The Boomer Legacy

On the road to serfdom: Mass unemployment was solved by redefining what was meant by “employed”

Red flags at the Circular Quay promenade   (Jul 1992,  475kb)

Segregation now, tomorrow & forever: Only the best could afford the right to live in their own city

Distillery Drive cutting at Jacksons Landing, in Pyrmont   (Jan 2013,  321kb)

Public Private Partnerships: Marxism without the dialectic; Socialism in one class; A game of and for mates

The southern ramp to the Anzac Bridge, at Pyrmont in Sydney   (Jan 2013,  150kb)

Epistemic insouciance: Full speed ahead for the fly-in fly-out high-rollers in the sky (ABC News, 2020)

Crown casino construction, Barangaroo   (Jan 2020,  183kb)

The cranes were flying: At one stage there were more apartment construction cranes on the Australian eastern seaboard than in all the major cities in the USA (ABC News, 2016)

Apartment construction cranes at Lewisham   (Sep 2015,  149kb)

Both feet on the ladder: Everyone became millionaires by flipping real estate to each other at ever increasing government-guaranteed prices

Renovations in suburban Stanmore   (Sep 2012,  119kb)

A rising tide lifts all super-yachts: No matter how bad things looked, income inequality did not get worse (Morrison, 2017)

Darling Harbour Marina   (Jan 2017,  139kb)

Exit strategy: A bustling economy filled with secure well-paying jobs; With free education, fully resourced public hospitals and affordable housing; With robust social cohesion and innate sense of belonging — how could we have been anything other than healthy, prosperous and optimistic?

Fig Street tunnel, Ultimo   (Jul 2017,  403kb)

A pattern of abundance: Full automation was the next stage in our collaborative journey

NTP Forklifts (since relocated), at Woodville Road Granville   (Apr 2017,  237kb)

The customer was king: Everything you could ever possibly want, at your fingertips

Supermarket checkout, Nepean Village Penrith   (Apr 2003,  119kb)

Have a go to get a go: We lived modestly and well within our means. We worked hard, spent wisely and made prudent investments. So we deserved to keep more of what we earned

Hopetoun Road Toorak, Melbourne   (Apr 2019,  185kb)

Taming animal spirits: There is something more systematic about the way people behave irrationally, especially during periods of economic stress (Greenspan, 2013)

Lunchtime in a George Street amusement arcade, Sydney   (Sep 2003,  326kb)

Jobs & Growth: Social cohesion was a luxury we could no longer afford

Wall markings behind Parramatta Road, Strathfield   (Jul 2014,  564kb)

The best that money can buy: Of particular interest to ICAC has been the planning decisions along Canterbury Road and Charles Street, which saw some Liberal and Labor councillors voting together to approve developments which council's planning staff had previously rejected due to non compliance (SMH, 2017)

Apartment construction at Charles Str, Canterbury   (Oct 2015,  329kb)

Boom without end: There was no disconnect between the prosperity we enjoyed and the systematic initiatives we took to achieve them

Philip Lodge Motel demolition at Haberfield   (Jun 2016,  391kb)

Agile entrepreneurs: Surveillance cameras [✓]  Motion-activated floodlights [✓]  Canvas-covered windows [✓]  3m high fencing [✓]  Steel chained front gates [✓]  Threatening no-trespass signs [✓]  Resourceful SMEs servicing a niche-market [✓]

Domestic security on Neville Street in Marrickville   (Sep 2012,  422kb)

Roses of Picardy: The marriage industry flourished despite the cynicism, malaise and lockdowns

Private wedding ceremony at St Marys Cathedral   (Mar 2019,  321kb)

Consumer kaizen: A culture had to be created in which our customers were prepared to kill

High Street bus-stop, Penrith   (Feb 2017,  556kb)

The user-pays model: We rejected the idea that our generation should pay for infrastructure that we would never live to use

Government hoarding at Westpac Plaza, Barangaroo   (Aug 2016,  492kb)

Positive growth model: A bustling economy filled with baristas, bloggers, unpaid interns and cash-in-hand hospitality workers

Lower Baldwin Street, Dunedin NZ   (Nov 2017,  227kb)

The convenience of Home Delivery: HungryPanda, Foodora, Uber Eats, DoorDash, EASI, Menulog, Deliveroo, Hey You, GrubHub, goPuff, EatNow, Yelp… We imported an underclass of temporary-visa-holding independent contractors to zip around delivering burrito bowls, bubble-tea and authentic pad thai (ABC News, 2020)

Online food delivery rider at Haymarket, near Chinatown   (Apr 2020,  135kb)

Stakeholder: One could either use General Relativity equations to derive the Schwarzschild metric in n-dimensions, or else go shopping

Supermarket freezer aisle, Katoomba   (Dec 2003,  98kb)

Creative Destruction: The best way to neutralise dissent was by levelling the playing-field

The abandoned White Bay Power Station at Rozelle   (Jan 2013,  206kb)

In the circle of FIRE: There were such vast sums of money to be made from rents & fees & short-term leases & collateralised debt & margin-accounts & franked dividends & asset management & asset concealment & asset stripping & short-selling & bear-raids & gambling wagering & grey-rhinos & black-swans & shiny tech unicorns & overcooked profit projections & 300-year visions & peer-to-peer lending & off-balance-sheet funding & shadow finance & liar loans & narco-state money-laundering & family trusts & anonymous offshore trusts & Shanghai aged-care schemes & hiding Saudi billions & cloud mining tokens & cash-for-visas & child-pornography & coal mining leases & terrorism financing & optimistic bets & insider knowledge & insurance fraud & lying to corporate regulators & rewriting independent reports & unenforced enforceable-undertakings & Glass-Steagall repeal & resurrecting Shenandoah & ATO confidentiality obligations & political donations & hiring ex-ministers & influence peddling & door-opening & impunity spells & moral-hazard exceptions & guaranteed bailouts & tactical litigation & using courts to quash insurance claims & friendly Wagyu-beef-washed-down-with-finest-shiraz judgements & swaps & options & swaptions & binary options & CDOs & CMOs & CDFs & FICCs & REITs & FAANGs & SPACs & BATs & PGUCs & NFTs & FOMO & FONGO & BNPL & dreaming up ever more abstruse financial instruments to conjure “assets” out of nothing to ensure money kept raining in torrents from the sky, that there was little point in doing anything else

The Elizabeth street facade of the Commonwealth Bank Building   (Oct 2020,  433kb)

In Goldman, Sachs We Trust: The financial sector was the bedrock of our entire social structure and enabled massive cultural progression — whereas the 1960s were squandered on aerospace and NASA, the 2000s had asset growth via cheap debt and the ISDA

The financial district in eastern Sydney, with the rocket-shaped 1 O'Connell Street in the middle background   (Jul 2011,  128kb)

Not a house of cards then: People's jobs depend on confidence and trust in the financial and banking system. And I can assure [everyone] that, despite the very disturbing and, indeed, shocking revelations we have seen in the Royal Commission, particularly of late, that these issues, while as abhorrent as they are, are completely separate from any question about the stability and strength of [our] banking and financial system. (Morrison, 2018)

Pedestrian footbridge at Barangaroo   (Apr 2016,  203kb)

Look back in covfefe: Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that's more productive (Trump, 1987)

Trump impersonator on Broadway, NYC   (Oct 2017,  264kb)

Surrogate activities: The illusion of economic activity was sustained by creating archipelagos of empty construction sites

Green Square hoardings at Zetland   (Nov 2018,  278kb)

Kriegsende 1989: Cheap goods turned out to be more effective than ICBMs

Stall on Tverskaya St, Moscow   (Dec 1991,  244kb)

Life in the Bunkercene: The lockdown caused us to cocoon just that little bit extra

Martin Place hoardings, Sydney   (Mar 2019,  277kb)

A licence to kill: There was nothing on your dinner table that wasn't put there by conscientious and highly skilled transport professionals

The “roo bar” of a prime-mover at Kings Langley, near Blacktown   (Aug 2015,  378kb)

Flags of convenience: Our vision was to create a better everyday life, by getting our customers to do all the work

The united nations of IKEA, at Tempe   (Sep 2012,  147kb)

Practice social distancing: So we stayed home, most of the time

Townhall Arcade foot court   (Jul 2021,  136kb)

Wealth always trickled down: Our system endured for so long because enough of the electorate believed they still had some chance to get rich (Citigroup, 2005)

Begging for loose change near Sydney Town Hall   (Sep 2016,  421kb)

Futuregate: Everyone was talking about how to create celebratory op-eds and everyman narratives in a world full of user-generated content

Mainstream media at the Sydney Opera House   (Jul 2014,  328kb)

Forging a new deal: The transition from manufacturing to a service-based economy was completely seamless

Derelict Ford truck at The Grounds of Alexandria   (Apr 2018,  565kb)

Twilight's last gleaming: We slid down the Phillips Curve until we reached the Minsky Moment

Construction hoarding at Barangaroo, Sydney   (Sep 2016,  163kb)

Uncomfortable at times: Events were still on, motels were still open, restaurants were still serving food and pubs were still pouring beer (Ayers, 2020)

Tour group at the Sydney Opera House forecourt during the summer bushfires   (Jan 2020,  265kb)

Frictionless intermediation: Because the Sharing Economy sounded so much nicer than Government Regulation Evading Extractive Capitalism (NYTimes, 2017)

Subterranean ingress and egress aperture cover at Watsons Bay   (Dec 2014,  902kb)

Franchisee nation: The nature of employment changed. We didn't know what the new jobs would be, but we knew they would surely come

Food cart on 37th Street, NYC   (Oct 2017,  328kb)

Flygskam: One cheap long-haul flight produced more CO₂ per passenger than driving an SUV for four months

Runway approach lights, Sydney International Airport   (May 2019,  74kb)

Dutch disease done right: Not to worry. If the economy works the way the textbook says, the gain to miners should flow through to the economy, causing higher wages and tax receipts (Gittins, 2017)

Remnants of the 2000's resources boom at Lithgow   (Aug 2012,  304kb)

Back-to-back meetings: When cities went into lockdown, CBDs filled with empty commercial properties with few tenants to pay the inflated rents

Queen Street office building at night, Melbourne   (Apr 2019,  115kb)

Exuberant expectations: Great success and performance created its own reality (Pfeffer, 2015)

Church Street car dealership, Parramatta   (Apr 2017,  168kb)

Consumer karoshi: A culture had to be created in which our customers were prepared to die

Market Street escalators at Centrepoint, Sydney   (Jan 2016,  260kb)

Creating value: From warehouses to office blocks to short-term lease apartments

Motorways and the former Caltex building, Sydney   (Sep 2016,  106kb)

Extremely well serviced: Only the wealthiest parts of our cities had regular bus, rail and ferry services

The F5 Neutral Bay ferry leaves Kirribilli wharf   (Nov 2020,  192kb)

Keep doubling your money every 7–10 years: Dr Wilson said that Sydney was likely to have a $2 million median house price by 2030 and a $3 million median by 2038 (Daily Telegraph, 2018)

Hopscotch squares at the Woodcroft housing estate, in Blacktown   (Dec 2012,  491kb)

Living in a film-set: Months spent wandering through a landscape of shuttered restaurants and disoriented diners

Deserted food court, Centrepoint Sydney   (Apr 2020,  175kb)

Covid Safe: Restricted trading hours [✓] Patron number limits [✓] Temperature checks [✓] Sign-in attendance records [✓] Perspex table-shields [✓] 1.5m social distancing [ ]

The Celsius Cafe at Kirribilli Wharf adapts to business conditions under COVID-19   (Nov 2020,  325kb)

Cargo Culte: We lounged about in ill-fitting uniforms, languidly pressing buttons on small screens… waiting patiently for the day He would return, bearing great gifts

Palm tree outside the abandoned St Mary & St Mina's Coptic Orthodox Church at Sydenham, near Sydney airport   (Sep 2012,  355kb)

Financial kinesiology: Despite all the glimmers of hope, confidence and near-zero interest rates, it appeared we didn't survive the crash

Outside the Sydney branch of the Deutsche Bank in Hunter Street.

A security guard tried to prevent this photograph from being taken “due to copyright reasons”. A detailed and patient lecture on photography-rights disabused him   (Jan 2012,  135kb)

Driven by unceasing mobility: Remember the physical-distancing rule and only travel when essential

Waiting for the Cronulla Ferry at Bundeena Wharf   (Aug 2020,  283kb)

Go for growth mate: We'll get an army of casuals to collect our night-soil, just like a hundred years ago

Outdoor toilet and “dunny lane”, Lithgow NSW   (Jun 2019,  588kb)

Practical streetwise living: Stretch out in hygge comfort to snuggle beneath an extra blanket

Pitt Street Mall food-court entrance, Sydney   (Jan 2019,  350kb)

Within Skinner's Box: Anyhow… We flew the friendly skies because we were worth it, ate fresh, thought different and opened happiness

Wall advertising, Pitt Street Sydney   (Mar 2021,  250kb)

Rent not Enterprise: Anyone can become a property tycoon, but they have not got the guts or they have not got the money (Triguboff, 2014)

Vacant commercial land at Lawson in the Blue Mountains   (Jan 2012,  56kb)

Practising our future: There was always money for whatever appealed to our sense of adventure

Abandoned front yard yacht, Kirribilli   (Jan 2020,  566kb)

Good sports with your money: Thursday night office drinks with the GPS lads; City lights twinkle far below the 32nd floor; Fetch whole legs of ham from the firm's kitchen to hang on the partners' dining room walls; Hide the original artworks in the ladies toilet two floors down; Piggy-back steeplechase around the associates' floor, although first rearrange the desks and chairs into a proper obstacle course; Even better, flinch an old jockey cap from one of the partner's offices and use neck-ties as whips; And then whooping and hollering and running and falling all over the place and pissing ourselves like it was the best night of our lives

The ghosts of BDW at Martin Place   (Oct 2014,  876kb)

Unearthing the past: The house is gone and the yard excavated so deep that every trace of your childhood was obliterated

What was once 12 Kensington Street in Kogarah   (Apr 2011,  424kb)

The shadow state: Our top-down globalist system will endure forever

North from the Empire State Building   (Oct 2017,  389kb)

In a fugue world: Feel the love through the acquisition of merchandise

St Collins Lane shopping arcade, Melbourne   (Apr 2019,  182kb)

Reflating the economy: Old debt could be could effortlessly retired by taking on new debt

Tumbalong Park attractions, Darling Harbour   (Jul 2014,  220kb)

Concertina positivity: The ship collided with the iceberg → Investors and customers decided to collaborate and work towards a mutually beneficial goal; The ship then rapidly took on water and listed dangerously → As part of an overarching win-win paradigm, it may be necessary to cede a temporary advantage to concentrate on future team success; Some passengers ran about screaming → Key stakeholders were pro-actively engaged; Passengers had to fight their way topside to try to escape → Partners were prepared to scale peak-less mountains in order to achieve growth mindsets; Only wealthy passengers could secure a place in the few lifeboats → There are always signs of optimism and glimmers of hope; The ship sank, no-one came the rescue, hundreds drowned in the freezing water → While there is no need to overcook this, on such a journey there will always be outlier incidents when things might not go according to plan and our processes may fall a little short of expectations

Boutique shop-front, Leura   (Aug 2021,  106kb)

Ponzimonium: We ran a Koretz immigration scheme to prop up the Madoff property market to keep the Mavrodi banks flush

Wedding Cake rock, RNP   (Jul 2019,  175kb)

The boom in retailing: Sell everything and cancel Christmas

McEvoy Street pop-up retailer, Alexandria   (Mar 2018,  240kb)

Waiting for the great leap forward: From brewery to Kowloon, the third-world was just around the corner

Central Park development, at Broadway in Sydney   (Jul 2012,  160kb)

Keeping interest rates low: No matter what happened, cheap debt could not be blamed

Used car-yard at Parramatta Road Granville   (Apr 2017,  206kb)

Fumbling the revolution: The shackles of a command economy were discarded in order to enjoy the benefits of privatisation

Street vendors down the road from the Kremlin, Tverskaya St Moscow   (Dec 1991,  248kb)

Play the Tradie's Game: Contract for a knock-down-rebuild and then wade through months of excuses as to why it took so long to construct a simple suburban house

House demolition and removal at Warrimoo

The original house was demolished in April 2020 and the replacement was still unfinished a year later…   (Apr 2020,  523kb)

Outside the property bubble: Runaway house prices were regarded as being not only acceptable, but necessary

Toorak Road for-sale sign, Melbourne   (Apr 2019,  575kb)

Growing the pie means more for everyone: Keep doubling the population every 35 years → boosted aggregate demand → vigorous GDP growth → buoyant budget outcomes → more apartment pre-sales → snowballing property values → windfall capital gains → wealthier property-investors → bustling streets → more toll-roads & shopping malls → more bathhouses, nail-salons & shisha lounges → more construction & business services → more mortgages → more prosperous banks → more stamp-duties → more negative gearing on property investments → more wealth-effects → more tourism & international students → more university & private college enrolments → more waiters, maids, nannies, concierges, masseurs, migration agents & community-liaison officers → more subclass-482 & spousal visas → potentially higher rates of workforce participation → projected supply-side potential → likely productivity benefits → forecast greater aggregate income → increasing remittances to family & sponsors overseas → more money in everyone's hip pocket

Front-yard garden gnomes in Summer Hill, Sydney   (Oct 2016,  569kb)

Α Ω: Every last atom of our faith was poured into shares & real-estate

Birrell Street front yard, Bondi Junction   (Oct 2018,  448kb)

Bubble watch: Just like the US Federal Reserve in the 1920s, Central Banks kept a close eye on the housing market and were rigorous in monitoring trends in lending standards

Spectators on the steps of the former CBC Bank, Martin Place   (Apr 2006,  278kb)

Incentives to succeed: These truths were held to be self-evident: that the Rich were job creators and that property booms were an efficient way to redistribute wealth

The rear of a Korean restaurant, in a Pitt Street Lane near Town Hall   (Oct 2012,  324kb)

One country, two systems: Income Inequality versus Wealth Inequality: we argued endlessly about the former while being carefully silent about the latter

Woodcroft housing estate versus Harris Street Ultimo   (Jan 2013,  177kb)

Only a tap away: With interest rates at five-thousand-year lows, affordable mortgages were flying out the door

Art Gallery of NSW window looking east, Sydney   (Mar 2019,  251kb)

The retail ziggurat: The ideological apex of our commercial sector was the domestic-consumption economic model

Shopping trolleys huddle beneath the mobile-phone towers on top of Marketplace Leichhardt   (Sep 2010,  374kb)

Fierce, Wonderful & Closed: What little trade there was ended up bleeding out slowly

Cafe shop-front during a level-four lockdown, Katoomba NSW. In Oct 2021, during another extended lockdown, the cafe closed permanently.   (Apr 2020,  224kb)

Everywhere the glint of gold: Vibrant cities crammed full of soaring casinos, buzzing with energy and excitement

Microflite City Helipad, Yarra River Melbourne   (Apr 2019,  266kb)

The emporium struck back: Department stores battled heroically against irrelevance

Storm-troopers at the David Jones lift-well   (Jan 2019,  71kb)

Dog-boxes in the sky: Mate, phone-in punters bought them off the plan like it was Christmas

Spacious and exclusively appointed apartments at Broadway, near Central   (Jul 2016,  193kb)

Curate an educational passport: The uncapping of university places achieved exactly what it set out to do

University of Sydney main quadrangle   (Oct 2017,  507kb)

Business service industries: The only way to counter economic headwinds was by being more nimble than the market

Finance workers at Australia Square   (Dec 2004,  280kb)

Tulips in the rough: Tax laws were rewritten and interest rates kept artificially low to ensure the price of land-banked property could increase by more each day than most people could earn in a week

Irelands Road in Blacktown, western Sydney   (Dec 2012,  532kb)

Ghosts of the CBD: Governments had to resort to pleading with voters to return to city centres

King Street pedestrians head home after work, Sydney CBD   (Sep 2016,  149kb)

Stake your claim: A lot of micro-businesses were created when the factories went offshore, resulting in vigorous employment growth among non-employees

Small business badge window display, Wentworth Street Port Kembla   (Sep 2014,  598kb)

City of forgotten men: There's class warfare all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war and we're winning (Buffet, 2006)

Homeless opposite the Queen Victoria Building, Sydney   (Aug 2014,  372kb)

The golden hoard: Our cities were filled with empty apartments built for short-term yield-desperate investors

The construction boom at Wentworth Point   (Sep 2016,  286kb)

Quality by design: Exclusively appointed apartments riddled with gross structural defects

Nevada Apartments remediation at Darling Point   (Dec 2018,  222kb)

Tyburn revisited: Decades of infrastructure deals and back-room favours had to end sometime

Sydney Metro Project construction site, Martin Place   (Jul 2019,  255kb)

Forever in Golconda: This time it really was different

Charging bull statue, NYC   (Oct 2017,  205kb)

Rust belt potential: Our suburbs were rife with agility, propagation and replacement

Lett Lane, Lithgow   (Jun 2019,  483kb)

Potemkin Prosperity: The central irony of the financial crisis was that while it was caused by too much confidence, too much borrowing & lending and too much spending — it could only be resolved with more confidence, more borrowing & lending, and more spending (Summers, 2011)

Fields of green shoots at the Westpac plaza in Sydney   (Jan 2014,  520kb)

The road to zero: A globalised market where all tastes were equal and we voted only with our dollars

William Street beverage hoarding (since rebuilt) at Kings Cross   (Oct 2012,  326kb)

Retail led recovery: Luxury brands rode out the pandemic rather well

Luxury goods store entrance, George Street Sydney   (Nov 2020,  252kb)

Canyons of gold: The decision to pour billions of dollars into commercial property turned out to be problematic

Castlereagh Street buildings, Sydney   (Jan 2019,  128kb)

Luxury was a human right: Stand on principle on the way up and you would miss the stampede; stand on principle on the way down and you would be run over

Even the pigeons lived in style at Hogben Street in Kogarah   (Apr 2011,  98kb)

Clip service: Legacy media could always look back to a past brimming with promise

Testaroossa Sammy-Santino Mens Hairstylist, Double Bay   (Jan 2019,  364kb)

Decades of irrational exuberance: No matter what happened, the market always soared to record new heights

Financial reporter at the Sydney ASX   (Oct 2018,  152kb)

All snakes, no ladders: We stuck to the plan, even though we kept changing it

Subterranean utilities footpath markings outside the QVB   (Apr 2015,  553kb)

The engine of growth: Our generation reaffirmed the notion that markets could remain irrational for much longer than investors could stay solvent

The window-display for Central Autohaus in Alexandria   (Jun 2015,  180kb)

North to Avoska: Before mobile phones, perhaps-bags accompanied us everywhere

Totes at Hornsby and Wynyard, Sydney   (Apr 2005,  248kb)

Down from the mountain: … and into the markdowns

Leura antique store   (Oct 2018,  198kb)

Scaffolding everywhere: Our lives were turned into a series of transactions to better embrace necessary change

One Circular Quay construction site, Sydney   (Jan 2018,  213kb)

Forget your past: Architectural awards counted for little when it came to prime development sites

Darling Harbour Conference Centre demolition, Sydney   (Apr 2014,  205kb)

A million jobs Mr Speaker: Monetarism and offshoring provided enormous economic benefits which were shared equally

Shepherd Street factory yard, at Marrickville   (Sep 2012,  337kb)

What this little black rock could do: We have to make sure this economy works. We have to export dollars. We have to realise we have a moral responsibility to other people in other nations to keep their lights on (Joyce, 2017)

The Steelworks and Coal Loader at Port Kembla harbour   (Sep 2014,  66kb)

Living in an asset society: Everyone denounced the enemies of growth

Suburban Toorak, Melbourne   (Apr 2019,  199kb)

Espresso Kultur: The al fresco revolution gave tantalising significance to our busy lives

Outdoor cafe seating at Little Eveleigh street, Redfern   (Sep 2020,  311kb)

Click and collect: Socially responsible trading during yet another hard lockdown

George Street boutique, Sydney   (Jul 2021,  109kb)

Too big to fail: It took a long time to establish a perfectly balanced equilibrium of collateralised debt and rising property values

Barangaroo office construction, Millers Point   (Aug 2016,  333kb)

Thrusting for yield: The ubiquity of synchronised growth led to social and urban experiments imposed from above

Construction cranes at Australian Technology Park   (Mar 2018,  191kb)

The weight of calorific delights: Just a spoon full of HFCS helped the processed food go down (Hyman, 2014)

Candle wax at a Kent Street wine-bar, near Town Hall   (Jan 2014,  284kb)

Defenestrate your livelihood: We mortgaged the future and bet it all on there not being one

Waverton Coal Loader wharf   (Jul 2017,  613kb)

Knowledge-based economy: If you could no longer make a profit by making things, then you could profitably spend your time making things up

The interior of the Queen Victoria Building, near Sydney Town Hall   (Jan 2012,  246kb)

Filled with delight: Non-inclusive apartment developments on the site of an old gasworks

Breakfast Point apartments (formerly Mortlake Gasworks), Sydney   (Jul 2014,  229kb)

From blue to fluoro collar: Vast amounts were spent on infrastructure to create a cornucopia of employment opportunities

Re-tiling the Sydney Opera House forecourt   (Jul 2014,  159kb)

Strength Through Joy: The market faithfully rewarded those with a long-term view

Luna Park Hair Raiser ride, in the rain   (Jan 2019,  126kb)

Stroking the hidden hand: Everyone was free to choose a more comfortable but somewhat less remarkable life

Homeless tents at Wentworth Park, Sydney   (Jul 2017,  494kb)

Zero sum game: The link between free trade and rising global prosperity was self-evident: designed in the USA → marketed from the UK → manufactured by Uyghur forced-labour → shipped via Panama → channelled through a Singaporean marketing-hub → transfer-priced through Luxembourg → laundered in a Melbourne casino → banked in the Cayman Islands → stashed away in a Geneva Freeport vault → splurged on trophy homes, super-yachts, racing cars, helicopters, private school fees, casinos, parties, mistresses, divorce lawyers, bribes and drugs… in New York, Beijing, Bucharest, Lagos, Monaco, Riga and Riyadh

Shipping container facility at Tempe, near Sydney Airport   (Sep 2012,  286kb)

Borderline conundrum: Self-service was self-defeating when there was no service to serve

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, unused self-service check-in and baggage drop facilities at Sydney Airport's T1 International Terminal, Friday afternoon 12:30 pm   (Oct 2020,  194kb)