Mural 3: Victoria Street

Installed 1982

A mural featuring portraits of Juanita Nielsen and Mick Fowler, a man balancing on a chimney, a wreath, and the partial text "Save Victoria St"

Depicts the battle against development in Victoria Street, Potts Point.

2026 Biennale of Sydney

Merilyn Fairskye & Michiel Dolk, the artists behind the Woolloomooloo Mural Project, were commissioned by the 2026 Biennale of Sydney to produce a new video mural titled Person to Person.

This video mural is a contemporary portrait of Woolloomooloo that references its history of real estate, housing and homelessness. It serves as a dialogue between the existing murals under the eastern suburbs railway viaduct, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and 2 bus shelters the City of Sydney owns on Bourke Street next to Tom Uren Place.

QMS supports this initiative by displaying portraits of local community members.

Artist: Merilyn Fairskye, Michiel Dolk

Victoria Street collects scenes from the ‘Battle for Victoria Street’ in the 1970s, when local residents tried to resist proposed development of the area. It includes portraits of key activists involved in the movement, such as journalist Juanita Nielsen and resident Mick Fowler.

Mural diagram

Line drawing of the mural's layout, with numbered green circles marking 15 different people, structures, and objects throughout the busy environment.

Mural key

Frank Theeman, ex-manufacturer and property developer, standing in front of Victoria Point, a proposed high-rise redevelopment of Victoria Street financed by CAGA and the Bank of America
Joe Meissner, karate expert, well-known figure and standover man in Sydney, hired along with former police detective Fred Krahe by Victoria Point Pty Ltd (Frank Theeman) for ‘security’, to ensure the intimidation and forced eviction of residents and squatters
Abe Saffron, well-known businessman associated with development of Kings Cross, variously called ‘Boss of the Cross’, ‘Mr Big’ or ‘Mr Sin’, a key figure in organised crime in Sydney as the alleged bagman for premier Robert Askin
Edward Trigg, former employee or Abe Saffron as manager of the Carousel Club, Kings Cross, the last person to be seen with Juanita Nielsen before she disappeared. Served a jail term for conspiracy to abduct Nielsen
Pat Fiske, filmmaker active in the campaign against the redevelopment of Victoria Street, and co-producer (with Denise White and Peter Gailey) of the film Woolloomooloo
Tony Reeves, former journalist and alderman on the Council of the City of Sydney (ALP), active supporter of low-income inner-city residents. With fellow journalist Barry Ward, he investigated the disappearance of Juanita Nielsen
Juanita Nielsen, editor and publisher of the Kings Cross newspaper NOW, resident of Victoria Street and active supporter of the campaign against redevelopment. Nielsen disappeared on 4 July 1975, presumed abducted and murdered for her outspokenness
Mick Fowler, seaman, jazz musician and long-time resident of Victoria Street, who died in 1978. Holding out to the bitter end, he was the last resident to be forced out, and is here depicted in the archway of the house he lived in
Police arrest and carry away Russ Herman, BLF activist and filmmaker
Bob Pringle, BLF president 1968–1974
Police sergeant confronts Joe Owens, NSW BLF organiser and secretary
Wendy Bacon, activist and journalist
George Molnar, activist
In a last-ditch effort, resident squatters Keith Mullins and Con Papadatos perched on the chimneys of No. 115 for 17 hours before arrest
Wreath to Victoria Street from poster by Jan MacKay

The outcome for the ‘Battle for Victoria Street’ was distinctly different from that in Woolloomooloo. It exposed connections between developers and organised crime in Sydney – ultimately, a battle that local residents didn’t win.

Juanita Nielsen, a journalist and publisher of local newspaper NOW, refused to sell her house to make way for the Parkes Development Company’s proposal for Victoria Street. She also consistently opposed developer Frank Theeman’s plans for his development named Victoria Point.

Nielsen suggested his latest version of the project in 1975 “resembles the Ziggurat of Ur, viewed through a bad case of double vision”. It’s widely believed Nielsen was kidnapped and murdered because of her stance against development and corruption.

Until April 1973 there were 400 people living in Victoria Street properties that Theeman acquired for redevelopment. Within a few weeks most of them were evicted. An average of $153 per household was paid in compensation to the 393 tenants who were evicted.

By late January 1974 there was only one tenant left, Mick Fowler, who was then joined by squatters who formed the Victoria Street Action Group. The group aimed to preserve low-income housing, particularly boarding house accommodation for singles and group households.

Supported by the Builders’ Labourers’ Federation (BLF) and the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen’s Association (FEDFA), the group opposed Theeman’s plans to demolish houses and replace them with high-rise apartments for middle and high-income earners. They squatted in some of the 25 properties Theeman had acquired in Victoria Street.

Since proposed development along the Victoria Street escarpment affected Woolloomooloo and was part of the action plan precinct area, several joint meetings were held, resulting in mutual support. Several alternative development schemes were opposed by the action group whose members, according to news reports, came under extreme physical harassment from goons employed by Theeman, and the police. The Victoria Street activists took a final stand resisting forcible eviction in January 1974.

Juanita Nielsen single-mindedly sustained a crusade in the pages of NOW and managed to persuade the Water Board Employees Union to consider a Black Ban, based on existing trunk utilities being unable to cope. After the remaining residents were removed, she was the sole impediment to development.

Speculation over Nielsen’s disappearance on 4 July 1975 has since been connected to her discovery of developer links with the Kings Cross underworld, illegal gambling and police corruption. Before she disappeared, her last appointment was with Edward Trigg (an employee of Abe Saffron) at the Carousel Club in Kings Cross.

Another form of gangsterism sealed the fate of the BLF in NSW. The union’s general and Victoria secretary Norm Gallagher was spotted in the company of Theeman and the NSW minister of environment Sir John Fuller in Sydney, shortly before he gained control of the NSW branch and lifted the Green Bans in 1975.

A modified version of Theeman’s Victoria Point development included partial conservation of street frontage. But it sidestepped the National Trust classification of a street it described as ‘the Montmartre of Sydney’. The development finally gained City of Sydney approval.

With support from the building trade group of the Labor Council of NSW, and despite widespread opposition from residents, the scheme produced by the architectural firm Rommel, Moorcroft and Associates now covers the escarpment.

Colourful mural depicts people protesting urban development, holding signs, police presence, and portraits of activists and public figures in a city setting. — Photo: Chris Southwood / City of Sydney

Next: Mural 4: A Balcony View 1882–1982 →

View all Woolloomooloo history murals

Designed and painted by local artists Michiel Dolk and Merilyn Fairskye, these 8 murals on the railway pylons in Woolloomooloo preserve and celebrate the suburb’s unique history.