102 Victoria Street Potts Point is for sale through Jason Boon, Geoff Cox and Joss Reid.

Property

Victoria Street is one of Sydney’s most delightful residential streets with its heritage-listed London Plane tree-lined umbrella of greenery.

Yet if these trees could speak they’d be gasping in disbelief at the mayhem that occurred 50 years ago under their shuddering branches.

A developer, Frank Theeman, wanted to bulldoze dozens of 19th century heritage terraces and build mega high-rise apartments on its western side. Locals were aghast and mounted a media campaign through Juanita Nielsen’s local fashion magazine “NOW”. She organised to infiltrate Mr Theeman’s company meetings by purchasing shares in his company, undermine his loans with Westpac and cosied up to unions including the NSW Builders Labourers’ Federation to have water and then sewage disconnected to his project, stopping work.

Theeman was resilient and had the backing of NSW Police. They were later found to be corrupt and receiving payments.
Residents faced harassment, abduction, forcible eviction by thugs armed with crowbars and hammers – even murder. Police did not intervene.
Mick Fowler, a jazz musician, was the last man to be forced out by Theeman after returning home to find his house at 115 Victoria Street boarded up.

At its height this was open urban warfare.

Ms Nielsen disappeared on 4th July 1975 and was later found to have been murdered. Abe Saffron, the notoriously corrupt nightclub owner, was also paying off police and was said to be involved. His son, Allan, recently released a book on his life in the Cross at the time. He has said Ms Nielsen’s murderer is named in his father’s diary but could not be released until he died. Allan has since died but the diary remains locked in a safe in America.

A $1 million reward is available for information about her murder.

Murals in Woolloomooloo reveal fascinating details of the residents’ resistance including the last-ditch protest of resident squatters who spent 17 hours perched on the chimneys of 115 Victoria St before they were arrested and taken away.

Today, Victoria remains sublime and very “Victorian”. The golden and green Plane trees’ leaves have continued to rustle but have since gone quiet.

By Andrew Woodhouse
Director Heritage Solutions