Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Exiting
Erskineville train station
, turn left and cruise through Erskineville Village. On your left you'll
pass the lavishly tiled
Rose of Australia
pub, and on your right the defunct
South Sydney City Coun-
cil Chambers
(South Sydney merged with the City of Sydney in 2004) and the art deco
Erskineville
Hotel
.
Cinematic déjà vu! You may recognise the
Imperial Hotel
on the Union St corner as the spot from which
the bus departed in
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
. In June 1931 this unassuming side street
also was the setting for the 'Battle of Union St', one of several Great Depression eviction clashes. Hundreds of
people gathered and jeered as police brutally evicted residents who had barricaded themselves inside a house.
Another socialist landmark,
Green Bans Park
, just before the railway bridge on Erskineville Rd, owes its
existence to the construction workers' green bans of the 1980s and '90s. Ceramic tiles tell the story of the 1992
union ban that led to this land being retained as a community park. Similar green bans saved Woolloomooloo's
Finger Wharf and parts of The Rocks.
Cross the bridge and truck up to King St, Newtown. Across the road is a prominent
Martin Luther King
mural
. Cut down Mary St to the narrowest slice of
Camperdown Memorial Rest Park
, Newtown's green
meeting place.
Turn right on Lennox St then left into Church St; the evocatively ramshackle
Camperdown Cemetery
is
on your left. Grab a self-guided tour pamphlet from the box near the gate and go exploring.
Leaving the cemetery go straight ahead on Victoria St then turn right into Hordern St (check out the mix of
grungy and restored terraces), before hanging left onto
King Street
, Newtown's pulsing thoroughfare.
Above shop level the largely extant facades tie the streetscape to its past.
Newtown
CAMPERDOWN CEMETERY
CEMETERY
( 9557 2043;
www.ststephens.org.au
; 189 Church St; tours $10; sunrise-sunset, tours 11.30am 1st Sun of the
month Feb-Dec; Newtown)
Take a self-guided tour beyond the monstrous 1848 fig tree into
this dark, eerily unkempt cemetery next to St Stephens Church. Famous Australians bur-
ied here between 1849 and 1942 include Eliza Donnithorne, the inspiration for Miss Hav-
isham in Dickens'
Great Expectations
. Book guided tours via the website.
