The Inner West suburb was established in 1901, with streets named after members of Australia’s federation cabinet among other contemporary figures and institutions.
Local historian and Haberfield Association President Vince Crow said this included most of the streets in the first subdivision of the Haberfield Estate such as Barton, Deakin, Dickson, Forrest, Kingston, O’Connor and Turner streets.
All these figures were instrumental in the 1901 federation of the six colonies that formed Australia, said Crow.
Australia’s federation cabinet, led by Prime Minister Edmund Barton, also passed the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, a part of the White Australia Policy that has been broadly condemned as a racist chapter in Australian history.
Crow said the Haberfield Association would support the retention of the suburb’s street names, as “none of the members of the first Federal Cabinet committed any criminal acts or acted in a manner that deserved public condemnation” in the context of their era.
“Renaming of sites raises the issue of whether we can judge past generations by today’s ethical standards,” he said.
The National Trust designated Haberfield a Conservation Area as “the first planned Garden Suburb established in Australia and one of the first in the world”.
“Haberfield’s street names are an important part of the suburb’s heritage because they relate its history to contemporary, mostly political, events at the time,” Crow said.
For example, Empire Street, Haberfield reflects the “popular affiliation with the British Empire which was at its height during this period”. The suburb has been popular with Italian immigrants, excluded by the White Australia Policy, along with neighbouring suburb Leichhardt.
“I have not received any indication that Haberfield residents are concerned about the connotation of these street names,” he said.
Many in the area agree. Local councillor and Haberfield resident Dr Tim Stephens said he didn’t think there was “any pressure” among the community to rename Haberfield’s streets, although there was a precedent in Australia for renaming places to reflect changing attitudes towards racism and colonisation.
“I can’t see any particularly strong argument to change the street names that we have,” Dr Stephens said. “The first cabinet was not ideal, but it wasn’t absolutely reprehensible either, so I think it can stay. It is debatable whether there is an ethical problem regarding the street names.”
Haberfield resident Holly Goodwin said she “possibly” thought there was an ethical problem in maintaining Haberfield street names that memorialise these figures but the process of renaming streets “might be harder than it seems”.
“Who decides what names go and what names stay?” she said. “What do you have to have done to be erased?
“I’m not sure erasing everything fixes the problem as there is no opportunity to learn, reflect and for new generations to understand.”
Goodwin said she was “not very familiar” with the history behind federation and the suburb’s street names.
“I would like to see some balance, for new parks, amenities, buildings etcetera to acknowledge lesser-known parts of history such as women, First Nations, migrant and refugee stories.”
Dr James Findlay, Associate Lecturer in Australian History at the University of Sydney, said names should not be changed “unless it’s called for by the community” and the best way he had seen history handled was at Kurnell.
Kurnell was James Cook’s 1770 landing site. The site combines a retained 1870 cenotaph commemorating the landing with contemporary First Nations artworks and histories of the site.
“Every time I go down to Kurnell I hear conversations about this history and it’s the monuments that prompt these conversations,” Dr Findlay said. “It’s quite a useful example of that done well.”
He said a similar solution was possibly appropriate for Haberfield, given community support. Haberfield residents said the suburb’s heritage was important to them, but also said the federation cabinet was largely unknown.
Dr Findlay said Australia’s founding fathers should be better known, and the issue could open up important conversations about race and why the immigration restriction act was so important. Most states already had immigration restriction policies, and it was unfair to make White Australia the sole legacy of the federation cabinet.
“While we have to question the morality of historical figures, it is important not to let that moral outrage colour the way we think about history,” he said.
“It goes to this broader societal disposition at the moment where it seems impossible to hold two different ideas in your head at the same time and think of history as a ledger of good and bad.”
Street names were a part of Haberfield’s heritage value but the wider community “largely forgets the founding fathers”, let alone any connection to racism.
“People don’t necessarily associate or fully understand the names behind most street signs, to be frank. Most people don’t know who Alfred Deakin was, or Edmund Barton,” he said.
“The first response shouldn’t be to remove things, but to tell the full story. We don’t have much in Australia to tell the full story, so maybe there is an opportunity to put something in the Haberfield library.”
This article is part of a larger project called Where What Why. You can find the whole collection of stories about places and their names here.
