Uniting Church, Newtown

St Peters Church

This is the church at which the sign I showed yesterday is located. It is a beautiful patch of green, complete with surrounding cemetery, in a really hectic part of Sydney. The entrance is off the Princes Highway, in an area of fast food joints, a cheap motel, container terminals and light industry.

The church was built in 1838 in Gothic revival style.
Here's some history of the church from their website.

Carved in sandstone

Detail from the facade of St Patrick's Catholic Church, Grosvenor St, Sydney

Jacaranda time

November is jacaranda blossom time in Sydney, and I feature a jacaranda shot every year. Above: Outside Sydney Town Hall, and Left; next door at St Andrews Cathedral.

See previous jacaranda shots here.

Little Bay - golf and chapel

There are four golf courses along the coastal clifftops here - Randwick, The Coast course, St Michael's and New South Wales. You can walk all the way along the coast as well.

Here golfers tee off in front of the chapel.

Little Bay - The Chapel By The Sea

The interdenominational Australian Nurses' War Memorial chapel, which was part of the Prince Henry hospital site, is a popular place for weddings, like the one shown yesterday.

It burned down in October 1981 and was restored.

St Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church, Sydenham

Located in the inner south of Sydney, Sydenham was a heavily industrialised suburb, with a traditional working class, and ethnically diverse population.

Then, when the controversial third runway was built at Sydney airport in 1992-94, just 2 kms distant, Sydenham, straight under the flight path, was dramatically affected.

152 houses were bought by the federal government, demolished, and turned into a park.

This church, known as the Tempe Park Methodist Church replaced a nearby older, smaller church in 1902. In 1968, following a petition to the Papal See in Cairo, the first Coptic Orthodox priest, Father Nematalla, arrived in Sydney and, with funds contributed by his congregation, purchased this church. It was reconsecrated as St Mary and St Mina's Coptic Orthodox Church, the first Coptic Church in Australia and the first owned by Coptic migrants outside of Egypt.

St Mary and St Mina's Coptic Orthodox Church was part of the aircraft-noise-affected land acquired by the Federal Government and given to Marrickville Council for community use. The heritage-listed building was not demolished but is no longer used as a church. Its future use is still to be determined.

The Coptic church was relocated at federal government cost in Bexley.



To find out more about Sydenham, click here.

St Mary's Cathedral: Sydney Sandstone Part 10

Wrought iron and sandstone - an irresistable combination.

St Mary's Cathedral from the Australian Museum : Sydney sandstone Part 9

Looking towards St Mary's cathedral from inside the Australian Museum. The building with the pond and fountain and sloping glass wall is the Cook+Philip Park Aquatic Centre. There are more pictures of it here.

St Mary's is the Roman Catholic cathedral; its neo-Gothic sandstone facade was cleaned prior to the Pope's 2008 visit.

Enjoying the sun

I couldn't resist this last shot from my lunchtime walk in the Domain, featured over the last two days. That's St Mary's Cathedral in the background, Sydney's Roman Catholic cathedral.

After all the activity from the past two days, I was interested to read this letter in today's Sydney Morning Herald:

Do people train in public parks where you are? Is there debate about it?

In an obesity crisis, parks are exercising their greed
September 13, 2008

I would like to call attention to the policy of local councils and parkland governing bodies charging personal trainers a licensing fee for the use of public parks. On the surface this may not seem a serious problem, but outdoor personal trainers are being driven out of business.

The Botanic Gardens Trust has cracked down on the annual $1144 licence for using the Domain, with threats of $355 fines for being unlicensed.

The official reason for this permit is to regulate the uninsured and unregistered trainers from using the Domain. In fact it's a transparent money grab. The authorities believe we are making a living out of the park, so they are putting their hand out for their cut.

I know of no trainer who can make a living from one park. I train clients at eight or nine different parks a week, paying about $10,000 a year in separate fees.

I understand the need to stop large fitness corporations dominating parks, as well as the problem of early morning noise from trainers in residential areas. But for a self-employed individual who trains a group of three people twice a week in the Domain, $1144 a year is a little steep.

We have our own insurance for our clients, which takes the burden off the councils; we are professionals who train our clients safely, compared with joggers and groups of mates who play football in the park at lunchtime for nothing.

With a serious obesity rate in Australia, which the Australian Bureau of Statistics says costs $21 billion annually in associated illnesses, councils should be encouraging people to train with professional personal trainers to improve their health and fitness, not forcing us to abandon clients due to the economic burden of training them in outdoor areas.

Shannon Bell Balmain

The Garrison Church

The colony's first military church, was built in 1840 for the soldiers to attend services. It was enlarged in 1855 to accommodate 600 people. It is still used, and still associated with the armed forces. The architects were Henry Ginn and Edmund Blacket.

It is found in the oldest part of Sydney, The Rocks.