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The female Eastern Koël (Eudynamys orientalis) is larger than the male, with speckled feathers and lacking the bright red eyes of her mate. These birds migrate to Australia where they spend the warmer months laying their eggs in other birds' nests and shattering the peace with a range of loud and discordant calls. I do not welcome these birds to my yard, and the other birds shun them.
It's hard to imagine a more mismatched pair of birds than the Eastern Koël (Eudynamys orientalis), the male is black with bright red eyes, he is smaller than the female who is shown in the next photo. These birds migrate to Australia where they spend the warmer months laying their eggs in other birds' nests and shattering the peace with a range of loud and discordant calls. For me, the first Koël's call marks the start of summer, and the last call signals the start of autumn.
Second Burial Ground.
It is believed that the first burial occurred in 1824 and it is the final resting place of in excess of 1400 of Port Macquarie's earliest pioneers.
One of the more prominent grave sites is that of John Verge.
Verge was an English architect, builder, pioneer settler who migrated to Australia and would become Australia's most important architect due to his Greek Revival style of architecture in early Australia.
In 1853 Jean Charles Lamonnerie dit Fattorini was buried in the cemetery.
His claim to fame is that he was that he was born illegitimate, his father is was alleged was Napoleon Bonaparte.
Today the cemetery is listed on the State Heritage Register.
Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.
This Sandpiper usually migrates to Australia from Siberia but this juvenile was photographed in Long Beach, CA along the Los Angeles River south of Willow.
We were pleased to be able to log 9 sharp-tailed sandpipers in the annual "Aussie Bird Count" today.
The migratory birds have arrived. Along with the sandpipers (flown in from Siberia), we also saw godwits and curlews. The sharp-tailed sandpipers breed in the Siberian summer then migrate to Australia to avoid the cold winter.
Brisbane the third largest capitol city in Australia will be hosting combined with the south east Queensland region including the city of the Gold coast to the south the summer Olympics of 2032.
Brisbane had a long serving deputy Lord mayor that was a very competent world city urban artist so despite the looks some order emerges with use of the colors of the city buildings and building heights to help make the city more ordered and visually appealing despite the CBD being located on the winding Brisbane River.
The Lord Mayors and their deputies in Brisbane city and it's surrounding region have historically taken urban design and therefore transitioning to a more modern livable subtropical region with its associated problems with intense rainfall requiring superb drainage systems and well built associated robust urban infrastructure very seriously.
Brisbane is the most rapidly growing city in Australia with mainly young Australians moving here from interstate as people migrating to Australia tend to settle into the Sydney and Melbourne capitol cities and surrounding regions.
The fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia) is endemic to New Zealand and migrates to Australia and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are open seas and rocky shores. It has in the past also been known as Forster's Shearwater.
This image was taken in the Queen Charlotte Sound, near Picton, on the South Island of New Zealand.
Our walk up to the De La Rue lookout afforded us this wonderful view over Marysville and into the ranges.
Taking a few photographs over the weekend was a pleasant return to photography, after a bit of a slow year for it. What I did cement in my mind was that having two cameras was a bit over the top for a photographer like me and that moving forward, concentrating on my Fujifilm system would be the way to go for a number of reasons.
Today, I headed to a local "TEDS" camera store and sold them my Nikon Z5, the 24 - 50 and the 24 - 200 lenses for a very fair price. I cannot say I disliked anything, other than the weight, of the Nikon system but it was just not quite as good, for my purposes, as the Fujifilm. Initially I had intended to simply sell the Nikon system. In the end, the value covered a new 70 - 300mm lens for the X-E3, with money left over, so I opted for that.
As an aside, I purchased my first SLR from TEDS in Sydney in 2001, when Carolin and I were backpacking and I had no real idea about photography and certainly no inkling that nine years later, I would migrate to Australia. I am pleased to report, that even thought it's a different branch to back then, the customer service was excellent then and now.
The fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia) is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is endemic to New Zealand and migrates to Australia and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are open seas and rocky shores. It has been known as Forster's shearwater in the past.
This is a medium to small-sized shearwater with a dark-brown-and-white body. The upper parts, including neck, wings and tail, are uniformly dark brown. The face and neck have a grey-brown colour gradually fading into white below the eye. The under body, from chin to the under-tail, is white except for a dark thigh patch that can be seen in flight.
The bottom wing is commonly white while the axillary area is covered in grey-brown fur. Under light conditions, the appearance is different. The fluttering shearwater has pinkish-brown legs and feet with dark webs, and the feet extend beyond the tail in flight. The bill is long and thin with dark colour. The tail is fan-shaped and short in flight and it has mixed colours – dark brown and white.
Moulting starts from late January and the dark upper surfaces fade to mid-brown quickly. The colour of birds close to moulting (February to April) is pale rusty brown and they appear ragged at this stage.[3] Their voice is unusual and disjointed: ka-hek-ka-hek-ka-hek and usually made in flight. Their flight pattern is somewhat determined, low and fast. Rapid spurts of wing-beating interspersed by gliding.
The average body mass of females is 302 g while males is 243 g. Their eggs are pure white and oval. The young birds have the same colour as adult from the nest, but with lighter color in the margin of wing-coverts. Nestlings have very thick slate-coloured soft feathers on the upper and white down on the under.
This image was taken in the Queen Charlotte Sound, near Picton on the South Island of New Zealand.
an uncommon endangered species that breeds in southern Siberia, Kamchatka and northeast China. Most migrate to Australia for northern winter.
Shoalhaven Heads, NSW, Australia
About 1,200 pairs of gannets nest here from August to March each year. They have now migrated to Australia.
This is a 3.5 min exposure shot at sunset.
Auckland | NEW ZEALAND
Featured on Flickr Explore on 20 May 2015
Taken early in the morning.
Mungerannie is just 50km short of being half way along the Birdsville Track.
Mungerannie wetland is an important watering point and refuge area for birds, and stock, especially during times of drought and provides a habitat for 147 species of birds.
The wetland is home to several uncommon wading birds, some of which migrate to Australia from northern Asia during the winter months. Other birds which spend the summer months in South Eastern S.A. spend the winter months in the area. Several species , such as the Brolga, are dependent on the region's bore drain wetlands.
With the replacement of open bore drains with closed systems, bore drain wetlands such as the Mungerannie wetland are being evaluated to determine their importance. Those of high importance will be maintained by an allocation of flow and managed by the local community.
Red-necked Stint
Calidris ruficollis
March 23rd, 2025
Killarney, Victoria, Australia
Canon EOS R5
Canon EF 600mm f4L IS III USM lens
Canon EF 1.4x III Extender
A Red-necked Stint seeking refuge amongst the beach washed seaweed on Killarney beach. Stints breed in the Arctic tundra, migrating to Australia to spend the warmer months from September to April. They are usually found in beaches, coastal wetlands, mudflats, & salt pans, preferring shallow water with abundant small invertebrates.
The fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia) is a species of seabird in the Procellariidae family.
It is endemic to New Zealand and migrates to Australia and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are open seas and rocky shores. It has in the past also been known as Forster's Shearwater.
This image was taken in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf Marine Park on February 19th 2018. I think it may be a Fluttering Shearwater, but could someone please confirm whether I am correct or not, thanks.
This is my contribution to the Macro Mondays challenge, "Ceramic", on 20 January 2020. The image features the bowl of an antique tobacco pipe which belonged to my grandfather, whom we called Pop. Pop was born in Sheffield, England, in the 1880s and migrated to Australia in 1912. I believe the birds are partridges.
So friends, let me tell you about this little Double-banded Plover. I know you can't wait for the lesson. These birds breed in New Zealand. They migrate to Australia during the summer for the yummy little insects that they find on our beaches. They usually only get to the Eastern States beaches. This ilittle one arrived in Two Rocks north of Perth much to the delight of mad birders. I went to find it with my buddy. It wasn't hard. There it was on the dog beach running and flying up and down the beach as Alsations, joggers, my friend Bill and others bounded up and down energetically. I sat down and didn't move and the little bird came right up to me, looked me in the eye and took a bow. I bow to you too Double-banded Plover.
Sharp-tailed sandpiper. Werribee water treatment plant, Victoria, 2011.
These birds breed in North eastern Russia and migrate to Australia in the southern summer to fatten on freshwater wetlands. With climate change and the Australian drought, many of their usual feeding flats will be dry this year. It is to be hoped those birds that migrate to different countries and different parts of Australia will have a successful season.
I have been wanting to get a half decent shot of the Latham's Snipes at Heathdale - Glen Orden Wetlands since they arrived in late October but have only managed a few very blurry images until today. When I arrived this morning I got 4 shots straight up. I then bumped into David ( www.flickr.com/photos/birdsaspoetry/ ) and Dorothy ( www.flickr.com/photos/friendsintheair/ ) . As we were preparing to leave the area David decided to head into an area where we know they are roosting and subsequently when they flushed I was in the right place for another half dozen shots. They breed in Japan during our Winter and migrate to Australia during our Summer. Thanks David!
1956 Mercury Montclair at the East Kurrajong Hobby and Car Show. This car has quite a history being imported from Iran when the owner migrated to Australia. He has owned the car for over 50 years, since his mid teens.
I first photographed it in B&W in 1978 when it was still somewhat functional as a farm barn. So when next in the area in 2005, I looked for it again and found it as this - abandoned, because it was not allowed to be sold as a residence to be restored - the local authority planning to keep the area fully rural.
Then in 2014 as I was researching and writing a family history, I was stunned to discover this was the very building in which my great great great grandfather (Frantz Stebens aka Franz Staeben) was employed as the leatherworker/saddler, and where he lived with his wife and where they raised their family. They were married in 1797, and all their children (including my great great grandfather) were born in the residential end of the building. It was that Great Great Grandfather who migrated to Australia in 1865 with his wife and 8 children, 2 grandchildren and daughter-in-law.
I will always be amazed that I just happened to photograph this building in 1978!
It's that time of year again for these cuckoo birds to migrate to Australia for their mating season. The male sings out his availability day and night which at times can be a bit much for us humans to listen to. I hope to be able to photograph a female when she answers his call.
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Amigo is an Italian who migrated to Australia at 22 years of age in 1970. He eventually ended up in Lightning Ridge to try his luck at Opal mining. The town is famous for it's black Opals.
His mineral claim became his camp and this camp kept growing and growing Rock by Rock over the last 30+ years. He has not found his luck in Opal mining but certainly found his passion in growing this gem of a Castle in the Outback, a giant Romanesque construction made from more than twenty thousand ironstone boulders-each carried out from the bush in a rucksack. He intends it to be a home for a princess (or Amigo's Queen) he has yet to meet.
Amigo has no building qualifications and didn’t follow any plan. Instinct was his only guide, design being created just one rock at the time.
The Castle is not approved by the local council so there will probably never be a roof. But it's Amigo's home, with underground passages and secret chambers.
I feel very privileged to have spent some good time with Amigo, he showed me around in and out, took me up to the tower (climbing ladders) and shared some of the secret chambers and stories.
Good on ya Amigo! Wishing you all the best...cu next time
Sgt A V Couché was one of 5 children and their 2 parents who migrated to Australia from Ireland in 1923. In 1939 she and two other siblings and Father joined up to fight to protect their new country.
She was assigned to the RTO (Regimental Transport Office) Townsville in Far North Queensland. She remained in the Army until 1947.
As a woman in the 1940s to achieve the rank of Sergeant was testament to her skill and tenacity and I am deeply proud of her service and the service of all my family members in all the theatres of War in which they served. 🇦🇺
From the Russian Orthodox Queensland website:
It was there (Persia), that Evphimiy Shishkoff, while facing certain death at the hands of Persian revolutionaries, found himself praying to the Mother of God for Her intercessions, so that she might appeal to Her Holy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ that Evphimy and his family might be saved from their impending deaths. It is the Orthodox custom to utilize Holy Icons as an aid to prayer, and it so happens that Evphimiy had been praying to a copy of a very old Russian Orthodox icon known as the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God (named for the city of Vladimir, and believed by devout Russians to be miraculous, having been instrumental in several miraculous historical events.)
As he prayed before the famous icon of the Mother of God, Evphimiy made a promise that if, by some incredible miracle, they were to be survive, then he would build a church in honour of the icon before which he was praying.
Thus it was that against all odds, the Shishkoff family was somehow overlooked by the militants who sought to kill all foreigners, and managed to migrate to Australia, where they settled in the city of Brisbane, and where he began to earnestly make good on his promise.
By 1956, he and his son had purchased a large block of land in the Brisbane suburb of Rocklea, and with their own hands, in their spare time, constructed the original wood and fibro Church building which still stands on our parish grounds. The Church was dedicated to the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God by Bishop Savva (Raevskiy). The Courier-Mail newspaper published an article about the consecration of the Church. It must have been a big deal for the local Australian community, because the Brisbane City Council even went so far as to run a special bus service to the consecration ceremony...
More Russian migrants came to Australia throughout the 1960's. They came here with next to nothing and wanted nothing more than to be free from religious and political persecution. The parish grew steadily until it outgrew its original temple, and it was decided to build a larger Church that would adequately accommodate the parish. Thus, planning and construction began in the 1980s and the Church was consecrated in the 1990s. The new Church building is still incomplete, and numerous works are being undertaken by the current parishioners, including gilding of various parts of the interior, reconstruction of the temporary decoration on the cupolas (ie onion domes), and other works.
Dubbo Courthouse was completed in 1890 to a design by Colonial Architect James Barnet.
Prior to 1847, legal and civic matters were administered in the town of Wellington. In December 1846, a Court of Petty Sessions was established in Dubbo. A wooden courthouse was constructed in 1848. This building serviced the wider region of Dubbo, as by 1851 the population of Dubbo was still just 47 people.
A District Court was established in Dubbo in 1858 and a Court of Quarter Sessions was established the following year. A second courthouse and watch house constructed of stone was completed in 1863 at a cost of £1,567. Following the establishment of the Municipal District of Dubbo in 1872, Council meetings were held in this courthouse.
In the 1880s, a new courthouse for Dubbo was designed by Colonial Architect James Barnet. This was likely in response to the increased workload created by the new gaol in Dubbo and the growth of the town. The courthouse was completed by the end of the decade and backed onto the gaol. A residence and two cells were also constructed on the grounds. The previous courthouse was then used as a drill hall for the local regiment.
Sir Frederick Pottinger was one of the earliest Clerks of Petty Sessions in Dubbo, appointed to the position in 1860. Pottinger was a wealthy heir and Second Baronet in England who squandered his inheritance on horse racing and was forced to migrate to Australia. In 1862, Pottinger was appointed Inspector of Police for the Western District. In this post he enthusiastically pursued bushrangers, capturing Ben Hall once amongst others.
Dubbo Courthouse was enlarged in 1981 with the construction of two additional courtrooms, chambers for Judge and Magistrate and ancillary accommodation including a large Petty Sessions Office and a Sheriff’s Office. These new works were officially opened by the Premier on 10 February 1981. The total cost was $2.1 million.
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The history of Dubbo's courthouse is intertwined with the growth of the town and the establishment of law and order in the region. The first court of petty sessions was held in Dubbo in 1846, and the police residence, courthouse, and lock-up were constructed between 1847 and 1848. The original courthouse was located on Macquarie Street, which was later closed when the Brisbane Street Courthouse opened in 1889. The Brisbane Street Courthouse was designed by Colonial Architect James Barnet and was likely built in response to the increased workload from the new gaol and the town's growth.
Colonial Architect James Barnet:
James Johnstone Barnet (1827 - 1904), architect, was born at Almericlose, Arbroath, Scotland, son of Thomas Barnet, builder, and his wife Mary, née McKay. After education at the local high school he went to London in 1843 and was apprenticed to a builder. He then studied drawing and design under W. Dyce, R.A. and architecture with C. J. Richardson, F.R.I.B.A., and became clerk of works to the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. On the 22nd of July 1854 he married Amy, daughter of John and Elizabeth Gosling; they sailed for Sydney and arrived in December. He engaged in building operations before he became clerk of works at the University of Sydney. In 1860 he joined the Colonial Architect's Office; two years later he became its acting head and in 1865 colonial architect; he held the position until 1890 when the office was reorganised.
Barnet was responsible for the building of defence works at Port Jackson, Botany Bay, and Newcastle, courthouses, lock-ups, police stations, and post offices throughout New South Wales (NSW) and several lighthouses including the Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head, which replaced an earlier one designed by Francis Greenway. In Sydney, he designed and supervised the construction of several important public buildings: a new wing to the Australian Museum, the General Post Office, Colonial Secretary's Office, Public Works and Lands Buildings, Customs House, Public Library, the Medical School at the University of Sydney and the Callan Park Lunatic Asylum. He was also responsible for additions to the Tarban Creek Asylum and the maintenance of other public buildings. The total cost of public works carried out or in progress under his direction to 1881 was £3,598,568 for 1490 projects.
When the Duke of Edinburgh visited Sydney in 1868 Barnet was given charge of arrangements for the royal reception and in 1879 was responsible for the design and erection of the Sydney International Exhibition building on five acres of the Botanical Gardens. The design was prepared and the work completed in nine months with the aid of night shifts using the first electric light in Sydney. Preparation of 412 drawings and of all accounts and payment of moneys as well as oversight of the work were part of Barnet's responsibility. Whilst the work was in progress he was continually attacked in parliament and in the press. As an indication of its censure parliament disallowed his forage allowance in 1879. A sum of £50,000 had been voted for the project but the final cost was £184,570. Barnet explained the increased cost as the result of hurried planning and the use of more durable material than originally intended. The building 'took the public taste' and when the exhibition ended he was paid a gratuity of £500, an amount he considered totally inadequate.
The new wing for the Australian Museum was intended for a museum of natural history and a sculpture gallery. In 1873 the management of Gerard Krefft as curator was considered by the trustees to be highly unsatisfactory and on 24 February 1874 a select committee of the Legislative Assembly was appointed to investigate. Despite Barnet's denials it reported that the old building was satisfactory although in poor repair, but the new wing was 'extremely defective' with 'abundant evidence of the architect's desire to subordinate utility to ornament'; in no circumstances should the colonial architect be permitted to continue his mistakes in the uncompleted work. In spite of the committee's findings Barnet was soon acclaimed as an architect of skill and imagination. On 1 September at the official opening of the General Post Office the postmaster-general, (Sir) Saul Samuel, paid a glowing tribute to his work. The first contracts for the foundation and basement had been let in February 1866 but were delayed by negotiations for extending the site and the needs of urgent defence work. To make the most of the narrow site an extra storey was added, mezzanine galleries were built above the ground floor and the main building extended over an arcade built above the footpath. Pyrmont sandstone, in blocks 'of a magnitude never before attempted in these colonies', was used and fireproof concrete 'of original composition' formed the vaulted dome ceilings.
For decoration of the Pitt Street frontage Barnet planned carvings which would portray selected arts, sciences, and customs of the day. In 1883 these came under criticism from the postmaster-general, William Trickett. The inevitable board of inquiry commended Barnet's intention but complained that the carvings were not a faithful record, approaching 'far more to the unnatural and burlesque than … to the real', an opinion which made Barnet doubt the artistic taste of his judges. The subject was dropped although occasional notices in the press referred to the entertainment of visitors by the 'grotesque' carvings.
In addition to other official duties, Barnet sat on the commission set up in 1870 to plan the colony's defence. More defence works were recommended for Port Jackson and Barnet was directed to build new batteries and barracks. His work, without 'any technical professional aid', was highly praised by Sir William Jervois and (Sir) Peter Scratchley in 1877. On 16 July 1889 the defence work was removed from Barnet's control and a military works branch of the Public Works Department was created with Lieutenant-Colonel F. R. de Wolski as director. The earlier close relationship between the military and Barnet deteriorated rapidly, partly because of de Wolski's outspoken condemnation of Barnet's ability and partly because of his persistence on tactical delay in handing over plans and documents for defence work. For some time work at Bare Island battery, Botany Bay, had been criticized and rumours of incompetence and dishonest workmanship persisted. On 1 July 1890 a royal commission was appointed to investigate the letting of contracts and to report on the work already completed. The commissioners found that much of the construction was below standard: the colonial architect's supervision had not been adequate, specifications were altered without approval and expenditure insufficiently controlled. Barnet's evidence contradicted that of his subordinates which the commission accepted more readily than his own. Whatever deficiencies had occurred, and there were plenty, were Barnet's sole responsibility; he was found guilty of gross indifference towards his duties and of insubordination to the minister for public works.
Although the minister saved Barnet from further punishment, the commission's censure was a regrettable end to a distinguished career. For his part Barnet thought that the commissioners' report was an 'unseemly, cruel, and spiteful exhibition of silly persecution and injustice' and believed that he could have made a satisfactory explanation if given the opportunity; he was also convinced that the commission had been influenced by de Wolski who by invitation had attended many of its meetings and been permitted to comment on the evidence.
In his architectural work Barnet had been strongly influenced by the Italian Renaissance, but some of his buildings were on poor sites. He had no sympathy for new styles of architecture which were becoming fashionable in Sydney at the end of the century and tended to ape American trends. He was equally critical of domestic architecture cluttered with useless ornamentation and 'surmounted with blazing red tiles from France'. As colonial architect for twenty-five years he had an important influence on colonial architecture; his public buildings were well built and well designed and stood as a memorial to his ability. References to his work are sprinkled throughout the Sydney Morning Herald in 1863-1904. In 1899 he published Architectural Work in Sydney, New South Wales, 1788-1899.
Barnet died on 16 December 1904 and was buried in the Presbyterian section at Rookwood cemetery where his wife had been interred about 1890. He was survived by four daughters and three sons, two of whom practised their father's profession.
Source: Old Dubbo Gaol & Australian Dictionary Of Biography.
Christ Church, built almost on the corner of Glenlyon Road and Brunswick Street in Brunswick, is a picturesque slice of Italy in inner city Melbourne. With its elegant proportions, warm yellow stuccoed facade and stylish Romanesque campanile, the church would not look out of place sitting atop a rise in Tuscany, or being the centre of an old walled town. This idea is further enhanced when the single bell rings from the campanile, calling worshipers to prayer.
Christ Church has been constructed in a cruciform plan with a detached campanile. Although not originally intended as such, at its completion, the church became an excellent example of "Villa Rustica" architecture in Australia. Like other churches around the inner city during the boom and bust eras of the mid Nineteenth Century as Melbourne became an established city, the building was built in stages between 1857 and 1875 as money became available to extend and better what was already in existence. Christ Church was dedicated in 1857 when the nave, designed by architects Purchas and Swyer, was completed. The transepts, chancel and vestry were completed between 1863 and 1864 to the designs created by the architects' firm Smith and Watts. The Romanesque style campanile was also designed by Smith and Watts and it completed between 1870 and 1871. A third architect, Frederick Wyatt, was employed to design the apse which was completed in 1875.
Built in Italianate style with overture characteristics of classical Italian country house designs, Christ Church is one of the few examples of what has been coined "Villa Rustica" architecture in Victoria.
Slipping through the front door at the bottom of the campanile, the rich smell of incense from mass envelops visitors. As soon as the double doors which lead into the church proper close behind you, the church provides a quiet refuge from the busy intersection of Glenlyon Road and Brunswick Street outside, and it is quite easy to forget that cars and trams pass by just a few metres away. Walking up the aisle of the nave of Christ Church, light pours over the original wooden pews with their hand embroidered cushions through sets of luminescent stained glass windows by Melbourne manufacturers, Ferguson and Urie, Mathieson and Gibson and Brooks Robinson and Company. A set of fourteen windows from the mid-to-late Nineteenth Century by Ferguson and Urie depicting different saints are especially beautiful, filled with painted glass panes which are as vivid now as when they were created more than one hundred years ago. The floors are still the original dark, richly polished boards that generations of worshipers have walked over since they were first laid. The east transept houses the Lady Chapel, whilst the west transept is consumed by the magnificent 1972 Roger H. Pogson organ built of cedar with tin piping. This replaced the original 1889 Alfred Fuller organ. Beautifully executed carved rood figures watch over the chancel from high, perhaps admiring the marble altar.
Albert Purchas, born in 1825 in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales, was a prominent Nineteenth Century architect who achieved great success for himself in Melbourne. Born to parents Robert Whittlesey Purchas and Marianne Guyon, he migrated to Australia in 1851 to establish himself in the then quickly expanding city of Melbourne, where he set up a small architect's firm in Little Collins Street. He also offered surveying services. His first major building was constructing the mansion "Berkeley Hall" in St Kilda on Princes Street in 1854. The house still exists today. Two years after migrating, Albert designed the layout of the Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton. It was the first "garden cemetery" in Victoria, and his curvilinear design is still in existence, unaltered, today. In 1854, Albert married Eliza Anne Sawyer (1825 - 1869) in St Kilda. The couple had ten children over their marriage, including a son, Robert, who followed in his father's footsteps as an architect. Albert's brother-in-law, Charles Sawyer joined him in the partnership of Purchas and Sawyer, which existed from 1856 until 1862 in Queens Street. The firm produced more than 140 houses, churches, offices and cemetery buildings including: the nave and transepts of Christ Church St Kilda between 1854 and 1857, "Glenara Homestead"in Bulla in 1857, the Melbourne Savings Bank on the corner of Flinders Lane and Market Street (now demolished) between 1857 and 1858, the Geelong branch of the Bank of Australasia in Malop Street between 1859 and 1860, and Beck's Imperial Hotel in Castlemaine in 1861. When the firm broke up, Albert returned to Little Collins Street, and the best known building he designed during this period was St. George's Presbyterian Church in East St Kilda between 1877 and 1880. The church's tall polychomatic brick bell tower is still a local landmark, even in the times of high rise architecture and development, and St, George's itself is said to be one of his most striking church designs. Socially, Albert was vice president of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects for many years, before becoming president in 1887. He was also an inventor and philanthropist. Albert died in 1909 at his home in Kew, a wealthy widower and much loved father.
About 1,200 pairs of gannets nest here from August to March each year. They have now migrated to Australia.
Auckland | NEW ZEALAND
It's that time of year again for these cuckoo birds to migrate to Australia for their mating season. The male sings out his availability day and night which at times can be a bit much for us humans to listen to. I hope to be able to photograph a female when she answers his call.
Manoel Amarante migrated to Australia from the Azores, an island group considered to be part of Portugal. He married Mary O'Connor in 1873 and they eventually established a farm at Landsborough, North West of Melbourne, Australia. Here they settled and raised a new family changing their surname to Amarant in the process.
The Banded Dotterel is a protected endemic species to NZ. Being Mid January the breeding plumage shown here will disappear soon. After breeding, most of the inland breeding birds migrate to Australia for winter - Smart birds ;)
Red-necked Stint
Calidris ruficollis
March 5th, 2023
Killarney, Victoria, Australia
Canon EOS R5
Canon EF 600mm f4L IS III USM lens
A Red-necked Stint seeking refuge amongst the basalt rocks of Killarney beach. Stints breed in the Arctic tundra, migrating to Australia to spend the warmer months from September to April. They are usually found in beaches, coastal wetlands, mudflats, & salt pans, preferring shallow water with abundant small invertebrates.
TELEGRAPH CREEK is a small community located off Highway 37 in northern British Columbia at the confluence of the Stikine River and Telegraph Creek. The only permanent settlement on the Stikine River, it is home to approximately 250 members of Tahltan First Nation and non-native residents. The town offers basic services, including Anglican and Catholic churches, a general store, a post office, a clinic with several nurses on-call around the clock, two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, and a K-9 school. Steep river banks and rocky gorges form the terraced nature of the geography. In 1874, Nellie Cashman, nicknamed "the Angel of Cassiar", opened a boarding house for miners in Telegraph Creek during the Cassiar gold rush. The road between Dease Lake, BC and Telegraph Creek is beautiful but rough, with 113 km (70 mi) of gravel, steep gradients (up to 20%), narrow passages along canyon walls with no guardrails, and sharp-angled switchbacks.
The name came from - The Western Union Telegraph Company's projected line to connect the Old World and the New by way of Behring Strait, in 1866, crossed the Stikine River at this point.
TELEGRAPH CREEK Post Office was opened - 14 June 1899.
LINK to a list of the Postmasters who served at the TELEGRAPH CREEK Post Office - recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record...
The first Postmaster at TELEGRAPH CREEK was John Frank Callbreath - he served from - 1 July 1899 to 1905. LINK to a photo of Mayor John Frank Callbreath and Judge Bob Nyland at Telegraph Creek - search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/mayor-john-frank-ca...
John Frank Callbreath
(b. 1863 in Quesnel, British Columbia - d. 4 February 1930 at age 67 in Telegraph Creek, British Columbia) - LINK to his Find a Grave site - www.findagrave.com/memorial/178948964/john-frank-callbreath
(John Frank Callbreath related) - Commercial Yukon Airways Mail from Telegraph Creek - from: Victoria COVID Times, December 2020 - by Tom Watkins - LINK - www.vicstamps.com/covid_articles/vic_covid_times_dec2020_...
- sent from - / TELEGRAPH • CREEK / NO 19 / 18 / B.C. / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer (A1-1) was not listed in the Proof Book - it was most likely proofed c. 1899 - (RF B).
- via - / ATLIN / DE 2 / 18 / B.C. / - cds transit backstamp.
Addressed to: Robert Foster Esq / 419 (Bay Street) Esquimalt Road / Victoria, B.C.
Robert Foster
(b. July 1857 in New York, USA - d. 24 February 1933 at age 75 in Victoria, British Columbia) - occupation - marine engineer
(clipped from) - The Victoria Daily Times newspaper - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada • February 25, 1933 - LIVED HERE FOR SIXTY YEARS - Robert Foster, Engineer, of Old Beaver, Died Here Yesterday - Robert Foster, pioneer marine engineer and resident of Victoria since 1872, passed away yesterday evening at his home, 419 Bay Street, in his seventy-sixth year. Mr. Foster was at one time engineer on the old steamship Beaver and on the C.P.N. boat Yosemlte, and In later years was with the Albion Iron Works and Yarrow's Ltd. Born In July 1857, in New York of British parents, Mr, Foster came to Victoria in 1872. His parents came out from England to New York, from which city Mr. Foster Sr. migrated to Australia, then joined his family here in 1872. Young Foster took up marine engineering and for over half a century had been well known on this Coast. In 1883 he married Mary Jane McKinley, who predeceased him In 1918. He is survived by one son, Bertram, managing director of the Motor Boat and Repair Works Limited; also two grandchildren. LINK to the complete article - www.newspapers.com/article/the-victoria-daily-times-obitu...
His wife - Mary Jane (nee McKinley) Foster
(b. 1862 in Fort Erie, Ontario - d. 15 October 1918 at age 56 in Victoria, British Columbia) - LINK to her death certificate - search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/6b...
(clipped from) - Times Colonist newspaper - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada • October 15, 1918 - PIONEER RESIDENT DIES - Late Mrs. Mary Jane Foster Had Lived Here Nearly Half a Century. Member of a well-known family of pioneers, and a resident of Victoria for nearly half a century, Mrs. Mary Jane Foster, wife of Robert Foster, of 419 Bay Street, Victoria, passed away at St. Joseph's Hospital this morning at the age of fifty-six years. A daughter of the late John McKinley, Mrs. Foster was born in Fort Erie, Ontario. At the age of ten years she accompanied her parents to Victoria, coming West via the Union Pacific railway to San Francisco and then up to Vancouver Island by boat. Mrs. Foster had for many years been a member of the Reformed Episcopal Church. She leaves to mourn her loss besides her husband, one son, and a sister. Mrs. McNab, of Seattle. LINK - www.newspapers.com/article/times-colonist-obituary-for-ma...
Their son - Bertram Foster (1892-1960) - Heart Attack Claims City Shipyard Owner - Victoria shipyard owner Bertram Foster, 419 Bay, died this morning at 6.40, apparently of a heart attack. He was 68. Police ambulance and an inhalator crew attended at the yard. Mr. Foster produced wooden craft for the government during the Second World War. LINK - www.newspapers.com/article/times-colonist-bertram-foster-...
- a highly migratory species of sandpiper which breeds in east Siberia & west Alaska before migrating to Australia
- an exciting "first" for me!
The Excelsior Winery
Trojano Darveniza (1838-1927), established 'Excelsior Vineyard' in 1871, it is now historically acclaimed. By 1896 his Vineyard covered about 100 acres. The official registration of the Excelsior Winery trademark occurred in 1898 & not in 1871 when it was established. Trojano Darveniza never married. He brought out two of his brothers & their families to Mooroopna. Trojano's nephew Peter, migrated to Australia in 1893 & he married Ane Miljkovic. (Thomas Milovitch a great friend of Trojano's). Peter & Ane Darveniza had nine children. Three of the five sons inherited the business when the master died in 1927. Peter was known for remarkable strength & when he died in 1944, the management of Excelsior fell to his sons Paul, Peter Trojano & (when Paul died) John. In 1971 the vineyard covered 30 acres. The winery had a capacity of 60,000 gallons. The winery ceased to function in the late 1970's & the old building & equipment fell into disrepair. They locked the doors and worked away. They were great fortified wine makers, and these 2 metre high maturation barrels were full when it closed. Some, the staves have cracked and lost wine, but some are almost intact, and their sole job in life is to feed the angels their share, When you enter what is left of the maturation shed (which was the only structure left when I took this shot in the 90's), the whole place wreaks of a beautiful treacly port/sherry aroma. Obviously, I have added the building. There are many holes in the roof streaming in light all over the place, making the background awful.
Mooroopna, Goulburn Valley, Victoria, Australia.
Hobart, Tasmania
The present day Drunken Admiral building was constructed in 1825-26 on the northwest shore of Hunter Island, partly on reclaimed land. It was built for the Leith Australian Company which was initially established to encourage Scottish families to migrate to Australia...
The building was considered one of the finest in the colony, built of brick with a stone façade and roofing slate imported from Scotland...
ontheconvicttrail.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-drunken-admira...
The above Installation in a room in Pepper House, Kochi by Iranian born artist Hossein Valamanesh made of Lights,Voile,Steel space and Persian Carpets creates space for contemplation aound the idea of difference and different cultural spaces, their complexities and the way we perceive them. Artist is fascinated by theway people interact with places of worship regardless of their beliefs.
By using columns of light and darkness he alludes to the complex qualities of such places:
the carpeets covering the floor remind us of prayer rugs: however they do not all point to the same direction. It appears as if one architectural space has been superimposed on one existing space. Persian carpets indicates the floor of this space. A group of suspended columns hover slightly above the carpets.Half of these columns are made of black voile and the other half made of white voile are illuminated internally by a narrow beam of light, the only lighting for the installation. The mood of the space is quiet and the audience is asked to remove their shoes before entering.
Hossein Valamanesh was born in 1949 in Iran and graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Tehran. In 1973 he migrated to Australia.
Chinese Business History in Queensland - Pre gold rush: 1840-1850:
This research project focuses on finding out how Chinese business started and developed in Queensland during the 100-year period of 1840-1940 and the impact they had on the community. This blog post focuses on the pre gold rush period from 1840-1850.
While there are many researches that show Chinese people came to Australia long before the first fleet, the first officially recorded Chinese immigrate is Mak Sai Ying who arrived in Sydney on 27 Feb, 1818. As with many other Chinese immigrants in this period he started as a carpenter before he purchased land in Parramatta and was granted the licence for The Golden Lion Hotel, a public house in Parramatta.
Due to the restriction of the convict numbers to Australia there was a shortage of labourers.
In 1829, Fifty-Five Chinese migrated to Australia as labourers.
In 1823, John Oxley found Brisbane River but it was not until 1848 that the first Chinese labourers arrived in Brisbane.
In 1840, Sydney prohibited new convicts. More Chinese labourers were brought to Australia.
During 1840-1843, there was a drought in Australia and the land value crashed.
At the same time (1839-1842), British fought the first Opium War with China on behalf of drug traffickers. The battlefields were mainly in today’s Guangdong and Fujian provinces. The war ended with the “Treaty of Nanking” which opened free trade including opium in five ports: Guangzhou, Amoy, Foochow, Shanghai and Ningbo. Hong Kong also became a British colony.
The first Opium War not only opened the ports but also opened the eyes of the Chinese people to the Western world, especially in Guangdong and Fujian areas. With the increase of the trade with the world including with Australia, more Chinese people emigrated to overseas.
In 1848, first Chinese labourers arrived in Brisbane.
Most of the Chinese brought to Queensland before gold rush worked as shepherd, farm and general services. A photo from John Oxley Library showed a Memorandum of agreement between Choo and M.H Marsh owner of Maryland Station in 1850. According to the memorandum, Choo will receive three British dollars per month. In addition to his wage he also received Eight Spanish Dollars plus some weekly rations, including flour, rice, meat and tea.
During this period, there is no evidence Chinese business in Queensland, but there were some trade links including labour traffic between Queensland and China.
Chinese Business History in Queensland Farming: 1882-1900:
Soon after the gold rush, Cairns became a major centre for Chinese people. They used their farming experience from China to open the land and started farming in north Queensland.
There are detailed study’s in Cathie May’s book ‘Topsawyers : the Chinese in Cairns, 1870-1920’. As the book pointed out, Chinese farmers contributed significantly to the tropical agriculture in Queensland especially the Banana industry.
In 1885, banana was first recognised as an important export item. Chinese farmers in Queensland used their connections with their countrymen in Melbourne and Sydney to grow bananas and supply Chinese markets in New South Wales and Victoria. The sales of the Banana in QLD started from £2,000 in 1886 and grew to £25,000 in 1891. Controversially, the sugar industry dropped from £39,000 to £19,000 in the same period.
Also in 1885, the first Chinese temple, San Sheng Gong, was built in Brisbane. The anti-Chinese activities never stopped after the gold rush. In 1887, the Chinese commissioner first visited Australia but his visit didn’t improve the understanding between Chinese and Western people.
In the same year, the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act was passed. More and more Chinese people left Australia. The Chinese population in Queensland continued declining.
During this period, Australia also experienced great depression (1890-1893) and the Federation drought (1895-1903). In 1900, Bubonic plague broke out in Sydney. In 1901, Australia became a federation and passed ‘Immigration Restriction Act’, the White Australia Policy.
At the same time there were more wars and natural disasters in China. During Sino-French war (1883-1885) China was defeated again by France. This aroused nationalistic awareness about the China’s modernisation in southern China. In 1895, China was defeated by Japan, this war marked the growth of Japan and the decline of the Chinese empire, and it also triggered a reform movement to finally result in the beginning of revolution against the last empire – Qing dynasty.
Yihequan was a Chinese secret society supported by poor peasants to anti Qing dynasty and the westerners. The group practised certain martial arts (Gongfu) in the belief that this made them invulnerable, so the westerners called them Boxers. From 1898, they changed their name from Yihequan to Yihetuan which means “Righteous and Harmonious Militia” and turned their force against foreigners in China. By May 1900, the Boxers were roaming the countryside around Beijing. About 19,000 soldiers from 8 countries were formed and finally captured in Beijing on 14 August 1900. During the fight, about 100,000 or more people were killed. After 1900, the West got more power in China and Qing dynasty was weakened further.
This was a tough period to do business in Australia for Chinese entrepreneurs. However, Andrew Leon bought 1280 acres in 1888 to grow fruits. And our two major subjects also chose to stay in Australia.
In 1883, Tom See Poy and two other Chinese men set up the Kam Who store at Mourilyan and then moved to Innisfail and stayed there to grow his business till he died in 1926.
In 1885, Kwong Sue Duk moved to Darwin and built the famous Sue Wah Chin Building, originally known as Stone House in 1888. He continued his business there until 1902 when he moved back to Cairns. During this period, he married his 2nd wife (1886), 3rd wife (1887) and went back to China and brought his 1st wife and children to Darwin (1889). He became a citizen in 1889. In 1898, he brought his 1st wife back to China as she asked and stayed one year in China and married his 4th wife. He brought his 4th wife back to Darwin in 1899.
In this period, most Chinese businesses in Queensland are farming and farm related businesses in north Queensland. There were some furniture makers and shops in Brisbane as well.
Brisbane's Chinatown Mall:
Brisbane's Chinatown Mall was officially opened by Lord Mayor Sallyanne Atkinson on the 29th of January 1987, the first day of the Year of the Rabbit. The Mall was designed by architects and engineers from Guangzhou, and was intended to reflect Tang architecture. Brisbane City Council began a renovation of Chinatown Mall in 2009. The project, which was designed by Urbis, cost $8,000,000. The Mall was supposed to be finished by September 2009 but was delayed, reopening on 14 February 2010. Chinatown's popularity with Chinese Australians has declined in the past two decades, and Sunnybank is instead seen as the hub of Chinese culture in Brisbane.
Source: State Library of Queensland, Gregory, Helen; Dianne Mclay (2010). Building Brisbane's History: Structure, Sculptures, Stories and Secrets. Warriewood, New South Wales: Woodslane Press. pp. 61–62, Australia Chinese General Chamber of Business. "History of Chinatown"., Healthy Waterways. "Chinatown Mall Redevelopment". Archived from the original on 22 March 2014., & Moore, Tony (14 February 2010). "Golden gifts for Chinatown Mall's Year of the Tiger". Brisbane Times.
A group of European settlers who contributed substantially to the creation of the early Hunters Hill were Italians. In 1855–56 hundreds of immigrants from the north of Italy and Italian-speaking areas of Switzerland came to Sydney, and some settled in Hunters Hill and worked as stonemasons. As entrepreneurs like the Jouberts and Jeanneret were establishing their building programs, the expertise of these Italian stone masons was invaluable, and they were employed to construct houses, public buildings, and boundary walls. Closely associated with them was John Cuneo (1825–84), a supporter of Garibaldi who migrated to Australia from Genoa in 1854 and became a prominent business man in Hunters Hill. During 1861 and 1862, Cuneo built the suburb's first hotel, The Garibaldi. Though now used for offices and shops, The Garibaldi still stands prominently on the corner of Alexandra and Ferry streets, a golden stone building with a classical Italian sculpture in a niche above the door. Of all the Hunters Hill buildings, it is the most evocative of the Italian past.
Source: Sydney Dictionary website
On the Indian Pacific train you depart Aelaide 6:40 pm reaching Port August at 11pm; then Tarcoola 4:20 am; the siding of Bates at 7:40am. We have a brief stop at the former township of Cook at 9:45 am. We should reach Forrest in Western Australia about 1:54 pm; Rawlinna at 2:26 pm and Kalgoorlie at 7:10 pm.
As a condition of entering the federation of Australia WA Premier Sir John Forrest insisted on a transcontinental rail link with the eastern states via Port Augusta. Work began in 1912 and was completed in 1917. Water for the steam engines was obtained from bores across the Nullarbor but the high salt content meant steam engines rusted out very quickly. Coal was shipped from NSW and transported across the Nullarbor to tiny rail sidings and left in stockpiles to fuel the steam furnaces. It was a costly and relatively slow way of crossing from SA to Perth. The journey involved several changes of gauges from Adelaide with the first at Terowie where the 5’3” rail gauge line ended. The 3’6” gauge from Terowie meandered north through Quorn and down through the Pichi Richi Pass to Port August. Here was another change of gauge to the new standard line across to Kalgoorlie. At Kalgoorlie a further change of gauge occurred back to 3’6” the main gauge used in WA. The first train to cross from Sydney to Perth without a change of gauge was in 1970. The first air-conditioned train to cross to Perth from Port Pirie was in 1951. The original trip from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie took 42 hours but was later reduced to 29 hours by 1936 when the new direct line from Adelaide to Port Pirie opened. Today we travel the same section in 19 hours from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie.
Map of the proposed state of Auralia based on Kalgoorlie when WA hesitated about joining the Australian Federation in 1901.
Nullarbor.
This flat limestone plain is the largest area of karst landscape, with numerous subsurface caves, in the world. It stretches 1,200 kms from near Ceduna to near Norseman in WA. On it southern border high limestone cliffs face the Great Australian Bight; to the north the limestone plain becomes the Great Victoria Desert, a typical sandy desert. Nullarbor comes for the Latin “nullus” meaning not any and “arbor” meaning trees- hence no trees. However, this does not mean the Nullarbor lacks vegetation (or interest). Around 800 species of plants including saltbush and blue bush grow across the Nullarbor or its edges. Wildlife is plentiful but water is not. Somehow Edward John Eyre managed to cross the inhospitable landscape with the help of his Aboriginal friend Wylie in 1841. The pair was saved by a French whaling ship on the coast near Esperance. After receiving food and water Eyre and Wylie continued overland to Albany to complete the crossing from Streaky Bay. Eyre was award the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society in London for this incredible journey. After the journey Eyre took up land in SA and became Protector of Aborigines near Blanchetown (Moorundie).
The Characters of the Crossing.
The stations/sidings which you will probably not even see as they whizz by include a list of many of Australian
Prime Ministers and the eccentric Daisy Bates. In order, after Tarcoola which we pass through during the night, the sidings are: Barton; Bates; Ooldea; Watson; Fisher and Cook where we stop for a short time. Beyond Cook where the line is straight for a very long distance the sidings are: Denman; Hughes; Forrest (which has the major airport); Rawlinna, Chifley; Curtin and finally Kalgoorlie.
Barton. Sir Edmund Barton, 1829-1920, was an Australian born NSW scholar and politician. A staunch federalist he became the first Australian Prime Minister in 1901. He was the driving fore behind the writing of the Australian Constitution. He pushed for the White Australia Policy and got an act to repatriate Kanaka workers from Queensland. He resigned in 1903 to become a judge of the High Court of Australia.
Bates. Daisy Bates, 1863-1951, was an eccentric Irishwoman who migrated to Australia in 1884. She married in 1885 but seldom lived with her husband. After a five year trip to England she returned to Australia and took up living with remote Aboriginal communities, firstly in the Kimberlies and then at Ooldea in SA. She lived at Yalata or Ooldea from 1915 to 1934. She favoured segregation of full blood Aboriginal people, maintained they practised cannibalism and was unpopular with academic anthropologists but she had many articles written in newspapers to popularise her ideas and her work. She died at Prospect and was buried in North Road Anglican cemetery.
Ooldea. Ooldea has been an Aboriginal camping place for aeons as it has permanent water. Ernest Giles the explorer was the first white person to discover the water here in 1875. Ooldea became the rail siding for the Maralinga nuclear testing site and it was the home of Daisy Bates for many years.
Watson. John Christian Watson, 1867 -1941, was the third Prime Minister but served for only four months in 1904. He was Australia’s first Labor Prime Minister and he favoured protective tariffs. He retired from federal politics in 1910. He was known for his “Viking style” beard!
Fisher. Andrew Fisher, 1862-1928, was Prime Minister three times, 1908-9; 1910-13; and 1914-15. He was a founding Labor politician. Whilst PM he oversaw the establishment of the Australian Navy, the founding of the Commonwealth Bank, the founding of Canberra and the splitting of the Northern Territory from SA. He was also PM when a start was made on the Transcontinental rail line from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie in 1912. Not surprisingly the first few rail sidings across the Nullarbor are named after Labor Prime Ministers, except for Barton, our first Prime Minister. The conservative/national/free trade Prime Minsters generally have sidings in WA towards Kalgoorlie!
Cook. This station and tiny township was not named after Captain James Cook but Prime Minister Sir Joseph Cook, 1860-1947. Cook was the sixth PM in 1913-14. He began as a Labor politician but in the federal sphere switched away from protectionism to free trade. He served as a Liberal free trade Prime Minister. Cook agreed to the British request for troops to support them in World War One in France and Turkey.
Denman. Sir Thomas Denman, 1874-1954, was a British military man. He was appointed as Governor General of Australia in 1911. He conducted the founding ceremony for the establishment of Canberra in 1913. Denman interfered in federal politics and supported the PM who wanted complete Australian control and autonomy for the Australian Navy. Denman publically supported this. He was recalled to England in May 1914. Throughout the 1920s he supported Australia’s point of view in debates in the British House of Lords.
Hughes. William (Billy) Hughes was the first long surviving Australian Prime Minister as he was in power from 1915-1923. This record was not beaten until 1957 by Sir Robert Menzies. Billy Hughes lived from 1862- 1952. Hughes’ other record, being the longest serving member of parliament has not yet been surpassed. He was a politician for almost 52 years! Hughes served in earlier Labor ministries but split the Labor Party in 1917 by proposing conscription for the World War One war effort. He was expelled from the Labor Party! But he won the next election in alliance with the National Party. In 1923 he had insufficient parliamentarians to form government but he remained in parliament as a member of the United Australia Party which later became the Liberal Party. He died whilst still a parliamentarian aged 90 years.
Deakin. This siding is right on the WA/SA border. Alfred Deakin, 1856-1919, served as Prime Minister three times in the first few years of federation from 1903-4; 1905-8; and 1909-10. Alfred Deakin was a protectionists and finally Liberal in parliament. He was a great leader in the federation moment, a former Victorian Premier and is credited with starting the nation building process for Australia when he was Prime Minister. He was a scholar and a lawyer.
Reid. Sir George Reid, 1845-1918, was Prime Minister in 1904-5. He was a devout exponent of free trade and a Liberal but the other Liberal Alfred Deakin would not support him and his free trade policies. He went on to be leader of the Opposition against the Labor governments that followed him.
Forrest. Sir John Forest, 1847-1918, the first Baron Forrest of Bunbury, was an explorer, surveyor and politician extraordinaire. He was born at Bunbury in WA and became the founding Premier of WA when partial self-government was granted by Britain in 1890. Forrest led the explorers who did the first west to east crossing of the Nullarbor from Perth to Adelaide in 1870. He was the first Western Australian knighted in 1891. He served as Premier of WA from 1890 to 1901 during the decade when the population exploded with the gold discoveries at Kalgoorlie. He acted for the establishment of a water pipeline to Kalgoorlie; he unilaterally rejected Britain’s control of WA Aboriginal Affairs and summarily ended it; he took government control of the Great Southern Railway to Albany; he repealed a section of the state Constitution which stated 1% of all tax royalties must be spent on Aboriginal people. From 1901 to his death in 1918 he was a member of the federal parliament aligned with non-Labor politicians. Although he supported federation he fought hard for rights for WA including the building of a transcontinental railway from Port Augusta. Forrest’s reluctance to join federation until concessions were promised for WA led politicians and others in the goldfields to propose a new state called Auralia to enter the federation, even if the rest of WA did not. The capital of that state would have been Kalgoorlie. Once Forrest finally committed WA to join the federation this proposal for a separate state of Auralia was dropped. The Forrest siding or settlement with only a couple for residents is known for its airport. It has the largest runway outside of a capital city in case it is needed for emergency or military use. Light aircraft use the airport as a refuelling stop across the Nullarbor.
Rawlinna. This siding is named after the local sheep station, the largest in the world, with an historical homestead. Up to 80,000 sheep have been shorn in one year on Rawlinna Station.
Chifley. Joseph Benedict Chifley, 1885-1951, was a Labor Prime Minister for Australia after the Second World War from 1945- 1949. Ben Chifley introduced the Snowy Mountains irrigation scheme and founded the Australian National University in Canberra. He was no longer PM in 1951 but still a parliamentarian when he died in office in Canberra. He lost the 1949 elections on his proposal to nationalise the banks of Australia.
Curtin. John Curtin, 1884-1945 was the Labor Prime Minister for Australia during most of World War Two from 1941-45. He died in office in July 1945 just six weeks before the end of the War. His great contribution was to reject British proposals for the deployment of Australian troops to protect their interests and to put them under the command of General Douglas MacArthur from America who used our troops in South East Asia and New Guinea to protect Australia from invasion by the Japanese.
Kalgoorlie.
Gold was discovered here by Patrick Hannan and the city emerged overnight in 1893. The finds were so rich that it is still known as the richest mile on the planet. Thousands swarmed to the gold fields but deep shaft mining meant casual prospectors were soon just mine employees and most left the goldfields. By 1898 the town had a population of around 2,000 but only 500 were women. Once a railway line from Perth reached the town the population grew. The water pipeline reached the city in 1903 offering coastal amenities to outback residents! It was this small population of about 5,000 in 1900 that were in favour of joining the federation of Australia and creating a new state called Auralia. The port for this new colony would have been Esperance. The mine continued giving its riches to the mining companies. When it began in 1893 gold worth £421,000 was produced in WA. By 1900 the value of gold found in WA was worth £6,000,000! And the boom still continues in WA with nickel, oil, gas and iron and Kalgoorlie has the largest open cut mine in the world.
But relations on the gold fields have not always been cordial. Kalgoorlie is known for the 1934 Race Riots as mobs against Greek, Italian and Slavic mobs rioted, attacked and burned Greek and Slavic owned properties. Extra police were sent from Perth to quell the riots. The riot broke out on a Saturday night, a traditional night for drinking and violence. Foreign owned hotels were burned and residences lived in by foreigners had their windows smashed in both Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie. This was and still is the Wild West! Unlike the eastern states WA has always had more land than people and even into the 1970s virgin farmland was being granted or sold to new comers for little money. One of the last large cereal farming areas developed, which would have been in the state of Auralia, was at Esperance in the 1970s.
Chinese Business History in Queensland - Pre gold rush: 1840-1850:
This research project focuses on finding out how Chinese business started and developed in Queensland during the 100-year period of 1840-1940 and the impact they had on the community. This blog post focuses on the pre gold rush period from 1840-1850.
While there are many researches that show Chinese people came to Australia long before the first fleet, the first officially recorded Chinese immigrate is Mak Sai Ying who arrived in Sydney on 27 Feb, 1818. As with many other Chinese immigrants in this period he started as a carpenter before he purchased land in Parramatta and was granted the licence for The Golden Lion Hotel, a public house in Parramatta.
Due to the restriction of the convict numbers to Australia there was a shortage of labourers.
In 1829, Fifty-Five Chinese migrated to Australia as labourers.
In 1823, John Oxley found Brisbane River but it was not until 1848 that the first Chinese labourers arrived in Brisbane.
In 1840, Sydney prohibited new convicts. More Chinese labourers were brought to Australia.
During 1840-1843, there was a drought in Australia and the land value crashed.
At the same time (1839-1842), British fought the first Opium War with China on behalf of drug traffickers. The battlefields were mainly in today’s Guangdong and Fujian provinces. The war ended with the “Treaty of Nanking” which opened free trade including opium in five ports: Guangzhou, Amoy, Foochow, Shanghai and Ningbo. Hong Kong also became a British colony.
The first Opium War not only opened the ports but also opened the eyes of the Chinese people to the Western world, especially in Guangdong and Fujian areas. With the increase of the trade with the world including with Australia, more Chinese people emigrated to overseas.
In 1848, first Chinese labourers arrived in Brisbane.
Most of the Chinese brought to Queensland before gold rush worked as shepherd, farm and general services. A photo from John Oxley Library showed a Memorandum of agreement between Choo and M.H Marsh owner of Maryland Station in 1850. According to the memorandum, Choo will receive three British dollars per month. In addition to his wage he also received Eight Spanish Dollars plus some weekly rations, including flour, rice, meat and tea.
During this period, there is no evidence Chinese business in Queensland, but there were some trade links including labour traffic between Queensland and China.
Chinese Business History in Queensland Farming: 1882-1900:
Soon after the gold rush, Cairns became a major centre for Chinese people. They used their farming experience from China to open the land and started farming in north Queensland.
There are detailed study’s in Cathie May’s book ‘Topsawyers : the Chinese in Cairns, 1870-1920’. As the book pointed out, Chinese farmers contributed significantly to the tropical agriculture in Queensland especially the Banana industry.
In 1885, banana was first recognised as an important export item. Chinese farmers in Queensland used their connections with their countrymen in Melbourne and Sydney to grow bananas and supply Chinese markets in New South Wales and Victoria. The sales of the Banana in QLD started from £2,000 in 1886 and grew to £25,000 in 1891. Controversially, the sugar industry dropped from £39,000 to £19,000 in the same period.
Also in 1885, the first Chinese temple, San Sheng Gong, was built in Brisbane. The anti-Chinese activities never stopped after the gold rush. In 1887, the Chinese commissioner first visited Australia but his visit didn’t improve the understanding between Chinese and Western people.
In the same year, the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act was passed. More and more Chinese people left Australia. The Chinese population in Queensland continued declining.
During this period, Australia also experienced great depression (1890-1893) and the Federation drought (1895-1903). In 1900, Bubonic plague broke out in Sydney. In 1901, Australia became a federation and passed ‘Immigration Restriction Act’, the White Australia Policy.
At the same time there were more wars and natural disasters in China. During Sino-French war (1883-1885) China was defeated again by France. This aroused nationalistic awareness about the China’s modernisation in southern China. In 1895, China was defeated by Japan, this war marked the growth of Japan and the decline of the Chinese empire, and it also triggered a reform movement to finally result in the beginning of revolution against the last empire – Qing dynasty.
Yihequan was a Chinese secret society supported by poor peasants to anti Qing dynasty and the westerners. The group practised certain martial arts (Gongfu) in the belief that this made them invulnerable, so the westerners called them Boxers. From 1898, they changed their name from Yihequan to Yihetuan which means “Righteous and Harmonious Militia” and turned their force against foreigners in China. By May 1900, the Boxers were roaming the countryside around Beijing. About 19,000 soldiers from 8 countries were formed and finally captured in Beijing on 14 August 1900. During the fight, about 100,000 or more people were killed. After 1900, the West got more power in China and Qing dynasty was weakened further.
This was a tough period to do business in Australia for Chinese entrepreneurs. However, Andrew Leon bought 1280 acres in 1888 to grow fruits. And our two major subjects also chose to stay in Australia.
In 1883, Tom See Poy and two other Chinese men set up the Kam Who store at Mourilyan and then moved to Innisfail and stayed there to grow his business till he died in 1926.
In 1885, Kwong Sue Duk moved to Darwin and built the famous Sue Wah Chin Building, originally known as Stone House in 1888. He continued his business there until 1902 when he moved back to Cairns. During this period, he married his 2nd wife (1886), 3rd wife (1887) and went back to China and brought his 1st wife and children to Darwin (1889). He became a citizen in 1889. In 1898, he brought his 1st wife back to China as she asked and stayed one year in China and married his 4th wife. He brought his 4th wife back to Darwin in 1899.
In this period, most Chinese businesses in Queensland are farming and farm related businesses in north Queensland. There were some furniture makers and shops in Brisbane as well.
Brisbane's Chinatown Mall:
Brisbane's Chinatown Mall was officially opened by Lord Mayor Sallyanne Atkinson on the 29th of January 1987, the first day of the Year of the Rabbit. The Mall was designed by architects and engineers from Guangzhou, and was intended to reflect Tang architecture. Brisbane City Council began a renovation of Chinatown Mall in 2009. The project, which was designed by Urbis, cost $8,000,000. The Mall was supposed to be finished by September 2009 but was delayed, reopening on 14 February 2010. Chinatown's popularity with Chinese Australians has declined in the past two decades, and Sunnybank is instead seen as the hub of Chinese culture in Brisbane.
Source: State Library of Queensland, Gregory, Helen; Dianne Mclay (2010). Building Brisbane's History: Structure, Sculptures, Stories and Secrets. Warriewood, New South Wales: Woodslane Press. pp. 61–62, Australia Chinese General Chamber of Business. "History of Chinatown"., Healthy Waterways. "Chinatown Mall Redevelopment". Archived from the original on 22 March 2014., & Moore, Tony (14 February 2010). "Golden gifts for Chinatown Mall's Year of the Tiger". Brisbane Times.
An old Presbyterian Church:
The hall is situated on the corner of Enoggera Terrace and Surrey Street, and stands on what was originally portion 741, a section of over three acres in size, first purchased from the Crown by John Nott in 1869 for seven pounds, ten shillings, and sixpence. Nott was a produce merchant, and according to postal records, resided in Red Hill from at least 1878.
Alexander McLean purchased the entire portion in 1871 and it was subdivided in 1877 and again in 1885. Two of the three subdivisions were sold to trustees for £120. The trustees mortgaged the blocks, now totalling a little more than a quarter of an acre, presumably to provide funds for the construction of a wooden church with a shingled roof for the Ithaca Presbyterian congregation. The Presbyterian community in the area had been expanding for some time, in line with the general population growth then taking place in Brisbane. The congregation had been active since 1880 and had taken root in a branch Sunday school of the Wickham Terrace Presbyterian Church. The school was initially held in a Petrie Terrace shop owned by a Mr R. Menzies. Evening services were soon added, and, as the population expanded further and brought more Presbyterians to the locale, the Sunday school was relocated to the Red Hill School of Arts at Waterworks road. It was here that the idea for construction of a new local church was proposed.
Local builder E. Farris of Wellington Road, Red Hill constructed the church at a cost of £250. It was designed to hold up to 270 people, and the first church assembly, conducted by Rev. C McCulloch, was held on Sunday 6 December 1885. The first regular minister was Rev. G Crawford, who was appointed in 1887.
The Church served until 1929, when, partly in response to the needs of a growing congregation, the current Presbyterian Church was built. After this the former church was used as a church hall and Sunday School. The property was re-subdivided in 1949 and ownership transferred from the trustees directly to the Presbyterian Church itself. The hall roof was damaged by fire in 1956, and this is probably when the present corrugated metal roof was installed. Restroom amenities were expanded in 1972.
The building was sold to the developer Spero Conias in 1980 and it underwent renovations and alterations. These included the replacement of floorboards and wall panels, the addition of leadlight windows, the conversion of the altar area to a stage, and general maintenance work. A fully equipped commercial kitchen was also added. Since then it has been resold and seen a variety of different business and community uses. It was “The Paddington Reception Centre” for a period and was home to the Queensland Fencing Club, a yoga centre, and has even been used as a restaurant.
The Red Hill Boys Brigade Hall:
The property on which the hall stands has been in the continuous ownership of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland since 1890. It is on the same parcel of land first purchased from the Crown in 1869 by John Nott. Nott subdivided his land, retaining some from which to run his business as a produce merchant. The hall stands on Subdivision 1 which was first made in 1877, the ownership eventually passing to trustees, probably on behalf of the Presbyterian Church, in September 1890. The land was held by trustees until 1906 when it was transferred to the Presbyterian Church itself, which maintains ownership to this day.
The Boys’ Brigade 1st Brisbane Company was formed by George Orr at the Presbyterian Church on Enoggera Terrace in 1913. Orr was a Scottish master plumber who had been involved with the Boys’ Brigade in his home country where he had become a staunch advocate of the Brigade’s aims, which had been laid down by the organisation’s founder William Alexander Smith: “the advancement of Christ’s kingdom among Boys, and the promotion of habits of Obediance, Reverence, Discipline, Self-respect, and all that tends towards true Christian Manliness.” An organisation much influenced by the military, these objectives were met by the Brigade through parade drill, bible study, and regular meetings and camps. Although the boys drilled with dummy rifles in the United Kingdom, and the Brisbane Company used army rifles blocked to prevent firing, this was only as an accoutrement to drilling and the Brigade did not train members in the actual use of weapons. After 1926, the practice of drilling with dummy or “blocked” weapons ceased.
Orr had migrated to Australia in 1912 to work on the Brisbane sewerage scheme. He became an Elder of the Church in 1914, and under his guidance the 1st Brisbane Company became immensely successful. By 1919 the Company was able to commission the construction of a hall at the cost of £1500. The boys raised £400 of the money themselves and obtained loans for the rest which they were able to repay in total by 1924. By this time 134 boys were enrolled in the Company. The Company grew rapidly through World War I. In the early 1920s, the Company was visited by the Governor General of Australia, Sir Matthew Nathan, and was widely considered at this time as the best run Boys’ Brigade unit in Australia. It was used as a model for other Boys’ Brigade groups being established at the time. In 1926, the Boys’ Brigade amalgamated with the Boys’ Light Brigade, a similar organisation. This did not affect the Boys’ Brigade unit in Enoggera Terrace.
The 1st Brisbane Company of the Boys’ Brigade has been regarded as the first really successful unit of its type in Australia, and is Australia’s longest continually active Boy’s Brigade unit. It is still based in the original hall, eighty years after it was constructed, and eighty-seven years after the unit itself was formed.
There is no doubt that such a successful organisation would have had a significant presence in the local community. All the local boys would have been well aware of the Boys’ Brigade, and possibly attracted by the organisation’s focus of camps, drill, and weapons training. That it was a noteworthy part of the fabric of Red Hill society in the first part of the 20th century seems certain. The formation of a Boys’ Brigade unit in the area also demonstrates the population growth that took place in the region, a growth which was gradually more and more able to support various community organisations, culminating in the establishment of bases like the Boys’ Brigade Hall.
Source: Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.
Created by Melbourne stained glass manufacturer Ferguson and Urie in 1880 for the opening of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church, the Saint Philip the Evangelist stained glass window sits in the southern transept to the right of the altar. Unlike most saints depicted in stained glass iconography, this version of Saint Philip the Evangelist is dressed unusually in Middle-Eastern garb with sandals upon his feet. Saint Philip the Evangelist is referred to in the Book of Acts. He is one of the Seven Deacons chosen to care for the poor of the Jerusalem Christian community. He was a preacher, purportedly performed miracles in Samaria and baptised converts to the Christian faith. He is perhaps best known for baptising an Ethiopian man in Gaza, thus commencing the Ethiopian Church. It is perhaps for this reason that his window is paired with that of John the Baptist. John preached repentance and reinvigoration of religious practice, but did so from outside the heirachy of the Jewish religion, following the tradition of the Old Testament prophets. He is described as the one coming before Jesus to announce his coming and reawakens people to their faith in God. His radical asceticism was a protest against the religious complacency commonplace in his lifetime. He used the act of baptism of his followers in the River Jordan as a central sacrament, whereby a follower's zeal for faithful worship in God was renewed. He is best known for baptising Jesus. Both figures stand against the same background: a "diaper pattern" containing yellow fleur-de-lis. They also feature a border of coloured squares dispersed with stylised flowers with an inner border of brightly coloured circles. Both the background and the border are common elements of Ferguson and Urie's stained glass window work, and match other, non-figurative windows in the nave and transepts of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church. A round vent window above them features a cross in red glass on a blue and yellow background.
The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church, which stands on busy Chapel Street in St Kilda East, is a well known and loved local landmark, not least of all because of its strikingly tall (33.5 metre or 110 foot) banded bell tower which can be spotted from far away. In the Nineteenth Century when it was built, it would have been even more striking for its great height and domineering presence. Designed by architect Albert Purchas, the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church is often referred to as his ecclesiastical tour-de-force, and it is most certainly one of his most dramatic and memorable churches.
The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church was constructed on a plot of land reserved in Chapel Street for the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1866. Initially services were held in a small hall whilst fundraising efforts advanced the erection of a church. The architect Albert Purchas was commissioned to design the church and the foundation stone for the western portion of the nave was finally laid in April 1877 by Sir James McCulloch. The first service was held in the church on the 1st of October 1877. The first clergyman of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church was the Reverend John Laurence Rentoul (father to world renown and much loved Australian children's book illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite). However, the swelling Presbyterian congregation of St Kilda and its surrounding districts quickly outgrew the initial Saint George's Presbyterian Church building, so Albert Purchas was obliged to re-design and enlarge the church to allow a doubling in capacity. Robert S. Ekins was the contractor and his tender was £3000.00. It is this imposing church building, reopened in 1880, that we see today. The "Australasian Sketcher with Pen and Pencil" noted that the total length of the building was 118 feet and 6 inches (36 metres), by 40 foot (12 metres) wide and that the striking octagonal tower to the north-west was 110ft 6 in high. It perhaps reflected better the wealth and aspirations of the congregation.
The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church is constructed on bluestone foundations and is built in an ornate polychromatic Gothic Revival style in the tradition of English designers like William Butterfield and John L. Pearson. Built of red brick building, it is decorated in contrasting cream bricks and Waurn Ponds freestone dressings. It features a slate roof with prominent roof vents, iron ridge cresting and fleche at the intersection of the nave and transepts. The front facade of the church is dominated by the slender, banded octagonal tower topped by a narrow spire. The entrance features a double arched portal portico. The facade also features a dominant triangular epitrochoidal (curved triangular form) rose window. The church, like its bluestone neighbour All Saints Church of England, is built to a T-shaped plan, with an aisleless nave, broad transepts and internal walls of cream brick, relieved with coloured brickwork. The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church was one of the first major church design in Melbourne in which polychrome brickwork was lavishly employed both externally and internally.
The inside of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church is equally as grand as the exterior, with ornamental Gothic Revival polychromatic brickwork, a lofty vaulted ceiling, deal and kauri pine joinery and pulpit and reredos of Keene's cement. The building originally contained a complete set of Victorian stained glass windows by well known and successful Melbourne manufacturers Ferguson and Urie, all of which remain intact today except for one of the non-figurative windows which was replaced by a memorial window to Samuel Lyons McKenzie, the congregation’s beloved minister, who served from 1930 to 1948, in 1949. The earliest of the Ferguson and Urie windows are non-figurative windows which feature the distinctive diaper pattern and floral motifs of Fergus and Urie's work, and are often argued to be amongst the finest of their non-figurative designs. The large triple window in the chancel was presented by Lady McCulloch in memory of the ‘loved and dead’. Another, in memory of John Kane Smyth, the Vice-Consul for the United States of America in Melbourne, has the American Stars and Stripes on the top ventilator above it. An organ by Thomas C. Lewis of London, one of the leading 19th century English organ builders, was installed in the south transept in 1882. It was designed to blend with its architectural setting, with pipework styled to avoid the obstruction of windows. The action of this organ was altered in 1935, but the pipework, and the original sound, have been retained.
Over the years many spiritual and social activities were instituted at Saint George’s, Presbyterian Church some of short duration such as the Ladies’ Reading Club which operated between 1888 and 1893. There were segregated Bible classes for young men and women, the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union, formed in 1892, a cricket club and a floral guild. Guilds teaching physical culture for girls, boys and young men began in 1904. They were entirely financed by John Maclellan and the idea extended to other denominations throughout Victoria. John Maclellan died in 1936 and the guilds ceased at Saint George’s Presbyterian church through lack of funds although in 1977 the members of the girls’ guild were still holding bi-annual reunions and raising money for charity. Sadly, the Presbyterian congregations may have been large in the Nineteenth Century, but by St George's Presbyterian Church's 110th centenary, its doors had already closed during the week due to dwindling numbers and an ageing congregation as a result of the general decline in church attendances after the Second World War exacerbated by the changing nature of St Kilda and the decrease in numbers of residents living in the vicinity of the church. So it stood, forlorn and empty and seemingly nothing more than a relic of a glorious but bygone religious past. However in 1990, Saint Michael's Grammar School across the road leased the Victorian Heritage listed building during weekdays, and it was eventually sold to them in 2015. It now forms part of the school's performing-arts complex, and it has a wonderful new lease of life.
St George's Presbyterian Church is sometimes hired out for performances, and I had the pleasure of receiving an invitation to hear Handel's Messiah performed there in 2009. The ecclesiastical acoustics made the performance all the more magnificent. I remember as I sat on one of the original (hard) kauri pine pews, I looked around me and admired the stained glass and ornamental brickwork. I tried without success over several subsequent years to gain access to the church's interior, settling for photographs of the exterior instead, but it wasn't until 2018 that I was fortunate enough to gain entry to photograph the church's interior. The former St George's Presbyterian Church was opened up to the public for one Sunday morning only as part of Open House Melbourne in July 2018. It was a fantastic morning, and I am very grateful to the staff who manned the church for the day and watched bemused as I photographed the stained glass extensively and in such detail.
Albert Purchas, born in 1825 in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales, was a prominent Nineteenth Century architect who achieved great success for himself in Melbourne. Born to parents Robert Whittlesey Purchas and Marianne Guyon, he migrated to Australia in 1851 to establish himself in the then quickly expanding city of Melbourne, where he set up a small architect's firm in Little Collins Street. He also offered surveying services. His first major building was constructing the mansion "Berkeley Hall" in St Kilda on Princes Street in 1854. The house still exists today. Two years after migrating, Albert designed the layout of the Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton. It was the first "garden cemetery" in Victoria, and his curvilinear design is still in existence, unaltered, today. In 1854, Albert married Eliza Anne Sawyer (1825 - 1869) in St Kilda. The couple had ten children over their marriage, including a son, Robert, who followed in his father's footsteps as an architect. Albert's brother-in-law, Charles Sawyer joined him in the partnership of Purchas and Sawyer, which existed from 1856 until 1862 in Queens Street. The firm produced more than 140 houses, churches, offices and cemetery buildings including: the nave and transepts of Christ Church St Kilda between 1854 and 1857, "Glenara Homestead"in Bulla in 1857, the Melbourne Savings Bank on the corner of Flinders Lane and Market Street (now demolished) between 1857 and 1858, the Geelong branch of the Bank of Australasia in Malop Street between 1859 and 1860, and Beck's Imperial Hotel in Castlemaine in 1861. When the firm broke up, Albert returned to Little Collins Street, and the best known building he designed during this period was Saint. George's Presbyterian Church in St Kilda East between 1877 and 1880. The church's tall polychomatic brick bell tower is still a local landmark, even in the times of high rise architecture and development, and Saint, George's itself is said to be one of his most striking church designs. Socially, Albert was vice president of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects for many years, before becoming president in 1887. He was also an inventor and philanthropist. Albert died in 1909 at his home in Kew, a wealthy widower and much loved father.
The stained glass firm of Ferguson and Urie was established by Scots James Ferguson (1818 – 1894), James Urie (1828 – 1890) and John Lamb Lyon (1836 – 1916). They were the first known makers of stained glass in Australia. Until the early 1860s, window glass in Melbourne had been clear or plain coloured, and nearly all was imported, but new churches and elaborate buildings created a demand for pictorial windows. The three Scotsmen set up Ferguson and Urie in 1862 and the business thrived until 1899, when it ceased operation, with only John Lamb Lyon left alive. Ferguson and Urie was the most successful Nineteenth Century Australian stained glass window making company. Among their earliest works were a Shakespeare window for the Haymarket Theatre in Bourke Street, a memorial window to Prince Albert in Holy Trinity, Kew, and a set of Apostles for the West Melbourne Presbyterian Church. Their palatial Gothic Revival office building stood at 283 Collins Street from 1875. Ironically, their last major commission, a window depicting “labour”, was installed in the old Melbourne Stock Exchange in Collins Street in 1893 on the eve of the bank crash. Their windows can be found throughout the older suburbs of Melbourne and across provincial Victoria.
Created by Melbourne stained glass manufacturer Ferguson and Urie in 1880 for the opening of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church, this non-figurative stained glass window features design elements typical of their work. It features a latticed "diaper" pattern containing stylised floral designs in yellow. It has a border of coloured squares dispersed with stylised flowers, also a common element of Ferguson and Urie's windows. Each lancet window features two diamond shaped panes, one at the top and one at the bottom of the window, and a central round pane of brightly coloured glass, once again featuring a stylised floral image set into an eight pointed star. A round vent at the top features a Tudor Rose sitting in the middle of an eight pointed star of green and golden yellow.
The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church, which stands on busy Chapel Street in St Kilda East, is a well known and loved local landmark, not least of all because of its strikingly tall (33.5 metre or 110 foot) banded bell tower which can be spotted from far away. In the Nineteenth Century when it was built, it would have been even more striking for its great height and domineering presence. Designed by architect Albert Purchas, the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church is often referred to as his ecclesiastical tour-de-force, and it is most certainly one of his most dramatic and memorable churches.
The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church was constructed on a plot of land reserved in Chapel Street for the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1866. Initially services were held in a small hall whilst fundraising efforts advanced the erection of a church. The architect Albert Purchas was commissioned to design the church and the foundation stone for the western portion of the nave was finally laid in April 1877 by Sir James McCulloch. The first service was held in the church on the 1st of October 1877. The first clergyman of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church was the Reverend John Laurence Rentoul (father to world renown and much loved Australian children's book illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite). However, the swelling Presbyterian congregation of St Kilda and its surrounding districts quickly outgrew the initial Saint George's Presbyterian Church building, so Albert Purchas was obliged to re-design and enlarge the church to allow a doubling in capacity. Robert S. Ekins was the contractor and his tender was £3000.00. It is this imposing church building, reopened in 1880, that we see today. The "Australasian Sketcher with Pen and Pencil" noted that the total length of the building was 118 feet and 6 inches (36 metres), by 40 foot (12 metres) wide and that the striking octagonal tower to the north-west was 110ft 6 in high. It perhaps reflected better the wealth and aspirations of the congregation.
The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church is constructed on bluestone foundations and is built in an ornate polychromatic Gothic Revival style in the tradition of English designers like William Butterfield and John L. Pearson. Built of red brick building, it is decorated in contrasting cream bricks and Waurn Ponds freestone dressings. It features a slate roof with prominent roof vents, iron ridge cresting and fleche at the intersection of the nave and transepts. The front facade of the church is dominated by the slender, banded octagonal tower topped by a narrow spire. The entrance features a double arched portal portico. The facade also features a dominant triangular epitrochoidal (curved triangular form) rose window. The church, like its bluestone neighbour All Saints Church of England, is built to a T-shaped plan, with an aisleless nave, broad transepts and internal walls of cream brick, relieved with coloured brickwork. The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church was one of the first major church design in Melbourne in which polychrome brickwork was lavishly employed both externally and internally.
The inside of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church is equally as grand as the exterior, with ornamental Gothic Revival polychromatic brickwork, a lofty vaulted ceiling, deal and kauri pine joinery and pulpit and reredos of Keene's cement. The building originally contained a complete set of Victorian stained glass windows by well known and successful Melbourne manufacturers Ferguson and Urie, all of which remain intact today except for one of the non-figurative windows which was replaced by a memorial window to Samuel Lyons McKenzie, the congregation’s beloved minister, who served from 1930 to 1948, in 1949. The earliest of the Ferguson and Urie windows are non-figurative windows which feature the distinctive diaper pattern and floral motifs of Fergus and Urie's work, and are often argued to be amongst the finest of their non-figurative designs. The large triple window in the chancel was presented by Lady McCulloch in memory of the ‘loved and dead’. Another, in memory of John Kane Smyth, the Vice-Consul for the United States of America in Melbourne, has the American Stars and Stripes on the top ventilator above it. An organ by Thomas C. Lewis of London, one of the leading 19th century English organ builders, was installed in the south transept in 1882. It was designed to blend with its architectural setting, with pipework styled to avoid the obstruction of windows. The action of this organ was altered in 1935, but the pipework, and the original sound, have been retained.
Over the years many spiritual and social activities were instituted at Saint George’s, Presbyterian Church some of short duration such as the Ladies’ Reading Club which operated between 1888 and 1893. There were segregated Bible classes for young men and women, the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union, formed in 1892, a cricket club and a floral guild. Guilds teaching physical culture for girls, boys and young men began in 1904. They were entirely financed by John Maclellan and the idea extended to other denominations throughout Victoria. John Maclellan died in 1936 and the guilds ceased at Saint George’s Presbyterian church through lack of funds although in 1977 the members of the girls’ guild were still holding bi-annual reunions and raising money for charity. Sadly, the Presbyterian congregations may have been large in the Nineteenth Century, but by St George's Presbyterian Church's 110th centenary, its doors had already closed during the week due to dwindling numbers and an ageing congregation as a result of the general decline in church attendances after the Second World War exacerbated by the changing nature of St Kilda and the decrease in numbers of residents living in the vicinity of the church. So it stood, forlorn and empty and seemingly nothing more than a relic of a glorious but bygone religious past. However in 1990, Saint Michael's Grammar School across the road leased the Victorian Heritage listed building during weekdays, and it was eventually sold to them in 2015. It now forms part of the school's performing-arts complex, and it has a wonderful new lease of life.
St George's Presbyterian Church is sometimes hired out for performances, and I had the pleasure of receiving an invitation to hear Handel's Messiah performed there in 2009. The ecclesiastical acoustics made the performance all the more magnificent. I remember as I sat on one of the original (hard) kauri pine pews, I looked around me and admired the stained glass and ornamental brickwork. I tried without success over several subsequent years to gain access to the church's interior, settling for photographs of the exterior instead, but it wasn't until 2018 that I was fortunate enough to gain entry to photograph the church's interior. The former St George's Presbyterian Church was opened up to the public for one Sunday morning only as part of Open House Melbourne in July 2018. It was a fantastic morning, and I am very grateful to the staff who manned the church for the day and watched bemused as I photographed the stained glass extensively and in such detail.
Albert Purchas, born in 1825 in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales, was a prominent Nineteenth Century architect who achieved great success for himself in Melbourne. Born to parents Robert Whittlesey Purchas and Marianne Guyon, he migrated to Australia in 1851 to establish himself in the then quickly expanding city of Melbourne, where he set up a small architect's firm in Little Collins Street. He also offered surveying services. His first major building was constructing the mansion "Berkeley Hall" in St Kilda on Princes Street in 1854. The house still exists today. Two years after migrating, Albert designed the layout of the Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton. It was the first "garden cemetery" in Victoria, and his curvilinear design is still in existence, unaltered, today. In 1854, Albert married Eliza Anne Sawyer (1825 - 1869) in St Kilda. The couple had ten children over their marriage, including a son, Robert, who followed in his father's footsteps as an architect. Albert's brother-in-law, Charles Sawyer joined him in the partnership of Purchas and Sawyer, which existed from 1856 until 1862 in Queens Street. The firm produced more than 140 houses, churches, offices and cemetery buildings including: the nave and transepts of Christ Church St Kilda between 1854 and 1857, "Glenara Homestead"in Bulla in 1857, the Melbourne Savings Bank on the corner of Flinders Lane and Market Street (now demolished) between 1857 and 1858, the Geelong branch of the Bank of Australasia in Malop Street between 1859 and 1860, and Beck's Imperial Hotel in Castlemaine in 1861. When the firm broke up, Albert returned to Little Collins Street, and the best known building he designed during this period was Saint. George's Presbyterian Church in St Kilda East between 1877 and 1880. The church's tall polychomatic brick bell tower is still a local landmark, even in the times of high rise architecture and development, and Saint, George's itself is said to be one of his most striking church designs. Socially, Albert was vice president of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects for many years, before becoming president in 1887. He was also an inventor and philanthropist. Albert died in 1909 at his home in Kew, a wealthy widower and much loved father.
The stained glass firm of Ferguson and Urie was established by Scots James Ferguson (1818 – 1894), James Urie (1828 – 1890) and John Lamb Lyon (1836 – 1916). They were the first known makers of stained glass in Australia. Until the early 1860s, window glass in Melbourne had been clear or plain coloured, and nearly all was imported, but new churches and elaborate buildings created a demand for pictorial windows. The three Scotsmen set up Ferguson and Urie in 1862 and the business thrived until 1899, when it ceased operation, with only John Lamb Lyon left alive. Ferguson and Urie was the most successful Nineteenth Century Australian stained glass window making company. Among their earliest works were a Shakespeare window for the Haymarket Theatre in Bourke Street, a memorial window to Prince Albert in Holy Trinity, Kew, and a set of Apostles for the West Melbourne Presbyterian Church. Their palatial Gothic Revival office building stood at 283 Collins Street from 1875. Ironically, their last major commission, a window depicting “labour”, was installed in the old Melbourne Stock Exchange in Collins Street in 1893 on the eve of the bank crash. Their windows can be found throughout the older suburbs of Melbourne and across provincial Victoria.
This is the block of land where my Great Uncle, Alexander (Scotty) Lennie Smith, built his smithy. The township is called Bilbarin in the wheat belt of Western Australia. He migrated to Australia in 1909 from Scotland. He served with the Gordon Highlander Regiment in the Boer War.
My Great Aunt, Elizabeth (Bessie) Mary Walker migrated to Australia in 1918. She married Alex two days after landing in Fremantle.
I don't know what their story is. She was a nurse in England, did she nurse him after the Boer War? Or maybe they were intoduced by her brother Herbert (Bertie) Walker who also served in the Boer War.
They farmed for a while in Bilbarin and then he returned to smithing and also became a part-owner of a Co-Op store there. They eventually retired to Albany, Western Australia.
Bessie died in 1949. Alex died in 1968. They are both buried in Albany.
It was lovely to visit the place where they had lived and worked. Even though there was only a hall left there now, there are a number of signs recording where the buildings once stood.
Double-banded Plover surveying Merimbula Lake at low tide.
These birds breed in New Zealand, then migrate to Australia for winter.
Fluttering Shearwater (Puffinus gavia), Sydney Pelagic, NSW, Australia
Ebird checklist:
ebird.org/checklist/S126945816
The fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia) is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is endemic to New Zealand and migrates to Australia and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are open seas and rocky shores.
Source: Wikipedia
Created for the opening of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church in 1880 by Melbourne stained glass manufacturer Ferguson and Urie, the Burning Bush window appears in the southern transept of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church. It gleams in rich hues of purple, blue and olive green above the Thomas C. Lewis of London organ which was installed in the south transept in 1882. The organ was designed to blend with its architectural setting, with pipework styled to avoid the obstruction of windows. This is fortunate for us so that we see the Burning Bush window in its entirety.
The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church was constructed on a plot of land reserved in Chapel Street for the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1866. Initially services were held in a small hall whilst fundraising efforts advanced the erection of a church. The architect Albert Purchas was commissioned to design the church and the foundation stone for the western portion of the nave was finally laid in April 1877 by Sir James McCulloch. The first service was held in the church on the 1st of October 1877. The first clergyman of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church was the Reverend John Laurence Rentoul (father to world renown and much loved Australian children's book illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite). However, the swelling Presbyterian congregation of St Kilda and its surrounding districts quickly outgrew the initial Saint George's Presbyterian Church building, so Albert Purchas was obliged to re-design and enlarge the church to allow a doubling in capacity. Robert S. Ekins was the contractor and his tender was £3000.00. It is this imposing church building, reopened in 1880, that we see today. The "Australasian Sketcher with Pen and Pencil" noted that the total length of the building was 118 feet and 6 inches (36 metres), by 40 foot (12 metres) wide and that the striking octagonal tower to the north-west was 110ft 6 in high. It perhaps reflected better the wealth and aspirations of the congregation.
The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church is constructed on bluestone foundations and is built in an ornate polychromatic Gothic Revival style in the tradition of English designers like William Butterfield and John L. Pearson. Built of red brick building, it is decorated in contrasting cream bricks and Waurn Ponds freestone dressings. It features a slate roof with prominent roof vents, iron ridge cresting and fleche at the intersection of the nave and transepts. The front facade of the church is dominated by the slender, banded octagonal tower topped by a narrow spire. The entrance features a double arched portal portico. The facade also features a dominant triangular epitrochoidal (curved triangular form) rose window. The church, like its bluestone neighbour All Saints Church of England, is built to a T-shaped plan, with an aisleless nave, broad transepts and internal walls of cream brick, relieved with coloured brickwork. The former Saint George's Presbyterian Church was one of the first major church design in Melbourne in which polychrome brickwork was lavishly employed both externally and internally.
The inside of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church is equally as grand as the exterior, with ornamental Gothic Revival polychromatic brickwork, a lofty vaulted ceiling, deal and kauri pine joinery and pulpit and reredos of Keene's cement. The building originally contained a complete set of Victorian stained glass windows by well known and successful Melbourne manufacturers Ferguson and Urie, all of which remain intact today except for one of the non-figurative windows which was replaced by a memorial window to Samuel Lyons McKenzie, the congregation’s beloved minister, who served from 1930 to 1948, in 1949. The earliest of the Ferguson and Urie windows are non-figurative windows which feature the distinctive diaper pattern and floral motifs of Fergus and Urie's work, and are often argued to be amongst the finest of their non-figurative designs. The large triple window in the chancel was presented by Lady McCulloch in memory of the ‘loved and dead’. Another, in memory of John Kane Smyth, the Vice-Consul for the United States of America in Melbourne, has the American Stars and Stripes on the top ventilator above it. An organ by Thomas C. Lewis of London, one of the leading 19th century English organ builders, was installed in the south transept in 1882. It was designed to blend with its architectural setting, with pipework styled to avoid the obstruction of windows. The action of this organ was altered in 1935, but the pipework, and the original sound, have been retained.
Over the years many spiritual and social activities were instituted at Saint George’s, Presbyterian Church some of short duration such as the Ladies’ Reading Club which operated between 1888 and 1893. There were segregated Bible classes for young men and women, the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union, formed in 1892, a cricket club and a floral guild. Guilds teaching physical culture for girls, boys and young men began in 1904. They were entirely financed by John Maclellan and the idea extended to other denominations throughout Victoria. John Maclellan died in 1936 and the guilds ceased at Saint George’s Presbyterian church through lack of funds although in 1977 the members of the girls’ guild were still holding bi-annual reunions and raising money for charity. Sadly, the Presbyterian congregations may have been large in the Nineteenth Century, but by St George's Presbyterian Church's 110th centenary, its doors had already closed during the week due to dwindling numbers and an ageing congregation as a result of the general decline in church attendances after the Second World War exacerbated by the changing nature of St Kilda and the decrease in numbers of residents living in the vicinity of the church. So it stood, forlorn and empty and seemingly nothing more than a relic of a glorious but bygone religious past. However in 1990, Saint Michael's Grammar School across the road leased the Victorian Heritage listed building during weekdays, and it was eventually sold to them in 2015. It now forms part of the school's performing-arts complex, and it has a wonderful new lease of life.
St George's Presbyterian Church is sometimes hired out for performances, and I had the pleasure of receiving an invitation to hear Handel's Messiah performed there in 2009. The ecclesiastical acoustics made the performance all the more magnificent. I remember as I sat on one of the original (hard) kauri pine pews, I looked around me and admired the stained glass and ornamental brickwork. I tried without success over several subsequent years to gain access to the church's interior, settling for photographs of the exterior instead, but it wasn't until 2018 that I was fortunate enough to gain entry to photograph the church's interior. The former St George's Presbyterian Church was opened up to the public for one Sunday morning only as part of Open House Melbourne in July 2018. It was a fantastic morning, and I am very grateful to the staff who manned the church for the day and watched bemused as I photographed the stained glass extensively and in such detail.
Albert Purchas, born in 1825 in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales, was a prominent Nineteenth Century architect who achieved great success for himself in Melbourne. Born to parents Robert Whittlesey Purchas and Marianne Guyon, he migrated to Australia in 1851 to establish himself in the then quickly expanding city of Melbourne, where he set up a small architect's firm in Little Collins Street. He also offered surveying services. His first major building was constructing the mansion "Berkeley Hall" in St Kilda on Princes Street in 1854. The house still exists today. Two years after migrating, Albert designed the layout of the Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton. It was the first "garden cemetery" in Victoria, and his curvilinear design is still in existence, unaltered, today. In 1854, Albert married Eliza Anne Sawyer (1825 - 1869) in St Kilda. The couple had ten children over their marriage, including a son, Robert, who followed in his father's footsteps as an architect. Albert's brother-in-law, Charles Sawyer joined him in the partnership of Purchas and Sawyer, which existed from 1856 until 1862 in Queens Street. The firm produced more than 140 houses, churches, offices and cemetery buildings including: the nave and transepts of Christ Church St Kilda between 1854 and 1857, "Glenara Homestead"in Bulla in 1857, the Melbourne Savings Bank on the corner of Flinders Lane and Market Street (now demolished) between 1857 and 1858, the Geelong branch of the Bank of Australasia in Malop Street between 1859 and 1860, and Beck's Imperial Hotel in Castlemaine in 1861. When the firm broke up, Albert returned to Little Collins Street, and the best known building he designed during this period was Saint. George's Presbyterian Church in St Kilda East between 1877 and 1880. The church's tall polychomatic brick bell tower is still a local landmark, even in the times of high rise architecture and development, and Saint, George's itself is said to be one of his most striking church designs. Socially, Albert was vice president of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects for many years, before becoming president in 1887. He was also an inventor and philanthropist. Albert died in 1909 at his home in Kew, a wealthy widower and much loved father.
The stained glass firm of Ferguson and Urie was established by Scots James Ferguson (1818 – 1894), James Urie (1828 – 1890) and John Lamb Lyon (1836 – 1916). They were the first known makers of stained glass in Australia. Until the early 1860s, window glass in Melbourne had been clear or plain coloured, and nearly all was imported, but new churches and elaborate buildings created a demand for pictorial windows. The three Scotsmen set up Ferguson and Urie in 1862 and the business thrived until 1899, when it ceased operation, with only John Lamb Lyon left alive. Ferguson and Urie was the most successful Nineteenth Century Australian stained glass window making company. Among their earliest works were a Shakespeare window for the Haymarket Theatre in Bourke Street, a memorial window to Prince Albert in Holy Trinity, Kew, and a set of Apostles for the West Melbourne Presbyterian Church. Their palatial Gothic Revival office building stood at 283 Collins Street from 1875. Ironically, their last major commission, a window depicting “labour”, was installed in the old Melbourne Stock Exchange in Collins Street in 1893 on the eve of the bank crash. Their windows can be found throughout the older suburbs of Melbourne and across provincial Victoria.