INDUSTRY, sex, retail, even journalism – it’s all part of Canberra’s most underrated, but nevertheless most exotic suburb, Fyshwick.
Named after Tasmanian politician Sir Philip Fysh, with the “wick” thrown in to suggest townspeople, it’s largely uninhabited by night. But by day?
That’s been fascinating Canberra photographers Barb Smith and Andrée Lawrey for ages, and now they’ve come up with an exhibition that pays tribute to “the evanescence that is the lot of us all”. Deep maybe, but it’s a challenging look, as PhotoAccess’s David Chalker puts it, at “a Canberra suburb few people have seen as a suitable place to make art”.
“Fyshwick” is at the Huw Davies Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre, until July 31.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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