Sirius

Located on one of the finest sites on Sydney Harbour, sharing the magnificent panorama of the harbour in all its moods and the exciting city skyline and nestling against the Harbour Bridge approaches, a new neighbour has arrived just across the water from the famed Opera House. These are the optimistic words used by the New South Wales Housing Commission to announce the completion of 79 public housing apartments in The Rocks in 1980. The complex of units was named "Sirius" and would be home to 250 people displaced by The Rocks redevelopment. The story of Sirius in this book begins a decade earlier when The Rocks Residents' Group enlisted the support of the Builders Labourers' Federation. Together they placed a Green Ban on development in The Rocks, which saved an historic precinct and a community. The Green Ban held for four years and was lifted only when those involved reached consensus and supported the building of Sirius.