An official visit to Bungendore

This is another in our series of walks around a NSW town.  This is our closest town, although I call it a village about 20km NE of our house.

Much of the information quoted below is based upon a "visit Bungendore " website.  For some strange reason there isn't a defined historic walk so we just followed our noses (or Tammy's tail - take your pick).  This map shows the streets we walked along.

I have subsequently come across a walk published in the SMH.  This covers much the same path but has a bit more information. Even more information is in this map hidden in the bowels of the Council website.

We parked at St Mary's Catholic Church.  This was a fine building, dating from 1862, but the greatest interest was ...

 ... this sign on the adjoining school building.

 A tad further down Turallo Tce was this imposing edifice.  It also had a sign ...

 .. but doesn't explain the current status of the building.  According to the SMH site it is a private residence.

 This was the second version of a Presbyterian church.  The website says "The original St John's Presbyterian Church (1875) was torn down to accommodate the railway. The current St John's was erected in 1886.  It seems to have been converted into a private residence: as Frances noted, the lace curtains are a bit of a give away!

 The final church is the Anglican, dating from 1864.  As the Register of War Memorials reveals it has many memorials to soldiers inside.  Unfortunately, but as is usually the case, the church was not open  so we didn't see inside.

Not far away is the official memorial in the form of this arch.  The opnly problem with it framing a Rugby match is that the play was down the far end of the paddock, meaning Boorowa were on the attack.  Fortunately by the time we'd walked across the park (avoiding a confrontation between Tammy and couple of other pooches due to all owners having strong leads) the Mudchooks had scored 2 tries!  Note from the future: they went on to score 10 tries and win easily!  The only thing I can think is that our presence inspired them!

Elsewhere in the town the blossom was beginning to appear.  Hopefully this marks the end of the severe frosts in the area.

The railway station was at the Eastern limit of our jaunt.  This design and decoration is now pretty standard (and simply pretty) in this area. The website advises "The railway station (which shut in 1987), gatekeeper's house and stationmaster's residence all date back to 1884-85 and were built in Gothic Revival style."

Much of the station is now given over to a gift shop (or possibly Gift Shoppe").

We now take a foray into the accommodation offerings.  The words of the website "A coaching inn constructed using hand-made bricks in 1888-89 is currently the Carrington Motel and Restaurant. It has also been used as a store, a bordello and a private home."  I wondered about the difference between a bordello and a brothel and knowing that the readership is anxious to know such matters consulted the Shorter Oxford dictionary.  It appears that bordello derives from an Old French word meaning - amongst other things - cot, and has been superseded, in the late 16th Century, by an Old English word meaning a "house of ill fame".  Here is what it looks like today.

The Royal Hotel dates from 1882 (an earlier building apparently still exists as a residence, but we didn't find it).

Here is some detail of the iron lacework.

This old house is now a B&B.

On the opposite side of Molonglo St is this building, at one stage the Beehive Hotel.

I thought this roofline was interesting, but know nothing about the house.

Thi was the Court house, dating from 1864 and is now the Police Station (possibly explaining all the aerials!

We'll finish with a modern building, housing the Bungendore Woodworks.  This place is an Alladin's Cave of excellent artistry, mainly in wood.  We have acquired to occasional watercolour and item of glassware but mainly use ot to impress overseas visitors with the skill of Australian artisans!