Locations > Wakefield House and Festival Records Building
Wakefield House and Festival Records Building
Wakefield House and Festival Records Building, on the corner of Bulwara Road and Miller Street, is listed on the State Heritage register as an example of an inter-war functionalist industrial building. From the 1880s this site was occupied by timber firms because of its access to Blackwattle Bay wharves. In 1902 fire broke out in one of these a timber yards and spread to the whole block – a dozen fire stations sent men and engines to extinguish it. The present structure was built in 1939, and occupied by C.C. Wakefield & Co, then (from 1962) by Castrol Oil.
However, it is chiefly famous as the home (from 1967) of the Festival Records recording studio. Famous Festival artists whose work was recorded here include the Bee Gees, Johnny O’Keefe, Kylie Minogue, Yothu Yindi, Jimmy Little and Cold Chisel. Peter Allen recorded I Still Call Australia Home here.
Irene O’Reilly and her sisters worked there: Irene in the office, Barbara put records in their sleeves, and Mary worked on the cassette machine. They saw Billy Idol, Johnny O’Keefe, Col Joye. "These greats would walk around asking what you were doing. One year Festival Records had a big Christmas party in St Bede’s hall and Johnny O’Keefe sang.”
After Festival Records departed in the 1990s, the building stood empty until 2006 when it was reborn as offices and Pyrmont’s first supermarket.
Few new buildings were made in Pyrmont between the wars, and this building is most distinctive for its asymmetrical shape and rounded corners, built of cream brick with bands of green glazed bricks and metal framed windows.
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