" PAST " WHY WAS IT KEPT SECRET? DISCOVERED AFTER 71 YEARS.

 

SYDNEY'S GARDEN PALACE EXHIBITION BUILDING  1879

 

 In 71 years of keenly interested living in Australia, most of the first 42 years living in Sydney, I knew nothing of the Garden Palace Exhibition Building which housed the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879.

But in the course of research for my Blog "EDWARD BECKMANN"http://edwardbeckmann.blogspot.com/

I stumbled upon the picture above and I learned that this huge building had been situated on what is now the South West corner of the Botanical Gardens , opposite the State Library. All that remains of it are the Stone gate posts and wrought iron gates that now give entry to the Gardens. I have walked through and past those gates many times - how did I not know?

The great building was crowned by a massive Dome at the intersection of its three turreted wings. The Dome was 100 feet in diameter and 210 feet high.To speed construction, which was completed in only eight months, the building was largely constructed of timber. This was its undoing, for early in the morning of 22nd September, 1882 a fire broke out and steadily engulfed the entire building. So intense was the fire that flames were reported to reach 100 feet into the air. The destruction of the building was total. The site was cleared and incorporated into the Royal Botanical Gardens,of which it had not originally been part .

Perhaps the blow to the City's collective psychology had been so severe that it was wiped from memories - too painful to talk about. How wonderful it would have looked to-day, soaring above the top of that hill in all its Victorian era exuberance and self-confidence with an extravagance that was very Sydney !

Let's just hope to re-kindle (bad choice of words!)  no, to resurrect the memory and dream about "what might have been! "