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Here you see a narrow laneway in The Rocks called the Suez Canal. And it is very narrow. Not much room to pass when shot hungry tourist comes face to face with 'suit' armed with attaché case hurrying the other way!
Do you see the cut out shape of the guy lounging against the wall with hands in pockets? It is an impression of a local gang known as The Rocks Push. When this gang was active in the late 1800s, the Suez Canal was not a good place to walk along alone late at night. The Rocks Push was likely to be lurking – ready to rob you - and probably hit you over the head with an iron bar. (And the name Suez, by the way, was a pun on sewers!)
As the poet Banjo Paterson described The Push:
They were all clothed in “push” evening dress—black bell-bottomed pants, no waistcoat, very short black paget coat, white shirt with no collar, and a gaudy neckerchief round the bare throat. Their boots were marvels, very high in the heel and picked out with all sorts of colours down the sides.
(It is funny that one of Sydney’s trendy elites later adopted the Push name. The Sydney Push (active until the 1970s) would meet in various Downtown pubs.)
And so with these shadows of the past - we end our tour of The Rocks. Hope you enjoyed it!