Is our precious heritage being served?
Nothing is forever, but some landmarks need to be nurtured before they’re given up for dead.
Nothing is forever, but some things need to be nurtured before they’re given up for dead.
I’m off for a weekend in the Blue Mountains and time my arrival to have lunch at that art deco marvel in Katoomba, The Paragon. I obviously haven’t been keeping abreast of mountain matters because, to my profound dismay, the restaurant is closed. I can’t remember how long it is since I was in Katoomba, but at least four years because that is when the heritage-listed Paragon shut, I learn. Not, then, a victim of Covid.
In its beautiful, glazed shopfront there is a notice: “The Paragon is currently closed for conservation work to address the toll wrought by time and the mountain climate, but will reopen in 2019, refreshed to another century.” And another Public Notice declares the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (which hasn’t existed since 2019) has permitted “preliminary investigations into the structural drainage and damage issues into The Paragon …. Serious failure in the floors and drainage especially are being addressed”.
All I hear is rain belting down.
Before it closed there was a stoush between cafe proprietor and landlord. But all that really matters is that this “icon” (I use the word sparingly) seems to be mouldering away. It and the magnificently restored Carrington Hotel next door were at the heart of the romance of old Katoomba. Opened as Paragon Cafe and Oyster Palace by young immigrant Zacharias Simos in 1916, it was perhaps our best surviving regional Greek cafe, the like of which thrived in the first half of the 20th century. The establishments were a synthesis of Greek hospitality know-how, American soda fountain and Aussie food (“cuisine” would be putting too fine a point on it). At The Paragon, add exquisite chocolates.
Its deco style, created by leading Sydney architects, extended through various spaces, including a banqueting hall and ballroom. How stylishly it sat on the main street of Katoomba, a coal town (there are remnants of mines at the foot of the world’s steepest passenger train, the Scenic Railway) turned to tourism.
We need to preserve the special nature of our regions, especially now Australians are in the mood for self-discovery in their travels. So many town centres need TLC, but it calls for savvy entrepreneurs, wise and imaginative local authorities and enthusiastic consumers. A big ask perhaps.
It’s more than 50 years since Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi gave us the line, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”. With maybe a bland block of units down the track. You’ve seen them? Let’s hang on to what we’ve got.