There will be a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Glebe Estate on Friday 10th October from 10.00 a.m. till 11.30 a.m. at the corner of Catherine & Mt Vernon Streets, Glebe.

* Free Morning Tea

* Winners of the Glebe Community Photography Competition will be announced.

* Displays of the Glebe Project.

For more information about the event see the Flyer.

 

The Glebe Lands (Appropriation) Act, no 35 of 1974 passed on the 6th August, 1974 by the Whitlam Government, enabled the purchase and transfer of housing in the Anglican estates of Bishopthorpe and St Philips from the Glebe Administration Board. The Federal government was lobbied by the Anglican Church, The Glebe Society and Leichhardt Council to purchase The Glebe. Tom Uren, the Minister for Urban and Rural Development, championed the legislation. 3,200 residents were invited to a public meeting on October 18th 1974 in the Glebe Town Hall, to unveil the details of the restoration plan. The government implemented its program of urban renewal through the Glebe Project.

In buying the estate, the federal government wanted to:

  • Avoid the sudden displacement of the  population and avoid disruption to community networks; 
  • Retain opportunity for low income earners, families and aged to live close to the city as part of the wider community; 
  • Improve environmental conditions and social conditions of residents of the Estate and surrounding area; 
  • Preserve the townscape and sympathetically rehabilitate it.

Without the vision and advocacy of politicians, policy makers, community groups and local residents, the inner city, particularly Glebe, would have lost what we now see as its core value – its dynamic and diverse community.                 

To commemorate the principles of the legislation and the Glebe Project a display is at Glebe Library