Gurdwara & St Kilda…..

by Mandeep Gaygoat

This morning we went to the Gurdwara, in a suburb of Melbourne called Blackburn. We arrived at 11am and hardly found anybody there, the sangat turned up and 12. I was thinking that if this was an white American Sikh Gurdwara they would have been there from the start…….the reason why American Sikhs are leading the way and showing us how it is done properly!!

Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha
(Blackburn Gurdwara)
127 Whitehouse Road
Blackburn 3130
Melbourne
Australia
T: +61 3 989 41800
E: [email protected]
W: www.gudwarablackburn.com.au

The Sabha (SGNSS) was set up in 1981 to carry on the religious affair of the sangat in Melbourne. Prior to that and beginning in 1977 families had met in private homes, then Rathdowne Primary School and later Box Hill Primary school as centres for the Sikh Sangat. In 1984, through the efforts of the pioneering families the Uniting Church in Fern Tree Gully was purchased and set up as the first Gurdwara in Melbourne. The move to the current premises at 127 Whitehorse Road, Blackburn -a postal warehouse refurbished and transformed to serve as a Gurdwara was made in late 1993.
Today, Gurdwara Sahib at Blackburn is well placed to meet the needs of an ever increasing sangat. An elected committee manages the day to day running of the Sabha affairs supported by a very large team of dedicated volunteers and a resident team of religious workers. The sangat is able to listen to kirtan from some of the best professional ragis who provide their services for programs both at the gurdwara and homes. Regular programs are held on Wednesdays evenings, Saturdays mornings and Sunday mornings. Additional kirtan programs and weddings are held at other times on Saturdays and Sundays. Special programs are held to celebrate Vaisakhi and Gurpurabs.

Based at the premises, the Khalsa Punjabi School hold classes for the teaching of Punjabi language each Sunday. Punjabi is offered at VCE subject and classes are held on Wednesday evenings. The first batch of students completed this course last year with excellent `results. The Gurbani Kirtan School offers classes for the Learning of Gurbani, Kirtan and tabla on Saturdays and Sundays. The upgrading of resources and refurbishment of Sri Guru Hargobind Libraryis progressing well and the library is very well attended.

The Kirtan was very nice. Afterwards Sangeet bought the CD for AUS$2, unfortunately the sound quality on the CD was poor.

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Kirtan

As I am looking for a SIM card so we have continuous internet coverage. We popped to a suburb called Boxhill.

Centro Box Hill
17-21 Market St,
Box Hill VIC
T: +61 3 9843 3900

The shopping centre looked small from the outside but was huge inside, like a tardis!
It would have cost us $50 for a 3gb limit so we decided against the idea.

Aferwards we popped to St Kilda, a seaside town with a big culture around drinking!
St Kilda was named after a schooner Lady of St Kilda (which moored at the main beach for much of 1841) by Charles La Trobe and the ship’s master and early settler Lieutenant James Ross Lawrence.
During the Edwardian and Victorian eras, St Kilda became a favoured suburb of Melbourne’s elite, and many palatial mansions were constructed along its hills and waterfront. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, St Kilda served a similar function for Melburnians as did Coney Island to the residents of New York City and its history draws an interesting parallel. Densely populated postwar St Kilda became Melbourne’s red-light district, home to low-cost rooming houses. Since the late 1960s, St Kilda became known for its culture of bohemianism as home to many prominent artists, musicians and subcultures, including punks[citation needed], LGBT and techno scene[citation needed]. While some of these groups still maintain a presence in St Kilda, in recent years the district has experienced rapid gentrification pushing many lower socio-economic groups out to other areas.
St Kilda is home to many of Melbourne’s famous visitor attractions including Luna Park, the Esplanade Hotel, Acland Street and Fitzroy Street. It is home to St Kilda Beach, Melbourne’s most famous beach, several renowned theatres and several of Melbourne’s big events and festivals.
Melbourne’s Luna Park is a historic amusement park located on the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay in St Kilda, Victoria, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It opened on 13 December 1912 and has been operating almost continuously ever since.

St Kilda

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St Kilda

The Palais Theatre is a former cinema, now functioning exclusively as a concert venue, located in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. With a capacity of 2,896 people, it is the largest seated theatre in Australia.
The building, which retains many of its original features, is considered one of the finest examples of Art deco architecture in Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register. In 2006, the City of Port Phillip, which owns the site, called for tenders by private operators to restore the theatre, as part of the proposed redevelopment of the Triangle Site. However, the redevelopment failed to go ahead and the planned $20 million restoration of the Palais was also abandoned.

Lentil As Anything – St Kilda
Not-for-profit incorporated association, based on a ‘pay as you feel’ philosophy. Lentil As Anything features a global cuisine, e.g. Indian curry, udon noodles and lentil or tofu burgers. It has a cosy atmosphere and also provides seating outside.

In the evening we had a great meal at Loving Hut

Loving Hut

10/242 Victoria Street,
Richmond
T: +61 3 9427 8916

The menu was different to the one in Auckland which disappointed me. I wanted mock meats! For me the meal was okay nothing special, not a restaurant I would go back to.

As we had no accommodation for the night we decided to go back to YHA metro…..yes even though I did not like the place…..fortunately we got a double room with a shower.