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Starting a large panorama on Sunday 30th March about 10am
"Harbour Control Tower and Barangaroo from High Street, Millers Point"
2014 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
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I have spent most of the past week painting a large panoramic canvas to show the Harbour Control Tower from High Street in Millers Point.
On the far left hand side is a view of the Barangaroo construction site, with giant chunks of recently excavated yellowblock sandstone forming a pseudo-naturalistic cove.
On the far right hand side, the workers cottages of High Street stare down disapprovingly onto their brash new neighbour.
In the centre of the picture is the last bastion of the Hungry Mile, the mushroom topped column of the Harbour Control Tower.
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.JPG "plein air oil painting of heritage terraces in Millers Point by Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist") |
Monday 31st March about 1pm
"Harbour Control Tower and Barangaroo from High Street, Millers Point"
2014 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
Enquiries about this painting :
The Harbour Tower was also jokingly known as ''the Pill" because it "controlled all the berths" in the harbour. According to the National Trust, it should be conserved and reused as it symbolizes more than 200 years of shipping in Sydney.
However, this is an unlikely fate, as the Barangaroo Delivery Authority then bought the concrete, steel and glass structure from Sydney Ports for $2.6 million.
Despite its unsurpassed 360 degree harbour views, the Harbour Control Tower quite obviously doesn't fit into their vision for Barangaroo, so its days are numbered.
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.JPG "plein air oil painting of heritage terraces in Millers Point by Jane Bennett, industrial heritage artist") |
Tuesday 1st April about 11am
"Harbour Control Tower and Barangaroo from High Street, Millers Point" 2014 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
Enquiries about this painting :
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Sydney Ports once manned it 24/7, but it has not been operational since April 11th 2011, when vessel control services for Sydney Harbour finally moved to Port Botany.
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Wednesday 2nd April about 11am
"Harbour Control Tower and Barangaroo from High Street, Millers Point" 2014 oil on canvas 61 x 183cm
Enquiries about this painting :
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The tower opened in 1974 to give Harbour Control the best possible views of the harbour to ensure safe passage for thousands of ships each year. The architectural drawings and plans for its construction used to be hung in the foyer of the amenities level, just in front of the lift, until some light fingered wharfie pinched them.
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'Evening Harbour Control Tower from Moore's Wharf' 2013 oil on canvas 178 x 122cm |
This is my huge canvas painted from my Moore's Wharf studio, showing the last time that the gorgeous sandstone escarpment was completely visible.
The park will slope from its soi disant naturalistic 1788 coastline up to Clyne Reserve and Merriman street. Obviously the Tower will get short shrift. It is an emblem of another era and different values.
It looks as though Precision Demolition will be getting more work!
I last caught their act at Port Kembla, where they lived up to their name, neatly and precisely dropping the Port Kembla Copper Stack onto the grounds of Port Kembla Copper. Previously I had met them during the saga of the sinking of ex-HMAS Adelaide.
I am surprised, and more than a little concerned, that as the demolition of the Harbour Control Tower was virtually a foregone conclusion, that it wasn't demolished before construction of the headland was so far advanced. However neatly they drop it, it would make a bit of a dent in the painstakingly arranged faux natural headland. Unless they are planning to leave the pieces there as a giant water feature or a Brutalist concrete novelty sundial in the centre of the park.
It would certainly be a conversation piece.
Or perhaps the charming terraces of Merriman Street are also superfluous to their requirements?
There's no accounting for taste.
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'The Shipping News - Last view of interior of Harbour Control Tower ' 2011 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm
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I had been "Artist in Residence" in the Harbour Control Tower by Sydney Ports Corporation for nearly a decade.
This is the final view of the interior of the top floor. The whiteboard has a list of the very last shipping movements on April the last operational day of the Harbour Control Tower.
The clock has stopped at 10.44am, Tuesday 24th May, and has been left that way.
After the last operational use of the Tower, maintenance staff had to still have access to be able to remove furniture, cables and other equipment. If I arrived early enough, I would be allowed to tag along and do a bit more painting.
My very last visit was just before its eventual demolition.
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