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Harry’s Café de Wheels
Cowper Wharf Roadway, Woolloomooloo
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| Aboriginal Country: Eora | Local Government Area: City of Sydney |
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Statement of Significance Harry’s Café de Wheels, a late night pie cart, is a quintessential Sydney icon, and an institution within Cowper Wharf Roadway, Woolloomooloo. Initially established during the Depression, this pie cart has served Woolloomooloo and the Naval Dockyard continuously since 1945. Cowper Wharf Roadway to the east of the Finger Wharf has been continuously occupied by a series of pie carts, each identified by the trademark painted or neon sign “Harry’s Café de Wheels”. |
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Harry’s pie cart is famed for its low cost traditional Australian cuisine, in particular the pie floater. Today a visit to Harry’s is associated with the concept of being a true Sydneysider. The inclusion of ‘Eternity’ in the art work commemorates another aspect of Sydney’s popular culture, the lettering originally chalked on the pavement. The pie cart has been integral part of the Sydney nightclub scene from the 1940s onwards; a long list of celebrities have visited Harry’s Café de Wheels during a night out on the town. The location is also well patronised by cabbies due to the long opening hours and, due to proximity to the Naval Base, by the armed forces. The pie cart is a rare surviving example of a once common form of selling food and fresh produce in Sydney; the majority of stalls throughout the city are of a modern design. |
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Harry’s Café de Wheels was established in a caravan near the gates of the Woolloomooloo Naval Yard during the depression. The proprietor was Harry (a.k.a. Tiger) Edwards. Harry served with the AIF during World War II, during which time the café was not operational. On his return, he re-established the caravan café “realising Sydney hadn’t changed much and it was almost impossible to get a good feed late at night”. Harry’s specialities included pies and peas (a variant of the pie floater known colloquially as a floater) and crumbed sausages. The colloquial name for a sausage sandwich being a ‘snag sanger”. The café became a popular venue with “sailors, soldiers, cabbies, starlets and coppers”. The name Café de Wheels resulted from a requirement of the City Council that mobile food caravans move a minimum of a foot a day. Prior to this ruling, the caravan had simply been known as Harry’s. Local legend has it that the name was temporarily changed to Café de Axle when the wheels were stolen. Food stall licenses were generally given to returned servicemen, a tradition that commenced after World War 1. Harry’s Café de Wheels became a must see tourist attraction; celebrity visitors have included Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Marlene Dietrich. More recently, celebrity visitors include “Elton John [who] held a press conference at Harry's, and the British singer is a regular customer when he visits Sydney. Other recent visitors have included actors Kevin Costner, Brooke Shields, Pat Rafter, Olivia Newton-John, Jerry Lewis, Billy Crystal and ex-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson.”In 1978, Rear Admiral David Martin, later the State Governor, launched HMAS Harry's , with the aid of a pie and a glass of champagne. Meat pies are considered to be traditional Australian cuisine. However, the addition of peas is a particular speciality of Harry’s Café de Wheels, and is now mentioned in numerous travel guides. One of the criteria in the March 20, 2004 article by John Saxby entitled “Don’t you dare call yourself a local until” was having eaten a pie at Harry's Cafe de Wheels. Harry’s pies are reputed to contain real meat (presumably an attribute not shared by the competition). The pies were also popular with visiting naval ships: “Harry’s Café de Wheels, an Australian Navy favourite for generations, enjoyed good sales and gave the Sailors and Marines their first taste of an Australian Classic -- the great Australian Meat Pie. As Harry's owner, Michael Hannah, commented to me: "We not only got the sailors, we got all the people who came to see them! I'm always amazed at the look on the sailor's faces when they try an Aussie meat pie for the first time. They love 'em!".” The current van is not the original caravan. However, one of the earlier vans is held in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum. THE PIE FLOATER The history of the pie floater has been traced by the South Australian National Trust. The dish generally consists of a meat pie, upside down and floating in a pool of pea soup, topped with lashings of Aussie tomato sauce. The pie floater has an impressive history that's been tracked by the National Trust back 130 years.
In Adelaide, the GPO pie cart in Franklin St has been recorded by the National Trust as the longest-serving eating venue in the state. A study of food carts has also been undertaken in central Melbourne. None of the other food carts within the City of Sydney have such a recognisable identity, nor the continuity of occupancy. There is now also a Harry’s Café de Wheels in Newcastle, with a similarly recognisable neon sign. Typescript of historical Information provided by Harry’s Café de Wheels. Typescript of historical Information provided by Harry’s Café de Wheels. US Navy Stop Over in Sydney by Ian McPherson http://www.netnacs.com/downunder/archive/du-0025.htm http://members.dodo.com.au/~tassietales/T&TArchive/12travel080603.html http://members.dodo.com.au/~tassietales/T&TArchive/12travel080603.html
Description Harry’s Café de Wheels is a moveable food van, similar to those employed at funfairs, with a hung awning. The walls have been decorated with custom painted murals by Alan Puckett who specialises in motoring art. The van is permanently fixed on a masonry base. In contrast with earlier carts, the advertising is less obvious, the walls decorated with murals and framed photographs of famous visitors. The sign was not originally neon; there have been at least three earlier versions of the Harry’s Café de Wheels sign. A photograph survives from 1948, showing the lettering. The present café also has a flagpole attached. The murals are described by Alan on his web site as follows: “Dawn in Sydney town, 1945, celebrating the end of WWII and the establishment of the famous Harry's. National Flag flying, a patriotic Miss greets you, and our RAAF fighter pilot returns to an optimistic post-war Australia. Most of the centre section of the front or street wall is taken up with serving hatches but on either side we have returning servicemen. On the left the Infantryman, on the right a Sailor is greeted by his girl and is doing one of the things Sailors like doing best. The west wall celebrates the night. On the left is Frank Sinatra who came out here and got very much on the wrong side of our newspaper reporters, calling the lady reporters "hookers", and my painting makes a sly reference to this, thus the "press" notebook behind her back. Above Frank's head is a street sign " Palmer St.", site of Sydney's red light district in the 40s/50s when the infamous State Premier and the Chief of Police ran New South Wales as their private bank. The two on the right are Roy Rene, in makeup as his stage persona, "Mo", and Hal Lashwood, playing the innocent from the country. Mo's character was that of a big city larrikin /con man. This pair was huge in radio right through the 50s, but Roy Rene was very successful on stage from the 20s onward. The skyline is much as it was then, Town Hall being the city’s tallest building. "Eternity" in chalk on footpaths all over Sydney was the work of Arthur Stace, who devoted his life to this simple spiritual message, always in the same impeccable copperplate hand”. Boundary of listing Given that the pie cart has been located in a number of sites along Cowper Wharf Roadway, to the east of the Finger Wharf, the boundary of the listing is the eastern side of Cowper Wharf Roadway. Bibliography Historical information supplied by Harry’s Café de Wheels. Also available on their website: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~puckett/ Pie Stories http://members.dodo.com.au/~tassietales/T&TArchive/12travel080603.html US Navy Stop Over in Sydney by Ian McPherson, |
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Current view of Harry’s Café de Wheels with the backdrop of the Woolloomooloo Bay Finger Wharf . |
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 View of Harry’s Café de Wheels with a naval vessel in the background |
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