Underneath the arches: How Glebe's viaduct bridge connects a community

An enterprising group of community-minded people have occupied the arches beneath Glebe’s Jubilee Park Light Rail viaduct.

With support from the City of Sydney Council via grants, eight arches of the century-old brick viaduct have been converted to accommodate various cultural, sporting and social groups including the Pyrmont, Ultimo, Glebe (PUG) Men’s Shed association. 

“We’ve been here three years,” says Ross Hindmarsh, president of the PUG Men’s Shed. “It’s been an ideal position for us. We have two spaces. One is a timber workshop and the other is a dining room/kitchen and storage area.”

Members of the PUG Men’s Shed range in age from 64 to 80-plus years and include engineers, medicos and musicians with the majority living in nearby apartments where they have no place to indulge in their pastimes of woodwork, building and tinkering. They craft beautifully turned bowls, handsome cheese boards, timber toys and community projects such as a gazebo for an Early Childhood Centre. Last week they set up a stall at the Glebe Artisan Markets.

Some members have helped kit out the workshop with tools and equipment from the sheds they had in their backyards before downsizing to apartments.

Retired chef Jean-Pierre Maury, 74, of Pyrmont says he lost his backyard shed when he and his wife downsized from Lane Cove to Pyrmont . “But then I found this paradise and the great camaradie,” says Maury.

There is more to the shed get-togethers than woodwork. “One of the most important concepts of the Men’s Shed is that it provides an opportunity to interact with other men,” says retired pyschologist and PUG member John Kepski, 72.

“It’s critically important to our mental health to talk about health issues and concerns. You can’t lay all that on your wives or closest friends,” says Kepski. “It helps you forget the load.”

The PUGs meet three days a week and, at tools-down on Thursdays, they take turns to cook lunch. When Domain visited, Antonio was on the pans cooking up a seafood paella, ably assisted by Jorge. The latest hits were playing on the club’s radio with the PUGs singing along to Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head and Bad Moon Rising.

“We always have morning or afternoon tea so it gives men an opportunity to sit and talk,” says Hindmarsh.

The group has talents beyond their craftwork. About eight men break out their musical instruments and play jazz a couple of afternoons a week. After leaving a career in finance, Harold has rekindled an early passion, drumming, while Jorge is a maestro on guitar.

The arches at Jubilee Park are among a number of redundant sites being offered for community benefit by the City of Sydney Council under the Accommodation Grants Program.

“We’ve opened up underused City of Sydney properties at reduced rent or no charge to support creative, cultural and artistic groups,” says Lord Mayor Clover Moore. “Doing this helps our town centres and main streets thrive because the creative projects attract people to the area while also putting underused buildings to use.”

In an adjoining arch, Diego Bonetto runs the Big Fag Press. Finding a home for his mammoth offset printing press was no easy feat for the artist-run printing collective but three years ago his application for use of Viaduct Number 4 was approved.

“It’s amazing for us,” says Bonetto. “We’re a group of artists and we do lots of workshops and events. Here we can carry on our activities and house such a big machine.” The core group of artists is about five or six and they run workshops for up to 15 people.

Last year, a joint initiative between the artists, PUGs and Council delivered the Jubilee Kitchen Garden with another grant under Council’s Community Gardens scheme. It is open to anyone in the community who takes an interest in gardening.

“We have meetings once a month when we talk about plans and we’re setting up a planting day with a community drive to swap summer crops for winter plantings,” says Bonetto. “We have five planter boxes with herbs to engage the community.”

Another of the viaduct arches houses the not-for-profit Glebe Music Project also supported by City of Sydney. It provides an affordable rehearsal space for performers with the arched interior allowing for excellent acoustics.

Councillor Moore says the use of the underused sites opens up access to space in the inner city, which has become increasingly costly for creative and cultural producers over the years.

Other sites offered by the Council include the Kil’n’It studios also in Glebe, the Oxford Street Creative Spaces Program and the William Street Creative Hub in Darlinghurst.

For some, it’s just a place to reconnect with society. Alan Robinson, 64, is the baby of the PUG club. “The Men’s Shed is for someone who has no-one to play with,” says Robinson. “This is our surrogate home shed.”