Installation of alternate park names at Colyton Neighbourhood Centre

The text installation at Colyton Neighbourhood Centre. We took the existing park names and re-ordered the letters to make poetic alternatives. This one came from Edward (Ted) Little Reserve.

During this worksop we made paper lanterns, messily dipping tissue paper into buckets of glue and then delicately wrapped them around bamboo frames. We then decorated the lanterns with colourful paper. At the Colyton Picnic event there was a beautiful lantern procession led around the Colyton neighbourhood centre and shops.

Throughout June a group of women, living Colyton, participated in a series of creative workshops.

During this workshop we painted prayer flags, exploring pattern making, abstract portraiture and collaborative art.

The Flags were exhibited at the Colyton Picnic and Exhibition on the 14th of July.

one day only.

under the tutelage of Jacqueline Olivetti and Matte Rochford we created messages for the park, setting up quite literally ‘a dialogue between people and place’ (matte). the park whispered a reply, but I missed that because I was taking photographs.

Back at the Neighbourhood Centre, we played with the names of parks – Edward (TED) Little Reserve became (Red Dew) Rest a Little. We came up with entirely new names, names that made sense to us, that served our memory or another’s. We also imagined a Nesian Park and a park of Chaplin’s Muse.

Next week, we’ll imagine in sound.

You will work with artists Jacqueline Olivetti and Matte Roche on zine-making, text and recording sound, with Lucia Scurrah to felting and weave and with Claire Nakazawa to paint. Workshops will take place  on Wednesdays from 4 – 7 at Colyton Neighbourhood Centre on the corner of Jensen and Willoughby streets. If you have not been yet, this is behind the Hewitt St (IGA) shops.

For more information please contact Anjali Roberts on 0423 295 001 / 4732 8098 or email aroberts@penrithcity.nsw.gov.au

The sculpture – made up of milk crates – will resemble a large stack of falling blocks, or a crumbling castle precariously put together. Each crate is the empty canvas upon which the workshop participants will craft their work.

The artwork is composed of two distinct textile practices which will be explored in two separate workshops: felt and weaving. The front of each block will display, in felt, the different places in Colyton which the workshop participants inhabit in their day to day, emphasising the notion of the sculpture as sort of city, or an abstract representation of Colyton. The sides and back of the blocks will be colourfully and playfully woven-up using up-cycled and recycled materials.

Finally we will put everything together, thus going through all the steps of making up a sculpture from A to Z.

Throughout the workshop, we will reflect on the experience of living in Colyton through the spaces we inhabit on a day-to-day basis, and the meaning these places take on in our lives. We will then design and draw with unspun wool, looking at form, colour and line to create images which re-present a vision of Colyton.

Can’t wait to start workshops next Wednesday, from 4 - 7pm. First up is Zine-making with artists Matte Rochford and Jacqueline Olivetti.  Thanks to Sharon’s Superb Slices in Carpenter St, Colyton for the freshly baked Ricotta and Spinach Muffins and Coconut Ice slices.

www.clairenakazawa.com

Workshops

(St Marys) Penrith video ‘I Am Proud To Be Samoan’ is a short film produced by Maxine Laban & Pine Esera at St Marys Senior as part of the Interactive Corner Project with funding through Penrith City Councils Magnetic Places program

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It was a cold Wednesday morning when I fumbled with the school library’s tape recorder. My  frozen fingers pressed every button as my participant was reading a set of questions on crispy white paper. His room was like a home office – photos of family displayed on the walls, suitable neatness of materials and equipment  around shelf space and a sliver mobile phone that I used to have three years ago. I began listening to my own young voice to figure out how to use the ‘old school’ style way to record an interview. Ironically, my interviewee is a school teacher. Well actually, he is more then that. His name is Stephen “Steve” Screech. And if you were a student at St Marys Senior High, you would recognise him.

He wonders around the school, cruising along the Commercial Studies faculty staff room every now and then. During cluster, (a fortnightly meeting for all students to attend about what’s happening at the school) he basically tells really – pause, wait for it- dry jokes that we as HSC students laugh at. Some are actually funny. But most importantly, he was a former student and school captain during his time at St Marys High.

Some people thought I was crazy to interview Steve (not intentionally, just jokingly) but as you read some parts of the interview, you will understand how passionate he is about St Marys and the school.

Steve’s younger years

” We originally moved to St Marys in 1963, so that’s forty seven years ago now. St Marys was a different place then. A lot more bushland then urban settlement. It was a very different place when we first moved in. I think we were one of five houses in the street where I lived in North St Marys and the rest was bush.”

“It was certainly different. I come from closer to the city and we were a migrant family that lived in Villawood Hostel for a number of years and now we were moving into I guess the “Wild West” as it seemed in those days. And, it was certainly different. There were no sewage on those days. So people had to make do with a slightly more primitive way of life then it was in the inner city.”

 The outlook

“I always liked the freedom of St Marys. You could wonder for a long time through the bush and things like that. And it was a very private and peaceful place to grow up in. People were friendly. It had a real community sense to it when I was growing up. And it was a great place to grow up in those days. It was a safe place and people were very very friendly and helpful. And it had a real strong community spirit.”

“There are many favourite places. In my days at “St Marys High School” the bush land tracks around South Creeks. And wondering the neighbourhood. In those days people used to walk around with their friends, it was just a friendly place to live. Friends used to get together on a Saturday afternoon and just walk to visit other friends. And It was just a great place to grow up as a young person.”

The change to the present

“As a young person who grew up in St Marys, and particularly my generation, we were very very proud to call ourselves St Marys people. We were all very proud to belong there. St Marys had a very proud heritage in the 60’s.”

” There have been loads of changes that happened in St Marys over a period of time. Urbanisation caught up in St Marys and what used to be largely ‘green build’ areas have become urbanised.”

“Mente Manuque”  – With Mind and Hand

“St Marys High had a very high reputation. In fact, quite a number of people and gone into bigger and better things, in terms of New South Wales. One of my colleagues is actually the one of the Dean’s at the campus in the University of New South Wales. And I know of another member in the school is a member of the law faculty at the same university.”

“St Marys Senior High School has contributed a little bit in restoring some of that academic reputation. We are making a mark on Sydney, New South Wales and even Australia, which is great to see. I have really enjoyed watching the senior college grow and develop into the special institution that it is now. I always find students a real pleasure to work with and I enjoy working with numerous students in my time at the school. As we put six thousand students over the years though the HSC, it’s really great to bump into ex-students from years whose names now escape me but their faces are still familiar. They tell me what they are doing in their life and it’s really great that we had a profound impact in their lives over the years. And as a teacher, that’s what you want to do – to say that you made a difference in a group of peoples’ lives and at a result of your efforts, they went on into bigger and better things.”

 It is part of me.

“I was a student at St Marys High School, I was school captain of St Marys High School, and then I was a teacher very briefly at the Geography department at the school until I was posted at a Newcastle school and been into eight other high schools before I came back to St Marys at 1991.”

“I think St Marys is in my blood. Its part of my personal tradition. I love this place. I can not say it any other way shape or form. I truly truly love this place and  all of the things it has achieved over the time. There must be something unique in water of St Marys, I think.”

Thank you Steve Screech for your time and memories. I’ll see you in cluster with a joke!

Click here to view the embedded video.

See this article from the Sydney Morning Herald for further information about Abaker’s story and his music http://www.smh.com.au/national/trapped-between-two-worlds-20100212-nxm8.html

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out some local historical photos! Paul Mills has been living in the St Marys area since childhood. He is an active member of the community, who amongst other things collects photographs from the local public schools and identifies the people appearing in them. He has a website at www.members.optusnet.com.au/pjmillsy

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo courtesy of the St Marys Historical Society

The old fish shop by George Ray

“This is the site of the Tony and Maria’s old fish and chip shop located on the Great Western Highway and near Marsden road. It was a favourite pastime on a Friday night to go and buy fish and chips for a quick meal and then catch the bus down to Queen Street to the Crown Theatre to see some of the present films. Tony and Maria had two children, a boy and a girl, and as a family were well liked and had very many friends in the surrounding district. To know them was to like them.

There were only two buses running at night from the area, one down to the theatre and another one after the showing. If you missed the bus it was a mile with a half walk down to the main street which took about 20 minutes. Families with young children found this distance too hard on the little ones so if you missed the bus no pictures that night. Not many people missed that bus.

The Crown Theatre closed its doors in 1967 which was a sad blow to the people at St Marys because the only other place to show pictures in the district was the hall located on old Mt Druitt Road. A lot of people did not have transport to get there and there were no buses going that way.

Tony’s shop was pulled down in the late sixties to make way for a large greengrocer shop which later incorporated a butcher shop.

The corner block on Marsden Road, which was a vacant lot in those days, now houses our local fire station in a modern brick building.” George Ray, June 2010

Photo courtesy of the St Marys Historical Society

Chris said many ideas came out of his interviews with people in St Marys and from listening to the community. These ideas from people he spoke with included:

• a community approach to children’s learning by mediums such as painting, dancing and listening to stories
• Youth Drop in centre for holidays
• having more things for young students with no cost
• a motorbike track or open land/ reserves for outdoor activities such as touch footy with lighting adequate safety measures etc.
• services focusing on the needs of Elders, without having them travel to Penrith or Mt Druitt
• possibility of sending newsletters to keep the community informed of up and coming events/ services.

Photo courtesy of Making Tracks, SPYNS inc

Click here to view the embedded video.

Site of the Old Council Chambers

Interview with Norma Thorburn by George Ray

George: We  are  talking  with Norma  in  her  home  in  Monfarville  St, St Marys, where  Norma  has  lived   for 50  years,  after  her  marriage  to  her late husband  George Cull.  Do you like living in this area?

Norma: It is a  quiet  place  and  I  am  very  handy  to  the  shops  in  Monfarville  St  and  the  South  St  Marys  school  activities.

George: I believe you were the president of the St Marys & District Historical Society at one time?

Norma: I  was  the President  of  the second  society  for  12  years  and  I am  now  the  treasurer.

George: The first  historical  society  met in the  Old Post Office  but was  later  disbanded  through  lack  of   interest.  It  now  occupies  the  building  which  was  the  old  St Marys Council Chambers. Do you have strong family ties in the area?

Norma: Yes I do.  I have  lived  in  St  Marys  all  my  life  and  have  bought  my  family  up here.

George: What do you like most about living here? What are some of the activities you are interested in?    

Norma:  Being  involved  with  the St  Marys  Historical  Society  naturally,  the  Senior Citizens ,  the  South  St  Marys  School  and  of-course  the  Spring  Festival.

George: What about when you were younger, where did you do your schooling?

Norma: When  I first  started  school  there  was  St  Marys  Primary  School  and  I  was  living  West  of   South  Creek  on  the  Great  Western  Highway  and  we  walked  to  school,  as  there  were  no buses  those  days.  The  same  applied  to church,  we  walked  all  the  way  up  the  hill  to  go  to St. Mary  Magdalene  Church  and  Sunday  School.

George: They   built  a   primary   school   in  1960   very  close  to  you  as  well  as  a  small  shopping  centre – do  you find  this  convenient?

Norma: I  found  it very  fortunate  having  the  school  a  few doors  down  the  road   and  the  shops on  the opposite  side  of   the  road.  It’s  quite  a  good   shopping  centre  and  provides  us  with  the things  need,  a  greengrocer,   post  office,   newsagent,  cake shop,   doctor,   general  store   and   the   bus stop.

George: When  you  first  moved  to  Monfarville  St what  was  it  like?

Norma:  There were no shops and no school.  The road was red  gravel and sometimes difficult   to walk upon.  There  were  only  two  buses  a  day,  one  in  the  morning  to  take  the  children   from  the  out lying   areas  to  the  primary  school  and  another  one  about  3pm  to  take   them  home  again.  That was the only bus service around here.

George:  Although  you  have  lived  in  St Marys  all   your  life,  is  there  any  reason  you   chose  this particular  area  to  live  in?

Norma:  Just  before  I  got  married  I  was  living  on  the  highway  near  the  end  of  Monfarville  St  and my  husband  to  be  was  living  over  in  Shepherd  St which  made  this  block  about  half   way  in-between.  A  friend  of  ours  told  us  that  he  knew  it  was  for   sale  so  we  purchased  it.  That would  have  been  in  1958  and  we  had  only  been  here  a  month  before  they  started  to  the  South  St  Mary’s  School.

George: At that  time, compared  with  today’s  prices  would  you  say  that  land  was  affordable?

Norma: Most  of  the  land  round  here  was  market  gardens  and  reasonably  priced.  Home  loans  were a  lot  harder to get  in  those  days  and  you  had  to  have  a  little  bit  of   money  behind  you. We  paid  the  sum  of  three  hundred  and  fifty   pounds  for  this  block.

George: What is there that you like about your neighbourhood?

Norma: Well the neighbourhood has changed since I came here.  It is more multicultural. People  are  the  same  no  matter  who  they  are  and  the  shop  owners  and  other  people living  here  are  very  pleasant  to  get  along  with.

George: Are  there  any  places  in  St  Marys  that  have  good  memories  for  you?

Norma: When  I  was  a small  child  I  went  to  live  with  my  grandparents.  Because  it  was  wartime,  all  the  men  were away  in  the  army.  The children and women of my family lived with their grandparents.  We used to play along the creek and in the bush.  Some  of  my  fond  memories  come  from   the  old  school  (which  is  about  to  celebrate  its  150th  anniversary ) as  my  mother  had  also gone  to  that  school  when  she  was  a  girl.

George: Are  there  any  local  activities  or  clubs  which  are  unique  to  St Marys  or  the  locality?

Norma:  Well  there  is  the  Band  Club,  but  I  am  not  really  up  with  that  sort of  thing.

George:  The  area  of  the  present  Band  Club, was  the  old  site  of  the  Protestant  Hall  I  believe ?

Norma:  When  the Protestant  Hall  was  in existence,  any  activities  held  in  the  evening,  were  mostly  held  there.  There  was a picture  show,  before  the  Crown Theatre  was  built,  and  it  was  6d (sixpence)   to  go  in.  Then you would  go  to  the  milk bar  next  door  and  buy  an  ice  cream  for  3d.  It  was  the  social  hub  of  the  town  where  they  held  parties  and dances.  It  was  also  the  site  of  the  Senior  Citizens  back  in  the  early  days.   The  Council  meetings  were  also held  in  the  building,  as the Council  Chambers  on  Mamre  Rd.  Were not built until 1933. “

George: The  old  Council  Chambers  is  now  the  present  site  of  the  St  Marys  & District  Historical  Society.

George: Do you experience much crime in the immediate area?

Norma: There is  not  much  around  here  although  I  was  broken  into  once  but  I  suppose  that  isn’t   too  bad  seeing  I  lived  here  for  over  50  years.

George: Transport; what was it like and what is it like today?

Norma: Like  I  said  before  there  were  only  two  buses  a  day  when  I  first moved here,  but  we  were  lucky  because  the bus  stop  was  almost  outside  our  door.  We  now  have  a  half  hourly  service  of  a  weekday,  and  an  hourly service  of  a  weekend.

George: You  mentioned  the  main  street  of   St  Marys, is  there  anything  you  miss  there ?

Norma: The Picture Theatre and the fairy lights.  I  loved  the  fairy  lights  and  I  think  it’s  a  shame  they  are  not  on. People  used   to  come  to  St  Marys  from  all  over  Sydney  and  the  first  thing  they remarked on  was  how   pretty  the  lights  were.  One  day  I  was  talking  to  a  tour group  in  Victoria  Park  and  at  the  time  we  had  had  some recent  rain.   While  crossing  the  road  one woman  said  ‘ isn’t  this  a  pretty town ‘   and  as  I  looked  around  at  the  green  grass  and  the  trees  fresh  from  the rain,  I  thought  to  myself  this is  a  pretty town  and  I’m  proud  to  be  living  here.

George: In  you  opinion if  there was only  one  place  to  live,  it  would  have  to  be  St  Marys ?

Norma: I am  a  sixth  generation  descendant  of  some  of   the  early   families  to  settle  in  the  district. I  lived  my  young  life  here,  was  married   here   and  raised  my  own  family  here.  My  brothers  and  sisters   have  since  moved  away  but  I  am  staying. I was lucky that Tom was happy to move to St Marys when we married.

George: So it is like the Peter Allen song….

Norma and George: NO  MATTER  HOW  FAR  OR  HOW WIDE  I  ROAM,   I  STILL  CALL  ST  MARYS   HOME….

Council chambers, 1946. Photo Courtesy of St Mary's Historical Society

Protestant Hall. Photo Courtesy of St Marys Historical Society

“The Crown Theatre was built in 1953 and was the leading movie house…….where they did show the latest films from the City. St Marys was considered to be a regional area back then. It closed down in 1967 much to the disappointment of the local people. This then made the nearest Theatre in the area located in the hall on Mt Druitt Road which was difficult to visit as there was no transport to get there. Jim Hackett’s Barber Shop was located under the front awning at the front of the theatre” George Ray 2010.

“This photo was taken prior to becoming Beecroft’s Butchery. You will notice the sign in front of the butchery quotes rump steak at sixpence which was seems to be very cheap compared to todays prices!  Today you pay anywhere between $12 to $14 per kilo!” George Ray, 2010.

“This is a photograph of Jim Hackett the original owner of one of the first Barber Shops situated in Queen Street in St Marys. This photo was taken in 1968. This photo shows the present owner Guido Piccirilli who is still operating the shop today. ” George Ray 2010

Photo couretsy of St Marys Historical Society.

The computer has finally been installed at St Marys Library this morning !!!! Yahoo!!!!!

Site of the old Butcher Shop

This photo taken from the 770 Bus shows the site of the old Butchers Shop on the corner of the Great Western Highway and Queeen Street in St Marys. The original Butcher shop was owned by  W. Williams and later by Frank Beecroft.

“My word, we used to go down there to get our weekly meat. Beecroft owned land and slaughtered his own produce. He owned land near St Marys League Club.” George Ray, June 2010.

Photograph by George Ray
Historical image courtesy of St Marys Historical Society.

We have been working on ideas to make the logo more vibrant and to reflect the diversity of stories better. This is one of the last updated versions Neighbourhood Stories amended logo 1
Whilst this is the latest version open for critique (image 2)Neighbourhood Stories new proposed logo

Dante and Elias in fits of laughter - except we can't remember what was so funny!

Here is some evidence that the training on Monday night the 3rd of May at Penrith Library really happened!!!!!! Dante and Elias hard at work….:) laughing….. oh ! we’re just having too much fun!!!!!

Follow up training at Penrith City Council’s PC Training Room at Penrith Library on Monday 3rd of May 2010

Denise and Caroline uploading content Monday morning……yay…..!!! Better than a coffee!!! IMPRESSIVE!!!!