Sydney's Heroes - Page 2
11 Doris Goddard - Pub Matriarch
A slum child from Glebe turned Hollywood starlet, Doris Goddard
currently reigns supreme as the High Priestess of Sydney Pubs, having
run the now-legendary watering hole the Hotel Hollywood since 1977.
With its shabby chic parlours, bordello red walls and disco ball, this
neck-oiling nook is all Doris, plastered with mementoes of her days in
Tinseltown (she has Bob Hope's head locked between her thighs in one
photo) and on the global cabaret circuit.
Sacred site Doris reigns supreme at the Hollywood, 2 Foster St, Surry Hills (02 9281 2765)
12 Clive James Man of letters
Sydney hasn't been home for 'The Kid from Kogarah' since 1961 but
he's a hometown hero by virtue of his extraordinary Unreliable Memoirs,
whose tales of billycarts, Bea Miles duels and a childhood in Sydney's
south was the first of many love letters home.
Sacred site In Time Out #44, Clive called Kogarah Railway
Station & Shopping Complex "the height of Sydney's architectural
achievement". Railway Pde, Kogarah
13 Chris Lilley - Masked Funnyman
Having inherited the comedic crown of the great Sydney satirists Roy
Rene and Garry McDonald and King Kennedy himself, Chris Lilley has in a
few short years stamped himself as the most exciting man in Australian
- hell, global - comedy. Thanks to the ABC mega-hits Summer Heights
High and We Can Be Heroes, the Lindfield boy who grew up next door to
Kamahl is now a star in the UK and US with his gallery of anarchic
faces, male and female, old and young, cruel and kind. Long may the
dark seeds of his imagination catch the Sydney breeze.
Sacred sites Lilley found his comedy mojo at Barker College (16-18 Clarke Rd, Waitara) and Macquarie University (Balaclava Rd, North Ryde)
14 Nicole Kidman - Cinema Bandit
She
may be playing an Englishwoman out of her depth in the new Baz Luhrman
blockbuster Australia, but the Oscar-winning lass from Lane Cove is
Sydney royalty - she grew up on the North Shore, married in Manly
(where 25 years ago she performed some stunning BMX banditry down the
waterslides there) and still calls the Harbour City home. Marriage to
Tom Cruise, particpation in the longest continuous shoot in history
(Eyes Wide Shut) and 14 years' ambassadorship to UNICEF Australia
certainly make her heroic.
Sacred site Kidman went to school at North Sydney Girls High (Miller St, North Sydney then, but now on the Pacific Hwy, Crowes Nest).
15 Hugh Jackman - Leading Man
The
Pymble boy has carved up the action world as Wolverine while making
romantic film buffs swoon in Australia. He's come a long way since
manning the till at a servo in Wahroonga and toiling weekends as a
clown at children's parties. He can now walk the streets of his
hometown as an Emmy and Tony award winning star of stage and one of the
biggest and best loved legends of the silver screen too. OK, he lost
out to Daniel Craig as James Bond but the Boy from Oz still outmuscles
most Hollywood he-men with ease.
Sacred site Sydney's University of Technology on,
appropriately enough, Broadway is where Jackman earned his BA in
Communications majoring in journalism.
16 Animal Nelson - Bikie preacher
For
many of Sydney's lost, poor, elderly, addicted, imprisoned and
disenfranchised, Animal Nelson is a saint on an iron horse. A former
jailbird, jackaroo and scallywag, this 70-year-old icon of Sin City
bohemia is a friend to all who need one, boss of the Kings Cross Bikers
Social & Welfare Club, and, every Christmas, he's the Redfern Santa.
Sacred site Salvation Army (Phillip & Raglan Sts, Waterloo) is Animal's HQ.
17 Victor Trumper - Prince of batsmen
Over
93 years after he died, Victor Trumper's name lives on in the new
Sydney Cricket Ground grandstand as a cricketing immortal. Born in
Surry Hills, "Vic" once batted for six consecutive weeks in the
schoolyard of Crown Street High without being dismissed. He hit the
first century before lunch in a Test and the first triple century by an
Aussie in England. But it was his generosity as a man that made him
truly heroic. His premature death halted the nation and drew the
largest funeral crowd in Sydney history.
Sacred site This summer marks the first of the new Victor Trumper Stand at the SCG (Driver Ave, Moore Park).
18 Carmen - Gender bending legend
The
Queen of Crown Street is the grandson of a tohunga (Maori witchdoctor)
steeped in the dark arts but radiating light. In the 50 years she's
lived and breathed bohemian Sydney, Carmen has seen and done it all -
selling her stuff as a rent boy on The Wall, showgirling for the stars
at Les Girls, even running for Lord Mayor of Wellington. Today, she's a
charity dynamo, counselling young transgenders and street urchins and
praying for lost children from her housing commission flat in Surry
Hills.
Sacred site Carmen concubines from her digs on Riley Street opposite the Touch of Class brothel in Surry Hills.
19 Watkin Tench - City biographer
The diary kept by Watkin Tench about the voyage to and settlement of
Sydney was written as a thriller travelogue and comedy. That it carried
such verve and sympathy to the indigenous people only furtherelevates
his hero status.
Sacred site Botany Bay, birthplace of a nation.
20 Snugglepot & Cuddle Pie
Boo the Banskia Men! And hurrah for May Gibbs, mother of Snug and Cud!
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