Feathers, glow-sticks, flags, head-pieces, goon-bags, discarded shoes, more feathers.

They were all spotted on surrounding streets – Bourke, Crown, Palmer, Burton.

Oxford Street was looking remarkably polished.

More so than those kicking on.

It’s just down from the crossing with Palmer Street, and diagonally across from East Village – but what it actually is, I’m far from certain. At the site, I had it picked for a cow. On photo, it seems obviously porcine.

It reminded me of this stoop we passed on Crown Street, on the left.

The one on the right is on Langley Street. And there’s another around the corner on Kells Lane.

Someone’s gift-wrapping our neighbourhood, and we want to know why.

It’s a garden, but quite a different one. This one, at 306 Palmer Street, has been owned by the council for years. It used to be called the Darlinghurst Children’s Garden.

Here’s a pic from the late ’70s from Sydney council’s archives, and another taken this week.

It’s hard to tell what the garden was like for the three children in that photo. Between the picket fence, the flares and the black and white picture, there’s not much green. But whatever the case, it’s not as friendly now.

The council’s been wondering what to do with the patch of land for years. Seven years ago, before South Sydney Council was amalgamated into the City of Sydney Council, they deliberated on the garden at Erskineville Town Hall.

Now it’s fenced in, but seemingly well maintained – couldn’t it be a garden in the meantime?

I like the latest desert inspired installation.

Just in time for Baz’s blockbuster.

Everyone who passes takes a look inside, wonders what it means, and moves along.

The development covered in today’s Herald features a bandstand, new turf, chairs and plants in Australia Park, next to the Newtown neighbourhood centre. It was erected without a DA; it would hardly be guerilla if they were applying, right?

I don’t know that if we put a DA in on land that’s not ours that it would get through.

But the magic of guerilla gardening, as I get it, is about planting gardens in forgotten bits of dirt in urban areas. The Guerilla Gardeners’ projects have deployed a bandstand, a recommissioned VW car and a Hills Hoist for visual effect. And while the plants used have been pretty, they seem to lack the long term garden (/community) development.

The letters W-O-O-L-L-O-O-M-O-O-L-L-O-O were pegged on a Hills Hoist right in the centre of the garden.

As you can see above, the Hills and letters are gone.

Update (21/11/08):

Went past today and it’s all gone. Back to being a fenced-off concrete square.

Not exactly inviting. But several months ago it sprouted a carpet of astroturf, several pot plants and a Hill’s Hoist.

I thought it was public art. Turns out it’s Guerrilla Gardeners.