09/02/2026
๐๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข is still closed, awaiting the commencement of remediation works. However, the Committee continues to plan fundraising events to support the maintenance of the property. Here is (very) advanced notice of our joint Heritage Lecture with All Saints' in August this year!
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๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ข๐๐ง๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐๐
๐๐ง๐ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐๐ง ๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก ๐จ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ
๐๐ง๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ข๐ญ๐๐ฅ
๐ณ๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐
๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐
Speaker: Theodore Ell
Recitalist: Aleks Mitsios
Sunday, 16 August 2026 at 2.00pm
All Saints' Anglican Church
Ambrose Street, Hunters Hill
Tickets $25, and including light refreshments to follow.
http//www.trybooking.com/DJMVI
Enquiries by phone to (02) 9816 1794 or email to < [email protected]>
More than any Australian author before or since, poet and late National Living Treasure Les Murray (1938-2019) explored the imaginative richness and asserted the essential dignity of Australian English. The Australia of Murray's mind, built from vignettes of folk memories, anecdotes, animal encounters and quirks of character, was a 'Vernacular Republic' that arose from everyday speech, beyond the reach of officialdom.
This talk will address Murray's lifelong delight in 'prospecting on the property,' a constant search for new possibilities in Australian idioms that produced dozens of entries in the ๐๐ข๐ค๐ฒ๐ถ๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ณ๐บ and literary usages of dazzling originality. The talk will also compare Murray's work in retrieving, conserving and celebrating Australian idioms and their meanings to similar efforts by Seamus Heaney in Ireland and Derek Walcott in the Caribbean, to highlight the international resonance of Murray's local concerns.
๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ ๐๐ง ๐ฝ๐๐ค๐๐ง๐๐ฅ๐๐ฎ
Writer Theodore Ell is an Honorary Lecturer in literature at the ANU, at work on a new authorised biography of Les Murray. His essay โFaรงades of Lebanonโ, about witnessing the Lebanese revolution and surviving the Beirut port explosion, won the 2021 Calibre Essay Prize.
His memoir of that period, ๐๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐บ๐ด, was published in August 2024 and was Highly Commended for the 2025 ACT Book of the Year. His poetry collection ๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต shared the 2022 Anne Elder Award.
๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ก๐๐จ๐ฉ ๐ฝ๐๐ค๐๐ง๐๐ฅ๐๐ฎ
Aleks Mitsios commenced as Director of Music in the Parish of Hunters Hill in 2025, but his love of music began at age four with the piano. That passion was pursued at the Conservatorium High School where his repertoire of instruments expanded to include learning Pipe Organ. He began playing for churches in 2019 with a number of scholarships while he completed his Bachelor of Music (Performance) majoring in Organ at University of Sydney (Sydney Conservatorium of Music).
Aleks has flourished in his role as Director of Music in the Parish of Hunters hill, where he leads a growing choir and talented team of musicians. At the Heritage Lecture and Recital he is planning a programme to showcase the Bevington organ.
Les Murrayโs three huge scrapbooks, known collectively as his โGreat Book,โ were deposited at the National Library of Australia in 2022. They offer salient insights into Murrayโs aesthetic preferences and compositional procedures, in particular a preoccupation with intricate patterns in whic...
