Transcript
As spoken by Steven and Peter

This transcript is drawn from an audio recording. It has been lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the participant’s original voice and meaning.

​

Peter:
We're in the Pickled Possum Bar, which is in Sydney on Military Road in... Are we in Cremorne or Neutral Bay?

Steven: 

I don't know. I think it's Cremorne. It's on the border.

​

Peter:

We're somewhere around there. Yeah, it's on the border. Anyway, it's a lovely historic bar, full of character and original fittings, and it's full of sort of '80s and '90s, a little bit of kitsch, but it's really nice. And we're here to remember our time here many years ago.

​​

Steven: 

I moved here from Bermuda in 1993, and I basically moved to Australia to come out, because growing up in Bermuda was like growing up in a very small town in regional New South Wales. Very little exposure to gay life or gay people, so it was quite an eye-opener when I moved to Sydney.

​

I didn't know a soul when I arrived, so I joined various social groups, including the Gay and Lesbian Choir and Helix, which was a North Shore social group that had weekly, I think it was Monday nights, social events, gatherings, including the weekly meeting drinks at The Pickled Possum.​ And because I moved here, I was in Neutral Bay, it was very convenient. I could walk here.

 

Peter:

At the time, I had come out as well, but I was still in the process. It was only a recent thing, midlife.​ And I was living at the time in Wollstonecraft, and I also found out that the Helix social group, gay group, was meeting here, and I decided to come and check it out. So I was also here for a similar reason. It was a convenient and embracing sort of group and situation for someone who was still finding their way, finding their identity, and it was great. And we met here. I met my friend Steven. I remember I think we were sitting at that bar, looking at it right now, and I think we've been chatting ever since.

​

And back in the day, we're talking over 30 years ago, this part of Sydney was becoming more diverse, cosmopolitan, international, but it was still, I think we were mainly a white male group.

 

Steven:
But I think it was actually officially called Helix North Shore Social Group. It was designed for North Shore people who didn't cross the bridge as often and didn't spend as much time on Oxford Street as other people.

​

I just remember meeting a guy who was a pilot, and with my background, I had just never met a gay pilot before. I thought, "Oh wow, you know, gay people can do anything now." For me, that was quite an eye-opener as a little boy who hadn't previously experienced gay men doing that kind of job.

​

Peter:​

One thing that I was impressed by was that there were a couple of couples who came to the Helix drinks events, and there was one lovely couple who'd been together for many years. I really hadn't encountered or experienced people with that sort of lifestyle much. And that was, it was nice, it was inspiring, it was quite expanding.

So that was once again expanding my conception and experience of what living as a gay man could be.

 

Steven:

And the same for me, because it was very encouraging to meet gay couples who'd been together a long time and who had a very settled life.

​

I think the gay people who choose to live here are the ones who don't need or want to be close to Oxford Street, who have a fairly conventional kind of lifestyle and do not stand out. So maybe there are lots of them, you just don't know that they're here.

​

Peter:

I think this is one of the changes that I've certainly seen in my life around here. There was a period in the late 20th century when legal struggles and fundamental struggles were still happening very much, and the AIDS crisis, and when to be gay and put a gay flag on your door or something like that was distinctive. And I don't think it's so much like that anymore, thank goodness.​ And I expect, just like me and many others, there are people of different gay, lesbian, trans identities sprinkled all around now. And I think that's a good thing. That's definitely a good thing.​ And so I don't think it's as visible, but I expect it's more present.

​​

Steven:

I think Helix sort of fell apart or just died a natural death in the mid '90s. But I think people, you know, it... move on.

 

Peter:

The world changed, things changed, and it had done its time.

 

Steven:

Fulfilled its purpose.