Heritage Festival – Discoveries and Rediscoveries a tour with Patrick Callaghan

What a successful Heritage Festival for 2016. Discovering and Rediscovering old gems of Leichhardt North with tour guide Patrick Callaghan . A strong and enthusiastic crowd of 40 joined the tour at 10am at Pioneers Park starting off with the history of Balmain cemetery, and the WW1 Memorial which historically used to be located in the middle of Marion and Norton Street.

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Patrick Callaghan grew up in Leichhardt and remembers walking through Pioneers Park as a young boy when it was a cemetery before it became a park in 1946.

Leichhardt WW1 Memorial has engraved some very significant names such as VC Private Matthew William V.C. , Corporal John Mackey who was a recipient of the Victoria Cross in World War Two.

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The tour continued around to Allen Street to look at the old site of the John Heine Factory, Cyclops Toys, Kings Lawn mowers,  St Columbus school and finally Roebuck Rocking Horses. We heard about the early subdivisions and land grants given to Captain Piper and Hugh Piper. Originally known as  Piperston prior to 1871 when it was renamed “Leichhardt” after Leichhardt Councils first mayor Walter Beames , in an a friendly exchange named the place after the great explorer Ludwig Leichhardt.

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Cyclops Toys established business in 1913 and were originally located at 1 Hay Street Leichhardt.

Currently the building is made-up of designer apartments with brilliant spaces and views, however this building was once the well known factory of Cyclops Toys. Next door to this building  in William Street is the former machine tool manufacturing plant of John Heine and Sons.

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Aerial view of John Heine & Son Engineering Works, Leichhardt : with Cylops Toy Factory in background c.1920.

Wall to Wall Bus Tour

This Year marks the 10th Anniversary of the Wall to Wall Mural competition. As part of the Heritage Festival 2016 Discoveries and Rediscoveries we conducted a bus tour of seven stops,  just a taster of the overall 60 large and small scale murals in the Leichhardt LGA administrated by Public Arts Officer Bronwyn Tuohy.

Each year Wall2Wall adds another series of award winning murals, adding quality site specific murals to the local cultural landscape. On this tour we journeyed from iconic political murals from the 80s such as The Crescent Mural of Annandale, to murals that identify artists as individuals with their own signature style. The tour celebrates the diverse range of creativity expressed through murals in public space.wall to wall bus tour small (1)23

Stop:  Lambert Park Wall – (Artist: Numskull and Beastman)

Tour Guide. Bronwyn Tuohy

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Stop 7: Project Ugly – rolling platform – current work (April 2016) by Stuart Sale

WALL TO WALL MURAL TOUR 10th anniversary

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LEICHAHRDT Bus Tour WALL TO WALL MURAL TOUR OF LEICHHARDT
Come and discover the eclectic murals of Leichhardt, from historic political iconic murals such as The Crescent Mural of Annandale designed by Rodney Monk in 1980, painted at a turning point in Leichhardt’s History as the inner city was being transformed with changing demographics associated with de- industrialisation.
Celebrate Wall to Walls 10th year with an extensive amount of murals celebrating colour, diversity, coffee culture, history and heritage are there to be discovered.
2 spots left
When:Thursday 14th April 10am -12pm
Meet at:
Leichhardt Town Hall
107 Norton Street, Leichhardt,
New South Wales,
Bookings:
9367 9226

Link to gallery of Murals