St. Anne's Church

Item details


Name of item:	St. Anne's Church
Other name/s:	St Anne's Shrine
Type of item:	Built
Group/Collection:	Religion
Category:	Shrine
Location:	Lat: -33.8850487110 Long: 151.2757684300
Primary address:	60 Blair Street, Bondi, NSW 2026
Parish:	Alexandria
County:	Cumberland
Local govt. area:	Waverley
Local Aboriginal Land Council:	La Perouse

Property description

Lot/Volume Code	Lot/Volume Number	Section Number	Plan/Folio Code	Plan/Folio Number
LOT	1		DP	317699

All addresses

Street Address	Suburb/town	LGA	Parish	County	Type
60 Blair Street	Bondi	Waverley	Alexandria	Cumberland	Primary Address
47 Mitchell Street	Bondi	Waverley			Alternate Address

Owner/s

Organisation Name	Owner Category	Date Ownership Updated
Trustees of The Sisters of Mercy	Religious Organisation

Statement of significance:


	St Anne's Church is of State significance as a fine and representative example of the Inter-war Romanesque style. A Catholic church largely built in the 1930s but completed in the 1960s to the competition-winning design of Joseph Fowell and Kenneth McConnel, the decorative scheme is restrained but features highly-crafted timber, brick and sandstone detailing. It has a careful integration of furniture and fittings also largely designed by the architects that includes an ingenious and possibly unique ventilation system (recently dismantled but stored onsite). Winner of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects' 1935 Sulman Award, this is the only church to win this prestigious award as a complete design, and has been described as 'perhaps the highlight of ecclesiastical architecture in interwar Sydney'. Its representative significance is enhanced by its continuing role and positioning as a landmark element in a church-school precinct of buildings. This precinct also represents the establishment of the Bondi Beach Parish of the Catholic Church and its importance as a place of worship for the local Catholic community through several generations.
	Date significance updated: 02 Feb 04
	Note: The State Heritage Inventory provides information about heritage items listed by local and State government agencies. The State Heritage Inventory is continually being updated by local and State agencies as new information becomes available. Read the Department of Premier and Cabinet copyright and disclaimer.

Description


Designer/Maker:	Joseph Fowell and Kenneth McConnel, architects
Builder/Maker:	R. M. Bowcock
Construction years:	1934-1964
Physical description:	St Anne's Church is a fine example of Inter-War Romanesque church architecture. The textured red brick faade contrasts with the sandstone plinth, entry portico, door and window surrounds and parapet copings. The roof is of red tiles over the nave and aisles, and copper over the northern apses. The south (Blair Street) elevation of the church features a sandstone portico with a gabled roof supported by sandstone columns and pilasters, described as 'outstanding' in the Waverley Council heritage inventory file. A statue of St Anne with the child Mary forms the finial to the portico gable. The chamfered corners of the sandstone parapet wall to the portico gable are carved with gargoyles supporting saints. The corners of the sandstone entry door reveals are carved with a chevron pattern. Above the mullions to the three windows over the entry portico are two figures of angels. These were formed by carving green pressed bricks which were then fired and rebuilt in position. All other bricks in the building were apparently hand brushed by university students to give the faade a subtle texture. The main east and west gables of the church have sandstone crosses as finials (National Trust listing card). Cream bricks internally blend with the sandstone trim to the arches, window reveals and sculptures. The plan of the church is based on an axial nave and aisles terminating in apses at the sanctuary end. A shrine to house a relic of St Anne is placed on the west aisle. A panelled timber confessional is located at the southern end of this aisle. The piety store (originally another confessional) at the southern end of the eastern aisle is of a similar style to the two confessionals on the western side of the church, but has been altered. The nave ceiling is constructed of panels of redwood timber boarding between trusses. The aisles also have panelled redwood boarded ceilings with recessed amber glass lights. Below the gallery, the ceiling is timber panelling. Twelve Stations of the Cross are located between the aisle arches and windows and at the south end of the church over the arches to the side aisles. Brick corbels beneath the stations contain lights to illuminate the stations at night. Ten bronze pendant lanterns designed by the architects light the nave. Cranked concrete buttresses hidden in the walls are connected horizontally by a beam in the nave waft below the clerestory. The aisle roof carries the weight of the nave, roof trusses to the foundations. A gallery at the rear of the church is supported on hardwood adzed beams themselves supported on stone piers. To alleviate problems of echo on the face brick the rear internal wall of the gallery is built with honeycomb brickwork with the interstices backed with small squares of an acoustic material, Celotex. The timber pews are original and were probably designed by the architects. The church had timber flooring with modern red carpet on the aisles between the pews, however green carpet covering the entriely of the nave and aisles flooring was introduced first in 1980 and expanded to cover all but the sanctuary in the late 1990s. All carvings in the church were executed by Mr Magness M. Swan to the design of the architect (National Trust listing card). The apses on the north side were not built in the initial work of the 1930s but were constructed in the 1960s under the supervision of Joseph Fowell, one of the original architects, and form an harmonious addition. A half dome over the nave apse is lined with timbers in a herringbone radiating arrangement supported on a semi circular sandstone arcade. The apse houses a sandstone baldachino, designed to complement the arcade. The apse to the eastern aisle was also built at this time. The apse for the western aisle which was part of the original scheme was not built (National Trust listing card). The foundations were built of sandstone from the quarry in Clyde Street, North Bondi. The Catholic Weekly of 7/12/94 is quoted as stating that its statues are also of sandstone from the local quarry (Bondi View, 2004). The interior is distinguished by a technically innovative ventilation system consisting of holes in the floor covered by ventilation boxes (hidden under pews) that could be opened by pulling on a drawstring to allow cool air from under the church to circulate throughout. On hotter days a motorised fan stored below the church could be activated to extract hot air from the ceiling of the church, thus aiding the convection process. A parishioner had been carrying out electrical maintenance on this system for much of the past 55 years that he had been attending the church (Kildea, 2004). This ventilation system has been recently dismantled as part of a redesign of the spacing of the pews to allow for larger parishioners. However the removal of ventilation boxes and the filling in of the holes in the floor are reversible and the ventilation machinery remains intact, enclosed in a small sealed room under the church.
Physical condition and/or Archaeological potential:	The building is generally in good condition. However there is a structural crack at the south end and much of the timberwork is in need of refinishing. (National Trust 1999).
	Date condition updated:29 Jan 04
Modifications and dates:	Although the main body of the church was constructed in 1934, the second stage including final altar and apses were not completed until 1964, under the supervision of one of the original architects, Joseph Fowell. Carpet was laid in the nave in 1980 and relaid in the late 1990s, and now includes the aisles. In 1999 the altar gates were removed and later repositioned on the eastern aisle. Other recent internal changes include: removing ventilation boxes from beneath the end of the pews and plugging the associated venitlation holes in the floor; removing several rows of pews and re-spacing the rest to allow for the comfort of larger parishioners; re-locating the baptismal font from the rear of the church to under the apse and then to the western front of the nave; installing glass panelling and doors at the end of the nave to provide a quiet 'crying room' for parents of young children; replacement of two exterior light fittings with spherical lightbulbs; removal of 6 bronze candlesticks from the altar; removal of the altar rail.


Current use:	Religious worship
Former use:	Aboriginal land, suburban lot

History

Historical notes:

Aboriginal Sydney:
When Captain Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet landed, first in Botany Bay and then in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), in January 1788, he was met by people who had lived on this land for many thousands of years. At least 1,500 people lived in the area between Botany Bay and Broken Bay and the intermediate coast (Attenbrow, n.d.)

There were two main languages spoken in the Sydney region - Darug and Tharawal. The Darug language had two main dialects - one spoken along the coast and the other in the hinterland (west of present-day Parramatta). Tharawal was spoken to the south of Botany Bay and as far west as the Georges River and possibly Camden (ibid, n.d.)

People belonged to small groups (territorial clans) through which they were spiritually related to specific tracts of land - these clans included the Gadigal, Wanngal, Gamaragal, Wallumedegal and Boromedegal. The suffix 'gal' denotes 'people of', thus, for example, the Gadigal were the people of Gadi (also spelled Cadigal and Cadi respectively) (ibid, n.d.).

The 'district of Gadi' was reported to have stretched from South Head west to 'the cove adjoining this settlement' (Darling Harbour) - an area that would have included Centennial, Moore and Queens Parks. Watkin Tench referred to the Gadigal as 'those who reside in the bay of Cadi'. The 'bay of Cadi' is probably Kutti, the Aboriginal place name recorded for present-day Watsons Bay, and the present name of a small beach in the bay (ibid, n.d.).

The Centennial Parklands Conservation Management Plan contains the following report that provides in depth detail of the pre-colonial history of the lands that are present day Centennial Parklands, which is where the text on this page comes from: Pre-colonial Aboriginal land and resource use in Centennial, Moore and Queens Parks - assessment of historical and archaeological evidence for Centennial Parklands Conservation Management Plan (ibid, n.d.).

Locality:
Significant Aboriginal rock carvings provide evidence that Aboriginal people occupied sites nearby the location of St Anne's Shrine in Bondi Beach, long before European settlement. An important type of tool was first found in the region and is still known as the Bondi point. The indigenous people of the area at the time of European settlement have generally been referred to as the Sydney people or the Eora (Eora means "the people"). There is no clear evidence for the name of the particular groups of the Eora people that occupied what is now the Waverley area. Most sources agree on the Cadigal but there are sources which name the Biddigal and Birrabirragal bands as well. A number of place names within Waverley - most famously Bondi - have been based on words derived from Aboriginal languages of the Sydney region (Waverley Council web page, 2004). By the mid nineteenth century the traditional owners of this land had typically either moved inland in search of food and shelter, or had died as the result of European disease or confrontation with British colonisers. Few religious beliefs of the people were recorded, but oral traditions have ensured that some have been carried on.

BACKGROUND TO PARISH OF ST ANNE'S
From 1895 the Catholic Church was present in the Bondi area on land gifted to the Franciscan order at the corner of O'Brien and Simpson Streets. Rapid population growth in the area resulted in the parish of Bondi being divided in 1925, creating a new parish of St Anne's, Bondi Beach. Father Daniel O'Sullivan was appointed priest in 1926 to the new parish and oversaw the establishment of several major church buildings during his fifteen years of stewardship. A new site bordered by Blair Street, Mitchell Street, and Oakley Road was purchased in 1926. The year following the demolition of the older St Anne's church in O'Brien Street witnessed the construction of a new church school on the Oakley Road side of the new site. This was followed by a presbytery on Mitchell Road in 1932, and the first section of St Anne's Shrine fronting onto Blair Street in 1934. Also constructed during this period was St Anne's Convent in 1935 (built by the Sisters of mercy) and a girl's school in 1938 (McDonald, 2003, 2).

The initial brief for St Anne's Shrine required that the church be built in two stages as only half of the proposed budget of 20,000 pounds was available. In 1934 only the back, southern section of the church including nave and aisles was completed. In 1957 a newly appointed Father Patrick Cunningham set up a Parish Building Fund to raise money for building the northern section of the church comprising sanctuary, sacristies and altar. In 1964 the completed church was solemnly blessed by the Archbishop of Sydney, Norman Thomas Cardinal Gilroy (National Trust, 1999).

Originally designed to serve the Tridentine Rite, various interior aspects of the church have been adjusted to address liturgical changes associated with the Novus Ordo. The publication of the Constitution of the Liturgy by the 2nd Vatican Council in 1963 is associated with major changes to the internal arrangement of Catholic churches worldwide. While these changes were not incorporated into the 1964 design, by 1980 when Father Kenneth Sargeant was appointed parish priest, a stone altar was placed in the sanctuary to allow the priest to celebrate Mass facing the congregation. Also the church was carpeted throughout (McDonald, 2003).

BUILDING THE CHURCH
In 1934, the architects Fowell and McConnel won a design competition for a new Catholic Church at Bondi, judged by Leslie Wilkinson. The practice of Fowell and McConnel was established in 1927 when the pair entered a competition for the design of Tamworth War Memorial Town Hall for which they were awarded second place (National Trust, 1999). They were more successful in winning the competition for the BMA Building in Sydney's Macquarie Street, which also eventually won them the first RIBA medal to be awarded in Australia (Metcalfe, 1997, 66). Born in Australia but educated in England, Joseph Fowell (1891-1970) arrived back in Australia in 1919 where he taught under Leslie Wilkinson at Sydney University. The partnership went on to design a number of Catholic churches in Sydney and some N.S.W. country towns. Kenneth McConnel left the practice in 1939 due to ill health. After WVY7II, McConnel formed a new partnership with Stanley Smith which was eventually to become McConnel Smith and Johnson (National Trust, 1999)

Fowell and McConnel designed a church to accommodate 1,000 with separate committee rooms, campanile and cloister to be added when money became available. The first stage of the church was completed in 1934 with R.M. Bowcock as its builder. The north end of the building was enclosed by a timber framed wall, faced with fibre cement sheeting that marked the position of the future sanctuary. The north end of the church was completed with the addition of the apses some thirty years later to an amended design by Fowell, Mansfield, Jarvis and Maclurcan (Joseph Fowell being one of the original architects). The free standing campanile and linking cloister, which was part of the original concept, was not built.

ARCHITECTURAL ACCOLADES
St Anne's Church was awarded the Sulman Award by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1935. It was the first church building to receive the medal and remains the only complete church building to have received the medal (although additions to St Michael's Church were awarded the Sulman medal in 1942).

In his history of the Sulman Award, Andrew Metcalfe described the church as 'a tour de force of brickwork construction with highlights of sandstone trim', and 'perhaps the highlight of ecclesiastical architecture in interwar Sydney'. He suggests it is stylistically related to and contemporaneous with the English architecture of Guildford Cathedral (c.1932), St Saviours Eltham (c.1933), St Wilfrid's Brighton (c.1934) and St Andrews Luton (c.1932), all of which are linked to twentieth century Swedish architecture, notably Ostberg's Stockholm Town Hall (1911-1923) (Metcalfe, 1997, 66).

The National Trust's Jacqui Goddard described the church as 'absolutely, vitally important . . . An incredibly fine example . . . Of interwar architecture, with a lot of international influence . . . The interior is reasonably austere . . . But with very beautiful Australiana in its detailing' (Radio National, 3/12/2003).

The church is featured in 'A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture', where it is presented as an example of the 'Inter-War Romanesque' style. There it is described as a 'nobly scaled design influenced by French examples such as Albi Cathedral' and Joseph Fowell listed as one of the style's 'key practitioners' (Apperly et al, 1989, 196-7).

Historic themes

Australian theme (abbrev)	New South Wales theme	Local theme
1. Environment-Tracing the evolution of a continent's special environments	Environment - naturally evolved-Activities associated with the physical surroundings that support human life and influence or shape human cultures.	Cultural - Coasts and coastal features supporting human activities-
1. Environment-Tracing the evolution of a continent's special environments	Environment - naturally evolved-Activities associated with the physical surroundings that support human life and influence or shape human cultures.	Changing the environment-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Environment - cultural landscape-Activities associated with the interactions between humans, human societies and the shaping of their physical surroundings	Developing local, regional and national economies-National Theme 3
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Environment - cultural landscape-Activities associated with the interactions between humans, human societies and the shaping of their physical surroundings	Landscapes of institutions - productive and ornamental-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Environment - cultural landscape-Activities associated with the interactions between humans, human societies and the shaping of their physical surroundings	Landscapes and parklands of distinctive styles-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Events-Activities and processes that mark the consequences of natural and cultural occurences	Developing local landmarks-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities.	Building settlements, towns and cities-National Theme 4
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Land tenure-Activities and processes for identifying forms of ownership and occupancy of land and water, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal	1820s-1850s land grants-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Land tenure-Activities and processes for identifying forms of ownership and occupancy of land and water, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal	Alienating Crown Lands for religious purposes-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Land tenure-Activities and processes for identifying forms of ownership and occupancy of land and water, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal	Changing land uses - from rural to suburban-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Land tenure-Activities and processes for identifying forms of ownership and occupancy of land and water, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal	Sub-division of large estates-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	Subdivision of urban estates-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	20th century Suburban Developments-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	Suburban Consolidation-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	Creating landmark structures and places in suburban settings-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	Cultural Social and religious life-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	living in the suburbs-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	Developing suburbia-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	Beautifying towns and villages-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	Creating landmark structures and places in urban settings-
7. Governing-Governing	Government and Administration-Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs - includes both principled and corrupt activities.	State government-
7. Governing-Governing	Government and Administration-Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs - includes both principled and corrupt activities.	Developing roles for government - administration of land-
7. Governing-Governing	Government and Administration-Activities associated with the governance of local areas, regions, the State and the nation, and the administration of public programs - includes both principled and corrupt activities.	Developing roles for government - conserving cultural and natural heritage-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life	Creative endeavour-Activities associated with the production and performance of literary, artistic, architectural and other imaginative, interpretive or inventive works; and/or associated with the production and expression of cultural phenomena; and/or environments that have inspired such creative activities.	Adaptation of overseas design for local use-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life	Creative endeavour-Activities associated with the production and performance of literary, artistic, architectural and other imaginative, interpretive or inventive works; and/or associated with the production and expression of cultural phenomena; and/or environments that have inspired such creative activities.	Architectural styles and periods - Interwar Romanesque-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life	Creative endeavour-Activities associated with the production and performance of literary, artistic, architectural and other imaginative, interpretive or inventive works; and/or associated with the production and expression of cultural phenomena; and/or environments that have inspired such creative activities.	Architectural styles and periods - Interwar Romanesque-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life	Religion-Activities associated with particular systems of faith and worship	Church-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life	Religion-Activities associated with particular systems of faith and worship	Practising Catholicism-
9. Phases of Life-Marking the phases of life	Persons-Activities of, and associations with, identifiable individuals, families and communal groups	Associations with R.M. Bocock, builder-
9. Phases of Life-Marking the phases of life	Persons-Activities of, and associations with, identifiable individuals, families and communal groups	Associations with Joseph Fowell, architect-
9. Phases of Life-Marking the phases of life	Persons-Activities of, and associations with, identifiable individuals, families and communal groups	Associations with Kenneth McConnel, architect-

Assessment of significance


SHR Criteria a) [Historical significance]	St Anne's Church is of of historic significance as a sign of the early and continuing role of the Catholic Church in the growth of residential development in the Bondi Beach area from the 1920s. Together with the adjacent school buildings the Church forms a precinct that has served the spiritual and educational needs of the local Catholic community for several generations. As winner of the Sulman Award for architecture in 1935, the church also offers historical insights into questions of taste and aesthetics in Sydney in the 1930s.
SHR Criteria b) [Associative significance]	St Anne's Church testifies to the vision of the founding priest of St Anne's Parish at Bondi Beach, Father Daniel O'Sullivan, who played a major role in establishing the physical fabric required to meet the community's spiritual, pastoral and educational needs. The church is also associated with Father Patrick Cunningham, parish priest from 1957 to 1979 who, early in his ministry, devoted himself to the completion of the building. The prominent Sydney architect Joseph Fowell, considered one of the key exponents of the 'Interwar Romanesque' style in Australia, is also associated with the building for presiding over both stages of design and construction thirty years apart.
SHR Criteria c) [Aesthetic significance]	St Anne's Church is of state aesthetic significance as a fine example of the Interwar Romanesque style of architecture. Designed by Joseph Fowell, one of the pre-eminent exponents of this style in Australia, it has been described as a 'nobly scaled design' (Apperly, 1989, 196) and as 'perhaps the highlight of ecclesiastical architecture in interwar Sydney' (Metcalfe, 1997, 66). The aesthetic and technical excellence of St Anne's Shrine was recognised immediately upon completion of the first stage of construction in the form of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects' Sulman Award for 1935. It is of interest that this important award was granted to an incomplete building, recognising the quality of the overall design intention. The dominance of brick mass to round arched windows is characteristic of the Romanesque style, which was widely adopted in Catholic churches built in Australia and elsewhere in the 1920s and 1930s, possibly to distinguish them from the Gothic Revival style then used by the Anglican Church (McDonald, 2003, 8). The Romanesque style has been described as a means by which architects of the period could 'move cautiously towards the uncluttered simplicity of mass and detail favoured by the modernists'. The church illustrates typical characteristics of the style including: use of piers or buttresses, large entrance arches, low pitched gabled roofs, elaborately detailed brickwork and squat massing of the architectural volumes (Apperly et al, 1989, 195-6). The size and architectural massing of the church can readily be appreciated in its open corner setting, and its relatively monumental scale makes it an important landmark in the locality. The round arched stone entrance portico to Blair Street is considered an outstanding example of stone craftsmanship (Waverley Council, 1999). The interior detailing is richer than the exterior and skilfully executed in brick, carved stone and timber. The spatial qualities of the interior, including the open relationship between nave and aisles, and the particularly fine modelling of the sanctuary with its encircling arcaded ambulatory are of considerable aesthetic merit and capture a symbolism and spatial quality evoking the medieval origins of the style.
SHR Criteria d) [Social significance]	St Anne's Church is of social significance for its historic role in the establishment of the Bondi Beach Parish of the Catholic church and its importance as a place of worship for the local Catholic community through several generations.
SHR Criteria e) [Research potential]	St Anne's Church is of state significance in this criteria for its architectural qualities that provide an important point of reference in the adaptation of the Romanesque style as symbolic of the meanings and functions of the Catholic Church. Its contribution to understandings of 1930s taste and aethetics is enhanced by it being the recipient of the Sulman Award of 1935, and by it being included as a primary example of the Interwar Romanesque style in Apperly et al's "A Pictorial Guide to identifying Australian Architecture". The (currently dismantled) ventilation system using convection to circulate cool air from beneath the church through ventilation holes under the pews is an ingenious, environmentally sustainable and possibly unique system of temperature modification that is worthy of further study.
SHR Criteria f) [Rarity]	St Anne's Church contains a rare ventilation system using convection to circulate cool air from beneath the church through ventilation holes into boxes hidden under the pews (where drawstrings could be pulled to allow the air to circulate into the church). This ingenious, environmentally sustainable and possibly unique system of temperature modification has been dismantled, however all the parts are stored on site and capable of reinstatement, or study. The church more generally is of local significance for being a fine building of relatively monumental scale within the Waverley area.
SHR Criteria g) [Representativeness]	St Anne's Church represents a fine example of the Interwar Romanesque style of architecture, which was commonly used in the design of Catholic churches throughout New South Wales in the 1920s and 1930s. It has been described as a "nobly scaled design" (Apperly, 1989, 196) and as "perhaps the highlight of ecclesiastical architecture in interwar Sydney" (Metcalfe, 1997, 66). The church's representative significance is enhanced by its positioning as the key element in a church-school precinct of buildings.
Integrity/Intactness:	The church is substantially intact in exterior and interior fabric although there have been many minor changes to the interior in recent years including carpeting, removing the altar rail, relocating altar gates and baptistry font, and dismantling the ventilation system. Many of the items that have been removed are being stored underneath the church.
Assessment criteria:	Items are assessed against the State Heritage Register (SHR) Criteria to determine the level of significance. Refer to the Listings below for the level of statutory protection.

Recommended management:

Recommendations

Management Category	Description	Date Updated
Recommended Management	Produce a Conservation Management Plan (CMP)
Recommended Management	Prepare a maintenance schedule or guidelines
Recommended Management	Carry out interpretation, promotion and/or education

Procedures /Exemptions

Section of act	Description	Title	Comments	Action date
57(2)	Exemption to allow work	Heritage Act - Site Specific Exemptions	Works and activities with a current and valid development consent issued by Waverley Council for Development Application number LD869/03 in accordance with the recommendations of the Heritage Council Approval Committee meeting of 4 February 2004.	May 26 2006
57(2)	Exemption to allow work	Standard Exemptions	ORDER UNDER SECTION 57(2) OF THE HERITAGE ACT 1977 Standard exemptions for engaging in or carrying out activities / works otherwise prohibited by section 57(1) of the Heritage Act 1977. I, the Hon James Griffin MP, Minister for Environment and Heritage, pursuant to subsection 57(2) of the Heritage Act 1977, on the recommendation of the Heritage Council of New South Wales do by this Order, effective at the time of publication in the New South Wales Government Gazette: 1. revoke the order made on 9 November 2020 and published in the Government Gazette Number 318 of 13 November 2020; and 2. grant the exemptions from subsection 57(1) of the Heritage Act 1977 that are described in the attached Schedule. The Hon James Griffin MP Minister for Environment and Heritage Signed this 2nd day of June 2022. To view the standard exemptions for engaging in or carrying out activities / works otherwise prohibited by section 57(1) of the Heritage Act 1977 click on the link below.	Jun 17 2022

Standard exemptions for engaging in or carrying out activities / works otherwise prohibited by section 57(1) of the Heritage Act 1977

Listings

Heritage Listing	Listing Title	Listing Number	Gazette Date	Gazette Number	Gazette Page
Heritage Act - State Heritage Register		01706	26 May 06	68	3216
Local Environmental Plan			12 Jun 96
Heritage study	Waverley Heritage Study by Perumal Murphy Pty Ltd		01 Jan 89
National Trust of Australia register	Saint Anne's Shrine		24 Aug 99
Royal Australian Institute of Architects register			30 Mar 79

References, internet links & images

Type	Author	Year	Title	Internet Links
Written		1936	Architecture, March
Written		1935	Building Magazine, January
Written			St Annes Bondi Beach 1925-1985
Written	An Architectural Competition and its Conduct	1933	Building Magazine, June
Written	Apperly, Richard, Robert Irving and Peter Reynalds	1989	A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture
Written	Attenbrow, Val		A pre-colonial history	View detail
Written	Interview with parishioners and Jacqui Goddard from the National Trust	2003	"Renovation row at St Annes" Religion Report, Radio National
Written	Kildea, Syd	2004	Letter to Waverley Council re ventilation system at St Annes Shrine
Written	Malcolm Brown	2003	Why some of the congregation hate this turbulent priest's guts (SMH 27/10/03)
Written	Max Dupain Photographs of St Annes Shrine		(not stated)
Written	Metcalf, Andrew	1997	Architecture in Transition, The Sulman Award 1932-1996
Written	National Trust of Australia (NSW)	1999	Classification Card
Written	Original drawings for St Annes Shrine by Fowell and McConnel	1935	RAIA Sulman Award Collection, PXD319 Vol 1 ft 6a-d
Written	Perumal Murphy Pty Limited	1989	Waverley Heritage Study
Written	unattribuated, in The Bondi View, Dec 2003-Jan 2004	2004	"The Church of Babel"
Written	Waverely Council	1999	Heritage listing for St Annes Shrine

Note: internet links may be to web pages, documents or images.

(Click on thumbnail for full size image and image details)

Data source


The information for this entry comes from the following source:
Name:	Heritage NSW
Database number:	5055014
File number:	H97/01007

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