Mural 5: FEDFA Green Bans

Installed 1982

A mural depicts a man in shorts pointing at a construction site with machinery, city buildings in the background, and partial text reading "No scab labour".

Depicts the Green Bans movement against local development.

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

FEDFA Green Bans focuses on the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen’s Association’s involvement in the Green Bans movement, which resisted commercial development of the suburb. The movement called instead for public housing protections and resident consultation in development plans.

Mural diagram

Line drawing of the mural's layout, with numbered green circles marking 11 different people, structures, and objects throughout the busy environment.

Mural key

From industry ad for Men from Marrs, the crane supplier that employed FEDFA members
Unidentified FEDFA member blocking scab bulldozer
Gerry Leonard, resident of Forbes Street. Formerly a wharfie during the bull system era, Gerry was the stalwart vice-president of the Woolloomooloo Residents Action Group
Colin James, public housing activist and planner who for nearly ten years worked as Woolloomooloo Residents Advocate, a position funded by the Department of Urban and Regional Development (DURD) and the Tripartite Agreement (from May 1974 to October 1983)
Tom Uren, who from 1969 served in opposition cabinet as a spokesman for Housing and Urban Affairs. He opposed high-rise development of Woolloomooloo and backed Woolloomooloo Residents Action Group calls for public housing in the 1972 federal election campaign. As minister of housing, urban and regional development (1972–1975), he supervised the tripartite agreement, which enabled the participation of the NSW Housing Commission and the City of Sydney Council
Father Edmund Campion, parish priest at St Columbkilles, Woolloomooloo, journalist and writer, was the first secretary of the Woolloomooloo Residents Action Group and subsequently removed from his position following “phone calls to the Cathedral”. Two of his books refer to Woolloomooloo – Rockchoppers, Growing Up Catholic in Australia and A Place in the City
Bob Chandler, crane driver and FEDFA member
Honora Wilkinson, author of Watch on the ‘Loo 1920–1980, resident activist and founding member of Residents of Woolloomooloo. At the time, she explained, “I’ve flatly refused to take what seems to be a fortune for my terrace house. I feel that my soul and memories are not for sale.”
Jack Cambourne, former state (NSW) secretary of FEDFA
Vic Fitzgerald, organiser and national secretary of FEDFA
A Matthew Talbot Hostel resident (name unknown)

The Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen’s Association’s (FEDFA) alliance with the Builders’ Labourers’ Federation (BLF) was critical to the success of the Green Bans movement.

Its leadership, particularly Jack Cambourne and Vic Fitzgerald, members of the Communist Party of Australia, supported action by bulldozer and crane drivers who were required for demolition work.

Together, the unions pioneered a style of “offensive strike developed in our struggle” to defend the rights of residents and the values of conservation.

The NSW branch of FEDFA implemented the first Green Ban on 17 June 1971. Bulldozer drivers who were FEDFA members refused to clear a section of harbourside land at Kelly’s Bush in Hunters Hill, after local residents approached the state secretary Jack Cambourne. The site was a proposed development by project home building company AV Jennings.

A vibrant mural depicts a man standing in front of a demolition crane and rubble, with people protesting and signs reading "Support Council Tenants" and "Landbank Policies Not for Profit." Urban buildings visible in the background. — Photo: Chris Southwood / City of Sydney

Next: Mural 6: BLF Green Bans →

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.