The Hungry Mile

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The Hungry Mile is the name harbourside workers gave to Darling Harbour East, in Sydney, Australia in the Great Depression. Workers would walk from wharf to wharf in search of a job, often failing to find one.[1]

By 1930 it had become the title of Wharfie poet Ernest Antony's most famous poem, in a published collection titled The Hungry Mile and other poems.[2]

Memories of the Hungry Mile and Antony's poem became the inspiration for the Waterside Workers' Federation Film Unit 1950s film of the same name.[3]

The NSW government is currently reviewing the name[4], as part of an urban renewal. The Maritime Union of Australia is campaigning to renew the "Hungry Mile" name, as an acknowledgement of the site's historical significance to waterside workers.

Currently there is also ongoing debate regarding the design and size determinations of the waterfront development. The City of Sydney Council and some architectural bodies have expressed concern that the proposed design will be out of scale with the surrounding environment, as well as causing large unwanted shadows over the immediate area, parts of Darling Harbour and possibly nearby Pyrmont. [5]. Concerns were also expressed by the Danish urban planner Professor Jan Gehl, who warned that large undivided parks would become "fearsome at night" [6].

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Union leaders walk the Hungry Mile", The Sydney Morning Herald, June 4, 2003. 
  2. ^ Ernest Antony and the Hungry Mile. Union Songs (April 11, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
  3. ^ The Hungry Mile. Maritime Union of Australia (November 15, 2005). Retrieved on 2006-09-15.
  4. ^ "Hungry Mile gets minor role", The Sydney Morning Herald, September 12, 2006. 
  5. ^ "A monster so hungry it will eat all the sunlight", The Sydney Morning Herald, November 2, 2006. 
  6. ^ "Hungry Mile wasteland warning", The Sydney Morning Herald, April 17, 2008. 
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