Harry's Cafe de Wheels

Last week I posted an item about Arthur Stace, Mr Eternity, a simple man who has become an iconic part of Sydney’s history. Here is another story of the same kind. . . 

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Back in 1938 a man by the name of Harry Edwards opened a caravan cafe at the gates of the naval yard in Woolloomooloo. 

For those not from Sydney, Woolloomooloo is a harbourside suburb of the city about 2 kilometres east of the CBD. Originally a poor, working class suburb that was noted for its docks and wharves, it has undergone gentrification with valuable redevelopment of its waterfront areas.

Harry Edwards

Back when Harry opened his cafe van, there were no late night eateries. Originally serving the workers from the naval dockyard (today known as Garden Island Naval Base Woolloomooloo), Harry’s fast food (notably his pie ‘n’ peas and his crumbed sausages) proved so popular that other night owls also began to make a stop – sailors, soldiers, taxi drivers, starlets and police officers. His business was simply called “Harry’s”.

In 1938 Harry enlisted in the Australian Infantry Forces and served during World War 2, where his boxing abilities earned him the nickname “Tiger”. 

Wounded and discharged in 1942, he drove a taxi and then a fruit truck upon returning home. He soon reopened his late night mobile cafe but this time using an old army ambulance which he parked at rugby league matches and other sporting events. In 1945 he swapped the ambulance for a home made caravan which he again parked outside the ‘Loo dockyard, much to the annoyance of the naval authorities.

Harry’s 1945 van, donated to the Powerhouse Museum in 1985 by later owner Alex Kuronya

1965 van

According to the Powerhouse Museum website:

Harry's typically Australian fast food, especially his classic pie 'n' pea floaters, captured the public's imagination and made the Cafe de Wheels a unique part of the city's nightlife. It attracted blue collar workers, sailors, taxi drivers and late night revellers from Kings Cross. It even became a tourist attraction. International celebrity visitors included Frank Sinatra, Johnnie Ray, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Robert Mitchum, Shirley Maclaine, Phyllis Diller, Colonel Sanders and Elton John. Local supporters included John Laws, Mike Walsh, Kerry Packer and Olivia Newton-John. Despite this glamorous patronage, Harry's maintained an egalitarian reputation. Musicians, streetwalkers, dancers, policemen and bookmakers could be seen late at night devouring meat pies, hot dogs and crumbed sausages alongside judges, politicians and society's well-to-do. With its romantic location between the 'Loo and the Cross, Harry's was a meeting place where social classes intersected. It represented something quintessential about the personality of Sydney.

The change of name from “Harry’s” to ”Harrys Cafe de Wheels” came about because of a Council regulation that required mobile food vans to move at least 12 inches (30 cm) daily. 

At one stage the wheels mysteriously went missing and for the next few years wags referred to the van as “Harry’s Cafe de Axle.”

Harry’s was especially known for its pie floaters, an Oz delicacy whereby a meat pie is either covered in, or floating in, mushy peas or pea soup. It is often garnished with tomato sauce . . .

Harry’s Pie ‘n’ Peas

The Tiger Harry, as above but with mashed potato as well

In 1975 Harry retired (he died in 1979) and sold his van to Hungarian born refugee Alex Kuronya.

Kuronya, who had arrived in Australia in 1950 from Austria, was known for greeting customers with a friendly 'Hi ya handsome, what'll it be tonight?'

In 1988 Alex Kuronya sold the business to Michael Hannah, an ex Vietnam vet who had attended at Harry’s as a child with his father. 

Under Hannah’s ownership, Harry’s was revitalised and became a favourite celebrity stop. In 1991, Rupert Murdoch had pies shipped to Los Angeles for an Australian themed Oscar’s party. 

Today there are 10 franchise outlets in various locations negotiations taking currently taking place for expansion into Asia. It remains a gathering place for footpath diners but one noted change is that these days there are many more young people.

Colonel sanders of KFC fame ate 3 floaters at Harry's

Elton John

In December 2004, Harry’s was classified by the National Trust of Australia (NSW) and included on its Register. According to the National Trust of Australia, Harry’s is a “quintessential Sydney icon” and in the Trust’s opinion, falls within the following definition:

“Those places which are components of the natural or the cultural environment of Australia, that have aesthetic, historical, architectural, archaeological, scientific, or social significance or other special value for future generations, as well as for the present community.”

MORE PAST PHOTOS

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Windsor Road, Riverstone in 1907.

In 1810 Lieut-Col Maurice Charles O'Connell was granted 2,500 acres (10 km2) of land in the district, which he named "Riverston Farm", after his birthplace in Ireland. (The "e" at the end first appeared on railway timetables in the 1860s, an apparent misprint that has become the accepted spelling).

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Katoomba Street, Katoomba, in 1955.

In 1874 the area was named The Crushers after the name of the railway station that served a nearby quarry. It was at this point trains stopped to adjust the brakes of the carriages to allow for the descent to Springwood.

The name Katoomba was adopted in 1877 and the town achieved municipality status in 1889.

Katoomba is a derivative of the Aboriginal word ‘Kedumba’ meaning ‘shiny, falling waters’ after the natural beauty of the area.

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Corner of Belmont & Military Roads, Cremorne, in the 1950s.

Built 1870 at State Government expense to give access to the fortifications owing to a war scare. Part of Military Road was for a time known as Balaklava Road.

Cremorne was named after the Cremorne Gardens in London, a popular pleasure ground in England, which derived its name from the Old Irish words Crích Mugdornd meaning 'boundary' or 'chieftain' of Mugdornd.

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Workmen laying a new surface on George Street opposite the Town Hall in 1931.

Until 1810 George Street was generally referred to as High Street in the English custom, although the northern part of the thoroughfare was also sometimes referred to as "Sergeant Major's Row" and, earlier, as "Spring Row" (since water carriers had originally established the route as a link between the Tank Stream, the Military encampment and the hospital). The Street was formally named for King George III by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1810.

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Looking down to Eddy Avenue, outside Central Station, in 1940.

Eddy Avenue was built in 1905, during the construction of Central Railway Station. It was named after Edward Eddy, who served as Commissioner of Railways from 1887 to 1897.

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Martin Place, in 1933.

Ever since the proposal in 1863 to construct the Sydney General Post Office on its present site, there had been plans to open up its northern frontage, at that time a narrow laneway that connected to Moore Street past Pitt Street, with occasional proposals for beautifying the area with fountains and gardens. But nothing was done until fire destroyed properties to the north of the lane between Pitt and Castlereagh streets in 1890.

A new widened street was created in front of the General Post Office, from George to Pitt streets. It was officially opened in September 1892 and named after the Chief Justice, Sir James Martin, a former New South Wales Attorney-General and Premier. Moore Street (between Pitt and Castlereagh streets) was widened and renamed Martin Place in 1921. Sydney Municipal Council resolved to proceed with a further extension in 1923 but this section required extensive demolition of properties in the way of the line of the street, and it faced concerted opposition from land owners, with legal action taken to prevent the resumption of their land.

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The original Sydney Rail Terminal at Redfern in 1900.

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New South Head Road, Rushcutters Bay, in 1870.

The toll gate that was once there can be seen in the distance.

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Avenue Road, Mosman, between 1890-1897.

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Looking north on Gloucester Street, The Rocks, in 1901.

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A crowd gathers outside Harrys Cafe De Whhels, Wooloomooloo, in 1949.

The story of ‘Harry’s Café de Wheels’ goes back to the Great Depression years of the 1930s. With the world on the brink of a devastating war, an enterprising Sydneysider named Harry Edwards used a small converted caravan to open a mobile café near the front gates of the naval dockyard at Woolloomooloo. In those days the caravan was towed by an ex-Army ambulance. Word quickly spread with Harry’s pie ‘n’ peas and crumbed snags soon becoming a popular part of the city’s nightlife – keenly sought after by sailors, soldiers, cabbies, starlets and coppers alike.

Harry operated the caravan until 1938 when it closed, due to his enlistment into the AIF. During Harry’s time in the Middle East he was nicknamed ‘Tiger’ owing to his boxing prowess and the name stuck. Upon his return and demobilization in 1945, Harry realised that Sydney hadn’t changed much and it was still almost impossible to get a good late-night feed, so he reopened and the caravan has been operating continuously ever since. His signature dish, a meat pie topped with mushy peas, mashed potato and gravy, became known as a ‘Tiger’.

The café was originally simply known as ‘Harry’s’ but the city council came up with a ruling that mobile food caravans must move a minimum of 12 inches a day. Hence the new name ‘Harry’s Café de Wheels’. Harry (Tiger) Edwards operated the business for a further 30 years before selling out to Alex Koronya in 1975.

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New South Head Road, Rose Bay, 1960.

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Evonne Goolagong, the first Australian indigenous woman to reach no1 in the world, in tennis, is welcomed home from England, after winning Wimbledon, in 1971.

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Chatswood Station, around 1910.

Chatswood station opened in 1890 when the North Shore line opened from Hornsby to St Leonards. It and the suburb was named after Richard Garnett’s second wife’s pet who was called Chatty. An island platform was built on 23 May 1900 and a third dock platform brought into use on 12 July 1919.

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Bus and Tram employees board a tram on Parramatta Road, Leichhardt, after a stop work meeting Leichhardt in October 1947.

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Canterbury Road, Hurlstone Park, in 1908.

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Readers Write

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A pic and comment from Sandra J:

You may want to use this one day in an appropriate post.

Sandy

Jolly thought.

Thanks, Sandy.

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. . .  and one from Tobye P:

Hi Otto, I just had to share this-enjoy!

Regards, Tobye  

Thanks, Tobye.

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A contribution from Graham E:

Hi Mr O,

Found this and thought of you……

"The Chaos" is a poem demonstrating the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation.

Written by Dutch writer, traveller, and teacher Gerard Nolst Trenité (1870–1946), it includes about 800 examples of irregular spelling.

The first version of 146 lines of text appeared in an appendix to the author's 1920 textbook Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen, but "the most complete and authoritative version ever likely to emerge", published by the Spelling Society in 1993–94, has 274 lines.

Dearest creature in Creation,

Studying English pronunciation,

I will teach you in my verse

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

It will keep you, Susy, busy,

Make your head with heat grow dizzy;

Tear in eye your dress you'll tear.

So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,

Pray, console your loving poet,

Make my coat look new, dear, sew it?

Just compare heart, beard and heard,

Dies and diet, lord and word,

Sword and sward, retain and Britain,

(Mind the latter, how it's written!)

Made has not the sound of bade,

Say—said, pay—paid, laid, but plaid.

Now I surely will not plague you

With such words as vague and ague,

But be careful how you speak,

Say break, steak, but bleak and streak,

Previous, precious; fuchsia, via;

Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,

Cloven, oven; how and low;

Script, receipt; shoe, poem, toe,

Here is a link to the full text

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ruize-rijmen/De_Chaos

Thanks, Mr G

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Another contribution by Graham, in response to the Colonel sanders/KFC post . . .

Hi Mr O,

You forgot to mention the day when Colonel Sanders went to Harrys Café de Wheels…..

(For the benefit of overseas readers, I wrote about Harry’s Café de Wheels on August 31, 2013, here is the link:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/search?q=harry%27s+cafe 

Harry’s is the iconic moveable food caravan that was started by Harry Edwards at the entrance of the naval yard at Woolloomoolo in 1938. Because it was moveable it bypassed planning approval.)

In the 1970’s, chicken king, Colonel Sanders, stopped at Harry’s and enjoyed the food so much that he ate three ‘pies and peas’ while leaning on his walking stick in front of the caravan.

  

Bert Newton also did a series of commercials on Graham Kennedy’s Tonight Show dressed as a Southern Colonel for KFC in the late 1970’s.

Fun fact: After his gas station chicken became fast food he stopped in to a KFC and tried it.... He hated the extra crispy chicken, saying it was just a fried dough ball and said the gravy wasn’t fit for consumption by humans. He hated what his creation became.

Cheers

Mr G

Thanks again, Graham.

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From Brett B:

While reading an article about crimes (and crime novels) in Kuala Lumpur, I saw this paragraph:

Australian writer Peter Carey meticulously recreates a KL just before the skyscrapers and shopping malls shot up in the boom years. My Life as a Fake(2003) features the strange and forgotten Australian poet Christopher Chubb who hides away in the back streets of KL after staging a great literary hoax back in his home country. Carey bases the hoax on the real Ern Malley hoax of 1943, in which two poets created a fictitious poet, Ern Malley, and submitted poems in his name to the literary magazine Angry Penguins. The strength of the novel is the intimate descriptions of KL—dark stairways, enticing cooking smells, a slight sense of tropical decay.

Do you know about the Ern Malley hoax, and have you covered it in Bytes?

Brett

the American one 😏

Thanks. Brett.

In response to your enquiries, the answers are Yes and Yes.

The item was posted on  July 3 2010 and can be read by clicking on:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/search?q=ern+malley

Worth the read.

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From Bruce C, also in response to the KFC post:

Otto,

Re your KFC post: as I recall, the real passion for Harland Sanders wasn't the chicken, it was the gravy. He used to visit KFC locations, where the first thing he would do was to taste the gravy -- and, if the gravy wasn't right, he would go ballistic!

Bruce C

Thanks, Bruce

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An email also from Steve M in response to the 50^th anniversary Woodstock post:

Wonderful Bytes today Otto, thank you! I still have both Woodstock albums, numbers 1 and 2 and I still play them! Awesome music, great musicians, a wonderful festival. Wish I could have been there.

Regards

Steve m

Thanks, Steve.

In the next few days I will reprint an article drawn to my attention by son Thomas, which puts  a contrary view on the significance of Woodstock.