Sydney's most historic pub/anonymous landmark

If you live in Sydney, you can name a few famous pubs: The Hero, The Oaks, and Watson's Bay. However, there is a pub that should be just as famous, and you wouldn't know it even if you were standing in front of it.

Paul Sinclair tells some fascinating stories about Aboriginal Sydney. One of those stories is about Platform One, where Aboriginal children arrived and were sent to institutions around NSW. For the countless survivors of the Stolen Generations, the platform marked the beginning of lifelong trauma. That platform now has a plaque highlighting its importance in history, and plaques have also been installed at stations in Grafton, Kempsey, Bourke, Berry, and Bomaderry, with more locations planned.

Another of those stories Paul told was about The Empress Hotel, 'The Big E', which does not have a plaque and may never get one. It is a former pub that should be up there with the most famous Sydney names, yet you could walk past it and never know it was there. Walking to 85 Regent Street, Redfern, you will see the nondescript building pictured above. It looks like any other apartment block. However, this former pub-turned-residence has some incredible stories and Indigenous heritage. The Dictionary of Sydney and History of Aboriginal Sydney have more complete outlines of the place's history, but here are a few highlights that have stuck with me and that I have thought about ever since.

The history of the Big E, coupled with the lack of official recognition, feels like an ongoing present-day injustice pointing back to a history of even greater injustices. Starting towards the western end of George Street, the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs in the 1960s was a significant initiative by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, initially offering refuge to Aboriginal people arriving from the bush. Yet, no plaque informs passers-by of this critical moment in Sydney's Aboriginal history. Similarly, no signage marks the 'Big E' site near Redfern Station, a renowned meeting place even for non-drinkers.

For Aboriginal people in Sydney, especially those from across broader NSW, The Big E was the place to find out where relatives lived and what employment opportunities were available in Redfern. In 1961, The Empress Hotel was a central place to socialise and an important meeting place for the Aboriginal community of Redfern. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Aboriginal people from rural New South Wales increasingly migrated to Sydney for work, better opportunities and reunions with family members. Ruby Langford Smith recalled,' The only meeting place for us Kooris was a pub called the Empress. Us Koories called it the Big E. It was a place where if you had just arrived from the bush and were looking for your 'relatives', you'd go to the Big E, and someone would know where your people were livin'. It was that kind of place, the Big E.'

Ruby moved to Redfern to live with her father and stepmother when she was 15, to Waterloo when she got back together with her first partner, Sam, to Alexandria when she found out her dad had died, and to Surry Hills with her fourth partner, Lance. She wrote a best-selling memoir about life in Sydney, described as one of the most important Indigenous life stories to be published in Australia.

Imagining the 12,000 Aboriginal people who lived in Sydney using this hotel as a central hub seems fascinating. It served as everything to the local community, and Ruby said, "There was never a dull moment there." But it was also a time of extreme poverty and discrimination. Squatting in near derelict houses was common.

It was also the site of heavy-handed police action and the focus of arbitrary racial persecution. The Aboriginal Legal Service held its first planning meetings to answer police persecution of patrons of the 'Big E' in the 1970s. Ruby said, "Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, you would count three paddy wagons lined up outside the 'Big E' waiting to round up the Koories to make their numbers up." The subsequent assaults on Aboriginal people through the 70s and 80s were heavily centred around Redfern and the Big E. One of those harassed in the Big E was Gordon Briscoe, the first Aboriginal person to gain a PhD and stand for parliament.

Young Redfern activists saw striking similarities between the American experience and sought to emulate the Black Panther Party of America. Using the Black Panther methods, they felt that by monitoring and keeping a record of police harassment of the community, they might be able to build a solid database of information that they might use politically to alleviate the situation. The information gathering began one Saturday night in 1969 when young activists began observing and collecting information on the regular police raids at the Empress. The hotel becomes the starting point for other stories: The Aboriginal Legal Service, The Black Power Movement, and The Tent Embassy.

The Big E has a rich history, and you should take the time to read some of the links here.

‘The evidence of our own past has been torn asunder’

The Big E was renamed the Regent Hotel in 1989 when it was photographed as part of a City of Sydney heritage study. It later closed its doors for good, and all the markings were painted over. The property was then sold as apartments, which is what it is today. We could and should be doing more to ensure these stories are noticed. The quote above is from Uncle Gordon Briscoe's video about Mulgoa Children's Home. Feelings are mixed about the best way to remember traumatic events. Peter Read's excellent Putting Place Back Into Aboriginal Sydney argues that while we may need help convincing councils to put up plaques for Aboriginal monuments, we should build our online information instead. Why not both?

Recognising places like the Big E is vital. It honours Sydney's history, let alone that of the Aboriginal community, and acknowledges the injustices.