Mill Hill - St Barnabas de-frocked

We are endeavouring to have a conversation about renewable energy in Australia at the moment, and wind-farms are much in the news. With this in the back of my mind, come with me on a meander through the 'Mill Hill' area of Bondi where Henry Hough established his Hope Farm, on which he built a mill in 1845, it eventually being demolished in 1880. Many of the buildings in this area have been demolished several times over, but there is still sufficient to get the general flavour.

This is the former St Barnabas Church of England, which has been converted into three townhouses. Built in 1902 in ecclesiastical Gothic style, the church was an impressive brick chapel with bell cradle. It caused no end of angst to the congregation of St Matthias in Paddington when this parish was hived off from its eastern boundary to service the burgeoning Bondi area. It was deconsecrated in 1986. Church conversions are all the rage in country NSW, but as I wandered this small city enclave, I discovered two such conversions.