Page 127 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

KINGS CROSS , D ARLINGHURST AND P ADDINGT ON  125

1–6, the visitor passes through quarried on the site by convicts,
chronological and thematic which was then chiselled by
exhibitions which unravel the them into blocks.
tragic history of the Holocaust. No fewer than 67 people
From Hitler’s rise to power were executed here between
K
Kristallnachtristallnacht
and Kristallnacht,, through the 1841 and 1908. Perhaps the
evacuation of the ghettos and most notorious hangman was
the Final Solution, to the ultimate Alexander “The Strangler” Green,
liberation of the infamous death after whom Green Park, outside
camps and Nuremberg Trials, the jail, is thought to have been
the harrowing events are named. Green lived near the
graphically documented. This park until public hostility forced
horrific period is recalled using him to live inside the jail.
photographs and relics, some Some of Australia’s most
exhumed from mass graves, as noted artists, including Frank
well as audiovisual exhibits and Hodgkinson, Jon Molvig and
Star of David in the lobby of the Sydney oral testimonies. William Dobell, trained or
Jewish Museum Holocaust survivors act as taught at the art school which
guides and their presence, was established here in 1921.
5Sydney bearing witness to the recorded
Jewish Museum events, lends considerable
power and moving authenticity
148 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst. Map to the exhibits in the museum.
5 B2. Tel (02) 9360 7999. @ Sydney,
Bondi & Bay Explorer, 311, 389. Open
10am–4pm Sun–Thu, 10am–2pm Fri. 6Old Gaol,
Closed Sat, Jewish hols. & 7 8 Darlinghurst
∑ sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au
Cnr Burton & Forbes sts, Darlinghurst.
Sixteen Jewish convicts were on Map 5 A2. Tel (02) 9339 8744. @ 333,
the First Fleet, and many more 378, 380, 389. Open 9am–5pm Mon–
were to be transported before Fri. Closed public hols. 7 8 11am,
the end of the convict era. As 1pm, 2pm & 3pm.
with other convicts, most would
endure and some would thrive, Originally known as the
seizing all the opportunities the Woolloomooloo Stockade The former Governor’s house,
colony had to offer. and later as Darlinghurst Gaol, Old Gaol, Darlinghurst
The Sydney Jewish Museum this complex was also home
relates stories of Australian to the National Art School. It 7Darlinghurst
Jewry within the context of the was constructed over a 20-year Court House
Holocaust. The ground floor period from 1822. 197 Oxford St at Taylor Square,
display explores present-day Surrounded by walls almost Darlinghurst. Map 5 A2. Tel 1300 679
Jewish traditions and culture 7 m (23 ft) high, the cell blocks 272. @ 378, 380, 382. Open Feb–Dec:
within Australia. Ascending the radiate from a central round- 10am–4pm Mon–Fri. Closed Jan, mid-
stairs to the mezzanine levels house. The jail is built of stone Dec, public hols. 7
Abutting the grim old gaol,
to which it is connected by
underground passages, and
facing tawdry Taylor Square,
this unlikely gem of Greek
Revival architecture was begun
in 1835 by colonial architect
Mortimer Lewis. He was only
responsible for the central block
of the main building with its
six-columned Doric portico
with Greek embellishments.
The side wings were not
added until the 1880s.
The Court House is still
used by the state’s Supreme
Court, mainly for criminal
cases, and these are open to
Beare Park, a quiet inner-city park with harbour views the public.