Ground Zero

wake up
look around
memorise what you see
it may be gone tomorrow
everything changes. Someday
there will be nothing but what is remembered
there may be no-one to remember it.
Keep moving
wherever you stand is ground zero
a moving target is harder to hit

"Ground Zero" by Michael Dransfield 

Today's painting on my deck gallery is yet another canvas celebrating something that no longer exists & probably remembered by very few.

AGL38 'AGL Site, Mortlake' 2004
oil on canvas 75 x 100 cm
Available for sale

In 1884, the Australian Gas Light Company purchased 32 hectares of land at Mortlake and began gas production there on the 23rd May 1886.
The A.G.L. Gasworks at Mortlake boasted grandiose structures modelled on the Beckton Works in East London. It was probably no coincidence that the engineer in charge of works, Thomas Bush, had previously been employed at Beckton.

 

 

AGL38 'AGL Site, Mortlake' 2004

oil on canvas 75 x 100 cm

Available for sale

The company had operated other gasworks in Sydney, but their entire gas-making operation was transferred to Mortlake in 1922 as the river provided a cheap and efficient means of obtaining coal, which was its raw material.

There was an enormous workforce. When AGL's Mortlake plant was in full operation it used nearly 460,000 tonnes of coal per year which was brought from Hexham on the Hunter River, by colliers known as the 'Sixty Milers'.

The rotting hulk of one of the colliers decorates the upper reaches of the Parramatta River, and its remains can still be seen if the tide is high enough to allow passage for the Rivercats.

The initials “C.W.G.” stand for Carburetted Water Gas which sounds a little as though it has something to do with Coca-cola. The C.W.G. Building once contained 6 retort houses which had continually burnt coal from Newcastle to light Sydney’s streets. 

Exhibition of AGL site Mortlake paintings
in Breakfast Point Community Centre 2004 

 

 

The process of carbonization to obtain gas from coal was discontinued on 31st December 1971. Thereafter, natural gas from the interior of Australia was piped to Mortlake where it was given an odour for safety reasons and distributed to consumers throughout Sydney. Ironically, Mortlake itself was one of the last suburbs to be converted to natural gas. The gasworks finally closed on Friday 15th June 1990 & the sprawling 58 hectare site became a moonscape.

Exhibition of AGL site Mortlake paintings
in Breakfast Point Community Centre 2004

The site had already been half demolished by the time I found it and there were only a couple of other ruins dotted around the vast wasteland.
Extensive remediation had begun. As a century’s worth of stinking coal tar waste was removed from the site, networks of channels were carved through the glowing sandstone surrounding the C.W.G. Building. After rain, these channels would fill with water, becoming a network of canals and lakes reflecting the ruins.
A terrifying 40 metre chasm had been excavated in front of it to remove the coal tar residue. Against it the C.W.G. Building loomed overhead, neatly sliced in half and propped up with a mad cat’s cradle of eye-popping red bollards opening wide in front of me as though to welcome me with an embrace. I had to write myself a 'post it note' to attach to my easel to remind me not to walk backwards to admire my painting as there was only a couple of metres between my easel and a sudden drop!

Exhibition of AGL site Mortlake paintings
in Breakfast Point Community Centre 2004
The former AGL Gasworks site has now been completely redeveloped into the controversial new gated suburb of Breakfast Point by Rosecorp. The complex of white and pale beige apartments and townhouses is totally unrecognizable from its industrial past.

 
Exhibition of AGL site Mortlake paintings
in Breakfast Point Community Centre 2004
To coincide with the opening of their new suburb, Rosecorp and the CFMEU jointly invited me to hold a solo exhibition in their freshly built Community Hall.
My paintings consisted almost entirely of renditions of the C.W.G. Building, which had recently been demolished.
Irony totally intentional.

Related Posts 

My AGL Gasworks page

Painting from the silos of Mungo Scott Flour Mills, Summer Hill

Today's painting on the easel of my 'deck gallery' is a view of and from the silos of Summer Hill’s famous Mungo Scott flour mill. This vast behemoth was an icon of Sydney’s inner west skyline for nearly 100 years.
It also evokes memories of a gallery where I used to exhibit between 2003 - 10.
From the early 1990s I used to exhibit in the Delmar Gallery in Summer Hill. When the Director, Max Taylor, left to establish his own gallery, the Taylor Galleries, I exhibited there from 2003 until its closure in 2010. The Mungo Scott flour mill was just a few doors down from the Taylor Galleries in Smith Street, Summer Hill. I was utterly fascinated with it and often painted views of it from the surrounding streets before or after delivering or collecting paintings.

SU12 Mungo Scott Flour Mills Night from the top of the silo
2007 oil on canvas 30 x 30cm 

 Available for sale
One day in 2004 I finally plucked up the courage to ask to be allowed to paint there. They couldn't have been kinder!
I was given the 'grand tour' of the Escher like maze of criss-crossing, zig-zagging walkways from the main building to the top of the silos. When I returned to paint there, everyone helped carry my easel and wet canvases.
Just as well, as while I was certainly strong enough, I would have been hopelessly lost getting from one building to another. It was so confusing navigating the various levels, and it was complicated by the fact that it was still an operational flour mill.
My guide wore a 'Gumby' style hairnet, goggles and gloves. He joked that people knew whether or not they were gluten intolerant within the hour.
Apparently I am - I was sneezing, wheezing & itching, and had to wear a mask whenever I painted there as I had trouble breathing. I've never really liked bread, and now I know why!

SU8 Summer Hill Mungo Scott Flour Mills Panorama
2004 ink acrylic pastel on paper 118 x 118cm 

 Available for sale
The silos were truly scary, especially at night. They were very high up, sloped & some didn't even have guardrails. When I was drawing and painting my huge panoramas of the unforgettable view of the inner west from the top of the silos, I was frankly terrified as I had unfortunately picked the highest silo, and for extra points it didn't have a guardrail.

SU7 Summer Hill Mungo Scott Flour Mills Panorama
2004 oil painting on canvas 91 x 122cm 

Enquiries about other Summer Hill paintings 
The spectacular view made up for the danger. The Summer Hill freight line carving its way through the inner west was directly beneath me.
Soon it would be literally re-cycled. Some of it would be reserved for light rail, and some would be a cycling track.
I was lucky to get to the Mungo Scott Flour Mills in time. Summer Hill was fast being engulfed by the tide of gentrification transforming former gritty industrial zones into hip neighbourhoods, driving up rents and pushing artists even further away from the inner city.

Related Posts

My page of Urban Landscape paintings

The Empty mask

The Milky bar kid - old milkbar 74 Harris Street

Today's painting on the easel of my deck gallery is a 2009 plein air oil painting of a derelict abandoned old shop in Pyrmont, fondly, but wrongly known as the "old bakery".

P257A 'Old milkbar aka 'bakery'
corner of John and Harris St'
2009 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available

As far as I can remember the actual bakery was a few doors down and the corner shop was a milkbar, but we're talking at least 3 decades ago.

My standout memory of it when it was in its last days of operation was how rubbish I was at playing their "Fussball" machine, which was lines of wooden footballers attached to a stick that you tried to manoeuver by a lever to kick the ball.
Not a single goal!

The legendary Terminus Hotel on the opposite side of Harris Street, and like its more famous counterpart, was part of the Wakil's real life Monopoly game. They had a landbanking empire of quirky, derelict buildings which were loathed by local residents as eyesores but cherished by artists like myself.

Aren't Artists a perverse bunch - we ignore all the shiny new developments and make straight for the 'shame of the neighbourhood' to immortalize it!

P257A 'Old milkbar aka 'bakery'
corner of John and Harris St'
2009 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available

The continuous row of 19th century 2 storey terrace houses between Nos 74 and 80 Harris Street are still part of the Wakil collection of formerly derelict buildings, which once included the iconic Terminus Hotel opposite.

The row of  terraces have rendered brick shopfronts and skillion roofed wings at the rear. They are plainly detailed, with only a string course to the facades as decoration, and a Victorian/Georgian flavour in their design. Door openings are rectangular, and window openings are also rectangular as well as slightly segmentally arched. They are without parapet or verandahs and feature corrugated iron gable roofs with low corniced or corbelled chimneys.

P256A 'Old Milkbar (aka 'Bakery'),
corner of Harris and John St'
2009 acrylic on paper 21 x 28cm
Available

No 74 is similar to the rest, but was a corner shop and is faceted with a corner entrance. It  was a milkbar for a long time, although often and wrongly referred to as the 'old bakery'.
Number 82 was the actual site of the "old bakery", although now the entire block seems to have adopted this name.

P257 'Old bakery corner of John and Harris St'
2012 oil on board  35 x 28cm
Available

For many years the corner and north facing doorways were boarded up and featured an endless layering of illegal posters promoting long forgotten bands.

 

P256B 'Old Milkbar and 'Chicks on Harris''
2009 acrylic on paper 21 x 28cm
Available

Until about 2014, No 82 still partly kept up the milk bar tradition,traded as a "charcoal chicken" outlet called "Chicks on Harris".

Bearing in mind the seedy reputations of previous establishments at the north end of Harris St, I'm not sure that the owners had really thought through the implications of their name!

Milk bars are now imbued with mythical qualities they never possessed in life. In decline and death, they’re trendy and retro.


P256 'Black Dog (old milkbar -
aka 'bakery' from John St)'
2009 oil on board 31 x 25cm
Available

No 74 has now been recently and very sympathetically redeveloped by the current occupants - appropriately, 'Belle Property' real estate agents. And now it really is a 'belle' property indeed.

It's been painted a tasteful off-white shade, and the former layers of peeling posters have been replaced by large picture windows.

I couldn't resist having a sneaky peek inside.

The interior still has the original wall material visible, and the beautiful old hardwood stairs have been polished, but otherwise in their original state. The architraves are dark walnut stained hardwood, but the rotting floors had collapsed long ago and had to be replaced with polished concrete.

The huge tree outside is a relic from when both sides of John Street were edged with a row of trees whose branches would meet in the middle of the street to form a cathedral-like canopy. Lush and cool in summer, but most beautiful in winter when the feeble rays of the sun would pierce through the tracery of bare branches.

A lovely tree, but its roots went straight for the plumbing, and the pavement outside is cracked and humped by the twisting roots underneath. I know that a few years ago, several people had considered this old shop on as a renovation project, but weren't quite crazy-brave enough to take it on.

For more information about Harris and John Street in Pyrmont, including the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels

see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts

Painting Pyrmont - Sydney Living Museums

Terminus Redux

Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Pretty vacant

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present

Terminus Redux

I have mixed feelings about the renovation of the Terminus.
Although it's been restored,not demolished or replaced by apartment blocks as so often happens, it has been stripped of its poetry.

P286A 'Terminus Redux'
2017-8 ink, charcoal on paper 131 x 106cm
Enquiries : janecooperbennett@gmail.com
I painted a large mixed media work on paper, as well as an even larger oil on canvas, just before the iconic vines were removed. The awning had been stripped back to a fragile skeleton, but the bricks had yet to be sand-blasted.
However well a place is renovated, inevitably there must be compromises between keeping the original character and making it a viable business.
No expense was spared on the fitout.The designers and architects have done their best to restore the old pub building while retaining quite a lot of the original pub from tiles to timber. The pressed metal ceiling upstairs is a sympathetic replacement not the original, which was too badly damaged.

P286 'Terminus Redux'
2017-8 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

Enquiries -janecooperbennett@gmail.com

I miss the vine-covered facade. It had probably been planted early in the 20th century by a CSR employee, as the same species of Virginia creeper covered the manager's residence and the courtyard of the 'Rum Store'.
Recently I attended the launch of Shirley Fitzgerald's wonderful book on the history of the Terminus. I was honoured that Shirley had asked me to contribute a photo of one of my paintings of the Terminus facing opposite its longtime companion and rival, the Pyrmont Point Hotel (aka the Royal Pacific).

P252 'The Terminus and the Point'
2011 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Private Collection : Sydney
Enquiries : janecooperbennett@gmail.com
When I went upstairs, I almost walked into one of the walls, not from one too many cocktails, but because I'd expected the hall that once led through to the building next door. I believe this passageway had to be closed off due to updated fire regulations.
A typical pub menu, priced rather steeply, cashes in on the hipster ambience from the 32 years that the Terminus spent as an icon of urban decay.
As a contrast, when I'd visited the Terminus prior to its closure in the early 1980s, they were giving out free food. Possibly this had contributed to its original decline and fall.
The new owners aren't making that mistake, quite the opposite.

Ironically despite having kept the ghost sign outside, no Resch's is on tap.

For more information about the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels

see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts
Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Pretty vacant  

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present 
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

Terminus Indeterminate

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Enquiries

The Terminus Hotel, corner of John and Harris St, Pyrmont is being renovated after over 20 years of not so benign neglect as part of the Wakil's collection of derelict inner city buildings.

The former poster child of urban decay has fallen to the inexorable tide of gentrification. It won't be totally obliterated as so many unfortunate heritage icons all over Sydney have been.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available
Enquiries
Hopefully as much as possible of its quirky heritage will be retained, but at this stage it is difficult to predict the outcome, as so much depends on the personal taste of the developers, architects and designers.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

The cantilevered rusty steel awning has just been stripped down to a skeletal framework. It matches the bare branches of the tree on the corner of John and Harris St opposite the old bakery.
I don't know if the awning will be removed or restored.
Usually I paint the Terminus from the other side of Harris St, to pair it with its rival pub, the Pyrmont Point (aka 'the Royal Pacific). However, one of its most distinctive characteristics, the distinctive parapet skyline, a key feature of Federation Free Style architecture is best displayed from the John st vantage point.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

Some tendrils of the Virginia creeper that once covered most of its facade still cling to the top. It was possibly the only thing binding all the bricks together.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available
Enquiries

The creeper is usually (and wrongly) known as 'ivy', however ivy doesn't change to russet tones in autumn, or drop its leaves for winter.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

The same creeper also covers much of the facade of the CSR manager's house further south down Harris St. An entire courtyard in the CSR refinery used to resemble a jungle.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

Long before 'green walls' became fashionable decor, the south facade of the building now rather bizarrely known as the 'Rum Store' was entirely covered in Virginia creeper from floor to ceiling.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

I've always wondered whether the Virginia creeper so prevalent in the Pyrmont of the last part of the 20th century had been planted by the same shade craving person.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

I'm glad that I took the opportunity to capture this moment. This is possibly the last time the Terminus will be in anything resembling its original state or composed of its original materials.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

It won't be very long before the Terminus is boarded up to undergo the sort of serious structural alterations that will be required for its reinvention.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

It's unknown at this stage whether the famous ghost sign on Harris St will be retained, as it is painted on the original brickwork.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel'

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available 

Enquiries 

For more information about the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels

see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts
Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Pretty vacant  

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present 
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

Steady rest

I've been painting the machinery in the William Wallbank and Sons ex- foundry in Auburn, before it is all stripped out and sent to a scrap metal yard.

Work in progress -

AWW8 'Boys toys -Steady rest 1'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

I've been painting a series of still life studies on salvaged "press plates".

These leftover circles of mild steel were found lying on the machine shop floor, and were being gathered up to be thrown away.

AWW8 'Boys toys -Steady rest 1'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

It was fascinating painting the relics of industry on salvaged objects that were part of the waste product from that industry.

The lustre of the smooth metallic surface shows through every brushstroke, reproducing every sparkle, shine and glimmer of the knobs and finials.

Work in progress - AWW11

'Boys toys -Steady rest 2'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available

Although the William Wallbank foundry dated from 1932, some of the machinery was much older. I found a nameplate on one from "Russia", which meant that it must have dated from before the Soviet era, and probably from before World War I.

AWW11 'Boys toys -Steady rest 2'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

The steady rest on a lathe, has a frame and 3 adjustable jaws to support a workpiece such as an axle or a shaft while it is being turned, milled or drilled.

It prevents slender, flexible pieces springing back and forth, and also allows deep cuts, drilling, boring, or internal threading.

Work in progress on the easel -

AWW10 'Boys toys -Boring machine'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

The over arm with the top jaw can be unfastened and swung out of the way so that pieces can be removed and replaced without needing to adjust the jaws.

There should be 0.001 inch clearance between the jaws and the workpiece.

The bearing surface is usually machined directly on the work.

AWW10 'Boys toys -Boring machine'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

When the work is too small or awkwardly shaped to machine the bearing surface, a 'cathead' can provide the bearing surface.

The cathead has a bearing that is surfaced, a hole through which the work extends, and adjusting screws to fasten the cathead to the work.

Work in progress on the easel -

AWW9 'Boys toys -Control'

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

When it isn't possible to hold the work in the chuck, one end can be supported by the headstock centre and the other by the steady rest.

A leather strap or rawhide thong is used to tie the work to the driveplate and to prevent it from moving off the headstock centre.

Work in progress on the easel -

AWW9 'Boys toys -Control'

oil on steel press plate tondo

16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

After the locking screws on the adjustable jaws are tightened, the bearing surface needs lubrication with heavy oil before turning on the lathe.

Work in progress on the easel -

AWW9 'Boys toys -Control'

oil on steel press plate tondo

16 x 16cm 2017

Available 

The bearing surface and adjustable jaws always need a heavy oil film between them, as when the workpiece heats up it will expand, closing the distance between it and the jaws.

AWW9 'Boys toys -Control' 2017

oil on steel press plate tondo 16 x 16cm

Available

Related posts

Rust Bucket

Scar Tissue

Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

All fired up

Eveleigh - Industrial heritage artist at work

Irons in the fire

White Bay Power Station - Inside Out

Power Base - Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station