VILLAGE MARKET IN A METROPOLIS
My book on Paddington Markets (titled Paddington Bazaar, the name its founders gave it) was published in 1993 to coincide with Paddington Markets’ 20th anniversary. In 1973. Gough Whitlam had just been elected Prime Minister, reforms in education, the arts and the environment were put into action. Bob Hawke became the President of the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions), Australian author Patrick White won a Nobel Prize for Literature, the Sydney Opera House opened, AFTRS (the Australian Film, Television and Radio School) opened, Jackson Pollock’s painting Blue Poles was bought by the National Gallery of Australia for $1.3 million, Sunbury music festival near Melbourne ran for three days, and hippies from all over Australia flocked to the Aquarius Festival at Nimbin in northern NSW, many settled there permanently.
Overseas a ceasefire ended the involvement of United States ground troops in the Vietnam War and in the Middle East the Arab-Israeli conflict erupted in the Yom Kippur War, followed by the Arab Oil Crisis which literally slowed traffic in the western world, especially in the USA. The apparently endless flow of energy and natural resources fuelling economic development suddenly became finite. The world became a smaller more fragile place.
The first of the four reverends instrumental in the founding Paddington Markets was a young visionary, 35 year old Reverend Peter J. Holden, who took up his appointment in 1970 at what was then the Methodist Church on Oxford Street in Paddington. Peter arrived fresh from his experience the previous year in the USA where he was on the organising staff of Woodstock.
Many stallholders in my book have developed interesting and sometimes spectacular career paths, including some who continue to have stalls at Paddington Markets. Here are the ones I managed to find, if you know or find others please let me know. Nik Markovina, Julie Alcock, Mark Honere, John Hablitscheck, Catherine Abel, Wendie McCaffley, Jedda Lemmon, Frederic Berjot, Neil Grigg, Simone Zimmerman, Craig Cooper, Emil Jurd, Emma Wardle, Nik Markovina, Soledad Cordeaux, Kurt Becker, Kate Raffin, Paulineke Polkamp (Balez) a founder / organiser of Scarborough Art Show since its inception in 1999, Claudio Vega, Keith Rowe,
Dr Rod Pattenden who was the Uniting Church Paddington reverend at the time I was working on my book is currently Chairperson of the Blake Prize for Religious Art and Co-Creative Director of InterPlay Australia. Laurie Matthews OAM, CEO Caretakers Cottage.