SYDNEY HARBOR

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1924, Page 3

SYDNEY HARBOR

A DISAPPEARING lax.aiark. SYDNEY, December 13. More tliaii three years a .go, over £50,000 worth of magnificent buildings, plant, and wool went up in vile, evilsmelling smoke when the Pastoral Finance Association’s warehouse on the northern waterfront of the harbour was destroyed by fire. For weeks, the ruins smouldered to the discomfiture of occupants of neighbouring flats and residences. For mouths legal difficulties were threshed out bv the company's eredtiors and shareholders. All the time, the desolated ruins r.tnrod across tho (|iia.v on the city, an eyesore alike to travellers on oversea steamers going to their berths up-harbour, and residents of north side suburbs travelling to and fro on the lorries. Opportunity was taken by civic-spirited citizens to try to save the valuable site for a public reserve. Persuasion was vainly tried on State and lederal Governments to provide th(> necessary funds for its purchase. Now the scene is being transformed. Pemolishcrs are at work on the ruins. A tall chimney stack has been, levelled by dynamite. Daily clouds of dust denote razed walls. Heaps of tumbled masonry are growing. And a brazen sign, with yardhigh letters, tells nil the world of an early sub-division sale. So the P.F.A. % site goes. A few years and no one will remember it ns such. Pmbnbly piles of flats, such ns already disfigure the harbour’s natural beauty will rear their ugly heads. The face of Sydney is changing rapidly, but it is doubtful if the future will thank the present for its despoliation or that part of the face which should he its most pleasant feature—tho harliour front.