TD 041 - The Sandstone Cathedral EarthCache
Hidden : 8/28/2017
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

This is an Earthcache, so there is no cache container at the listed co-ordinates!

This earthcache takes you to St Michael’s Catholic Cathedral, Wagga Wagga.

St Michael’s is one of only 4 Sandstone Gothic Cathedrals built in NSW
and was one of the last sandstone Gothic Cathedrals to be built in Australia.



History and Architecture:
The Cathedral was built as St Michael's Parish Church in 1885-87. The Foundation stone was laid on 26 April 1885. The architects were Tappin, Gilbert & Dennehy, of Melbourne, and it was opened in 1887. The second stage followed in 1922-25, to the designs of architect W.J. Monks, at a cost of £34,894.

When the Diocese of Wagga was formed in 1917 the church became a cathedral and was extended in 1922-25 to its present size and configuration. The building consists of nave, side aisles, porch, chancel, sacristy, chapel, gallery and tower. External walling is rock faced ashlar sandstone, while internally the walls have been plastered. Mullions and surrounds to openings are smooth dressed stone.

St Michael's is designed in Victorian Academic Gothic style in local sandstone. The slate roof is steeply pitched and gables are parapetted; there are several small gabled vents in the roof. Walls are buttressed. The corner tower (a landmark feature of the building) has round windows with quatrefoil tracery and in the upper level there is further tracery work above paired openings. Standing on each of the four corners of the tower's top are spires. Windows are of the pointed arch type, and in the gable ends there are triple, stained glass windows with label moulds; there is further tracery in the upper part of the central window of these groups.


What is Sandstone?
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) mineral particles or rock fragments.

Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar because they are the most resistant minerals to weathering processes at the Earth's surface. Like uncemented sand, sandstone may be any color due to impurities within the minerals, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions.

Rock formations that are primarily composed of sandstone usually allow the percolation of water and other fluids and are porous enough to store large quantities, making them valuable aquifers and petroleum reservoirs. Fine-grained aquifers, such as sandstones, are better able to filter out pollutants from the surface than are rocks with cracks and crevices, such as limestone or other rocks fractured by seismic activity.

Quartz-bearing sandstone can be converted into quartzite through metamorphism, usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts.



Logging requirements.
Please email the CO, the answers to the following questions:-

1. The name of this earthcache.
2. Describe the colour and texture of the stone used around the arches compared to the walls.
3. What are the predominate colours of the sandstone used on the rear walls of the cathedral.
4. Standing at GZ, can you see any other type of stone used in the construction of the cathedral.



You may log this Earthcache straight away but then please email your answers to the questions, to the CO. Logs with no answers sent, will be deleted. Please do not include your answers in your log.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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