Recent searches
Search options
Administered by:
In 1981, the Parramatta Eels won the grand final in the predecessor to the National Rugby League.
Many fans gathered at the team's home ground, Cumberland Oval (which was on the site of CommBank Stadium) and the celebrations got a bit rowdy.
And by "got a bit rowdy", I mean they burnt the stadium down to the ground.
Without a stadium, the following season the team held its meetings in a secondhand 1960s Leyland Worldmaster bus.
But that's not the only piece of local history commemorated by this sculpture by Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, titled "Place of the Eels".
One side of the bus is inscribed with the words "Flying Pieman". It's a reference to a local baker named William Francis King, who used to sell pies to people boarding the ferry to Parra at Sydney's Circular Quay in the 1870s.
After the ferry left, Mr King reputedly packed up his pie cart, then ran the 30-odd kilometres to Parramatta by foot. He would then set up his cart at Parramatta Wharf in time to sell more pies to passengers as they disembarked the ferry.
The other side of the bus is inscribed with the name "Rosie Bint Broheen". In 1922, Rosie became the first Lebanese woman to buy land in Parramatta.
The sculpture also includes some hidden messages, in reference to the Parramatta Industrial School for Girls, which was a notorious children's welfare institution that operated from 1887-1974. It was home to many members of the Stolen Generations.
#history #Parramatta #urbanism #art #UrbanArt #Australia #StreetArt #sculpture #NRL
@ajsadauskas@pixelfed.social A bit more on this forgotten moment of Australian sporting history:
"It was pandemonium. About 15,000 people were at Parramatta Leagues club and its immediate surrounds. Players were lifted from the team bus into the club by elated fans.
…
"The fence pickets that weren’t souvenired had been piled together to make a bonfire.
…
"The fence pickets went up. The grandstand, a wooden heap built in the 1930s, soon followed. The scoreboard at the southern end was ablaze. It was a fibro structure set on two metres of brick with a clock on top, which a group of men tried feverishly to rip free for a keepsake before giving up and leaving it to burn.
"The goalposts were added to the bonfire, after one fan tried to climb to the top of them to get a flag. The man was still atop one pole as they fell, yet ran away and into legend. Advertising hoardings were ripped free and torched, taking chunks out of the fence.
…
"Firemen and police eventually broke up the party. When they returned the next day, Cumberland Oval was a smouldering ruin, the grandstand a charred carcass."
And that's why there's a statue of a bus in the main town square in Parramatta.
@ajsadauskas@vivaldi.net @ajsadauskas@pixelfed.social
So that's what happened to the stadium. Was a bit young then.
Thank you