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In 1894 the residents of Rockdale and district were entirely devoid of police protection at certain times. During big festivities in Sydney the few district police were withdrawn to reinforce the metropolitan squad. Rockdale Council was so concerned by this danger that it raised the matter with the Minister for Justice.

On Boxing Day 1894 “there was not a policeman between Sans Souci and the Cook’s River”. Alderman Hegerty reported to Council that a number of larrikins had taken possession of Moorefield Hotel on Boxing Day. Alderman Duigan said that a number of scoundrels called at his hotel that day and threatened that if they were not served with free drinks they would stone the house. They had also treated some of the local shopkeepers in a similar disgraceful manner.

This occurrence was directly responsible for the erection of the first lock-ups in the district.

This article was first published in the October 1962 edition of our magazine.

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Stained glass artist and restorer Kevin John Little was born in Sydney in 1930. Both his father, William Little, and grandfather, David McColl Little, worked in stained glass. David McColl Little established D.M. Little & Co. in Barden Street, Arncliffe in 1905, advertising as leadlight workers and glass merchants.

Kevin Little designed, produced, and restored windows for churches throughout New South Wales, including the Anglican Church at Canterbury, St Thomas’ Church, North Sydney, and Manly Presbyterian Church.

Kevin John Little retired to Robertson in 2015. He passed away on 7th March 2022, aged 91.

The Encyclopedia of Australian Glass in Architecture has published a biographical article.

Reviewed by Laurice Bondfield

Strictly speaking this is not a history book. It is more a meditation on what makes Sydney unique; one of a series in which “leading Australian authors write about their hometowns”. Nevertheless for history buffs there are many delights to be found in its pages. Chapters titled “Ghosting”, “Dreaming”, “Living” and “Sweating” delve into what Sydneysiders past and present thought, felt and wrote about their city.

From the story in Ruth Park’s autobiography “Fishing in the Styx” of finding an Aboriginal carving of a snake under the outdoor toilet of her house in Neutral Bay to quotation from Kenneth Slessor’s book on wicked Sydney of the thirties “Darlinghurst Nights” with its wonderful illustrations by Vergil Reilly; history, literature and poetry provide pointers to what lies beneath the glib description coined by playwright David Williamson in the 1980s “Emerald City”. The author’s personal recollections of living in central Sydney as a child and later in the late 1970s as a student when as she says “the inner city was a ruin” – Glebe, Balmain and Newtown being the haunts of the impoverished looking for cheap places to live – will revive memories for many. As will her stories of the great department stores like Farmers and the emptiness of Martin Place on a Saturday afternoon during this time.

The outer suburbs are not neglected either as so often happens in books about Sydney. Incidentally for local St George readers there is a wonderfully stinging description of Arncliffe’s “commonness” in the 1930s (and isn’t that a lovely reminder of the language of the time, when calling someone or something “common” was definitely a put-down!) from Sumner Locke Elliot’s novel “Fairyland”.

This article was first published in the January 2011 edition of our magazine.

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