A Sense Of Place

*

Redfern is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Redfern is located 3 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. Strawberry Hills is a locality on the border with Surry Hills

Redfern is subject to extensive redevelopment plans by the state government, to increase the population and reduce the concentration of poverty in the suburb and neighbouring Waterloo (see Redfern-Eveleigh-Darlington).

The suburb is named after surgeon William Redfern, who was granted 100 acres (0.40 km2) of land in this area in 1817 by Lachlan Macquarie. He built a country house on his property surrounded by flower and kitchen gardens. His neighbours were Captain Cleveland, an officer of the 73rd regiment, who built Cleveland House and John Baptist, who ran a nursery and seed business. Sydney's original railway terminus was built in Cleveland Paddocks and extended from Cleveland Street to Devonshire Street and west to Chippendale. The station's name was chosen to honour William Redfern. At that time, the present Redfern station was known as Eveleigh. When Central station was built further north on the site of the Devonshire Street cemetery, Eveleigh station became Redfern and Eveleigh was retained for the name of the railway workshops, south of the station. The remains of Cleveland Paddocks became Prince Alfred Park.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redfern,_New_South_Wales

And then, in that frightening morning mist, one of those figures slumped in doorways, giggling, or talking desultorily as they waited for someone to come home, for the dealer to regain consciousness, for a vast network of springs to break out, for life in some Arcadian universe, they stirred off the steps and picked themselves up into the street. He was already 50 metres down the street, but could sense danger as if it was a real thing prickling through the air, a terrible panic. Dying out here, alone, at this peculiar hour of the morning, 4am. He was frightened and looked back to see the figure already beginning to amble along the path, to slime through the shadows; ultimately presaging his bashing and his death.

It was already too far. He had made too many mistakes. The dog sniffed happily at every available tree, unaware of the danger. But he knew instinctively that things were severely wrong. Oh how could this be? Now; when he was out walking, getting fit, doing the right thing. If you can't talk it out walk it out; as they used to say in the classics. It was only a small way of being. It was only the morning that could frighten him. He quickened his pace; and the shadow behind him quickened theirs. Now he was truly frightened. It came in waves. He took a turn down to the main drag; away from his normal path. He knew he was writing stories twice; and had been here before; and didn't care. Nothing could save him now.

It was such a minute danger, when soldiers were dying on the battlefields of Afghanistan, in the bitter cold, in a war that was not ours, in the terrible stupidity in which he had wrecked everything in his life. He walked still faster, the dog scuttling ahead of him as he urged it to keep up. There were no cars in the street. It was just too early. Why him, of all people, why couldn't he have stayed safe behind the grills in his admittedly rented Redfern terrace; the place that had become their home, part of them. Where they had totally internalised the landscape. Where they were characters in the community; where they could walk down the street and invariably meet people they knew; where every shop keeper was familiar; and even the chaos of the Block, familiar.

He had made so many mistakes and fallen off the real estate ladder. I might not be much but I'm all I can think about, the little man said, tension flickering beneath his jaw bone. They all laughed in recognition. Everything was floating away; great chunks of the physical world dismembering into space. As he turned the corner into the main drag; or semi-main drag you might have called it, Abercrombie Street, he looked behind to see the shadow had turned the corner; and was less than a hundred metres behind. He picked up his pace yet again, urging the dog to stop its rapturous sniffing of a light pole.

It was all too much. He needed a partner. He needed something concrete in his life. The kids were growing older and he missed them already; even though they were still a hermetically sealed unit; it was them against the world. John and the kids in Redfern. Everything was dying off. Everything was in flux. He couldn't see his way clear to achieve anything. All he could do was look back in terror. At last it looked like he was putting some distance between him and the no doubt ice addled lunatic who had been following him. The man, drug skinny with clothes hanging off him dank with addiction sweat, had stopped at the corner, watching him as he disappeared up the street.

It was so cruel, and yet a relief, as he headed up to the main street where there would definitely be traffic and he would definitely be safe. Every old lady in the city screamed inside his head; everyone who had felt unsafe. They fumbled with their keys and peered out from their tiny flats. They went to the community centre once a week, often more, and sat there listening to all the tales, the antics of the other residents. She had been going every day in recent weeks, fascinated by the gossip, sitting there quietly. The real, dangerous world, was a long long way away, here in the cosy afternoons, when the girls talked of their bingo outings and the conduct of the housing department; a subject of endless scandal and intrigue. And he looked back to see the ice addict give up the chase; turn and leave; and knew he had survived yet one more threat; and was beginning to stand tall.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/copenhagen-failure-no-surprise-ross-garnaut/story-e6frfku0-1225812351189

Copenhagen 'failure' no surprise - Ross Garnaut

NO ONE should be surprised that a binding agreement wasn't reached in Copenhagen, climate change expert Ross Garnaut said.

In the final hours of the two-week summit, world leaders put forward a deal aimed at limiting global warming to 2C.

But it contained no targets to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change.

Professor Garnaut said there was no groundwork put in place before the meeting to ensure a binding deal would be met.

"It's been clear that there wasn't going to be a binding agreement at Copenhagen," the government's adviser on climate change told ABC Television.

"Expectations were overblown, so it's not the slightest bit surprising; it's not appropriate to be greatly disappointed."

But world leaders made some "steps forward", he said.

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2009/12/21/116991_tasmania-news.html

THE Copenhagen climate change summit was an unmitigated failure, Greens Leader Bob Brown says.

The Tasmanian senator said world leaders had blown their chance at introducing meaningful and binding targets to reducing emissions.

The summit only managed to settle on a non-binding accord which relies on countries setting their own emissions targets.

Senator Brown said the accord condemned the globe to a very grim future.

"Copenhagen began full of hope but it has ended up full of disappointment and that's because the world's polluters -- the oil industry, the coal industry, the resource-extraction industry, including the loggers -- have such power over politicians around the world," he said.

"We have got to put the climate first."

Senator Brown said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was a climate change failure and Liberal leader Tony Abbott was a climate change denier that wanted to go back to last century.

"Next year's election is now shaping up as a referendum for all Australian voters to have their say on action on climate change."

He said Australia should commit to a target to reduce emissions by 40 per cent by 2020 rather than the current 5 to 25 per cent policy of the Federal Government.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/labors-push-for-ets-discredited-hunt-20091221-l7r6.html

Labor's argument for emissions trading has been discredited after world leaders failed to reach a binding climate deal at Copenhagen, the federal opposition says.

In the final hours of the two-week summit, world leaders put forward a deal aimed at limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius.

But it contains no targets to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change.

Opposition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt says the non-binding deal vindicates the party's opposition to emissions trading.

"Kevin Rudd should face up to facts that his justification for an ETS (emissions trading scheme) has now been taken away," he told ABC Radio.

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce says it's lucky Australia didn't attend the summit with an ETS in hand.

"If we had we'd be sitting out there all alone by ourselves at the moment and looking decidedly ridiculous," the coalition frontbencher said.

The Rudd government will reintroduce legislation to set up an ETS early next year.

It will be its third attempt to get a scheme agreed to by parliament.

A Sense Of Place: Sydney University.