Holy Cross Church

(Random walkies)

Bugger all walking done this last few days. It's been raining a fair bit. Been a bit crook. Laid on the sofa listening to the weather all weekend. Feeling pretty smug about the new sofa. The guy was so busy trying to con me for a double delivery fee he didn't notice he'd left a hundred off the bill. Mwha! Anyways, these photos are from last week when the sun was out. S'posed to be clearing again on Thursday. Hope so. I'm feeling a bit caged.


(Big version)

At Kincumber South there's an old orphanage and a small sandstone church. It's bigger than St Paul's a few minutes up the road. St Paul's was built in 1847 and Holy Cross was just before it in 1842. There's a wee old cemetery beside it which is quite lovely and Mary MacKillop's convent and school behind it. The Holy Cross website says some pioneer guy called Humpreys donated the land to the church in 1838. That'll be his name then on the road the church sits on, Humpreys Road.


(Big version)



"AD 1842" it says and above that there's a heart with what appear to be nails sticking out of it. Some sort of religious symbolism thingy no doubt.


(Big version)

The sandstone, according to the NSW Heritage Office came from the property of William Samson Pickett, which the Herald says was or is adjoining. It's not my cup of tea. I like a fine grained sandstone in creamy and golden colours like the stuff used on St Andrew's in Sydney.


(Big version)

Looking down into the bowl of the Kincumber Broadwater from the wee cemetery beside the church. The church-orphange grounds had a few cows and a vegie patch on it. The Kincumber South area is semi-rural.


(Big version)

Love the wee fences round these two, all rusty old iron lace. All three headstones are Riley. The one in the middle reads:

"In Memory of
WALTER THOMAS RILEY
WHO WAS
ACCIDENTALLY DROWNED
AT CAPE THREE POINTS
ON 6th MAY 1905
AGED 20 YEARS
AND 5 MONTHS

ERECTED BY HIS Co WORKERS
AND FRIENDS"

There were plenty of lovely old headstones like these and some going back to 1842. The Heritage Office says the graveyard "has scientific significance for its potential for research" and contains "graves of many early settlers. Land donated by Thomas Humphreys, local settler and church community member. Resting place of Thomas Humphreys ... Patrick Mulhall (pioneer of Wagstaff) ... and others associated with the settlement of Kincumber." Cool.


(Big version)

Croke Cottage. Sitting behind the school building and named after one of the Fathers I think.


(Big version)

The old school building, as viewed from beside the loos.

Went into the wee museum set up in one of the old school rooms. Lots of old photos of boys from the orphanage when it was going and schoolroom stuff, inkwells and cramped wooden desks and the like. Very interesting but it must've been scary in there being taught by penguins wielding steel-edged rulers in the days when corporal punishment was considered good for the soul.


(Big version)

Loo with a view, if it weren't for the wall. Just downhill from the school building. You can see how close to the water the whole church and school thing is. The ferry wharf is right behind the trees behind the loos.

Mary MacKillop


(Embiggulation unavailable)

MacKillop might be Australia's first saint sometime soon. Not being a catholic I know bugger all about such things but I do know she's been beatified. Whatever that is. Keep coming across references to her in the Brisbane Water area. She started a Josephite order of penguins and this orphanage and convent thingy is one of the places where they roost.