Showing all posts about Sydney
Vale William Munro, AKA Billy Wiz, Bondi Junction personality
22 October 2025
Some sad news. Billy Wiz, Sydney based Australian DJ, artist, author, cartoonist, and colourful character in general, died last week.
In recent years Billy operated a gallery — in the garden of his street level apartment, on Oxford Street, Bondi Junction — displaying his painting and illustration work, for passersby to peruse.
When in Sydney, we go to the bakery beside his apartment building, and would frequently see Billy deep in conversation with someone who was waiting for their coffee order.
The neighbourhood won’t be quite the same without Billy, who brought a sense of community to what often feels like a retail and commercial precinct. He was even happy to let customers of the bakery tether their dog’s leashes to his fence, while they went inside.
You can find out a bit more about Billy in this Media Man interview published in August 2003, and see some of his artworks on his Instagram page.
RELATED CONTENT
The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival, 3-5 October 2025
20 September 2025
Running since 2020 I believe, this year’s Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival is on from Friday 3 October until Sunday 5 October 2025, at Event Cinemas, on George Street, in Sydney’s CBD. Eleven features will be screened, with many having their Australian premieres.
One title, The Eagle Obsession, trailer, a documentary directed by American filmmaker Jeffrey Morris, will have its international premiere at the festival.
Also known as The Eagle has Landed, the film explores travel to the Moon, both actual and imagined. William Shatner is among those appearing in the film, along with Barbara Bain and Nick Tate, who starred in 1970’s sci-fi TV series, Space 1999. Now I get the eagle reference…
The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival Awards ceremony also takes place on the closing evening.
The spectacular banner for this year’s festival, as seen above, which is a futuristic representation of the skyline of Sydney’s CBD — spot the iconic Westfield Tower towards the left — was created by Australian filmmaker and artist Joshua Reed.
RELATED CONTENT
Australia, Barbara Bain, events, film, Jeffrey Morris, Nick Tate, science fiction, Sydney, William Shatner
A train station comes to Woollahra NSW: there goes the neighbourhood
3 September 2025
Woollahra, a suburb in Sydney’s east, is soon to have a train station. At first pass that doesn’t seem like a big deal. But the story is as long as the rail line is winding. Proposals to build a station in the affluent suburb are over a century old.
Then, in the 1970’s, as the Eastern Suburbs train line, AKA the T4, was being constructed, foundations for a station were laid. But work came to an abrupt halt when residents, unhappy at the prospect of a train station in their backyard, succeeded in stopping construction.
The partly built station sits between the stations at Edgecliff, and Bondi Junction, where the T4 line presently* terminates, a kilometre or two from the beach at Bondi. But with the housing situation in Sydney reaching dire proportions, the NSW State Government has revived plans to build the station, and then construct much needed high-density residences in the vicinity.
News of the station, and apartment blocks, has no doubt come as a double blow to locals.
Woollahra is far from apartment building free — an array of beautiful art deco style medium-density residences span Edgecliff Road — and the prospect of high density blocks will be causing alarm to some. But the reality is Sydney needs more residences, and it is unreasonable to expect all of these be built “somewhere” in the west of the city.
Or “the western side of ANZAC Parade”, a quip sometimes uttered by those residing on the eastern side of ANZAC Parade. ANZAC Parade being a major roadway running from inner Sydney through to La Perouse, at the southern end of the eastern suburbs.
Some Woollahra residents will argue the presence of high-rise dwellings will be at odds with the “character” of the suburb. Woollahra is possessed of houses built in the nineteenth century, quiet tree-lined streets (one or two rather steep), boutique shops, and a village-like ambience. It is a place many people would like to call home. The building proposals will bring significant changes.
Spring Street, Bondi Junction, NSW, at dusk. Photo taken June 2021. Note the construction crane in the top right hand corner.
But such is life in the big city. Change is constant. Bondi Junction — where we stay when not on the NSW Central Coast — situated right next to Woollahra, has undergone a tremendous transformation in the last decade, particularly along parts of Oxford Street. While always a mixed commercial/retail and residential precinct, numerous high-density apartment blocks now line Oxford street.
Of course Bondi Junction, being a retail centre, and public transport hub, with the aforementioned T4 train line, and numerous bus services, seems an ideal place to build residences. That’s not to say everyone in Bondi Junction is happy with the prospect. Many feel the suburb has been over-developed. But again, housing shortages in the region have compelled governments to act.
Yet the “residential-isation” of Oxford Street, and surrounds, has not always been a bad thing. Bondi Junction is at once a quiet residential suburb, after the shops close, in the midst of a bustling commercial centre. People walk their dogs along Oxford Street in the evenings, a sight that would not have been seen ten years ago.
Despite this metamorphosis, perceptions of Bondi Junction have not changed.
Either within the eastern suburbs, or elsewhere in Sydney. As far as other residents of the eastern suburbs are concerned, the junction is “ugly”. Meanwhile people outside the eastern suburbs think Bondi Junction is full of rich snobs. But nahsayers of the junction are looking at the wrong suburb when identifying ugly, or seeking to point out “rich snobs”.
But I digress. I’m not saying high-density residential blocks in Woollahra, full of dog owners, will bring about any sort of catharsis to existing residents who are going to be subject to possibly decades of disruptive construction work. They had all of that in Bondi Junction, and will probably continue to, but the world did not end.
Whether we like it or not, high-density accommodation is one of the solutions to the shortage of housing, and is something everyone in Sydney needs to get used to.
* there were proposals to extend the train line to Bondi Beach, but residents rallied to oppose the idea.
RELATED CONTENT
Australia, current affairs, politics, Sydney, trends
Writers residencies to commence at Waverley Cemetery, Sydney, Australia
31 July 2025
The old caretaker’s cottage is to become home to small groups of writers for five months of the year:
The site’s caretaker’s cottage will soon be converted into a workspace and temporary residence for writers. The program will host three writers at a time, each staying for a five-month period. Accommodation will feature private rooms equipped for reading, research and drafting.
You don’t see it on every travel guide for the Sydney region, but Waverley Cemetery is worth the visit if you’re in town. Perched above a cliff, looking out onto the Tasman Ocean, the experience of walking between row after of row of gravestones is a truly contemplative. Transcendental even. This would be an amazing place to live for a few months. Are bloggers accepted?
RELATED CONTENT
Australian literature, authors, literature, Sydney, writing
The Sydney Writers’ Festival 2025 program has been published
19 March 2025
This year’s festival has events running from Sunday 18 May through to Wednesday 11 June 2025, though I understand the main event goes from Monday 19 May to Sunday 25 May. There’s too many highlights to list separately, but a few events caught my eye.
The evening of Monday 19 May sees the naming of the winners of the NSW Literary Awards, previously the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards — I can’t find an official announcement of the name change — so NSW Literary Awards it is.
Charlotte Wood, author of Stone Yard Devotional speaks on Tuesday 20 May. Toby Walsh, Chief Scientist of UNSW AI will discuss the six ideas you need to understand AI, on Thursday 22 May.
Friday 23 May is busy. Marcel Dirsus’ talks about the rise and fall of tyrants. Topical, or what. Helen Garner discusses her popular sports-themed memoir The Season. And Shankari Chandran, winner of the 2023 Miles Franklin Award, speaks about the power of literature in sorting fact from fiction in the face of authoritarianism.
Saturday 24 May is a big day. Robbie Arnott (Instagram link) talks about his latest novel Dusk. Michelle Brasier, Virginia Gay, and Chloe Elisabeth Wilson, discuss building writing communities. And the winners of Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist award, will speak to Melanie Kembrey.
Sunday 25 May is another big one. Charlotte Wood, and Irish author Colm Tóibín, also immediate past Laureate for Irish Fiction, discuss Irish literature versus Australian writing. In case you don’t know, Irish literature is smashing the ball out of the park. Annabel Crabb is joined by Jessie Tu (Instagram link), to talk about her latest novel, The Honeyeater.
On Sunday evening, Anna Funder will deliver the festival’s closing address. As I say, this is but a small sample of what’s happening, so check out the program for the full story.
RELATED CONTENT
Australian literature, events, Sydney
Demolishing the AC/DC house, and what little rock history Australia has
18 January 2025
I’m not really a fan of the band that was formed in Sydney in 1973, and is still going strong, but it seems odd that the house where founders, brothers Angus and Malcolm Young used to live, and founded AC/DC, was not worthy of preserving. For those not in the know, AC/DC are probably Australia’s version of the Rolling Stones. But last month, the residence, in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Burwood, was bulldozed to make way for a high rise apartment block.
This might sound like over-development on steroids, but many parts of Australia, including Sydney, are experiencing accommodation shortages, and high density housing is one of the solutions. While numerous people, including the local municipal council, were aware of the house’s history, this was not enough to spare the property. Mind you, I’m not sure how the house could have been kept, and somehow integrated in the much needed residential development.
For more about the story of the “AC/DC house”, and its demolition, check out this short YouTube clip by Sydney Morning Herald writer, Tom Compagnoni.
RELATED CONTENT
Australia, Australian music, history, music, Sydney
The top twenty cafes in Sydney 2024
24 October 2024
Good Food have published their list of the twenty best cafes in Sydney, Australia.
We eat at restaurants, but we live in cafes.
Yes, but we don’t work in cafes. Or we shouldn’t. If we do though, then only for short periods of time, right? And for a minute I thought one place I occasionally go to, had made the cut. But there’s a slight variation in the spelling of their names. Besides, I’m doubt I’m in Sydney enough to be ending up at any of the Good Food top twenty cafes.
RELATED CONTENT
An art deco delight by night in the Sydney suburb of Randwick
29 May 2024
Randwick is a large suburb located about five kilometres south east of downtown Sydney, Australia.
It is home to the Prince of Wales hospital, Royal Randwick Racecourse, a thriving commercial and retail hub, large bus and light rail depots, the historic Ritz Cinemas, and arguably, the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Even though UNSW has its own post code, two sides of its sprawling complex border Randwick.
Randwick sounds like a bustling centre, and it is, but slip down a side street, and suddenly you’re in a whole other world: the quiet realm of suburbia. I walked passed this apartment building the other evening, and almost didn’t stop. But something made me do a double take. I’m not sure what it was.
Was it the neatly clipped grass verge sloping away down the street? The branches of a tree, partly lit by a nearby street light, splaying across the front of the building. The Moon trying to peek through clouds above the roof of the building. Or the welcoming glow of the lamp over the door.
Whatever it was, the scene before me had photo written all over it.
RELATED CONTENT
Six dead in knife attack at Westfield Bondi Junction
13 April 2024
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC):
A shopping centre in Sydney’s east has been evacuated amid reports of multiple stabbings and potentially a number of deaths. An eyewitnesses told the ABC shots were fired. NSW Police said emergency services were called to Westfield Bondi Junction just before 4pm after reports of multiple people being stabbed.
This is shocking. The centre would have been packed with weekend shoppers and young families.
I hotdesk there during the week when in Sydney. I’m trying to find out if the people I know who work there are OK, but ping me if you see this.
Update: sadly several people have died, and others were injured, as a result of the attack. The alleged perpetrator meanwhile was shot by a police officer, who was at the scene.
Update II: police are certain the attack was not terror related, nor motivated by any political or religious ideology.
RELATED CONTENT
Australia, Bondi Junction, current affairs, Sydney
Third best coffee on Earth? Sydney. Tenth best? Melbourne…
11 April 2024
Espresso, brewed by Crepe & Coffee Co, photo by John Lampard.
Sydney has been adjudged the third best city in the world for coffee, this according to American magazine, Food & Wine. Copenhagen, perhaps unsurprisingly, comes in at number one, followed by Tokyo in second place. But here’s where things may get contentious: Melbourne — perhaps surprisingly — ranks at number ten on the list.
Number ten? How can that be? Did not Melbourne birth McCafe, the McDonald’s hamburger restaurant coffee-shop off-shoot? Isn’t Melbourne where the rest of Australia supposedly draws all ideas and inspiration coffee related from? Not that I’m trying to stoke up any Melbourne versus Sydney antagonism, or rivalry, here.
Not me. After all, I’m officially based almost two-hours drive north of Sydney. But when it comes to coffee consumption elsewhere, I’ve had more Sydney coffee than I have Melbourne. And besides, I like both cities. But they’re different places, they’re not cookie-cutter replicas of each other.
Objectively, how then could one possibly be better than the other? Let me illustrate, while keeping the theme victual. Years ago, a chef (whose name escapes me), described the differences between the two cities, thusly. When you go out for dinner in Sydney, it’s for a quick bite, because you’re on the way somewhere else.
That’s true. Sydney never stands still.
On the other hand, when you go out for dinner in Melbourne, it’s an occasion. People dress up, and stay seated at the table for hours. And sometimes we like doing both. But let’s avoid any further Melbourne versus Sydney discord, and take solace in the fact Australia is a country that embraces independent coffee brewers, and has little time for multinational coffeehouse chains.
RELATED CONTENT