Newtown Sesquicentenary Celebrations

Overview

Newtown’s not the suburb it was when I was little. Back then, it really wasn't the same bustling place it had been once before that, either. Newtown is constantly harking back to a more authentic age. This small, busy locality has changed a lot over the years. It can be surprising to realise that there have been about 150 of them so far and to celebrate the sesquicentenary of its incorporation, the suburb will be putting on a series of low key parties.

The Dendy will be screening a short return season of local documentary I Have a Dream over the weekend of December 8 and 9 (at 10 and 2pm daily). I Have a Dream tells the surprising story of how Newtown’s iconic Martin Luther King Jr. mural was originally painted on King St, who painted it and how you get away with a highly-visible four-storey piece of street art. As well as the screening, shopfronts across Newtown (PDF) have been neatly decorated with images from across the suburb’s varied past. They’ll stay that way until December 15. On the anniversary itself — December 12 — Newtown Library will play host to some Proclamation Day festivities which should straggle pleasantly on into the evening.

Update: The I Have a Dream Screenings have been cancelled for technical reasons. Image shows Relaying the Tram Line at Newtown Bridge in 1927. State Rail Authority image from Sharpe, A 1999, Pictorial History of Newtown, Kingsclear Books, Alexandria p51.