Tuesday, August 08, 2006

The Hungry Mile

Bastard weather. Crap morning for walkies yesterday so I settle into some work. Which carries over into today. Which turns out to be a perfect day for walkies. Blue sky, warm sun, spot on.

I'd have a quick shufti through my photo archive for something to bung up but its now big enough for a quick shufti to be more bewildering than enlightening. I've got 1,074 photos at flickr and perhaps 3,000 offline.

Anyways, Morris Dilemma, Premier of NSW (State Governor), needs the help of New South Welshpersons to rename East Darling Harbour. There's a couple of pictures and a renaming form thingy here. Do give the poor dear a hand. God knows he needs it.

What the Maritime Union of Australia says about East Darling Harbour:

"During the Great Depression, the Hungry Mile was a source of casual labour, where men would gather and stand at the gate while bosses picked the biggest and the strongest," Mr Smith said.

My grandfather did the same thing on another wharf in another state. It wasn't until the war came he got proper work. No wonder he drank.

The MUA've got wee film clip about it too. Scroll down to A short clip of the Hungry Mile. And the lyrics to a song about it here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Spike - you missed out on a glorious sunny afternoon at Woy Woy wharf. Had a very nosy pelican all to myself so we discussed the weather and I had to apologize for the lack of fish in my parcel. Other folk in the area were probably convinced I'm nuts.

Spike said...

LOL. Those pelicans are buggers.

Would loved to've been out in that sun. Today I've got the day off and it goes and clouds over. Bastard.