Harris Street
street in Ultimo, Sydney
Harris Street is the main thoroughfare in the Inner West suburbs of Pyrmont and Ultimo in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It runs from the northern tip of the Pyrmont peninsula to Broadway in the central business district. Harris Street was formerly lined by industrial sites such as the Ultimo Power Station, Ultimo Tram Depot and the Government Printing Office. South of Pyrmont Bridge Road, it forms part of the Southern Arterial Route.
However, redevelopment of Pyrmont from a largely industrial suburb to a more residential and commercial precinct has seen the University of Technology, Sydney and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation call Harris Street home. Until the late 1950s electric trams ran down the length of Harris Street, when they were replaced by bus services.
As part of the Western Distributor, in May 1980 Harris Street was converted to one way in a northerly direction from Fig Street to Union Street; it returned to a two-way street in 1995 after the Western Distributor was extended via the Anzac Bridge. On 13 December 1987, Harris Street was converted to one way southbound from Mary Ann Street to Broadway as part of the opening of Stage 1 of the Southern Arterial Route.
Safety
Harris Street "has high accident rates involving pedestrians" and residents "report pedestrian safety risks due to large volumes of fast-moving through traffic". In 2012, Alex Greenwich requested Gladys Berejiklian (the Minister for Transport at the time) to reduce the speed of Harris Street from 50km/h to 40km/h.
The public source identifies “Harris Street” as street in Ultimo, Sydney. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Harris, Street and street.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Harris Street”, the useful work is to connect “street in Ultimo, Sydney” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5665047. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1980, 1995, 1987 and 2012.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Harris Street”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Harris Street primary sources, Harris Street archive and Harris research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Harris Street”?
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- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Harris Street” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.