WE usually take things for granted, don't we?
Like scenic Blackbutt Reserve and its nearby green neighbour Richley Reserve always being there.
Or maybe Newcastle's now beloved Foreshore greenery right up to Nobbys Beach, replacing once busy but dirty East End railway marshalling yards.
And we also take for granted icons like the grand, yellow-brick 1877 former Customs House (now a hotel) and its magnificent tower by the harbourside at the foot of Watt Street, city.
We'd all sorely miss them today if they were gone, even in part. And they came very close to not being all there in decades past.
Take our heritage-listed Customs House. Built in the Italianate Renaissance revival style, it's a rare example now of its era, being primarily still intact.
But some readers may forget the historic structure suffered considerable damage in the 1989 earthquake. Its chimneys toppled and the tower even slightly rotated with the seismic shock of a quake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale.
The building then faced the very real threat of at least partial demolition as the rebuilding costs were so expensive, requiring a concrete corset inside brickwork plus strong bracing. But who recalls that now?
Other items we take for granted today as being sacrosanct include houses in historic precincts and Civic Park. But do many remember the proposal unveiled in late March 1973 to slice 33 feet (10 metres) off Civic Park for its whole length along King Street for a four-lane road.
Further proposed roadworks were then to go far beyond, way up to Denison Street in the city's West End. Negotiations for several properties (marked for demolition) along the route were well advanced.
Darby Street was also planned to be widened meaning many commercial properties being forced to be set back with Civic Park also to lose more land at its eastern Edge.
As for Blackbutt Reserve, in this same period a new motorway was planned to cut through the reserve's northern end, effectively splitting it in half.
The then NSW Government planned to bulldoze more than 15 acres of Blackbutt Reserve for a 1.2km stretch of Highway 23.
The new road was to link the existing Sydney-Newcastle route near Windale via an expressway to the Pacific Highway at Sandgate.
The move would also have separated 40 hectares of land from the main Blackbutt Reserve site. Part of the community was angered at the proposal with residents, led by the Blackbutt Action group, proposing instead a national highway west of Lake Macquarie.
To many onlookers, any opposition seemed futile but very slowly, a green revolution was growing, a new awareness of our environment that still shapes the way politicians think and act today.
A little earlier, the Borehole Colliery was still working in bushland next to Blackbutt Reserve. After 40 years, the mine ceased operation there in early 1979 leaving behind dilapidated structures, coal dumps, a dam and sludge ponds.
It was an ugly and unloved site.
The initial plan was to subdivide this land and build 500 homes!
Sustained community campaigning though finally led to Newcastle Council establishing Richley Reserve there instead in 1979. After rehabilitation work, including planting 1500 trees, it opened as a park in 1983. It was named after conservationist Joe Richley, the visionary president of the Blackbutt Action Committee and president of the Northern Parks and Playgrounds Movement (NPPM).
All of these memories were triggered recently after visiting an exhibition titled 'Power to the People' celebrating 50 years of union and community Green Bans action.
Being held in the Lovett Gallery on the second floor of Newcastle Library until April 14, the display spotlights union-backed community protests both in Sydney and Newcastle.
The main focus is on the late Jack Mundey, NSW secretary of the Builders Labourers' Federation (BLF), who conceived the Green Bans.
And the exhibit reminds us that the odd alliance between 1971 and 1975 made history. Almost 50 green bans (against demolition and rebuilding) in collaboration with the NSW National Trust saved 120 historic Sydney buildings. The BLF was then de-registered.
Meanwhile, heroes of the Newcastle movement listed at the display include Jean Perrett, Tom Farrell, Keith Wilson, former Newcastle Lord Mayor Joy Cummings and Doug Lithgow.
A major catalyst for the Newcastle green movement was the sudden, some say under-hand, removal by Newcastle Council workers of 17 trees about dawn on March 1, 1973. The West End's Birdwood Park was cut in half to extend King Street to Stewart Avenue.
That fracas galvanised the community, however, to further pressure council to better preserve their environment, starting with axing the controversial plan from late March 1973 to lop off part of Civic Park to widen King Street.
Meanwhile, the threat of a highway through Blackbutt Reserve had simmered since 1966.The planned six-lane highway would go through its heart, cutting across three of four valleys comprising the reserve.
Then Peter Morris, MHR for Shortland, was appointed Minister for Transport in the first Hawke Ministry in early 1983. In December 1984 it was decided to construct the expressway to the west of Lake Macquarie instead. It was the idea originally promoted by the Save Blackbutt Action group and Newcastle Trades Hall Council.
"Without a doubt, Peter Morris saved Blackbutt Reserve," pioneer conservationist and NPPM secretary/president Doug Lithgow told Weekender.
He added what may be less known was that authorities had also wanted to make a new commercial centre in the city's East End- on the old railway marshalling yards (now Foreshore Park).
Former Shortland MP Peter Morris retired from politics in 1998. He's always also downplayed any key role in saving Newcastle Customs House (NCH) from partial demolition, despite rumours he threatened to resign from federal Cabinet unless NCH was properly repaired.
His younger brother and former Newcastle MP Allan Morris, also now retired, said former PM Bob Hawke once told him categorically "it'll be fixed".
His brother Peter may have had a bit of an argument later with a reluctant government department responsible, but repairs were finally undertaken.
"It was a difficult repair job. From memory, initial repairs were $4.1 million, but it may have ended up at $6million. I think it was later privately sold for about $1.5million," Morris said.
"As for the Blackbutt win, it all started with a federal environmental committee [chaired by Peter], looking into, then declaring the number one priority was to save the reserve" Allan Morris said.
The highway route changed and a huge shift in public attitude gradually occurred.
Before the federal committee's stand, the greens movement was often dismissed as looney troublemakers. Its radical views finally soon become mainstream opinion.
Doug Lithgow once claimed saving Blackbutt Reserve was our second major environmental victory after the decision not to blow up Nobbys back in 1854.
It's hard not to disagree. (It was claimed the headland 'stole the wind' from sailing ships entering port.)
