TheRamblingWombat Canberra

Robert Burns – For Auld Lang Syne

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After a number of years fundraising and having (after seven years of asking) secured land from the Federal Government the Canberra Scots set about building a statue to the memory of the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns. No sooner had work on the statue commenced in 1935 then a bill for £4 10s, being the first annual land rent, arrived from the Government. This affront was not going to be taken lightly and the quick thinking and “generous” Scots promptly dispatched a honeyed note (or was it a poisoned chalice?) to the Government offering the statue to the people of Australia. The Government couldn’t refuse and on accepting it accepted that it had to pay land rent to itself. The canny Scots had their Burns statue and the government had been outfoxed. Continue reading “Robert Burns – For Auld Lang Syne” →

TheRamblingWombat Adelaide

St Mary Magdalene and Mission Hall

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When nearby St John’s Anglican Church (also known as ‘St John’s in the Wilderness’) in Halifax Street, built in 1839, became to small and was found to be structurally unsound it was decided that a larger replacement, St Mary Magdalene’s, be built in Moore Street. It was to be a mission church in one of Adelaide’s poorest and depressed areas at the time and a spiritual “no man’s land”. (St John’s was also subsequently rebuilt). Continue reading “St Mary Magdalene and Mission Hall” →

TheRamblingWombat Adelaide

Pirie Street Methodist Church and Meeting Hall

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As I have intimated in my review on Pilgrim Uniting Church, the block between Flinders Street and Pirie Street, hosted two churches – the then Stow Memorial Church (accessed from Flinders Street) and the Wesleyan Methodist Church (accessed from Pirie Street. Until 1969, when the two congregations merged the churches were separated by a high stone wall and locked gate. Continue reading “Pirie Street Methodist Church and Meeting Hall” →

TheRamblingWombat Adelaide

Flinders Street Baptist Church

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Flinders Street Baptist Church, built between 1861 and 1863, is one of Adelaide’s oldest and prettiest churches with its stunning facade and fine brickwork. It is part of a small complex of ecclesiastical buildings on this site built, between 1863 and 1877. The hall behind the church was built around 1870 and the adjacent (former) manse (pictured next), now a private office building, was built in 1877. Continue reading “Flinders Street Baptist Church” →