Kandos a Rare 20th Century Town
There is something about an orchestra that sets it apart from a band. A band swells in the open air. It is an exciting spectacle, its natural space a rotunda, a park or a main street. An orchestra shines under electric lights. It radiates romance, its natural space a ballroom or concert hall. It woos and charms, caresses and pursues.
Architect William Kemp introduced a new style of bush school, the Beehive. It avoided the Gothic, had an enclosed verandah, semi-circular galvanised iron roof and was built with local materials (in the case of Pyangle, timber and stone).
Who are you staying safe for today? That's the sign employees see as they enter the Whyalla Steelworks. No such sign met employees at Kandos Quarry early last century.
W B Murphy jumped out of on-line newspapers so many times I finally said, 'OK! I'll do your story.' But how to begin?
So what does an English Baron have to do with Kandos? It seems the cement company was hanging on Leverhulme's coat-tails to promote its own workplace philosophy
In December 1922 the Lithgow Mercury announced, 'although in other centres Labor Day demonstrations seem to be declining, Kandos in the vigor of its youth, put forth its best effort on Saturday.'
The internet rules our lives today, but just a century ago the latest technology was the telephone.
I don't think anyone's arrival here in Kandos could have been gloomier and more shocking than his. And yet it was the pinnacle of his priestly career.
We overlook or forget the hostility intolerance suspicion and racism that different migrant groups have revealed in the Australian character.
How did that name come about? I guess it is tall and steep like a woman's petticoat, but you might have other theories. It was surely named by a man.
It seems to me Capertee, population 145 at the last census, punches above its weight.
Kandos History 