Literary links Kenneth Slessor
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday January 6, 2010
18a Billyard Avenue, Elizabeth Bay"I LOOKED out of my window in the dark / At waves with diamond quills and combs of light / That arched their mackerel-backs and smacked the sand / In the moon's drench, that straight enormous gaze, / And ships far off asleep, with Harbour-buoys / Tossing their fireballs wearily each to each."No one has written more beautifully and poetically about Sydney Harbour than Kenneth Slessor. But that is hardly surprising. The window he looked out of from his flat in the glorious, late Victorian mansion known as Edgerley €” at 18a Billyard Avenue €” revealed precisely the view of the harbour that he described so evocatively in the poem Five Bells.Built in 1884, listed by the National Trust since 1979 and now being renovated by the Paspaley Pearls people, 18a Billyard Avenue is, in the words of the Heritage Council, "possibly the last remaining single-family dwelling in this portion of Billyard Avenue. It is a grand house with particularly fine harbour views." Slessor was to live at Billyard Avenue for 18 years.At the time Kings Cross, Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay were still part of the city's bohemian heartland. Although he later moved to Chatswood, Slessor would write: "I have lived in or near the margin of Kings Cross for more than 40 years. The Harbour has never been out of my window."Slessor lived, with his first wife, Noela, at 18a Billyard Avenue during his most creative years. From 1927 to 1940 he was a contributor, and later the editor, of Smith's Weekly, the wildly entertaining and unconventional magazine. It was also at this time that he wrote most of his famous poetry, including the unforgettable image of Kings Cross reflected in the harbour €” "the Harbour floats / In air, the Cross hangs upside-down in water".
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