The
overgrown Heritage listed Townsville church
building, above, battered in Cyclone Yasi, recently featured in Little Darwin, has gone up in
smoke. Originally a
bank in the goldmining boomtown of
Charters Towers , it became
the residence of the Sisters of
Mercy who taught at St Mary’s Convent , West End , not far from where Communist
author Jean Devanny
found her earthly
tropical paradise . There was another fire in Townsville that night and in the excitement the Townsville Bulletin got the two mixed up and in its report, sporting another inappropriate photo of a smiling reporter, said the cause of the old building fire could have been a faulty airconditioner with flammable vapors . Nuns with airconditioners-what next ? And as the building was not connected to electricity, this must surely rate as a Christmas miracle . ( Vallis Photograph )
