Sydney has a Mechanics’ Institute on Pitt Street, not too far from Phillip, so I walked to the address I’d found online, 280 Pitt, and entered a very modern high-rise. I stepped out of the elevator a floor too early, and found myself in a small carpeted lobby with three closed double doors facing me. A man, apparently a volunteer, approached me, flyers in hand and asked quietly, “Which event are you attending?”

Three event rooms, I thought. They have at least three event rooms. And they were having three events at once.

I explained I was looking for administration, and he advised me to go another floor up.

Upstairs, when they learned I worked at another Mechanics’ Institute, they were very hospitable and eager to show me around. Their institute looked more modern but they’re an older institution by about 20 years, founded in 1833. (Their original building was just down the street and bore a striking resemblance to the SF Mechanics’ pre-06 building.) The  Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts seems to have a slightly different emphasis than our’s, being more about providing long term and short term venues for non-profits than actually putting on events. The events spaces I saw, four meeting rooms and a theater, are apparently used mainly for rentals.

Actual SMSA sponsored literary and author events take place in the Tom Keneally center. The author of Schindler’s Ark, when he retired to Manly Beach, didn’t want to take his entire private library with him, so he donated it, with other personal memorabilia, to the SMSA. Hence the Tom Keneally Center. It’s a spacious, but intimate, brightly colored space, lined with Keneally’s books, with a sofa and chairs for gatherings and a small office for Keneally, with an old fashioned knee-hole desk. I signed the visitors’ book. “Enviable” was what I wrote in the comments section. After visiting their library, I left with email addresses and a bag of swag, a mug, some pens and leather bookmarks, and a couple of book bags.

I would not trade ours for theirs, but I must say the SMSA makes our Mechanics’ seem shabby-genteel. And we certainly have no writer in residence to compare with Mr. Keneally.

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