In 2005 I climbed the perilous path via stairs and steep ladders to the top of the tower of St John the Baptist Anglican Church in Mudgee, fortunately with my camera. The church was completed in 1860, while the tower was not completed until the early 1880s. On the way up you pass the substantial bell which was a gift to the church by prominent citizen and church warden Robert Hoddle Dryberg White in the early 1880s. From the battlemented platform at the top the viewer has a marvellous vista over the CBD and into the countryside beyond.
The Mudgee Historical Society Inc possesses a similar series of photographs taken circa 1941 and it is interesting to compare the changes which have occurred since then. However, changes have occurred even since 2005. The former Beaurepaire’s tyre service building on the opposite corner has been revamped as the offices of The Property Shop, while the Regent Theatre, sadly closed, has been repainted on the exterior.

The photographs start in a clockwise 270 degree rotation from Lawson Park to the vista down Market Street towards the west. A few of the photographs in the sequence show closeups of significant Mudgee buildings.

John Broadley

Copyright 2005