Maritime Unity, Vol 2 No 7 Nov 2006
Publisher
Maritime Union of Australia
DateNovember 2006
Object number00044786
NameNewspaper
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 450 x 290 x 2 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Patricia Miles
Description'Maritime Unity', the official newspaper of the Sydney Branch of the Maritime Union of Australia, Volume 2, Number 7, November 2006 with cover story 'Hungry Mile Immortalised'.
HistoryThis issue of Maritime Unity features cover article on the formal recognition by the NSW State Government of the 'Hungry Mile'. The Hungry Mile is the part of Sussex Street along which wharfies had to walk in search of employment under the old 'bull system' (casual employment by pick-up) during the first half of the 20th century and later.
When wharf operations closed on the site in 2005, in the initial redevelopment of this former Sydney wharf area, Hickson Road was proposed to be renamed the Hungry Mile. In 2006, the name Barangaroo was - despite opposition from maritime industry heritage lobbying for the name the Hungry Mile - selected in a public site-naming competition. Barangaroo was a Sydney Aboriginal woman, wife of Bennelong, after whom Bennelong Point - the site of the Sydney Opera House - is named.
This issue of Maritime Unity also includes the publication of the address delivered by Patricia Miles, ANMM Curator of Commerce, at the Seamen's Memorial Ceremony on World Maritime Day, 29 September 2006, under the title 'They Went to Work, They Went to War', concerning Australian merchant ship losses in World War II.SignificanceThis issue of Maritime Unity conveys the Maritime Union of Australia's sense of triumph over the recognition of an important part of its history with the official renaming of Hickson Road (the continuation of Sussex Street) as the Hungry Mile. This remains an important part of their history and tradition.The issue also carries a copy of a speech on merchant ship losses in World War II by ANMM curator Patricia Miles that was also read out in Federal Parliament. It demonstrates the importance to the maritime unions of these areas of the hsitory of their members which has not had wide public recognition.