Moore Street

A wider view of Moore Street and the building with yesterday's ladders.

Going up

Moore St, Civic

Seqvanae

In front of the ACT Health building in Civic, on the corner of Alinga and Moore Streets and across the road from the GPO, sits a large polished stainless steel and red fibreglass sculpture by Michael Kitching. Dated 1978, it's titled 'Seqvanae', and it has (appropriately for its location) a number of health-related aspects in its design.

The title is spelt out in a format not unlike an optometrist's chart. Seqvanae is a reference to a Roman goddess of healing, who seems to be derived from the Gallic-Celtic Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine. A healing shrine was established at the springs which fed the Seine in the 1st or 2nd Century BC. The Romans, in typical Roman assimilation, took over the local goddess and shrine and made it bigger and better.

The red and silver crosses and the stylised snake and rod of Aesculapius are all internationally-recognised symbols related to health and medicine.

I'm not 100% sure what 'AFMSABOX' means, although I did find a comment that suggests they are the initials of members of the artist's family (including pets).

Little boxes

Post Office boxes at the Canberra GPO, cnr Moore and Alinga Streets, Civic.

Black Mountain Guide Hall

Throughout the suburbs of Canberra you may come across small halls, often located adjacent to public ovals or parks, usually with a gravel carpark and nothing much else around them. These are the places where Girl Guides and Scouts meet. This particular hall is the Black Mountain District Girl Guide hall, located in Clianthus St in the suburb of O'Connor.

Sakyamuni Buddhist Centre

According to the Visit Canberra website, the Sakyamuni Buddhist Centre in Archibald St, Lyneham has the tallest open air statues of Buddha in Australia. The temple was established in 1983, and the centre also incorporates the Van Hahn Monastery. It's the largest Buddhist temple in Canberra, and it looked like there was further construction in progress when we drove past today.

I would think this type of gate would have a specific name, but I have no idea what it is, however the gate itself is very impressive. If you'd like to know more, there are some photos and information on the Destination Saigon blog.

Telstra

490-496 Northbourne Avenue, on the corner of Antill St, Dickson.

Telstra, Australia's biggest telecommunications company (which was originally government-owned but has been progressively sold off, not necessarily for the better), occupies the building at the back of this photo (Telstra House). The building at the front - 496 Northbourne Avenue, which replaced the old Kodak House a few years ago, is tenanted by a number of mostly government departments, as far as I could find out with a quick search online, including CrimTrac ("CrimTrac is the national information-sharing service for Australia's police, law enforcement and national security agencies").

Smith's Bookshop

I've been unwell over the weekend, and haven't been able to post, but on Friday I was in the city and dropped in to Smith's Alternative Bookshop. There aren't too many independent bookshops left, but this one has been operating since the 1970s. And they have coffee :)

Smith's stock new releases, and local books and CDs, and also rather 'interesting' books, like the pop-up Karma Sutra (I haven't seen it, but they mention it on their website, and the mind just boggles!).

Smith's is in Alinga Street in Civic, in the Melbourne Building, opposite the city post office. Yes, I know all the big shops are over the other side around the Canberra Centre, but you can find those shops anywhere. This is the only Smith's Alternative Bookshop.

St Ninian's, Lyneham

 

Not all of Canberra is modern public art and Brutalist concrete 1980s buildings. St Ninian's Uniting Church in Lyneham is an example of Canberra's early European settlement. Opened in 1873 as the district's second permanent church building (after St John's Church of England at Reid), it replaced an earlier (1862) slab and bark building used by the Scottish Presbyterian settlers. The stone was quarried locally - from Black Mountain - and the original building was a simple rectangle with two arched windows down each side. The church was extended in 1901, using the same stone and adding another arched window on each side, but attendances declined for several reasons, and the building was closed in 1920.

 

For over 20 years the building served as a hay barn, and then was completely abandoned and left to decay. But in 1941 it caught the attention of the minister of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Canberra, and he was instrumental in its restoration and reopening in 1942, under the new name of St Ninian's.

 

A church hall was added in 1961, and there were further extensions in 1978-79 (using Black Mountain stone), after St Ninian's had become part of the Uniting Church in Australia (formed by Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches) in 1977. For those interested, there's more information on the church website and in the 2011 ACT Heritage Notice.

The Goongarline

This is part of an installation in Gungahlin called The Goongarline - and the similarity in pronunciation is no accident. The work is by Malcolm Utley, and was completed in 2008.