Oxford Street

And I remember this moment incredibly distinctly.

I'd been to the movies in Oxford Street in Sydney, came out.

There was a late-night bookshop opposite the movie theatre.

I went in for a bit of a browse because I'm a bookie person.

We love a Garpyard.

When I was out in Sydney, I worked for about six months at a shop called Oxford Art Supplies, which was on the Oxford Street.

It was the very top of Surrey Hills where it ends on Oxford Street, but it was on the Surrey Hills area.

side this was also at a time where oxford street really was the center of gay of gay sydney it was a site of mardi gras it had been a site of queer activism for sort of a couple of decades by that point and oxford art supplies it was an art supply shop but with a very a very queer tinge and i remember my interview my interview when i went in aged 18 to try and get a job was i went to speak to the manager and he took me into a room upstairs and he said um OK, first question.

Have you got any hang ups about poofters? And I said, no.

And he said, right, you've got the job.

And that was how I got my job at Oxford Art Supplies.

Anyway, like you, Sophie, I associate, therefore, poofters.

You can go down, they unlock the gate and you go down and you can see it with the water still there.

Unfortunately, the Oxford Street section was all filled in when they put the trams in.

They thought the trams might, you know, fall down into a great big hole.

So it's not there, but it still is under Victoria Barracks.

I want to come back to something you mentioned earlier.

This is Busby's Bore, and you told me it can only be seen at Victoria Barracks, and this was Sydney's water supply.

It was, yes, from 1832 to 1869 when they took the water, the same water source from what they called the Botany Swamps, but that water flows down from Centennial Park, and it used to flow in Busby's Bore, this tunnel Kongvik built, under Victoria Barracks and down Oxford Street into Hyde Park and then it was then into barrels and distributed around the city and that was Sydney's water supply for all that time and you know on the Thursday tour if you were lucky you could talk your guide into opening the gate and letting you step down and you could see it it's there it's right under Victoria Barracks you know that's that part of our history and the little dead end that they discovered when they were building the football stadium car park you know they diverted around that they preserved that part of Busby's Ball, which was never used.

It was one of the mistakes when they took the wrong turn.

And I found out there was an ashram, which is like a center.

There was an ashram in Sydney on Oxford Street in Darlinghurst.

And I started going there every day at 6 a.m. to do their one-hour meditations.

And I quickly signed up to become a disciple.

Yeah, great to hear.

Now listen, important thing to say first and foremost is this protest is not now in front of the barracks on Oxford Street.

You're over in Kippax Lake in Moor Park, yeah?

Yeah, discussions with Mal Lanyon and his team during the week.

Oxford Street was not suitable for the size of crowd we're going to get and obviously closing Oxford Street would have inconvenienced a lot of people as well.

So very mindful of that.

So we've moved to Tippax Lake, which is obviously opposite Allianz Stadium, between Allianz Stadium and Anzac Parade, and Anzac Parade itself.

In Anzac Parade, Driver Avenue, maybe you get into Driver Avenue and let everybody off there.

Okay, where are we eating this week? New restaurant of the week.

Ame in Darlinghurst on Oxford Street.

Super excited about this one.

So, Ame is a new Peruvian-Japanese restaurant, which...

Now, as I said a moment ago, we enter what will be the decisive week in the campaign to save Victoria Barracks this week.

On Sunday, a rally will take place out the front of the barracks on Oxford Street at 1pm.

Now, I've been asked to emcee the proceedings.

I'm happy to do it.

As I said, this Sunday's rally is perhaps our last opportunity to take a stand and to force another crucial back down by this lamentable government.

I hope to see you there.

Victoria Barracks, Oxford Street, Sunday, 1pm.

Good to be with you.