Locals star in Erskineville Stories

Before we watched the movie, Reggie the Rabbit from the Rabbitohs strolled past to a cheer. Then the Erskineville Public School Dance Group led by Indigenous dancer Terry Olsen delighted everyone with a great performance. The school also provided a sausage sizzle for those gathered who wanted a picnic.

Local artist, Annie Kennedy, told us the story of the achievement of her movie project and thanked the main sponsors of the show – The City of Sydney Council, Real Estate agent Ray White, Purple Goat Design and FedEx Kinkos as well as 15 other local businesses who contributed to the night.

The guests of honour were on chairs in the centre. They were the stars of the movie together with their chosen companions – often old school friends or neighbours who had shared the earlier days with them.

While we waited, I caught up with some of them. Nancy Laszlow, who starred in the movie, Frances Cusack, Ellen Macnamara and Marie Ford were remembering days when families commonly had seven or nine children – girls in one bedroom and boys in another.

They talked of an Erskineville which was more open and occupied by working class families who supported each other in so many ways – where you didn’t lock your doors and windows and you kept an eye on each others’ kids. Marie, who had come back to Erskineville after some decades away, was the descendant of one of the earliest settlers, Henry Knight, whose name was given to streets in the area.

Another woman who told her story in the movie was Elza Green. She was born in Erko 85 years ago and has lived there, in the same house, ever since! She was chatting with childhood friends Patricia Blundell and Stella Wilson. Patricia remembered her father inventing the drain now common in all bathroom floors. Stella’s family had the only  phone in the street and people regularly took a shortcut through their house to get to the shops and the train.

Talking with Frank Dean, also in the movie, and Georgie Markham who had come down from the Central Coast where they now live, I was surprised to learn that back in their childhood there was an AFL Football Team which played in a Sydney competition alongside the Rugby League.

Frank played League on Saturday and AFL on Sunday.

He remembers school days where the teachers were always called “Sir” or “Miss” and where the local police knew all the children. If he and his mates wandered across into Newtown the police would reprimand them and tell them to “Get back to Erko!” where they belonged. Sometimes they would be asked their names and one of their friends was a Maltese boy called Charlie Hazipadi (say it out loud to yourself).

When asked his name by the police, he told them three times and the police wouldn’t believe him. Finally he said “Charlie Smith” and they congratulated him on telling the truth at last!

People remembered almost everyone wearing boiler suits, SP Betting in certain houses, children playing in the lanes and their mums going to one of the many small grocers, leaving a modest order for food which was delivered and paid for at the end of the week. Frank’s father bought their house for £1200 in 1963. Milk and bread was delivered to the door and there was, of course, the “rabbitoh” who moved around the area selling rabbits.

When we came to the movie, the stars of the show told many stories like this – a touching and challenging mixture of kindness across the community and shared hardship. Obviously the role and status of women was very different. No women were allowed in hotels, other than in the Ladies Lounge which was provided here and there.

This even applied to women who had served in the war. Children shared lives with very meagre resources, none of which stopped them from making their own fun, exploring their environment, running around in parks and streets and learning independence.

The stars in the movie – Marjorie Lewis and Lily Owen, Elza Green, Terry Murphy, Frank Dean, Philomene Watson, Arthur and Brian Dunningham, Frances Cusack and Eleanor Henricksen have much to teach us about our history and the way people used to live together.

Maybe some of these qualities of community life were among the things which the thousands who came to share the night were seeking to re-establish? Certainly

there was a respect for, and delight in, the lives which they saw simply but eloquently portrayed in Annie Kennedy’s movie and a keen interest in who had gone before them in Erskineville. Maybe we need more of this!

Photo: Ali Blogg Annie Kennedy, Frances Cusack, Patricia Blundell, Ellen Macnamara, Nancy Laszlow and Marie Ford