Friday, August 26, 2016
Country Cathedral
I am not one of those small bears who is overly impressed with churches and cathedrals but this one, St Patrick's, in Boorowa is a beaut. It is actually the second church of the same name in Boorowa. The original opened in 1855 and was demolished 130 years later. You wouldn't expect to find an impressive cathedral in a small New South Wales country town, but back in the 1870s the strong Irish community in Boorowa decided to build a splendid one that would also commemorate Daniel O'Connell, the "liberator of Ireland". The interior is really impressive, with Italian marble altars and statues. Most of the windows are stained-glass art commemorating the founding families of the town (there are a couple of plain windows left for late starters). The window above the main entrance shows the Irish connection. The 3 large sections show St Patrick, St Bridget and St Columba. The 3 small circular panels show the Irish harp, Daniel O'Connell and the badge of St Patrick. Our weekend explorations of country towns and places near Canberra are finding some wonderful surprises.
Labels: buildings, history, New South Wales
Friday, August 19, 2016
Memorial Clock
An hour and a half drive from Canberra is the small town of Boorowa. We have driven through there many times but never noticed the significant difference in the War Memorial clock tower. Dad read about it in one of our books, so we drove up two weekends ago to take a closer look. Look at the clock faces. They do not have numbers on them, they have the name ANZAC. The memorial was designed by a World War 1 veteran and built in1933 in memory of the local soldiers who served in the war. Plaques honouring them and those who served in later conflicts are attached to the sides of the building. I haven't been able to find records of other clocks with ANZAC instead of numbers, so if you are passing through Boorowa stop and take a look at this (possibly) unique monument.
Labels: history, New South Wales
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
De-stressing Saturday
Last weekend started with stress in our house at its highest. The Oldies decided during the past few years that they would have to sell our house and move into an apartment. They are both getting too aged and decrepit to cope with the stairs. Well, they found a great apartment and have been waiting for over a year for it to be completed. It is almost ready to move into, so they put our house on the market a month ago. We suffered 3 weeks of strangers inspecting the place and some of them were keen enough to come and bid at the auction on Saturday. By the time of the auction the Oldies were in a fine old state of stress. But guess what? The house sold for more than they expected. You can see that they were ecstatic when the photo was taken. Well, I had to calm them down a bit, so found a new road for them to explore. Just west of the city is a bridge across the Murrumbidgee River, at a spot called Uriarra Crossing. Mum and I hadn't stopped there before. While the Oldies relaxed, I spent time sitting on a stump watching traffic, and on the bank watching fish try to swim upstream against the fast-flowing current. Now we wait patiently (I can just see that happening) for the banks and the legal guys to finalize the details so that we can move into the apartment and the buyers can move in here.
Labels: Canberra, family
I am not one of those small bears who is overly impressed with churches and cathedrals but this one, St Patrick's, in Boorowa is a beaut. It is actually the second church of the same name in Boorowa. The original opened in 1855 and was demolished 130 years later. You wouldn't expect to find an impressive cathedral in a small New South Wales country town, but back in the 1870s the strong Irish community in Boorowa decided to build a splendid one that would also commemorate Daniel O'Connell, the "liberator of Ireland". The interior is really impressive, with Italian marble altars and statues. Most of the windows are stained-glass art commemorating the founding families of the town (there are a couple of plain windows left for late starters). The window above the main entrance shows the Irish connection. The 3 large sections show St Patrick, St Bridget and St Columba. The 3 small circular panels show the Irish harp, Daniel O'Connell and the badge of St Patrick. Our weekend explorations of country towns and places near Canberra are finding some wonderful surprises.
