The Hungry Mile

The Hungry Mile, long legendary among Sydneysiders, became the centre of controversy again during the NSW election in February, with opposition leader Peter Debnam attacking the Darling Harbour wharf redevelopment honouring waterside workers as an 'old style Soviet Union gulag'.

In September following a concerted union campaign NSW Premier Morris Iemma announced the government would rename Hickson Road in honour of waterside workers who worked there during the Depression and bull days and as a fitting acknowledgement of our maritime and labour heritage.

While the foreshore will be named after Barangaroo, the wife of Bennelong, the area around Hickson Road and the wharves will be set aside in recognition of labour struggles.

The MUA is now entering into an agreement with the Sydney Foreshore Authority, which is overseeing the redevelopment.

The terms of the MOA include:

• Renaming Hickson Road the Hungry Mile and installing signposts from Erskine Street to the Argyle Street overpass

• an historical walk recognising our maritime heritage and labour struggles

• Cliff face artwork inspired by and possibly incorporating a replica of the wharfies' mural

• Sculpture in the park with the MUA sandstone work "Push", by Sydney sculptor Gary Deirmendjian placed prominently as a tribute to labour history

• a place dedicated to wharfie's legendary leader Jim Healy around the sculpture available for community and union gatherings

• a ferry wharf recognising the maritime history of the site.

The campaign to put the Hungry Mile on the map was long and hard fought, in parliament and in the press.

In July the NSW Premier announced he was renaming the redevelopment of East Darling Harbour soon to house 25,000 office workers and between 600-750 apartments and 11 hectares of parkland, by inviting entries in a naming competition.

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin called a meeting of the branch, union veterans and representatives of the foreshore authority together with Warren Smith, Sydney Branch soon taking charge on the ground.

"The Hungry Mile is synonymous with working class struggle and the history of the maritime union," said Warren. "It was on the Hungry Mile that workers on the waterfront united and realised their strength lay in their unity; it was on the Hungry Mile that the bitter struggles against the bull system took place. The Hungry Mile is our history. It is our heritage and our birthplace."

Veteran wharfies and seafarers joined members and supporters putting their vote; Ian West, MLC, worked hard to secure the support of the majority of Labor MPs, UnionsNSW endorsed the name and MUA veterans began to tell their story in the newspapers and on television.

Other supporters lending their name to the push included: actors Jack Thompson and Colin Friel, Clean up Australia's Ian Kieran, Sydney Deputy Lord Mayor Verity Firth, Greg Combet and Sharan Burrow, ACTU, Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon, federal and 50 state ALP MPs.

But it was not until the panel selected to judge the competition - former Labor PM Paul Keating, Museum of Contemporary Art director Elizabeth Anne Macgregor and CEO of the State Chamber of Commerce Margy Osmand - refused to even shortlist The Hungry Mile, that the media really took notice.

"The panel's ignored the enormous contribution of wharf labour to the city's make up," said historian and writer Margo Beazley (Sydney Morning Herald, "Blotting out the memory of Sydney's Hungry Mile"). "As many as 8000 hungry men would tramp the length of the strip through horse manure, soot and asbestos, many working 24 hour shifts lugging bags weighing more than 100kilos."

"Why not honour that experience with a genuine name based on living history instead of bland and second rate fakery?" asked the leader writer of the Sydney Morning Herald ("Long live the Hungry Mile" 13/9/06).

Polls run by both the Sydney Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald showed overwhelming public support for the name - 80 per cent according to the Herald poll. And MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin was given "first word" on the SMH letters page.

"The wide expanse of Hickson Road, the sheer cuts in the sandstone cliff all whisper of the rich texture of its industrial and commercial history and the great human endeavour upon which it rested," he wrote. "The strong labour traditions established and nurtured there led to momentous political and industrial activity and, at times, conflict, right up to the Patrick Lockout in 1998."

The Telegraph, which had already run a full-page history feature and two news stories, also dedicated an editorial in support of the Hungry Mile. And when the union was successful the paper boasted it had campaigned alongside the MUA to have the name recognised.

Under intense media scrutiny and public outcry, the state government struck a compromise, providing official recognition of the site.

"This development would be incomplete without acknowledging the unique maritime heritage of Sydney Harbour," Planning Minister Frank Sartor told parliament. " It was the unsung labour that helped build a nation. Those struggles will not be forgotten. This Labor Government will never dishonour the memory of those workers, their suffering, their sacrifices, and their achievements. Even though our harbour is changing, The Hungry Mile will live on in our hearts and minds forever."

The Hungry Mile will remain the Hungry Mile and even more importantly our veterans have been given widespread public recognition and their place in the nation's history.

"There is a Hungry Mile in every Australian port," said Paddy Crumlin.

"It is a significant place," MUA Veterans National President Harry Black told ABC television: "It's like having an area allocated to us that is sacred to us. It's sacred to those who worked here, who struggled, and who were successful, and that's why we look on it as a sacred area."

Work is scheduled to get underway once stevedoring operations move to Port Botany, Newcastle and Port Kembla in 2008.