Skip to main content

Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
Multimedia
The front path of Benledi House in Glebe was ch...

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

The front path of Benledi House in Glebe was chalked with a rainbow 30 April 2013

By

Contributed By

Search

Browse

Browse
- Artefacts
- Buildings
- Events
- Natural Features
- Organisations
- People
- Places
- Structures
- Entries
- Multimedia
- Subjects
- Roles
- Contributors

Connections

Appears in

Sydney's Rainbow Crossings

Subjects

Demonstrations and protests Footpaths Gay Lesbian and Transgender Graffiti

Places

Glebe

Buildings

Benledi

Organisation

DIY Rainbow

Footer

Home
About
Copyright
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Hicks, Megan

Megan Hicks is a curator and writer. You can explore her work further on her blog Pavement Graffiti http://www.meganix.net

Sydney's Rainbow Crossings

On 25 February 2013, Sydneysiders woke to a rainbow crossing painted at the intersection of Taylor Square and Oxford Street, Darlinghurst - the starting point of Sydney's first ever Gay Mardi Gras march in 1978. Despite community support for the crossing, it was removed on 10 April sparking a do-it-yourself movement of pop-up rainbow crossings chalked on streets, footpaths and driveways all over Australia.

Demonstrations and protests

Footpaths

Gay Lesbian and Transgender

Graffiti

Glebe

full record »

Inner-city suburb named for its original status as Anglican church land granted to Richard Johnson, chaplain of the first fleet in 1790. The Glebe Point area became fashionable in the nineteenth century, while the southern part of Glebe became a working class district.

Benledi

full record »

Grand Victorian mansion on the corner of Glebe Point and Wigram Roads in Glebe, built for timber merchant Alexander Kethel. It was later converted to a homeopathic hospital and general community hospital. It is now owned by the City of Sydney and houses the Glebe branch of the public library and other community groups. The adjacent park was the site of the Sydney Hospital for Sick Children, founded in 1880. This was renamed the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in 1904 and moved to Camperdown in 1907. The hospital building was also used by the homeopathic hospital before it was razed for the park in 1968.

DIY Rainbow

Protest movement that emerged in 2013 via social media in response to the removal of a temporary rainbow-painted pedestrian crossing at Taylor Square which had been created by the City of Sydney for the 35th Sydney Mardi Gras celebrations. Activists create rainbows and rainbow coloured crossings with chalk in public places to show support for equal rights and marriage equality.

full record »