The Wakils, who also own the Terminus Hotel and the old milkbar on the corner of John and Harris Street seem to be obsessed with playing a 30 year long game of Monopoly...with real buildings.
This is the Darling Island Bond and Free Store at 12 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont.
My first drawings and paintings of this building date from nearly 30 years ago, and the changes are almost imperceptible. On the southern side, windows were cut into the brickwork during the 1980s. The plane trees have grown so that they obscure my view of the row of charming 1880s terraces next door. The residents of 14 Pyrmont St had planted ivy which crept up the wall, but later they cut the ivy and it died off before it could continue its conquest.
Otherwise it is as though I have been sent back in the Tardis to the Pyrmont of the 1980s.
Painting "Darling Island Bond and Free"
en plein air, in front of 27 Pyrmont Street
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Originally this bond store was home of "Australian Thermite Company Pty Ltd" and must have been built either just before the First World War or during its first few months.
As far as I know, the cutting for the Pyrmont Goods Line which curves around the north of this building dates from about 1911-14 (?) so the Bond store would have been built around then. It also has a faint whiff of the utilitarian 'Federation Free' style architecture seen in other red brick storehouses around the Pyrmont peninsula such as the Royal Edward Victualling Yards.
My painting of "Darling Island Bond and Free"
2012 oil on canvas 61 x 51cm
on my french box easel, in Pyrmont Street
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Thermite is a mix of aluminium oxide and another metal oxide (usually iron).
It was used for welding in-place of thick steel sections such as locomotive axle-frames so that the repair can take place without removing the part from where it has been installed.
"Darling Island Bond and Free"
2012 oil on canvas 61 x 51cm
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A thermite weld is spectacular.
Molten metal drops into the mould in a blinding flash.
The still glowing edges are trimmed still glowing and then polished until you can't see the join with the steel rail on either side.
It is a very traditional work process, first patented in the 1890s, but it would still have been the last word in modern technology when 12 Pyrmont Street was first built.
Painting 12 Pyrmont st,
from Jones Bay Road 27-12-2012
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Rail under stress can easily buckle.
Thermite can be used for quickly cutting or welding steel such as rail tracks, without requiring complex or heavy equipment.
However, thermite welding must be done carefully as defects are often present in such welded junctions.
Also the rails must remain straight, without dipped joints, which can cause wear on high speed and heavy axle load lines.
P271 'Darling Island Bond and Free,
12 Pyrmont street' 2013
oil on canvas 46 x 46cm
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Thermite is not technically classed as an explosive, however anyone who's watched a certain early episode of 'Breaking Bad' will appreciate its force and effectiveness!
Back in those days living next door to a Bond store full of thermite would definitely have qualified as living "on the wrong side of the tracks".
Painting 12 Pyrmont st,
from Jones Bay Road 27-12-2012
I'm not sure when the "Australian Thermite Company" building became the "Darling Island Bond and Free".
It must have been at least a couple of decades after its construction, as I have seen some unfortunately undated photos which must have been taken after 1916, but before 1948, as they show the empty yard to the east of the original 1904 Power Station building before the second power station was completed in 1951.
The faded letters "Darling Island Bond and Free" can still be just made out on the south and east side of the building.
Painting 12 Pyrmont st,
from Jones Bay Road 27-12-2012
I'd like to thank the people who took photos of me while I was painting and sent them to me. Unfortunately their emails bounced and they used nicknames so I don't know how to personally credit them, but I'm grateful as I was far too hot and tired to cross the street to take photos.
I'd also like to thank the occupants of number 14 Pyrmont Street for reviving me with kindness and their excellent coffee while I was painting on an extremely hot day.
I displayed this painting in the Xmas exhibition at the Frances Keevil Gallery
The opening was on Saturday 1st December 2012, from 5-7pm.
The exhibition continued until 31st December 2012
FRANCES KEEVIL GALLERY,
Bay Village, 28-34 Cross Street Double Bay, NSW 2028
Hours M-F 10am-5pm Sat 10 - 4pm Sun 11-4pm
ph/fax: 02 93272475 mob: 0411 821550
info@franceskeevilgallery.com.au
Page of Jane Bennett paintings
For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog
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