Buildings

Parish Church It was all built as he planned except the top of the tower and spire. The tower was commenced but the fund to complete it was wound up in 1915. In August 1997 the height was increased by a metre in cement work (to be faced with stone later) and an open steel fleche erected to hold a new bell. This obviously falls far short of the original plan but is generally regarded as an honest solution to the problem of providing the incomplete tower with some integrity until the parish receives a windfall of some kind!

How the architect wanted St. Mary's to look.

New Window in Chapel

When St Mary's was first built in 1858 the alcove beyond the organ was closed off as the organ pumping room. For the first eighty years or so of our history men and boys were paid to pump air for the organ in this room. Many amused themselved between hymns by carving their names on walls and ceiling. Most of these have disappeared in subsequent replastering and painting - except for a few on the timber ceiling. That these remain surely justly rewards the effort and risk accepted by the grafitists in getting up there !

Another consequence of this room being hidden from view was that its window, originally very basic, was only ever patchily repaired when damaged and has been an eyesore ever since the space ceased being a broom cupboard was opened up in 1983.

Thanks to a generous donation from a parishioner, the two lancet window has now been completely filled with leadlight antique glass of a slight green tinge. The work was done by Geoff Walace of Collingwood who was one of a number of glass workers who recently worked on St Patrick's Cathedral restoration.

The parishioner who has donated the window has done so as a thank offering for the ministry at St Mary's of the late the Revd Geoffrey Tremayne Sambell who was Vicar of St Mary's from 1950-55 and later became Coadjutor Bishop of Melbourne and then Archbishop of Perth.

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email info@stmarys.org.au
last updated : 11-Jun-2005
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