Heralding change … Trevor Davies gave a voice to south Sydney.

It was a long way from East Tilbury, England – where
Trevor Davies was born of a Welsh father – to Redfern in inner Sydney.
But once he arrived, he embraced the suburb, along with its tiny
neighbours, Darlington and Chippendale – the colourful, if embattled,
pockets of Sydney’s urban heart – and incorporated their spirit.

Davies started a newsletter, Chippo Politics, which grew to become the South Sydney Herald,
the voice of the people from Sydney’s forgotten inner core. The
expanded paper developed a mutually respectful relationship with South
Sydney Council and community leaders. As the ultimate test of its
impact, the paper was read by politicians of all varieties.

Working at a newsagency in Abercrombie Street, Davies was
not averse to rushing out and stopping a person of any description or
status, including a minister of state or a bishop. ”He was such a warm,
friendly person, no-one would take offence at Trevor asking them about
their life and things like that,” said his editorial colleague, Dorothy
McRae-McMahon.

”He lived in Redfern-Oh. That’s because when the local people tell an outsider they live in Redfern, the reaction is ‘Oh!”’

He was founding editor of REDWatch, the journal of a community group that covers the suburbs of Redfern, Eveleigh, Darlington and Waterloo.

Trevor Edward Davies was born on May 25, 1956, the second
child of four to factory worker and union shop steward Gwynfor Edward
(Taff) Davies and English-born Constance.

He started his education at Stanford-le-Hope primary
school in Essex. At the age of 10, he set up an ”insurance” scheme for
children in his neighbourhood. They gave him a penny which they would
claim back if and when their parents hit them.

In 1964, Trevor took a sickie from school to watch the
election result and was elated when Harold Wilson took the prime
ministership.

The Davies family came to Australia in 1966 as
”ten-pound poms” and Trevor went to Cammeray Public School – then
Chatswood High School – where he started the school newspaper. Taff died
in 1969 and for the next few years, Constance struggled to bring up
four teenagers. Together with her mother-in-law, Constance cleaned
houses to make a living.

Davies attended the Church of Christ in Crows Nest and,
for a time, studied at the Churches of Christ Bible College. As an
asthma sufferer with a speech impediment, his health was always a major
concern. But he took up various jobs, including a position with South
Sydney Council.

In 1979, he moved to Redfern and joined the Labor Party.
In 1983, he became secretary of the party’s Darlington branch. Such was
his interest in politics that then federal MP Peter Baldwin arranged for
hard copies of the Hansard to be sent to him.

In 1991, Davies started Chippo Politics,
publishing 2000 copies in A4 format. It was circulated mainly in the
Chippendale-Darlington area. Four years later, it evolved into the Redfern Chippo Herald.
It had minimal paid advertising but was circulated to about 5000
households. It filled a need. South Sydney had no local paper that
focused on its own area; The Courier’s content related to a more general zone.

In 2000, the South Sydney Uniting Church took over the Redfern Chippo Herald.
The Reverend Vladimir Korotkov, Davies and McRae-McMahon, formerly
minister at the Pitt Street Uniting Church, decided to make the paper
more professional and more financially viable. It was renamed the South Sydney Herald
and had 16 pages – later expanding to 20 in tabloid format. Its
circulation went up to 22,000 on the back of stories that were
overlooked by the mainstream media. The designer, printer and small
advertising staff were paid but the rest were volunteers, including
students who were in their final year of journalism at the University of
Technology, Sydney.

Davies spent most of his days sitting in a cafe in
Abercrombie Street, near the newsagency where he had worked, speaking to
everyone around him. In 2008, he stood, unsuccessfully, for election to
the City of Sydney council.

Davies’s death was announced in Federal Parliament by
frontbencher and federal member for Sydney Tanya Plibersek. At his
funeral at Pitt Street Uniting Church, former premier Kristina Keneally
said: ”Trevor and I didn’t always see eye to eye but we shared three
core beliefs: that South Sydney is a unique and remarkable community;
that the Labor Party is the greatest political agent for social justice;
and that the Christian gospels preach a message of love and
acceptance.”

Trevor Davies is survived by his sisters, Susan and Annie, and his brother, Ivor.

Malcolm Brown