The
single largest industry in the area, until
the 1970s, was the Eveleigh Workshops
complex, one of the main construction
and service centres for the NSW railways.
During the heyday of the steam train railways,
the site occupied an area of several acres,
bounded by North Newtown, Erskineville,
Redfern, Alexandria and Chippendale. Many
Eveleigh workers lived in the area, but
many lived in other suburbs and until
the 1970s and commuting workers alighted
at Macdonaldtown Station, located in the
middle of the complex. In 1995, many years
after the and the age of steam was over
and the rail workshops had moved to Enfield,
the NSW Government, the University of
Sydney, University of Technology, Sydney
and UNSW transformed the former Railyards
at Eveleigh into the Australian Technology
Park. Another major industry in the area
was the large brickworks that formerly
occupied the site now known as Sydney
Park, on the corner of Mitchell Road (Now
Sydney Park Road) and the Princes Highway
at St Peters Station.
The
brickworks closed after World War II,
and for most of the Sixties and Seventies
the site was used as a rubbish tip, and
the vast clay pits were eventually filled
by domestic and commercial refuse. After
the tip was closed in the 1980s, the area
was covered, landscaped and revegetated,
and several large artificial hills were
created that have sweeping views South
to Botany Bay and North to the city. Three
towering chimneys that carried exhaust
from the brick kilns remain standing and
have been incorporated into the Sydney
Park site, as have some of the kilns and
various pieces of large brickworks machinery.
The site is now one of the major landmarks
in the South Sydney area. Many other industrial
and commercial sites were vacated in the
1960s and 1970s, as rising rents and property
prices, along with other factors, saw
many businesses relocate to outlying areas
of the city. Many of these former commercial
sites have since been re-developed as
housing, including the Silo development
near Newtown Station, and the Alpha House
and Beta House apartment complexes on
King Street, which were formerly both
multi-storey warehouses.
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