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First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on July 9, 1997
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains images of and references to deceased persons.
The battle over the Aboriginal Day of Mourning site in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, reaches a crisis tomorrow when the NSW Heritage Council considers an application for development which would bring the destruction of the single most significant Aboriginal site in urban NSW.
![The National Aboriginal History and Heritage Council focused public attention on the fate of the
‘Day of Mourning’ site during Heritage Week 1997. An open day was held at the old Australian Hall
[the former Mandolin Cinema] the venue of the first national Aboriginal civil rights protest on 26th January 1938. Exterior of the hall.](https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.387%2C$multiply_2.1164%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_135/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/f45fa6f73022069d200e275a56fa2538e8ecb702)
The National Aboriginal History and Heritage Council focused public attention on the fate of the ‘Day of Mourning’ site during Heritage Week 1997. An open day was held at the old Australian Hall [the former Mandolin Cinema] the venue of the first national Aboriginal civil rights protest on 26th January 1938. Exterior of the hall.Credit:Robert Pearce
The site, at 150-152 Elizabeth Street, housed the old Mandolin cinema and is owned by the Cyprus Hellene Club, which has a development application before Sydney City Council to demolish the historic interior and build a new high-rise development behind the old facade.
On January 26, 1938, as European Australia celebrated the 150th anniversary of white settlement, a group of Aborigines held a protest march culminating in a meeting in the auditorium inside the building.
The meeting demanded basic rights such as citizenship. It was the first “Day of Mourning” and, according to Human Rights Commissioner Mr Mick Dodson, “in the history of the non-violent Aboriginal political struggle, it was of enormous significance nationally”.
![A copy of the original invitation to the civil rights protest at the old Australian Hall [the former Mandolin Cinema].](https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.251%2C$multiply_2.0847%2C$ratio_0.666667%2C$width_378%2C$x_0%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/2ab77ac755078f6a6b98b9476636f602b1ea3e92)
A copy of the original invitation to the civil rights protest at the old Australian Hall [the former Mandolin Cinema].Credit:.
“The speeches that were made then were much as we are asking for today - pleas for fairness, equality and land rights ...”
However, the Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning, Mr Knowles, last year refused pleas for a permanent conservation order over the entire building. In what a number of heritage sources described as “an utterly cynical exercise”, he put the conservation order over the facade only, a decision which allows demolition of the hall where the 1938 meeting was held.