(Transcribed by Kirsty Sherwood, a great great granddaughter of Emily Bennett)
The Garden Palace1 was erected in the upper Botanic Grounds and was a very imposing building of large dimensions of wood, glass and iron with domes and towers and was to contain an exhibition from all parts of the world. The palace was divided into court galleries representing different countries.
After an existence of 3 years, it was reduced to ashes by a fire caused, it was said, by a single wax match. We lived at Rose Bay2 at the time and on waking up in the morning saw in the direction of the city vast columns of smoke and pieces of galvanized iron and wood and the grand structure gone
One of my recollections is of the great first fire of St. Mary Cathedral3 late in the evening. It was a terrible thing. Twice have I seen the same edifice reduced to ashes.
Notes
- The Garden Palace and the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879-80 are worthy of books in their own right and a number have been written.
- At the time, Emily and her young family were living at Clairvaux, Rose Bay, a 2-storey house on the hill above the Rose Bay Convent, with views across the harbour to the city.
- St Mary’s suffered 2 disastrous fires in the 1860s, both leading to total destruction of the Cathedral, the first on the night of 29 June 1865 and the second on the morning of 5 January 1869. On the first occasion Emily was 18 and living nearby in Old South Head Road (now Oxford St) and on the second, now 21, in Stanley St, just off Hyde Park.