FORMER communists and middle-class matrons from Hunters Hill will gather tomorrow to celebrate a famous victory that changed the course of Sydney's history and left its mark around the world.
The gathering will mark the 35th anniversary of the world's first "green ban" and the Battle for Kellys Bush.
"Kellys Bush" sounds so ordinarily Australian and is so geographically modest, referring to about five hectares of bushland on the border of Hunters Hill and Woolwich, on the banks of the Parramatta River.
Yet the victory probably marked, as former Builders' Labourers Federation leader Jack Mundey and environmentalist Paul Ehrlich said, the birth of urban environmentalism. And, Mundey said yesterday: "John Howard's draconian industrial relations laws mean that the socially responsible actions the trade unions took then could not be taken today."
Before the green bans, the environment movement focused on nature conservation. Afterwards, the urban environment won equal prominence. Within two years, bans were placed on development of The Rocks, Victoria Street, Woolloo-mooloo and Centennial Park - where the NSW government wanted to build sports facilities in the hope of winning the Olympics for the 1988 bicentenary year. The green ban became a model for environmental action around the world.
Rodney Cavalier, then with the Miscellaneous Workers Union, said the battle brought a new definition of "progress". Before Kellys Bush, progress meant making buildings higher and roads wider and filling empty spaces. It also brought to dictionaries the phrase "green ban".
Cavalier had said that, in order to keep the bush green, unions would have to declare it black. Mundey called the union action a green ban. "It was more appealing," he said, "because it reflected unions reaching out to society and taking a stand on social and environmental issues."
The colour change made all the difference.
Red was the third colour in the story. Kath Lehany, one of 13 women who became the Battlers for Kellys Bush, said: "We made enemies. Other Hunters Hill residents thought we were all communists. Most of us lived in Prince Edward Parade, which John Merrington, of Hunters Hill Council, called Red Square."
Dr Joan Croll, who had been raised on Methodism and Menzies, thought working with a communist was too much and withdrew from the Battlers. Her husband, Frank, was disgusted and she re-joined.
John Morris, then assistant director of the National Trust, said that, after Kellys Bush, he realised unions were saving more buildings than the trust. He called Mundey, who offered to meet. "Don't come here," Morris said, fearing the displeasure of conservative trustees. They reached a working arrangement in a pub.
The bush was named after Thomas Kelly, who built tin-smelting works there in 1892. When the works closed in 1966, AV Jennings sought to build 100 residences there, including three eight-storey blocks.
The Battlers formed after a dinner at the home of Betty James. "We were of a generation who had lived through World War II, when young men fought to save Australia from invasion," she said. "Now our government was encouraging an invasion of developers."
It would take those 13 women 13 years to preserve some of the last remaining bushland on the river. After failing to move the council, developer or government, they turned to the unions.
The Builders' Labourers Federation, led by Mundey and Joe Owens, both communists, and Bob Pringle, of the ALP, could stop building on the bush. Jack Cambourne, communist leader of the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen's Association, whose members drove bulldozers, could halt clearing. If a bulldozer entered the Hunters Hill peninsula, it would set off an alarm, Cavalier said, akin to the Luftwaffe being sighted over Kent in World War II.
Mundey will open tomorrow an exhibition documenting the battle, including a confidential agreement between Jennings, the government and the council ensuring the scheme would go ahead - the government had rezoned the bush from open space to residential. When Jennings said it would build with non-union labour, the Builders' Labourers Federation said it would stop work on an office block at North Sydney, leaving it as a monument to Kellys Bush.
Neville Wran, the incoming premier, promised in 1976 to buy the land as a public reserve. It was bought finally in 1983, when Wran said: "This piece of foreshore land has changed the whole face of conservation in Australia."
Miriam Hamilton, another Battler, said: "The men from the BLF had more vision than the government, the council or many of the intelligentsia."
Phil Jenkyn, of Defenders of Sydney Harbour Foreshores, said: "The Kellys Bush story is as relevant today as ever, with the Government and councils in bed with developers."
The exhibition, by the National Trust Vienna Cottage Committee, opens at 1.30pm tomorrow at the cottage, 38 Alexandra Street, Hunters Hill, and then Wednesdays and Sundays, 11am to 4pm, in April.