What really happened to us in the noughties?
The last decade has seen Leichhardt and surrounding suburbs transformed by bikies, sex workers, Green pollies and well-heeled professionals. And Ciao has been on the case reporting on it all. Story by Carla Caruso.
It was almost five years ago, in February 2005, when Ciao fi rst appeared on Inner West doorsteps. The fi rst issue opened with a letter from Mrs. C, who wrote: “Nowhere else is brunching on Saturday morning quite the same as on Norton St. I like to bring my dog, Lanuginoso (Italian for ‘Fluffy’).” The following month, Ciao writer Cat tackled the subject of the area’s increasing gentrifi cation, writing: “Traditionally, the Inner West has been the home of migrants and students, resulting in a diffuse mix of people.” By 2005, Cat observed, groups such as non- English-speaking migrants and poor uni students were all but priced out of the more central and desirable parts of the Inner West: “Areas such as Leichhardt are experiencing a fl ux of change, as migrants who came here when the area was affordable, have moved out or passed away.
Their houses have massively increased in value and are being sold to people with money to burn.”
In April 2005, Ciao was lamenting the loss of Italian culture in the area, which had been so strong in the post-war era: “Today a migrant settling in Leichhardt is more likely to be a young professional from the UK or New Zealand than a working-class paisani (Italian for ‘countryman’).” By the time of the 2006 Census, only 543 Italian-born residents were still living in Leichhardt and locals and restaurateurs alike were concerned with the lack of Italian atmosphere on Norton St.
But there was a brief influx of Italians in June 2006, when World Cup-crazed fans flooded into our cafes and streets at all hours of the day and night to watch Italy progress to, and ultimately win, the grand fi nal match. The member for Grayndler and Federal Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese is acutely aware of the changes in his turf. “I think the biggest thing has been the continued transition of the area as a harmonious, yet extraordinarily diverse, community in terms of its ethnic composition. And, it works. I think it’s a great asset,” he told Ciao.
He’s observed many new groups moving into the area, such as those from the African and Islander communities. However, he says: “The key challenge is affordability. The high cost of housing means it’s increasingly diffi cult for lower-income people to live in the area. It would be a tragedy if we lost that [diversity].”
Real-estate issues were never far from our minds. In October 2008, Ciao’s columnist Pistachio Nuts noted that “the Inner West is one of the most densely populated regions in the country, coming in at number two, after the Eastern Suburbs. We have 3584 people per square kilometre.” With the State Government pushing urban consolidation and with many keen to partake in the area’s ‘café lifestyle’, apartment blocks, such as the Balmain Shores complex, started popping up.
Whatever other positive impacts this infl ux of new Inner Westies may have had, they certainly didn’t do anything to improve the area’s congested roads. They all seemed to want to drive everywhere, and many households owned several cars. In March 2007, Ciao lamented that 86,000 vehicles used Parramatta Rd every day and that, without a tunnel, “Parramatta Rd is doomed to remain a traffi c sewer forever”. Things haven’t gotten any better 6 since, there’s still no M4 East in the pipeline, and while a Metro system has been planned, it may not survive a change of State government.
The legalisation of brothels at the beginning of the decade saw the Inner West’s sex industry – long established, but previously hidden away – attain a degree of, if not respectability, then at least unapologetic prominence. Those driving into the Inner West from the city via Parramatta Rd can’t help but notice Stiletto, which announces its presence with an enormous pair of pouty lips splashed across the facade. A few years ago, the building was a grungy pub for uni students. Janelle Fawkes, chief executive of the Scarlet Alliance (the Australian Sex Workers Association), says it’s a sign of the times: “The sex industry in NSW was decriminalised just over a decade ago and, as such, sex industry businesses have become more visible.”
Not everyone is thrilled to have a knocking shop on their doorstep, but as Fawkes says: “It’s in the interest of the community, and for best-practice occupational health and safety, for sex workers to have a visible – yet discreet – well-regulated industry that functions within the gaze of the community.” She adds: “Many of us in the Inner West chose to live here because of the diverse and vibrant cultures and communities. Sex workers are part of this community too, they even read Ciao!”
Bikie violence came Inner-West in the later years of the decade. There were shootouts on Norton St and fortress clubhouses established in streets where, previously, Vespas were the only bikes to be seen. In June 2007, Ciao wrote that “gunshots and fi rebombs are unwelcome additions to life in the Inner West”. The Commancheros have a base in Marrickville while the Bandidos and the Hells Angels have ones in Petersham. Their battles got a little too close for Ciao staffers’ comfort when the Hells Angels clubhouse on Crystal St (20 metres away from the Ciao office) was blown up and a nearby tattoo shop was riddled with bullets earlier this year.
But while the ALP may reign supreme nationally, at the local level they’re no longer the dominant political force. The party that was formed at Balmain’s Unity Hall Hotel in 1891 is now in decline as the area becomes increasingly affluent, and the Liberals or the Greens are almost certain to capture several of the Inner West’s State seats at the next election.
Long famed for its ethnic cuisine, the Inner West also became a gourmet and organic food hub over the last 10 years, with the fi rst Balmain-Rozelle Food Week happening in April 2008 and various farmers markets, notably the Saturday morning one at Lilyfi eld’s Orange Grove Public School, being successfully established.
There was yet another sign the area was changing, but in this case becoming blander - earlier this year longtime Leichhardt resident and lesbian activist Teresa Savage worried that the younger generation of lesbians had abandoned Leichhardt. Instead they’d been attracted to the bright lights of Newtown and ‘Dykehardt’ was increasingly light on for dykes.
But whatever the area’s challenges and however much locals like moaning about them – there’s one thing that hasn’t changed and hopefully never will. The Inner West remains one of the most vibrant, cosmopolitan and just plain fun places in the world to live. As Five Dock burlesque performer Holly J’aDoll told Ciao in August, while living elsewhere she sorely missed her old stomping ground. “It’s rich and diverse and full of culture, with a plethora of galleries, markets and boutiques – and the best food and coffee, you can get in Sydney.”