History of the building:
This building was not a church to begin with, it wasn't even in the ACT! This building was actually a sandstone mortuary railway station at Rookwood near Sydney (formerly Haslams Creek and now Lidcombe).
The gothic-style building served as an interfaith receiving station for the funeral trains that transported mourners and caskets from central Sydney. The history of this building is fascinating to read about, I have added a couple references below for those who wish to investigate further.
Sources:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-08/all-saints-from-mortuary-railway-station-to-canberra-church/7310516
http://www.canberratracks.act.gov.au/heritage-trails/track-4-act-pioneers-cemetery/all-saints-church
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, as seen in Bowen's reaction series. 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.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandstone
Sydney Sandstone:
Sydney sandstone is the common name for Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone, one variety of which is historically known as Yellowblock, a sedimentary rock named after the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, where this sandstone is particularly common. Sydney sandstone was quarried in Pyrmont, NSW which is where the sandstone for this building was sourced from.
It forms the bedrock for much of the region of Sydney, Australia. Well known for its durable quality, it is the reason many Aboriginal rock carvings and drawings in the area still exist. As a highly favoured building material, especially preferred during the city's early years—from the late 1790s to the 1890s—its use, particularly in public buildings, gives the city its distinctive appearance.
The stone is notable for its geological characteristics; its relationship to Sydney's vegetation and topography; the history of the quarries that worked it; and the quality of the buildings and sculptures constructed from it. This bedrock gives the city some of its "personality" by dint of its meteorological, horticultural, aesthetic and historical impact. One author describes Sydney's sandstone as "a kind of base note, an ever-present reminder of its Georgian beginnings and more ancient past."
Sydney sandstone was deposited in the Triassic Period probably in a freshwater delta and is the caprock which controls the erosion and scarp retreat of the Illawarra escarpment.
The sandstone that was extracted from Pyrmont, Glebe and Balmain was found to be far harder rock which did not erode and crumble as easily as stone from sites like Kent Street and Bennelong Point.
By using steam-powered cranes and specially imported sawing machines with steam driven iron blades, Saunders was able to extract the harder stone found below ground level from the abandoned sites. He began with his father's quarry at the foot of Miller Street which was nicknamed "Paradise" and its neighbour "Half-way" named after the degree of difficulty encountered in extracting the harder rock. Officially known as the Saunders Quarry, it operated from the mid-1800s until the 1920s and provided the building blocks and decorative carvings for the GPO, the Queen Victoria Building and Sydney Town Hall, among others (including this building)
It was called "Paradise" because its stone was strong enough to use as structural material but could easily be manipulated into any shape the mason wanted for intricate, decorative work. It cut easily when it was soft and grey out of the ground but hardened and turned a golden brown over time.
Logging requirements:
Please email the CO, the answers to the following questions:-
1. What kind of rock is sandstone?
2. What is the texture of the sandstone blocks?
3. Describe the colours can you see in the sandstone blocks.
4. Weathering and other factors can have impact on the colouring of sandstone. What do you think has caused the darker shading of the rock?
5. Take a walk around the building. On each of the 4 sides of the building, one the roofline, there are carved golums. What rock are these made from and why do you think this rock was used?
6. While walking around the building, keep an eye out for signs of erosion. Identify atleast 1 location of erosion of the sandstone. What do you think has caused this?
You are welcome to log this Earthcache after sending your answers to the CO, if no answers are received by the CO, the log will be deleted. Please be mindful of your logs to ensure there are no spoiler images/answers for the questions above, spoilers will also be removed.