Day 3 – Australia/New Zealand Adventure – Mass, WWI, Immigration, Shopping, and a Dinner Cruise

(Sunday, March 9, 2025) by Ann Silverthorn with Jim DeDad

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we had the day free until 4:30 p.m., when we would leave by coach for our dinner cruise on Sydney Harbour. Our tour manager, Cam, had provided many options for Sydney activities in one of his frequent, informative emails, and we took advantage of this.

After another filling breakfast at the hotel (God help my cholesterol), we walked to St. Mary’s Cathedral for a solemn Mass. I thought about how the Catholic Mass is kind of like McDonalds. The stores are recognizable, but the Big Mac tastes a bit different on various continents and opposite hemispheres. 

Many tourists walk through St. Mary’s, but during Mass, they post a sign on the door that Mass is in session and to please be respectful. Because of the sign, many people didn’t enter during Mass, but the ones who did were quiet, which was much-appreciated.

After Mass, we wandered around the nave, sanctuary, and narthex, taking photos.  I took one of  a recumbent figure of a soldier, which turned out to be a monument to the unknown soldier, designed by Australian artist George W. Lambert (1873-1930) and dedicated on July 26, 1931. On one side the inscription reads, “To All Australians Who Died in War.” The other side reads, “Their name lives on for all generations, Ecclesiasticus 44:14.” 

I knew this was a WWI infantryman based on the uniform, the puttees (taped lower legs offered support and protection), and the tell-tale gas mask that sits on his right shoulder. The National Gallery of Australia  describes the life-sized figure as, “a soldier with a bullet hole in his left breast, his right arm reaching towards this wound as if to still the pain, and through his frowning brow capturing the soldier’s last spasm. Particular attention is given to the accuracy of the uniform: there is caked mud on the puttees and the soles of the boots are shown as being slightly worn.”

This was just the first opportunity to observe monuments honoring soldiers on the Australia/New Zealand trip, but the only one we found in a church. My friend, Mary Jane, said she observed this phenomenon in Europe, where it is less common to see war memorials in United States’ places of worship.

Mary Jane and I served on the Erie County World War One Centennial Committee  together and spent a lot of time researching the subject for a WWI memorial in Erie, PA, and a subsequent book honoring those who “answered the call.” 

After church, we walked across the street to Hyde Park and sat on a bench while we hydrated, consulted Cam’s email, and pondered to do next. First stop, Hyde Park Barracks and then on to the Queen Victoria Building.

We crossed the street to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Hyde Park Barracks where the convicts were first housed, when they came from England in the 1800s. The free, self-guided tour offered headphones and devices that delivered narrated content depending on what room you were in and where you were standing in it. I liked that because it forced me to take my time and pause in front of each display. 

The convicts led a terribly hard life, but in some ways, it may have saved them from the destructive path they were on back home. After England stopped sending the convicts to Australia, many other immigrants came, including women escaping the potato famine in Ireland, who came to work as domestic servants.

Next on the agenda was finding the Queen Victoria Building (QVB), which we had seen from the coach on our Sydney tour. The facility opened in 1898 and was designed by George McRae, replacing the original Sydney Markets. It was named to honor Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. Originally a concert hall, it became the city library and served as the the home of the Sydney City Council. Faced with demolition in the 1980s, it was instead restored (let’s do this more in the USA!). Today, the Queen Victoria Building is a busy shopping center, home to many high-end retailers, and it’s an adventure to walk though. No, I didn’t buy anything.

Finally, it was time to meet our fellow travelers, often called “Team” by our tour manager, for the evening dinner cruise. The food was great, and it was a good opportunity to get to know more people. We had nice conversations as we cruised around Sydney Harbour, aboard the Sydney 2000, hosted by Captain Cook Cruises. We had such nice conversations, in fact, that I was surprised when the boat ride was over, and I had mostly forgotten to look out the windows at the sights.

We noticed that everywhere we ate in Sydney, they didn’t have salt and pepper on the tables like we do in the USA. You have to ask for it, and then they often act like you’re from Mars (in a polite way). Once, we were given a bowl of course salt and another time, the hostess went behind somewhere and got a pair of salt and pepper shakers that looked like they had been hidden in the archives. I suppose not having the handy salt is a healthier option than what we’re used to in the USA!

Tomorrow, hopping on a plane to Cairns!

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