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Trevor DaviesPrint Page Print this page

Seat 2: 22-March-2016
Seat 2: 22-March-2016

Photographs supplied by Peter Williams
tHE sandstone bench seat commemorates Trevor Davies (1956-2011), a well known member of the community and founder and editor of the South Sydney Herald, for his community activism and commitment to social justice. The seat was established as part of the Darlington Village streetscape improvements. 

As I mentioned, there is new street furniture, including specially designed sandstone seats. One of those seats has a memorial plaque to remember Trevor Davies, who died in 2011, aged 55. I'd like to welcome his family today. Trevor lived in Redfern and then Darlington from 1979. He was a local character and was active in the Uniting Church, and in Labor politics, and in community groups like RedWatch and he was involved in the South Sydney Herald. So we were pleased to be able to include this tribute to him as part of the improvements to his much-loved Darlington neighbourhood. It was still as a reminder of the great work that he did.

I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed to these improvements, including:

  • Our designers, Group GSA
  • Sydney Civil, who were responsible for construction and
  • Our City staff, especially project manager Anton Leddin and design manager, Jacqueline Ong

And once again, welcome to Darlington Village - and welcome to the family of Trevor Davies. Trevor, as a great community activist, and a committed democrat, would be appalled by the State Government's latest efforts to take control of the City of Sydney through amalgamation with Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick and Botany - none of whom want the amalgamation either.
Excerpt from Clover Moore speech, Darlington Village
Official Opening July 2015. 

Location

Address:Abercrombie Street, adjacent Charles Kernan Reserve, Darlington, 2008
State:NSW
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -33.891598
Long: 151.194586
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Seat
Monument Theme:People
Sub-Theme:Community

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Saturday 25th July, 2015
Front Inscription
TREVOR
The local legend

There he was, in his favourite cafe, with life unfolding around him, engaging with everyone that passed and sharing the latest. And then he was gone, as suddenly as a bright red autumn leaf falling of a tree in the wind. We looked around, unable to imagine life without him, he who knew everyone and gathered us altogether in his knowing. Plod, plod, plod he went, pulling his trolley behind him as he delivered his papers to the community and kept checking to see that we all did the same with our bundles. Then he was mixing with the state and country's leaders, standing on the ground for what he believed, a faithful representative of his Party and the people. "Do you vote Labor?" he asked the doctors in the hospital emergency ward. "Jesus loves you anyway" he reassured them as they wondered what to say. Such a mixture of determination and vulnerabilty he was. A "one-of" and yet a man of the people. Such love and passion you leave behind you Trevor Davies. No-one can replace you, but maybe your kindly spirit will travel on among those who have known you. Maybe we will see you in our minds still sitting near us in the streets of Darlington, talking with us and encouraging us to do the same, to build true community and care. This seat will always remind us of you. rest in peace, dear friend, Jesus does indeed love you forever and so do we. 

One of his oldest and dearest friends, 
Dorothy McRae-McMahon wrote this poem. 


 
Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au