Community Life - Scenes from the class struggle
Today King Street, Newtown is lined with trendy bars, Thai restaurants, boutique shops and art galleries. But what was it like the 30s, an era where the country was gripped by the Great Depression and many Aussies really were battlers?
As a part of the Sydney Fringe festival, the New Theatre is taking you back to Black Friday. Even eight decades ago, Newtown was a fun place bustling with theatres and vaudeville halls. But it wasn’t so fun for that quarter of the
local workforce who were unemployed. With thousands struggling to pay rent, and landlords themselves going broke, many local residents were issued with eviction notices.
On Friday the 19th of June 1931 the word got out that the police were coming to evict a family living in Newtown. The Communist-led Unemployed Workers’ Movement, which had previously succeeded in preventing a number of evictions, headed to number 143 on the appropriately named Union Street to wait for the police.
When a bus filled with policemen and a motorcycle escort arrived, the unarmed defenders of the house began hurling bricks and metal at the cops from the balcony of 143. The police retaliated by pulling revolvers and firing.
The defenders were forced to retreat into the house, then the police smashed through a door at the rear of the house with axes and hammers.
Extremely violent hand-to-hand combat began in all rooms of the house, with UWM members hurling iron bars and clubs at police, causing blood to spatter everywhere.
A huge crowd assembled out the front of the house, cordoned off by police. The crowd heckled as police, some badly injured, pushed bloody antievictionists into a paddy wagon.
The battle lasted almost an hour, with 27 men were injured and 14 rushed to Prince Alfred Hospital. Two policemen were left in a critical condition with fractured skulls. Transporting you right back into the action, the New Theatre are installing an interactive game where, armed with a GPS movie-player, you search the streets for supporters, whilst evading police, to aid the UWM in their infamous eviction battle.
To complement this, artist Nathan Garnett has created an audiovisual streetscape of Newtown during that time. It looks as though someone has set up a video camera on King St in the 30s, and you will hear the sounds of trams, local traffic,
horses and one or two motorcars. Says Garnett of his artwork: “Many of the buildings we are familiar with were there in the 30s. They’ve stayed around but they’ve changed and grown up.”
■ Black Friday and Newtown in the ‘30s run from September 14-23 at the New Theatre.
Sarah Michael
Today King Street, Newtown is lined with trendy bars, Thai restaurants, boutique shops and art galleries. But what was it like the 30s, an era where the country was gripped by the Great Depression and many Aussies really were battlers?
As a part of the Sydney Fringe festival, the New Theatre is taking you back to Black Friday. Even eight decades ago, Newtown was a fun place bustling with theatres and vaudeville halls. But it wasn’t so fun for that quarter of the
local workforce who were unemployed. With thousands struggling to pay rent, and landlords themselves going broke, many local residents were issued with eviction notices.
On Friday the 19th of June 1931 the word got out that the police were coming to evict a family living in Newtown. The Communist-led Unemployed Workers’ Movement, which had previously succeeded in preventing a number of evictions, headed to number 143 on the appropriately named Union Street to wait for the police.
When a bus filled with policemen and a motorcycle escort arrived, the unarmed defenders of the house began hurling bricks and metal at the cops from the balcony of 143. The police retaliated by pulling revolvers and firing.
The defenders were forced to retreat into the house, then the police smashed through a door at the rear of the house with axes and hammers.
Extremely violent hand-to-hand combat began in all rooms of the house, with UWM members hurling iron bars and clubs at police, causing blood to spatter everywhere.
A huge crowd assembled out the front of the house, cordoned off by police. The crowd heckled as police, some badly injured, pushed bloody antievictionists into a paddy wagon.
The battle lasted almost an hour, with 27 men were injured and 14 rushed to Prince Alfred Hospital. Two policemen were left in a critical condition with fractured skulls. Transporting you right back into the action, the New Theatre are installing an interactive game where, armed with a GPS movie-player, you search the streets for supporters, whilst evading police, to aid the UWM in their infamous eviction battle.
To complement this, artist Nathan Garnett has created an audiovisual streetscape of Newtown during that time. It looks as though someone has set up a video camera on King St in the 30s, and you will hear the sounds of trams, local traffic,
horses and one or two motorcars. Says Garnett of his artwork: “Many of the buildings we are familiar with were there in the 30s. They’ve stayed around but they’ve changed and grown up.”
■ Black Friday and Newtown in the ‘30s run from September 14-23 at the New Theatre.
Sarah Michael
