Imbolc 1999 Newsletter "Witch House Worry"

It’s not often you pick up your local paper to be greeted by the headline above! But that’s exactly what happened when I got home one afternoon and found my rain soaked copy of The Glebe newspaper sitting on my front step. At first I was horrified, I hastily assumed that there were concerns about witches living in our area. I was all ready to read the article with the appropriate level of anger and concern. Just goes to show how wrong some people can be! The article from The Glebe is actually about the preservation (yes, preservation) of some historic houses in our local area, that were once lived in by witches! The buildings are located on Johnston Street in Annandale, and were built in the 1880s by Sydney GPO builder John Young. The local residents are working with the heritage commission to stop a development application going through to alter the houses in to town houses. There is a quote in the article likening the houses to Sydney icons (I nearly fell over when I read that bit). There are two town houses built on the site, that were built on sites that once housed the Claremont and Oybin witches.

(Article by Adrianne Harris. Source: The Glebe, and Inner Western Weekly, Wednesday 14th July 1999, article by Adrian Nesbitt)