SYDNEYSIDE WITH JANET PARR Town hall for sale

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33612, 14 August 1974, Page 6

SYDNEYSIDE WITH JANET PARR Town hall for sale

Psst! Wanna buy a (town hall? Not quite the i same as a battleship, 'maybe, but going cheap. At least it is not expensive at about $145,000. There are still, in spite of tight credit, plenty of houses in some of Sydney’s plushy suburbs that you could not get for that money. I concede that Newtown, where this town hall happens; to be, is not one of Sydney’s plushy suburbs. And the houses probably have a few more things going for them, such as a harbour view or a swimming pool, that the Newtown town hall does not have. But you would be getting something for your money—a site suitable for ■ mixed development, according to the Sydney City - Council, which has the place , up for sale but is not too hopeful about selling it because of the tight credit squeeze.

It might be rather nice to have a town hall of your own apart from all the things you could do with it if you decided you wanted to live in it. There would, surely, be room for a ballroom and a grand staircase. Perhaps it would run to a banqueting hall and a minstrel gallery? Brighter Every time you went home you could stride purposefully down the street trying to look like Anthony Quinn making a television series. Or like Sydney’s Lord Mayor, Aiderman Nick Shehadie, who is often seen hoofing energetically—the old footballing fitness is still there—over the crossing in front of the Sydney Town Hall and up all the steps. He seems to be making a personal campaign’ of encouraging Sydney to be the brighter, livelier city he would like it to be. Aiderman Shehadie, of course, has a lot more going for him than you would have if your address just happened to be of the Old Town Hall, Newtown. He has a city to go with his Town Hall. Whether his campaign is one of bringing the city to the Town Hall or the Town i Hall to the city would be hard to say. As well as the almost endless succession of official and semiofficial parties and recep-| tions — things that are usually lumped together and rather stuffily described as "functions”—there have been some that were decidedly more off-beat. He thought the old people could do with something to brighten their winter. So there was a teadance for them. Everyone was welcome. Door prizes; and old-time dancing werei

, offered and no worry about having to be out late at night. Robin Lovejoy’s twentyfifth anniversary as director of the Old Tote Theatre was another good reason for having a party. But even with a host as willing as the Lord Mayor, not everybody could go to the Town Hall. So Alderman Shehadie and a group of his frjends dipped into their own pockets for the necessary cash and came up with the Jazzmobile. JAZZ ACTION Operated by the new Jazz Action Society — which had just held its first meeting at a jazz club called The Basement — the Jazzmobile is intended to liven up Sydney’s streets and parks on’ Saturdays for at least three months. A changing group of musicians, who have been christened the Lord Mayor’s Jazz Band, tours Sydney in an open truck stopping off to give concerts in some of the parks as they go. Most of Sydney’s best jazzmen are expected to play some time. The project started with a line-up that included names like Bob Barnard. John Costello, Bob Mclvor, John McCarthy, Errol Buddle and Wally Wickham. And Aiderman Nick Shehadie stepped up for a short stint on the clarinet, though with more enthusiasm than apparent skill. He thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing although he was not, he admitted, a jazz buff himself. Having found time earlier in the year to fit in an overseas tour, he came back impressed by the flowers he had seen in other cities.

Sydney, he said, should have more window boxes, and, setting an example, the Town Hall blossomed with them. When Melbourne announced that it planned to build twin flame fountains — each 32 feet high and changing colour every minute — astride its Princes Street Bridge, the Lord Mayor of Sydney was not particularly impressed. He, too, had plans for a fountain, a large and sculptured affair which would be very impressive and “much [better” than anything Melbourne had in mind. But, said Aiderman Shehadie, Sydney is Australia’s gateway and the South Pacific’s as well. Sydney does [ not have to compete. Aiderman Shehadie, in fact, has made it quite clear that he regards himself as the Lord Mayor of no mean city. Sydney City Council has just published its new plan, Sydney City ’77, which extends and to some extent amends its earlier Sydney Strategic Plan, which laid down what the council and its planners thought the future Sydney should be like. Sydney City ’77, which is concerned with what will happen in the next three years, calls for a change in direction, with a city planned for people, fewer high-rise office blocks and people coming back to live in the inner city. It visualises people living at Circular Quay and being able to walk to work. In a foreword the Lord Mayor says the city should be “. . . a place of beauty, for leisure and living, for creative and commercial life