongside, creating one of my favourite short-cuts in the neighbourhood.

In the warmer months the church gardens are filled with flowering, fragrant plants, such as Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, a purple and white flower with a heady scent that fills the air in and around the church. Every Sunday, the sounds of the church bells ring out across the neighbourhood.

St John's was commissioned by the wealthy and god-fearing citizens of 19th Century Darlinghurst on one of the highest points in the neighbourhood. The foundation stone for the Gothic-style building was laid in 1856, and the church opened for services two years later. But the Goold and Hilling-designed church wasn't good enough for one wealthy benefactor who declared it ''unsightly from the road and a discredit to the parish''.

In 1871 architect Edmund Blacket was recruited to fix things up and in doing so, made the church his own. Blacket added the distinctive Gothic Revival spire and tower, finally giving the building some character, and which today still dominate the church and the surrounding neighbourhood.

About four or five years ago there was a campaign to Save St John's by members of the Darlinghurst Residents Action Group (DRAG), when a development application was lodged to build a high-rise apartment block on the neighbouring low-rise Star Car Wash site. The development would have cast a shadow over the architecturally-significant St John's and encroached upon its breathing space in the landscape. But the people's passion won over the developer's dosh, and Star Car Wash, which offers another handy shortcut between streets, is still there today.

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: Street Art: Redds

My friend, Ruby, is a good spotter of unusual things in the neighbourhood, but not too many people could miss this large, plastic-cup sculpture in the wire-mesh fence along William Street. Thanks for the photo, Ruby!

At first I assumed it was a nod to today's NRL grand final, as in ''Go the Redds, go the Dragons!'' with a little bit of a typo, or perhaps just some emphasis, as in ''Go the Reddddddds''.

But a little bit of google research indicates that Redds is actually the name of the brand of cup used in the artwork. It's a cult plastic-cup apparently.
For the record: Go the Dragons!

Darlinghurst: Retailers: Darlo DVD versus Oovie

Television's a bit of a bore and I can rarely sit still in the cinema, but I'm quite happy to rent films on DVD, so that I can stop, pause and play at leisure.

My local, the Darlo DVD shop, at 110 Darlinghurst Road*, has been around since the olden days when there were big boxy things such as Beta and VHS. It used to take up two shopfronts in the same building but when the smaller-format DVD arrived on the market, the store shrunk too.
Darlo DVD stocks a fairly vast collection of foreign and independent films, with new-release titles costing $7 to rent overnight.
Here is a photograph I took of Darlo DVD today:

There is often chatter about the impending death of the local DVD/video shop due to the growing popularity of online downloads, but about a year ago a new threat to the locally-staffed stores emerged:

I first spotted this bright green Oovie vending-machine (one of a pair) in the Kingsgate Shopping Centre, beneath the Coca-Cola sign in Kings Cross. And I felt outraged. It was the same way I felt when I realised Coles and Woolworths supermarkets had introduced self-checkout systems where customers scan their own grocery's barcodes, bag their own goods, experience a brief moment as a check-out chick and then go blissfully on their way, not realising their aptitude with a cash-register just meant the supermarkets' no longer needed to advertise for extra staff this Christmas.

I have nothing against technology, it just annoys me that large supermarket-chains can so easily convince their customers into believing they are making their lives faster and easier by allowing them to do the check-out chick's job. When really, the real aim behind Coles' and Woolworths' new systems, is that they can now employ fewer staff to work a handful of check-outs and if anyone complains about the long queues, they can simply be waved on to the self-checkouts. See, we are thinking about our customers' needs.

I once read somewhere that humans' require at least three conversations or interactions with other humans each day to avoid slumping into depression. And it's true. I have experienced entire weekends when I haven't spoken to a single friend, but my descent into Prozac-muncher has been saved by brief chats with the man at the bottle shop, the woman behind the counter at the newsagent and the cashier at Coles. So I not only worry that the self-checkout system is going to result in fewer jobs, I am concerned the nation's mental health will take a dive if there is no one behind the counter to talk to.

My outrage about the Oovie machine followed the same reasoning but I also wondered what would happen to Darlo DVD now that these flashy new vending machines had set up shop nearby? Surely they would be forced to close and their young staff would have to look for new jobs. And Coles doesn't need any extra staff.

But I was sure the Oovies wouldn't last anyway. Not in socially-minded Darlinghurst. People here care about jobs for the workers, medically-supervised injection centres and mental health. But then I spotted this Red Room DVD-factory in the Oxford Square shopping centre, on the corner of Oxford and Riley streets:

Red Room even promotes the mantra, "DVD Killed the Video Store", on its website and describes itself as a ''Revolution of the Video Rental Store''.

So the video-vending-machine industry was growing and I was wrong. In fact, people actually queued up to use the Oovies and I couldn't understand why until one cold, February day when I was hungry, lonely and poor, with no money to afford a $7 over-nighter and I saw, blazoned across the Oovie machine: $1.99 New Release.

Well, I thought, I'll just have a look and see how this thing works and not long after I was curled up at home watching The September Issue and it didn't cost me a cent because your first Oovie rental is free. What a bargain. I was so clever. And then to further validate my good move, Oovie emailed me a code, which allowed me to rent two movies for the price of one on the following day.

So the next morning I lashed out $2.99 and watched the gorgeous Samson and Delilah and the literally forgettable, The Lodger, which I have no recollection of, except for an Oovie receipt that says I rented it.

Over the next few months I returned to the Oovies twice (Capitalism - A Love Story; Julie and Julia), but after failing to visit the vending machines in the past two months - just because I had no desire to watch anything - they sent me an email enquiring about my mental health:

''Catch a Falling Star: We've noticed you haven't rented from Oovie in the last 2 months.

We'd love to have you back, so to show just how special you are, we're offering you these special Oovie goodies below. Hope to see you soon!''

I may like my bottle shop man to be friendly and my newsagent to be chatty, but faux chumminess in an email from the anonymous Team Oovie - and the description of me as a ''fallen star'' - made me a bit uncomfortable. They also used the word ''special'' twice in the same sentence. Who writes these things? Darlo DVD would never do that.

So I have decided to stay away from the Oovies for the moment, because apart from the email, I always worried that I'd be using the vending-machine one cold, miserable day when a staff member from Darlo DVD would walk by and spot me in the act of betrayal.

*

Darlo DVD

4/110 Darlinghurst Road

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

02 9331 5675

*UPDATE: Darlo DVD has moved and has been reborn as:

Film Club
136A Darlinghurst Road
Darlinghurst NSW 2010
02 9331 8105
www.filmclubsydney.com