The Block (Sydney)

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The Block is a colloquial but universally applied name given to a block of housing (now largely demolished) in Sydney, Australia, given to the Aboriginal Housing Corporation as an experiment in Aboriginal-managed housing. The Block is probably the most famous feature of the suburb of Redfern, although in point of fact it is located on the western border of that suburb, on the edge of Darlington. The focus of life in the Block has always been Eveleigh Street, which is its eastern border, with railway lines on the other side of that street.

Following the demolition of the housing in the Block due to its utter disrepair, it is now essentially a large lawn around which Aboriginal people congregate. The Block has a place in the Australian and Aboriginal social imagination out of all proportion to the extent of the size of ground. As a pioneering and still unique experiment in Aboriginal-run housing near the centre of Australia's largest city, it excites enormous emotions, and moreover is viewed by the largely rural indigenous population of New South Wales as a pied a terre and spiritual home in the capital. The Block is now reportedly the subject of plans for massive renovation by private developers at the instigation of the New South Wales state government - see Redfern-Eveleigh-Darlington.

On February 14, 2004, The Block was the scene of a race riot following the death of an Australian Aboriginal boy, impaled on a fence while running from police. Many of the local Aboriginal population believed his death had been instigated by the police.