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Glebebytes
Sharing Local Stories oral history project
Glebebytes is a partnership between the Glebe Community Development Project (University of Sydney), TAFE Outreach Ultimo, Housing NSW & other community partners across the City of Sydney.
The aim of this project was to engage residents predominantly from the Glebe Estate in a project to conduct interviews and record the oral histories from community members whose stories often do not get told. Residents who participate in the project come from all types of backgrounds however share a common love and pride in their Glebe Community.
Residents have had the opportunity to develop their skills in interviewing, recording information and sound editing. It is hoped that the residents will carry on their skills development in other similar projects. You can listen to their recordings on this site or for a wider collection go to the ABC Pool site.
The City’s community grant program has helped fund a unique project in Glebe.
Some highlights have included:
The interview with 94-year-old Gladys, who can bend down and touch her toes, who talked about her old boyfriends, the timber mill at Blackwattle Bay, Doctor Foley, her great-great grandchildren, and her life and times in Glebe. “I love Glebe,” she says. “I love the people of Glebe. I can’t fault Glebe. The only way I’ll be going out of Glebe is in a box.”
Glebebytes has spoken with Roelof Smilde, another local resident, who first moved to Glebe in 1961 with his 22-year-old girlfriend, Germaine Greer. “We moved into a flat in one of the mansions on Glebe Point Road,” he says. “She wanted to be close to uni. She was full of ideas, full of questions. I was nine years older. It was her initiative, not mine. I didn’t mind where we lived.”
The feminist diva soon after moved to England. But Smilde still lives in the neighbourhood, among old friends, and often is seen playing cards with the teenagers at Glebe Youth Services, where he has their respect as an elder statesman.
Glebebytes has also interviewed Sandra Bentley and Robert Lee, sister and brother, born and bred in Glebe, and who tell stories of playing on the Wentworth paddock, the Friday night lights of Harold Park, Saturday’s at the Astor Picture Show, and their grandfather’s SP bookmaking business run from the back room of their weatherboard cottage. They’re tall tales, and true.
