Wayside Chapel by john

The Wayside Chapel

Along the Wayside 50 years of The Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross

RON RINGER

The Wayside Chapel

Gary Heery, Stories from the Wayside

Contents 0

FOREWORD

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

05. Welcome

06. Kings Cross

10. Beginnings

14. Sydney Subdivision

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

18. High Rise

22. That’s Entertainment

26. Australia at War

30. Art for Art’s Sake

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

34. Melting Pot

38. Chapel by the Wayside

44. A Place of Refuge

50. Life Education

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

56. Hatch & Match

60. The Nineties

66. Civil Disobedience

72. Turning the Page

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

78. Bricks, But No Mortar

84. New Ideas

88. Volunteers, Visitors, Smiles

94. Epilogue

The Wayside Chapel

Gary Heery, Stories from the Wayside

Welcome from Reverend Graham Long

If you start writing a summary of 50 years of The Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross it won’t take long to get your fingers moving. In the 1960s Wayside became something of a burr in the saddle of the church. Our pastor at that time, Reverend Ted Noffs, didn’t pretend to have all the answers, but could see clearly that the language and methods of the church belonged to an age past. The church charged Noffs with heresy; a burden that only strengthened his resolve and sharpened his insight. Under his leadership, The Wayside Chapel flourished and shined a light on a number of social issues. In partnership with indigenous leader, Charlie Perkins, Wayside became one of the early voices that alerted Australia to the plight of Aboriginal people. During the Vietnam War Wayside was the first to warn Australia of the drug culture to come and led the way in providing support and help for those who struggled with addiction. As the influence of the drug culture took hold, Kings Cross became a seedy place, famous not just for the artistic and bohemian lifestyle but also for lawlessness, leaving many who couldn’t keep up to die on the streets from overdose. When Reverend Ray Richmond took over in 1992 it broke his heart to see deaths on the street occurring at an alarming rate. The lane behind Wayside is named Hope Lane but it was generally the place where hope died. Richmond opened a ‘Tolerance Room’ where addicts could inject in the presence of medical help. He was arrested and the press at the time ridiculed him. Yet, this act led to the trial of the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) and a significant decrease in deaths on the streets and ambulance callouts. Others lined up to claim credit for these results but it was the gutsy pastor of the Wayside that made it happen. In my time at Wayside we’ve managed to demolish the old condemned buildings and rebuild a new facility. The team we’ve built causes me as much joy as the building we built. At one stage we were just two full time people and today there are 36 of us working to support those in need. We owe thanks to our present 700 volunteers but also to the countless thousands who have given their time and skills over the past 50 years to make Wayside what it is today. What a joy it is to have been a place of acceptance and hope for 50 years. What an honour it is to find life at the intersection of love and hate. Stand with us as we look back in wonder at the last 50 years, and join us as we embark on another 50 years of creating community with no ‘us and them.’

Reverend Graham Long

Welcome to Wayside

The Wayside Chapel

1 CHAPTER ONE

David Barnes

Kings Cross

David Barnes

The Wayside Chapel

Kings Cross

Any mention of Kings Cross (‘the Cross’) brings to mind its reputation for fun, sleaze, partying, and also a haunt for people down on their luck and in trouble. The reality always lies somewhere inbetween. For many residents who’ve made Kings Cross their home, there’s a thriving café, pub and dining scene as well as the European ambience – all within walking distance of Sydney’s CBD. Wealth and poverty sit alongside each other, however, making life’s street theatre in this unique precinct all the more interesting. Perhaps we should think about The Cross as more an idea fixed in our imagination than a place.

As a geographical location it takes up a surprisingly small area, essentially the intersection of Victoria and Darlinghurst roads at the top of William Street. In fact much of it is firmly in the backyard of more well to do neighbours in their apartments along Bayswater Road to Elizabeth Bay Road and north along Victoria Street into the edges of Potts Point. From the very start The Cross has been surrounded by controversy, power and politics. Somewhere in the past lies the area’s earlier story as home to many of Sydney’s artistic and literary citizens, although the bohemian façade has since faded.

Kings Cross

The Wayside Chapel

2 CHAPTER TWO

David Barnes

Beginnings

View of William Street, Sydney from corner of Yurong Street, Henry King, Courtesy State Library of Victoria, 1890

The Wayside Chapel

Beginnings

From about 1810 Europeans started to move into the outskirts of the future Kings Cross. In that year Thomas West, a miller, was granted land to build a water mill, naming his 16-hectare estate, Barcom Glen. West’s mill supplied flour to the colonial bakers and community, making him an extremely wealthy man.

ordered a road to be constructed to make it easier for residents to reach government-approved, freshly whitewashed mansions. Mitchell, who owned Craigend, one of the Darlinghurst villas, proposed that the street be named after King William IV and that it should follow the easiest gradient up the hill.

The mill was one of the area’s first permanent European structures. By the 1820s it had been joined by windpowered mills built on the ridgeline of Woolloomooloo Hill, which extended from South Head Road (now Oxford Street) north towards the harbour.

This would have meant crossing the property boundary of Thomas Barker’s estate, and supposedly compromise the properties of his influential neighbours, Thomas West and Alexander Macleay.

Not in my backyard Gentry As the area developed it attracted not only wealthy colonial merchants such as West and Thomas Barker (another prominent mill owner), but gentlemen and government officials such as the Surveyor-General, Sir Thomas Mitchell and Alexander Macleay, the Colonial Secretary. These men and their families settled in recently-named Darlinghurst, which straddled the ridgeline. Darlinghurst soon became Sydney’s first exclusive suburb. By the mid-1830s, 17 impressive houses had been erected, each of them costing at least £1,000, which at the time was considered a small fortune.

William Street And then came William Street. During the early 1830s Governor Darling

“Not in our backyard”, was the response, prompting Alexander Macleay to act. He waited until Mitchell was out of Sydney on a surveying expedition, and then ordered the route to mark a direct line heading east from Park Street. This took the street up the steepest, but shortest, path to intersect with Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road at the top of the ridge. Two further streets, to be named Upper William Street North (Bayswater Road) and Upper William Street South (Kings Cross Road) were put in place to carry traffic over the ridge while skirting the boundaries of the private estates. It was now Mitchell’s turn to object, but to no avail. From this time the Cross began to take shape, for which we can thank Governor Darling who unwittingly provided a pathway for today’s pilgrims in search of their very own pleasure and/or pain.

Beginnings

Plan showing the situation of the allotments for sale at Darlinghurst Elizabeth Bay: the property of Alexr Mcleay Esqre 1840s, bBy Knapp, Edward James Howes. National Library of Australia 16

The Wayside Chapel

3 CHAPTER THREE

SYDNEY Subdivision

Sydney Subdivision

David Barnes

The conversion of mid to late Victorian residences into boarding houses had a profound impact on Kings Cross By the 1940s and early 1950s many had fallen into disrepair

The Wayside Chapel

Sydney Subdivision

Subdivision

Queens Cross â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Kings Cross

Of the 17 villa estates established by Governor Darling, six fell within the area now referred to as Kings Cross. For many years they were prominent features on the east of the city, surrounded as they were by untamed colonial landscape.

So where did the Cross get its name? In 1897, the junction of Victoria Street, Darlinghurst Road, William Street and Upper William Street was named Queens Cross, in honour of the jubilee of Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Queen Victoria.

Governor Darling hoped his estates would showcase the growing prosperity of the colony, yet within just a few years subdivisions were being prepared. In 1837 Thomas Mitchell was first to subdivide, breaking up his Craigend Estate. Other estates followed during the economic depression of the early 1840s. With subdivision came speculators and developers who built townhouses and smaller villas across the high ground. New streets were laid out to access the growing number of allotments for sale, including Victoria Street which was created in 1837. Despite development much of the land during the 1850s remained open and relatively untouched, with all of the original villas still standing, as were at least three windmills. This was about to change. From the 1860s through to the 1880s the future Kings Cross filled with houses as the estates were subdivided further. Housing density increased markedly, consisting of a mix of single-storey cottages and twoto three-storey terraces.

Queens Cross lasted just eight years because in 1905 the City Council changed the name to Kings Cross in honour of King Edward VII. This was to avoid confusion with Queens Place (now Queens Square) near Hyde Park and also to recognise the accession of the new monarch.

Boarding house The economic depression of the 1890s spurred another turning point for Kings Cross with even more terraces and townhouses converted for use as boarding houses or residential chambers. The reason was simple enough; for many owners the cost of keeping such big houses had turned into a burden. Indeed, boarding houses offered a good return on investment, providing accommodation for a range of city dwellers, from transient residents to newly arrived migrants, for single men or women and skilled workers looking for a place to stay.

Sydney Subdivision

William Street, Kings Cross Frank Hurley, National Library of Australia

The Wayside Chapel

4 CHAPTER FOUR

High Rise

David Barnes

The Wayside Chapel

High Rise

From the early 1920s the residential character of Kings Cross underwent further change with the construction of brand new flat and apartment buildings. In the years immediately after the First World War development such as this was swift and rather brutal; many of the earlier houses, including villas, were demolished to make way for buildings of up to eight stories in height. At the same time commercial life on Kings Cross was being remade. With flats and apartments in vogue, population density rose dramatically.

In fact, so great was the concentration of these new dwellings that in 1926 a quarter of all flats built in the greater Sydney area were clustered in Kings Cross. For the next 20 years or so, Kings Cross set the trend as a very modern place, not just physically with its new apartment-style living but also in its food, shops and entertainment options. Gaudy neon advertising signs sent the message that Kings Cross with its increasingly liberal attitude to life and living was open for business and the place to be.

High Rise

Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross Theatre, city view, late 1930s Sam Hood, State Library Of New South Wales

The Wayside Chapel

5 CHAPTER FIVE

That’s Entertainment

It was also during the 1920s that Kings Cross began to develop a reputation for night time entertainment and dining. The Kings Cross Theatre opened in 1916 at the apex of Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street. It quickly became a hub for a number of venues, with billiard rooms, oyster saloons, and cafés all trading within a few doors of the theatre. With more and more cafés, restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, the area was fast gaining a reputation for fun and frolic. By 1924 the Kings Cross Theatre had been joined by Ciro’s cabaret at the top of William Street, with regular dances, and by Maxim’s cabaret in Darlinghurst Road. So active was the cabaret scene that the combination of cafes, restaurants and cabaret theatres

The Wayside Chapel

along Darlinghurst Road drew comparison with London’s West End, Charlottenburg in pre-war Berlin, and the Montparnasse district of Paris. The comparisons had obvious limitations, but at least the thought was nice. By the mid-1930s a growing number of smaller places such as nightclubs and jazz bars were offering meals and entertainment and, increasingly, alcohol. Breaches of the Licensing Act were regularly reported in the daily papers throughout the 1930s and 1940s, although this was no deterrent to fun-seekers. From about 1937, Kings Cross became one of the main focal points for Sydneysiders to gather to see in the New Year, with thousands of people clogging the streets and gridlocking trams, buses and cars.

David Barnes

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Entertainment

The Wayside Chapel

6 CHAPTER SIX

Stewart McCrae, National Library of Australia

Australia at War

Pacific post, Sydney, Australia, Imperial war museum, Admiralty Official collections, 1945

The Wayside Chapel

Australia at War

The outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, and especially the entry of America in late 1941, was another turning point for Kings Cross. As the build-up for campaigns in the Pacific got under way thousands of US servicemen and women began to arrive in Sydney, adding to the growing number of Australian soldiers and sailors. Sydney Harbour became a central place for refitting and repairing allied ships engaged in the Pacific, and troops on leave were stationed in Sydney, primarily at the Cross. A short walk from the naval base at Garden Island, the Cross had something for everyone. For the ranks, there were plenty of hotels as well as eating places. The stylish Balcony Restaurant of the Woolworths Building at 50 Darlinghurst Road was used as a canteen, and the street was full of the swagger of young servicemen.

The Roosevelt nightclub in Orwell Street, operated by promoter Sammy Lee, became a notorious late night venue for American officers. The club was later managed by Abe Saffron and lasted until the end of six o’clock closing in 1955. Kings Cross was the scene of a later invasion from about 1964 when America’s involvement in the Vietnam conflict escalated rapidly. Rest and recreation, a euphemism for whatever a navy personnel wanted it to mean, led straight up the road from Garden Island to the steaming fleshpots of the Cross. With such a heavy influx of people, it’s little wonder that liquor, soft drugs, sex work and the increasing incidence of street fights tended to concentrate in certain precincts of Kings Cross. The cartoon on the previous page is a witty, though accurate, depiction of ‘R&R’ in Sydney.

For the officers, some of the older surviving mansions, as well as newer venues, were transformed into clubs devoted to their exclusive use.

Australia at War

7 CHAPTER SEVEN

Art for art’s sake

Art for Art’s Sake

Art for art’s sake

Art

Theatres

From the 1920s, artists, writers, musicians and performers started to make the flats and apartments or the old converted terraces and townhouses their home. In fact, Kings Cross soon began to read like a Who’s Who of Australian talent.

Across Orwell Lane from the Roosevelt Club was the Minerva Theatre, opened in 1939. The second theatre, to be known as The Paradise, was proposed for Macleay Street. The Minerva opened as a live theatre on 18 May 1939. The Paradise was planned as a venue for movies, with a stage large enough for opera, ballet and musical productions, with a roof garden and cabaret shows.

Poets such as Dame Mary Gilmore, Kenneth Slessor and Christopher Brennan all lived there, as did writers George Johnston and Charmian Clift, and Dymphna Cusack, who claimed that her time living in Orwell Street in 1941 helped with her novel Come in Spinner. In his writings Slessor evoked strong images of life in and around the Cross, exploring its bohemian nature as well as the edgier side. Slessor had mixed feelings about the Cross, acknowledging that it was a place better to explore than live in, and yet living there all the same. For a few years in the early 1940s the artist William Dobell lived on the corner of Darlinghurst Road and Roslyn Street. Kings Cross also had its own self-styled ‘witch’ and artist, Rosaleen Norton, who was a wellknown figure about the streets.

The Wayside Chapel

In 1950 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer took over the Minerva and converted it to a cinema (although it had played a week of movies in 1939). In 1969 it was returned to live theatre by Harry M Miller who used the venue for the musical Hair, which ran as a sell-out for two years. Through the 1970s the building was used for movies as well as live shows before closing in 1979, and then re-opening as a food market. In the early 1980s, Kennedy-Miller productions acquired the premises, using it as offices and for film and television production.

David Barnes

During the 1960s Kings Cross became a mecca for young people in search of a bohemian lifestyle Art for Artâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sake

The Wayside Chapel City of Sydney Archives

8 CHAPTER EIGHT

Melting pot

Melting Pot

David Barnes

The Wayside Chapel

Melting Pot

One group that found a place among the cosmopolitan mix of nationalities in the Cross were those fleeing from European fascism and Nazi persecution in the pre-war years. Even before the arrival of Jewish refugees, a Jewish War Memorial Hall had been established in 1930, together with the Swedish Club. Both were operating in Darlinghurst Road, a kilometre or so from the Greek Consul-General in Elizabeth Bay Road. Delicatessens and specialised grocery stores mirrored this growing ethnic diversity. In 1939 the Sydney Morning Herald remarked that Kings Cross was the most self-contained of Sydney’s

suburbs, ‘where foreigners have largely modified our social customs to produce an international settlement’. During the war years, Kings Cross continued to attract displaced persons and refugees, although at a much slower pace; the real surge in migration occurred after 1945. Both the Labor government of Ben Chifley and his successor, the Liberal Party politician, Robert Menzies, recognised the need for Australia to ‘populate or perish’. With so much land to spare, opportunity and potential Australia was a frontier country that simply lacked people.

Melting Pot

The Wayside Chapel

9 CHAPTER NINE

Chapel by the Wayside

Sir Garfield Barwick

Laying the foundation stone: Ted Noffs and Sir Garfield Barwick, Judge of the High Court of Australia, 1965

The Wayside Chapel

Chapel by the Wayside

Much has been made of the so-called ‘swinging sixties’ and the British fashion and music scene which held the world in thrall as the baby boomer generation began to make its mark. If the upside to the 60s was the emergence of modern rock music and its huge appeal, the downside was a drug culture that was anything less than ‘swinging’. By the early 1960s, Sydney’s Kings Cross was becoming a mecca for disaffected youth, illegal gambling, and a rampant drug culture. It was also the home of the red light district. Sadly, and by this time, the Cross had lost much of its bohemian edginess. Yet, one day in April 1964 something happened that was to have a profoundly beneficial impact on the lives of many people.

Ted Noffs In April of that year Reverend Ted Noffs left a comfortable position as Assistant Minister at one of the country’s largest Methodist church to start the Wayside Chapel in a block of flats at 29 Hughes Street, Potts Point. The chapel actually grew out of the dilapidated Methodist church on William Street, later replaced by a car sales room and which is still there today. After selling the William Street property in 1956 the Methodist Church purchased 29 Hughes Street, establishing a presence in the heart of Kings Cross.

In 1964 Noffs was put in charge of what he later referred to as ‘an experiment in bringing the Church into closer touch with the modern world’. Integral to Noffs’ life and work was his wife, Margaret, who shared a passion and conviction about God’s kingdom on earth. His particular brand of social and spiritual activism had already led Noffs to co-found the Aboriginal Affairs Foundation in 1962. In the weeks that followed, and working on a shoestring budget, a team of local volunteers (a motley crew comprising bearded beatniks, surfies, teenagers, boys and girls), knocked down bricks, painted walls, installed plate glass windows, completing the chapel in a little over one month. In the early years of their marriage Ted and Margaret Noffs had been sent to the remote parish of Wilcannia in the far west of New South Wales. Isolated, pioneers in a country that was harsh, difficult and lonely, the Noffs had to find within themselves a spiritual force in their work with the local Aboriginal people. They discovered that they didn’t need a church building, or a cathedral. They didn’t need a minister. They didn’t need a priest. There weren’t any around anyway. So they had to become their own ministers and priests. The result, Wes Noffs, later remarked, was that his father came to believe that Australians were basically spiritual and had a need for some form of spirituality.

Chapel by the Wayside

The Wayside Chapel Volunteers

The Wayside Chapel

Doing Church At this time, Wayside Chapel was like any other Methodist Church parish headquarters; it had a gym and a coffee shop. Before long the coffee shop became a hangout for marginal groups of young people in the area. It was joined by a small theatre which opened for drama, film and debate on the world’s problems, and acted as a rallying point for anti-Vietnam war rallies. Patrick White, writer and Australia’s Nobel Laureate, was a speaker as were the celebrated interviewer and writer, David Frost and anthropologist, Margaret Mead. There was also music, which caught both the ear and imagination of the Rev A.R. Bowden who happened to be in Sydney on the night of 14th May 1967. Clearly, amplifier feedback and the headbanging sound of drumbeat was rather a surprise for the unworldly wise, but no less sympathetic, Reverend Bowden. “When we arrived at the chapel (Wayside Chapel) Mr Noffs came through and told us to come and see the ‘Discotheque’ which he said we would not see any other night. There was a band playing a different type of music from that which we had experienced at the Mission. This music was very loud indeed with a very deep beat. The microphones were lifted off the standards at various stages and brought into contact with the speakers thus providing a rather weird high-pitched sound, which broke into the atmosphere every now and then.

The members of the band were moving in such a way they seemed to be in a rather semi-conscious state and the drummer seemed to be the key musician, as he had the task of keeping the throb going and it is the throb which affects your emotions and bring into a rather new world or a new feeling or atmosphere” Rev A.R. Bowden, 1967.

A widening gulf Interestingly, Bowden’s visit and observations happened at a time when the world was in transition, or should we say contradiction? Beginning in the 1950s, and continuing through till the 1980s, many young (and old) adults in the western world were deeply disturbed by the prospect of nuclear annihilation and destructive proxy wars such as Vietnam. The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States was threatening to tear the world apart. In a sign of the times the gulf between parents and children was immense, and growing. Most parents of the 60s generation had been born during the 1920s and carried the social outlook and values of an earlier period. Increasing affluence in the years post-1945 had fuelled a spirit of rebellion. For young people the general rule was: ‘never trust someone over 30 years of age’. For parents, the world was going to hell in a handcart; modern children were revolting, which in some cases was an accurate description. Rebellion was everywhere!

Chapel by the Wayside

David Barnes

The Wayside Chapel

10 CHAPTER TEN

A place of refuge

A Place of Refuge

David Barnes

A place of refuge

Well before Noffs opened the Wayside Chapel, the Cross had become a place of refuge or escape for many who were gravitating to its precincts. Here they found a home of sorts in the seedy, decaying boarding houses or the streets where they lived rough. Ted Noffs intended the Wayside Chapel to be a place where action came before preaching, and engagement with the community was more important than trying to ‘do church’ in traditional ways – which

The Wayside Chapel

meant little or nothing to those who had no history of church going. Drawing from his experience among Wilcannia’s Aboriginal people, Noffs pioneered a number of far-reaching and innovative developments in social welfare. It was a case of bringing church to people at their point of need in a way that didn’t impose historic forms of worship and engagement. Successive ministers have endeavoured to uphold Noffs’ ideal.

Confronting the drug problem Like many others in 1965 Noffs didn’t initially grasp the enormity of the growing drug culture whose deeper mark was yet to be made and felt. Street life attracted violence and drugs which could be easily bought – and sold – to feed addictions. Yet within a short time of their arrival, Ted and Margaret Noffs recognised the scourge of drugs and were determined to do something to help its victims. According to Wes Noffs, his father’s introduction to the drug scene on the Cross was accidental: “Dad walked into the chapel and found a young girl unconscious under one of the pews. He didn’t know what it was about but he got her out and got a doctor along. They discovered she was overdosed and did what they could. But what astonished him in that simple process was the fact that there were no specialist services that dealt with overdoses. Ted’s response to all this was to set up, for the first time in Australia, a drug referral scheme and rehabilitation centres.” In 1965 a crisis centre was opened and with it a program called Shepherd of the Streets (SOTS) where church workers went looking for people in distress. There was also a refuge for children under 15. Noffs established the first Drug Referral Centre in Sydney which opened in May 1967 in a rundown house in Rushcutter’s Bay known as Bayside Cottage.

The Wayside Chapel

This facility was expanded in 1971 to handle incidents that might arise at any time of day or night, including drug overdoses and possible suicides. Later, it came to occupy the entire building at No. 29 and further grew to include the block of flats adjacent to the first block. Programs were also in place to help the wider community. Outreach volunteers visited the ‘shut ins’ of the city – the many old, blind or disabled people who would live a lonely life without the weekly visits from their ‘outreach family’. Soup Patrol volunteers brought soup and cheer to homeless people living in parks, under bridges and in derelict houses. Wayside was guided through its formative years by Noffs and a team of passionate volunteers and employees, including Bill Crews, who was instrumental in developing and leading the social work programs from 1972 to 1983. Crews later went on to form the Exodus Foundation.

Uniting Church As the decade of the 70s was nearing its end, ownership of the Wayside Chapel passed from one jurisdiction to another. On 22 June 1977, Noffs’ employer, the Methodist Church of Australasia, ceased to exist. Together with most of its congregations and those of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and the Congregational Union of Australia, the Methodists merged to form the Uniting Church.

“Dad walked into the chapel and found a young girl unconscious under one of the pews. He didn’t know what it was about but he got her out and got a doctor along. They discovered she was overdosed and did what they could. But what astonished him in that simple process was the fact that there were no specialist services that dealt with overdoses. Ted’s response to all this was to set up, for the first time in Australia, a drug referral scheme and rehabilitation centres.” WES NOFFS

Refuge Chapter TenAAPlace placeof of refuge

The Wayside Chapel

11 CHAPTER ELEVEN

Life Education

Dick Smith (far left) was a financial supporter of the Life Education Centre 54

The Wayside Chapel

Life education

So concerned were Ted and Margaret Noffs by Sydney’s drugs crisis and its focal point, Kings Cross, they were convinced prevention was the only way forward. Said Noffs: “I suppose it was the death of so many young people, many of them scarcely beyond childhood, that really shook me. I buried over 100 young people. I faced a crisis over and over again at these funeral services.” He reasoned that education, especially of young people, was a vital component in turning the tide.

Life Education Centre Acting on this conviction, in early 1979 Noffs developed a community model which he called The Life Education Centre (LEC). It drew inspiration from an earlier program which first ran in 1965 when Noffs was asked by students to present a series of lectures in their secondary school. The first class was held in November. “What I discovered from that first lecture… is to say nothing about moral or legal issues. Our approach has been simply to say to all the children who come: ‘you are so beautiful. In this whole world there will never be anyone just like you’. We spell out the medical facts (about the human body) in the most meaningful way. The whole emphasis in the preliminary presentation is upon the beauty and wonder of the universe”.

In what was then an entirely novel approach to life education Noffs and his co-workers dimmed the lights and proceeded to introduce a transparent ‘dummy’ to a curious audience. With coloured lights trailing inside the torso, showing the different systems (respiratory, circulatory, etc) the presenter would ‘illuminate’ the talk using the dummy called TAM to a curious audience. When the moment was right an assistant hiding behind the curtain on stage extended a hand-held puppet, sometimes a giraffe, which Noffs introduced as ‘Harold’. This was the inception of Life Education which, of course, moved with the times, developing in sophistication as technology allowed. During the 1980s the program grew rapidly, especially after 1984 when Noffs persuaded the NSW Labor government of Neville Wran to match dollar for dollar the money raised in the community. Dick Smith, the entrepreneur, was another significant financial supporter. Subsequently LEC programs were set up around Australia and even in the USA and the UK where Ted Noffs was introduced to Prince Charles, who had long taken a close interest in the work. The LEC continued to grow and became a stand-alone entity in 1991. Today, LEC is still a uniquely Australian concept concerned about the health education of children and young people, especially related to educating them about the dangers of substance abuse.

Life Education

Aboriginal Connection The Wayside Chapel was also a place for those wanting to share their concerns about social problems, especially the plight of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Noffs tapped into the spirit of the time, and one of his first actions in 1964 was to establish the first office of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs. Charlie Perkins, the Aboriginal activist, became a dedicated volunteer. Many younger people associated with the chapel demanded ‘immediate action to relieve the distress and poverty among Aboriginal families in country towns in New South Wales.’ (Newsletter, May 1966) The program continued to make an impact although it was only in 2009 that an indigenous worker was appointed. This led to the funding in 2010 of the Aboriginal Project which now provides a dedicated space for specialised, culturally sensitive support and opportunities for community members to reconnect with their culture.

The Wayside Chapel

Helping those visitors who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander to make positive life choices is the work of the project’s dedicated male worker and female worker. “I started coming to Wayside last year (2012) because I was sleeping rough down at Walla Mulla Park in Woolloomooloo. I was a heavy drinker and had started using drugs and needles. I was pretty crook. Someone told me about the weekly lunch and I remembered Wayside from the 80s so I went along. The first time it sort of grabbed me because there were other Aboriginal people there that were doing really well. I kept to myself for a long time but after a while I started to open up to people and the Aboriginal Project helped me get my health back together”- John Golden-Brown, Aboriginal Project Participant.

David Barnes

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Operation Wayside Breakfastâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; takes breakfast to Aboriginal children in Newtown to help overcome under-nourishment Life Education

The Wayside Chapel

12 CHAPTER TWELVE

Hatch & Match

Ted Noffs Christening A BABY

The Wayside Chapel

Hatch & Match

The chapel itself was the setting for the marriage of numerous people, among them some of Sydney’s better known personalities including, author David Ireland and the youngest Gibb brother, Andy Gibb of Bee Gees fame. In 1965 the Hollywood star, Jane Powell, married her PR agent, Jim Fitzgerald, in the chapel.

During the 1980s the ‘naming’ of young children and babies became popular in Australia with ceremonies held in parks across Greater Sydney as well as in Newcastle, Melbourne and even the Gold Coast. Over the years the Wayside Chapel had more than its fair share of namings.

Hatch & Match

The Wayside Chapel

13 CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Nineties

The Wayside Chapel

The Nineties

There was never enough Ted Noffs to go around. For almost 25 years he drove himself relentlessly, despite the urgings of his family to lessen the pace. In his time as a pastor, Ted married over 20,000 couples from almost every country and religion in the world and conducted over 9,000 naming ceremonies for children; a practice which put him at odds with some church officials and earned him allegations of heresy. The strain from Ted’s ever-increasing workload, and the pressure from church authorities started to show. In March 1987 Noffs suffered a major stroke and lay in a coma for several weeks with the result that he never recovered, remaining in a semi-conscious state until his death in 1995. Margaret Noffs immediately assumed management at the Wayside Chapel and for the next few years continued its work and vision with other staff members and volunteers.

Ray Richmond In 1991 the Wayside Chapel’s board of directors appointed Reverend Ray Richmond (pictured top left) as pastor, who returned 28 years after having first worked at the chapel in the early 1960s as a young man. During the 1980s Richmond had done a stint as a research officer and manager at the Brussels headquarters of the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA), a global interchange network. Building on his work in community development Richmond then spent five years in Spain where he became involved in management

training for practitioners of community development. Subsequently, he moved to Seattle where he met his future wife, Elaine. Like Margaret Noffs, Elaine soon became a central figure in the Wayside Chapel. Richmond’s vocational experience was also broadened by his time living and working in India, West Samoa, Indonesia, and with indigenous peoples in Papua New Guinea and Australia.

A matter of concern During his time as Pastor, Ray Richmond oversaw the launch of the Hands-on-Health Clinic, the Bath House and Youth Space: a program that focussed on young people most at risk. Richmond’s appointment happened to coincide with a decline in the chapel’s financial position. Put simply, the Wayside was living beyond its means, leaving Richmond no choice but to curb programs that could no longer be supported financially. Modern accounting methods and procedures were introduced, and there were cutbacks on contracts, staff and other expenses, which caused a great deal of pain and soul-searching all round. Financial difficulties continued, the demand for services constantly outstripping the Chapel’s means. It was a case of ‘cutting the coat according to one’s cloth’. A decade later the global financial crisis in late 2007 became a cause for further anxiety, although by this time the Wayside Chapel had long since become used to the seemingly endless roller coaster ride in its finances.

The Nineties

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ted Noffs died in 1995 and will always be remembered as a charismatic pioneer whose influence and innovations have been felt worldwide.â&#x20AC;?

The Wayside Chapel

Going separate ways

Farewell Ted Noffs

In 1992, the Noffs family parted ways with The Wayside Chapel. Wesley Noffs and his mother, Margaret, continued their work through the Ted Noffs Foundation, a secular organisation dedicated to rehabilitating young people from drug and alcohol abuse.

Ted Noffs died in 1995 and will always be remembered as a charismatic pioneer whose influence and innovations have been felt worldwide. Yet, his belief in the ‘Family of Humanity’ encompassed every faith, putting him on a collision course with his own church.

The work of the Wayside Chapel continued. By 1994 the chapel had a full time staff of 10 with a floating volunteer force of 850, a far cry from the 25 or so that had joined the first six months in 1964.

Long before the term social inclusion was coined, Ted Noffs was welcoming all comers; whatever their need he would find a way to meet them. He challenged staff and volunteers to perform beyond their own belief in their capabilities. He knew they could do it if only they conquered their own fear of failure. For Ted, failure did not exist. Defeat yes, failure never. This unconventional man of the cloth invited and inspired all around him to join the conversation and act.

“Ted’s vision - and it’s the same with us today - is that we don’t want to be seen as a soup kitchen. We are something which helps the community behave like a community. We want the poor to know that we exist only because of the generosity of the rich. And the rich to know that the poor are their brothers and sisters” - Graham Long.

The Nineties

The Wayside Chapel

14 CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Civil Disobedience

David Barnes

The Wayside Chapel

Civil Disobedience

Street view

Tolerance Room

Few would seriously argue that using illegal drugs promotes personal well being and happiness. What to do about the problem, however, has been highly contentious. Our response as a community ranges from demands for legalisation to continued prohibition and greater targetting of drug importation and distribution networks. Both sides have assembled formidable arguments to support their case.

In 1999, Bob Carr, the newly elected Labor premier of New South Wales, convened a drug summit to address the growing drug problem. Frustrated with the blatant refusal of the government to discuss the topic of a safe injecting room, Richmond and others at Wayside committed an act of civil disobedience by encouraging drug addicts to administer their own drugs in a supervised environment in a ‘Tolerance Room’ at the Chapel. In fact, Richmond opened the so-called ‘T-Room’ with the support of a local community fed up with being ignored by cautious politicians unwilling to address the heroin users and drugrelated deaths swamping the area.

If you happen to be at the pointy end, ie trying to make the best of a terrible situation and keep long-term drug users alive, then neither position is particularly helpful. The view at the street level is very different, which is something everyone working at the Wayside Chapel understood, as well as the medical staff at Sydney’s hospital casualty units. And the street level was far from pretty, with an epidemic of deaths due to drug overdoses and infection caused by unsafe injecting practices. Not only was this a public health disaster, it was slowly destroying the strong sense of community in Kings Cross that existed in the wider populace.

Civil Disobedience

David Barnes

The Wayside Chapel

Government action This galvanised the authorities. When the police raided Wayside Richmond was charged with aiding and abetting the self-administration of a prohibited drug, although the charges were subsequently dropped. In May of that year the NSW Drug Summit passed a resolution to pilot a Medically Supervised Injecting Centre. The idea was not entirely new, the Wood Royal Commission having previously recommended such a thing. Nonetheless, a Joint Select Committee was set up investigate the feasibility which quickly led to parliamentary legislation in November 1999 establishing a Centre on Darlinghurst Road.

The Roman Catholic religious order, the Sisters of Charity, was chosen to run the trial, although this was stopped on the orders of the Vatican. Ultimately, the owner of the Wayside Chapel, the Uniting Church stepped in.

In hindsight Despite the controversy, the safe injecting room is now accepted as having provided drug addicts with a clean and safe place in which to seek help. Many lives have been saved as a result. Drug policy is exceedingly complex and provokes heated and emotional discussion, but there is no doubt that Richmondâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s idea of an injecting room to minimise the harm to addicts and the community at large has been vindicated.

Civil Disobedience

The Wayside Chapel

15 CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Turning the page

Turning the Page

The Wayside Chapel

Turning the page

Ray Richmond retires Ray Richmond retired in 2004 after 13 years’ service. Under his direction the Chapel’s involvement in helping many of the most vulnerable members of the community continued. By the year 2004 the Wayside Chapel was offering a daily drop-in centre, a nightly street outreach program for young people at risk, a crisis centre for counselling and referral to other agencies, as well as a home visiting team and a health clinic. In the year before Richmond’s retirement the Wayside Chapel assisted people on thousands of occasions to access emergency accommodation services and help people to access appropriate drug and alcohol or mental health services.

New chapter and verse Richmond’s replacement as pastor and CEO was Graham Long. An avuncular, bearded figure with a raucous and ready laugh, Long quickly showed himself to be a practical administrator who steered the organisation from near insolvency to financial health, and supervised what started as a $7 million redevelopment of the, by now, ramshackle premises.

Moreover, he continued the earlier vision of Noffs and Richmond, creating a community with no ‘us and them’. Long described his approach as telling the people helped by the Chapel that they’re not ‘problems’ to be solved but rather ‘people’ to be met. “We try to keep the chapel as a quiet, safe, sacred space. Lots of people just come here to sit and think,” Long says. “Everyone falls over at some point, and everyone needs help getting back up again” - Graham Long. The God gene ran in Long’s family; his father had been a pastor with the Church of Christ, and much of his childhood was spent moving around the country, from Ballarat to rural NSW. From the age of 18 to 28, Graham worked in Adelaide for the South Australian government as a social worker, specialising in child protection. In 1978 he moved to Sydney with Robyn, who has been his wife for over 40 years. They had married when Long was three days past his 20th birthday.

Turning the Page

The Wayside Chapel

Gary Heery, Stories from the Wayside

For the next four years Long studied to be a pastor in the Churches of Christ, a small evangelical denomination similar to the Baptist movement. In 1982 he became the pastor at Castle Hill but soon decided that he preferred “working on the rough end of humanity”. When the Churches of Christ asked him to run and expand a welfare arm in the western suburbs, he leapt at the opportunity. It was a job he did for the next 15 years. For the first four years or so he served as the parttime pastor of Parramatta prison which by his own admission had a formative effect on him. Interviewed by the Board for the job, Long was adamant he was ‘not Ted Noffs, and never could be’. There was the added complication of religious politics. To be accepted as pastor, Long had to go through the Uniting Church’s vigorous training procedure. So that he could make a start, the Board appointed him as general manager, licensing him to perform normal pastoral duties - baptisms, funerals, marriages and so on - until he finally qualified, which he did so in 2008.

work and mission. Current ambassadors include David Wenham, Indira Naidoo and Claudia Karvan. In addition to ambassadors there was the figurehead. In 2005 Her Excellency, Prof Marie Bashir AC, Governor of NSW accepted the role of patron in 2005 and in her welcome speech made the following observation. “The Wayside Chapel plays such a critically important role by welcoming into our community so many people who might typically, and sadly, not consider themselves worthy of belonging. More than that, it opens doors for those experiencing better times in life, who might otherwise not have known how to lend a helping hand and share in the experiences of the lonely, so that we may all become a healthier, less prejudiced and more inclusive community”.

Ambassadors Alive to new possibilities, Graham Long was keen to introduce a new role at the Wayside Chapel in the form of an ‘ambassador’ who could represent its

Turning the Page

The Wayside Chapel

16 CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Bricks, but no mortar

Bricks, But No Mortar

Bricks, but no mortar

For some years the dilapidated state of the three separate buildings that made up the Wayside Chapel had been a source of grave concern. Graham Long was used to seeing rainwater seep through the brick walls causing bricks to fall out. Clearly, something had to give and hopefully not the building itself. As it turned out this extreme scenario was not that far-fetched. In May 2007 a building fund was established, which was timely because during early 2008 the NSW Work Cover Authority found the buildings to be a health and safety hazard. In fact, twothirds of the buildings were beyond redemption (no pun intended) and subsequently condemned.

Save the Wayside A ‘Save the Wayside’ campaign commenced more or less immediately with the board obtaining planning approval for a $7 million rebuild. A public appeal was launched just before the GFC took hold. “Dig deep, donors”, but this was not an easy message to send to the many generous private donors and ongoing government support, especially at a time when the catastrophic global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008 was unfolding. The effects all round were dire; speaking at the time Long acknowledged “this financial crisis has been a crisis for us too”.

Following much perseverance, in July 2009, the Wayside Chapel received a grant of $2 million from the state government for the purpose of rebuilding its physical facilities. An additional grant from the federal government for $3 million was received in late 2009 and the balance of funds were raised by private donations. Along with the building fund, Graham Long had additional responsibility of finding funds to cope with the growing demands of running the chapel’s many programs. As with his predecessors at the Wayside Chapel, money worries for Graham Long were never far away. The predicament – and recipe for happiness – is well described in the character of Mr Wilkins Micawber, who appears in the novel, David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds, nineteen shillings and six pence. Result: happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds and six pence. Result: misery”. Graham Long may have drawn little comfort from Dickens’ forthright observations, but the reality is that we must all live within our limited means. For the Wayside, this was particularly challenging if we consider that annual turnover of $300,000 (when Long joined the Chapel) had reached $1.8 million a year by 2007.

Bricks, But No Mortar

The Wayside Chapel

Knockdown, rebuild In early 2010 building work for the Wayside Redevelopment Project was underway and in July 2011 Stage 1 of the new building was opened. Soon after work Stage 2 commenced, which restored the original building. This was completed in 2012, with the official opening of the redeveloped Wayside taking place in front of a crowd of 800 people on Saturday 19 May 2012. Speaking at the opening of the new building, Wayside Chapel ambassador, Claudia Karvan, reminisced about her own teenage experience: “It is heartening to see the building I roamed in as an inner-city kid redeveloped and ready to serve the whole community. When I was a child, Wayside was a neighbourhood hotspot that emanated madness, warmth and colour. That same feeling remains today but gone are the leaks in the roof, the ‘Do Not Enter’ signs and the crumbling bricks. What stands today on a little patch of earth in the Cross is a magnificent building where the generous and dedicated staff are better equipped to help people in need. As a city, we should be proud that enough people found space in their hearts to save Wayside.”

At a total cost of $8.2 million, and after five years of fundraising and 22 months of construction, the new buildings that made up the Wayside Chapel was hailed as a remarkable achievement. The purpose-built facility contained a community service centre, youth space, café, dedicated program space for The Aboriginal Project and Day-toDay Living, a community hall, offices and meeting spaces for groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous. The new building also included a rooftop garden with over 50 varieties of vegetables, fruit, flowers and herbs, along with a bee-hive, worm farm and compost. Designed by Sydney architect, Tone Wheeler another committed volunteer and principle of Environa, the building is an outstanding example of utility and and expression of human warmth.

Bricks, But No Mortar

The Wayside Chapel

17 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

New ideas

New Ideas

Katherine williams

The Wayside Chapel

New Ideas

Initiatives

Love over Hate

As an innovator Graham Long continued in the tradition of the Wayside Chapel through a number of initiatives.

Then came ‘Love over Hate’ in 2008 which became something of a hallmark for the work of the Chapel through a new tattoo-inspired logo and redesigned website which continues to evolve as the Chapel grows.

Day by day A notable success has been Day to Day Living, which Graham introduced in 2007. Known to everyone as D2DL, it provides a structured activity program for people experiencing long term and persistent mental health issues. Much of its work is supporting people who are socially isolated, helping them to improve their independence in the community by teaching social skills, developing social networks and promoting confidence.

Wayside Youth One existing program, Wayside Youth, supporting young people at risk living on or around the streets of Kings Cross, was relaunched in April 2007. Street based youth workers and a drop in centre provides a safe, home environment where young people can come and access laundry and shower facilities. With lounge room, kitchen and activity areas, each area of the program aims to engage and motivate young people as well as provide living skills.

Wayside Cafe The Wayside Café provides low-cost, freshly-made meals and beverages in a relaxed and friendly environment. The Café is the busiest and most liveliest part of Wayside, with people from all walks of life coming together for a meal, a coffee or simply to spend time in a safe place where they’re welcome just ‘to be’. While the Café’s meals aren’t free, they’re extremely affordable, which is consistent with the greater Wayside mentality of a hand up rather than a handout.

Friends of the Wayside In 2008 the Friends of the Wayside regular giving campaign was launched which has been highly successful in helping to promote and publicise the Chapel’s work and its financial requirements.

Wayside Op Shop Packed to the rafters with clothes, jewellery and home wares, the Op Shop is a favourite of people looking for quirky one-offs and affordable designs.

New Ideas

The Wayside Chapel

18 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Gary Heery, Stories from the Wayside

Volunteers, visitors, smiles

Volunteers, Visitors, Smiles

Katherine williams

The Wayside Chapel

Volunteers, visitors, smiles

Over the years the Wayside Chapel has welcomed thousands of volunteers and visitors, all of whom have made their mark. Notable volunteers have included the TV personality, Maggie Tabberer, Dick Smith, John Singleton, Suzy Yates, Hazel and Susie Hawke. Bill Crews, another early volunteer, went on to form the Exodus Foundation.

There has even been a performance in the theatre of works by the 18th century composer, J.S. Bach, under the baton of Neville Marriner, a distinguished British musician. The Chapelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theatre also hosted the memorial service of Juanita Nielsen who campaigned against the overdevelopment of Kings Cross, and was assumed murdered by criminals associated with property interests.

Volunteers, Visitors, Smiles

“The support provided by John (CSC Worker) and Wayside was vital. I wouldn’t have gotten into housing without the assistance they offered me at Wayside. It’s as simple as that. It was a very frustrating process. John helped and he kept me going. He’d say, “don’t give up, we’ll find you something”. It took six months, which seemed like a long time but in theory it’s not, it’s record breaking time. If it wasn’t for Wayside, I’d still be in the park.” David Upson, Wayside Visitor

“The last Christmas I spent with my family was in 1986. It has been said the Christmas Day at Wayside is ‘an event that really can and really does show us a better way for humanity’. I think that’s true. We have lunch and then there’s singing and dancing. Last year I kept company with two matureage ladies who were also on their own and, bless my soul, when they asked me to dance the Macarena with them I did. Me dancing – that’s not something you’ll see very often!” John French, Wayside Visitor

“I have been volunteering at The Wayside for almost ten years now. Wayside has always struck me as a place where real connections with people are possible. There’s no pretence and you realise that people are struggling with genuine pain often on a daily basis, and so attempts at maintaining a false self-image fade away and we come face to face with the raw humanity which we all share.” Sue Bidwell, Wayside Volunteer

“I’m a firm believer in contributing to the local community and perpetuating that sense of belonging. I love the community feel of Potts Point and volunteering at Wayside was just a perfect combination for me. I enjoy the people the most - the visitors, the volunteers and the staff. Each individual contributes to that community feel, which makes Wayside so special.” Michelle, Wayside Volunteer

The Wayside Chapel

“When I first came to Wayside I felt incomplete, a bit lost and was fighting drug addiction, now when I come to Wayside I feel complete, to get so much support and one step at a time. They’re helping me achieve the goals I wanna achieve, I’m finally on my way to be what I wanna be, drug free and experiencing life to the fullest, here I feel I got a family and it feels good to know someone’s always got your back or gonna catch you when you fall.” Danika, Wayside Youth Visitor

“I was married at The Wayside Chapel in the late 60s but it wasn’t until recently, when we bought an apartment in Potts Point, that my interest in Wayside was rekindled. The homeless people on the streets touched a raw nerve and I felt a deep need to connect with them. It was painful and striking to observe how many people walked by without even a glance or a simple word. I started volunteering at Wayside because I wanted to be more hands on and learn and experience and understand more.” Maxine Stewart, Wayside Volunteer

“What made Wayside special were the incredible people who came there and made it their home. You had people from the bottom most layers of society rubbing shoulders with the cream of society and the arts world. There was nothing like it anywhere. Being there meant you felt you were part of something really special and you were. I think the genius of Ted was that once it began he let it all happen. He couldn’t stop it really!” Bill Crews, former Volunteer and Employee

“Going from one side of the front desk to the other side of the front desk is something I am so proud of because I can see how far I’ve come. I spent last year on the street and came to Wayside as a visitor; now I am volunteering here. If it was not for Wayside I would not be alive today.” Rob Holt, Wayside Visitor turned Volunteer

Volunteers, Visitors, Smiles

Cynthia Sciberras

The Wayside Chapel

EPILOGUE

How good is it to stop for a moment, take a deep breath and recall the sense of wonder that truly belongs in our present moment? In fact, it’s right to stop for moments of wonder but it’s wrong for the pursuit of wonder to take priority over the less romantic business of bringing hope where there is no hope. To stand where we are today is awesome but we didn’t get here by sitting in a corner and developing a dream. Many people have given their all in pursuit of a destiny for Wayside; a destiny greater than anything we could have dreamed up. Many have literally worn themselves out giving their lives for a vision of humanity that is fairer and more compassionate than the prevailing, “business as usual” approach to life. Thank you for sharing our moment of wonder. It will be no more than a passing amusement, however, unless you move out of the moment of wonder and into the more difficult business of making the world a better place. We have known Wayside on the cutting edge, leading our community toward wholeness and grace and we’ve seen Wayside brought to its knees and on the brink of closure. For the sake of this city, my plea is that you let the vision of love over hate capture you so that not just your heart is moved, but also your head, your feet, your hands and your wallet. Join the company of heroes who have believed in the Wayside destiny and then gone out to meet it with their whole being. We are ready to launch into the next chapter of creating community and serving those in need. Be part of what makes this city stop in awe and wonder, today and fifty years from now.

Reverend Graham Long

Epilogue

‘Along the Wayside’ has been made possible by the generous donation of goods and services Words Ron Ringer DESIGN Fabric wearefabric.com.au Printing Snap PHOTOGRAPHy David Barnes, Cynthia Sciberras, Katherine Williams, Gary Heery

The Wayside Chapel has provided unconditional love, care and support for people on and around the streets of Kings Cross since 1964. “The essential work done by The Wayside Chapel never stops, but the money we need to do it sometimes does. Wayside relies heavily on the support of individuals

The Wayside Chapel

and organisations to keep its programs alive. There are many ways you can lend your support, whether it be by subscribing to Graham’s Inner Circle, rolling up your sleeves to volunteer, donating goods or services, or by making a regular donation as a Friend of the Wayside. Visit www.thewaysidechapel.com for more information on how you can get involved”.

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The Wayside Chapel