In 1918 the charismatic wowser Robert Hammond came to be Rector at St Barnabas and began one of the most active & vital episodes in the life of the ministry. At the time that area of Sydney was a huge slum containing some of the most grinding poverty in a city that was still known for the yawning gulf between its haves & have nots.

A fervent anti drink & tobacco advocate he ran endless support programs for the poor across Sydney. These included Hammond Hotels (lodging for homeless men) and many of the initiatives that now make up Anglicare. His social and political influence was so wide that at the height of the Depression he was able to gain the support to build a settlement to house destitute inner city families and hopefully free them from the poverty trap.

This settlement was called Hammondville & still exists subsumed into what is now suburban Liverpool. Its "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" approach was very influential on the growth of suburban Sydney. Hammond is pictured at left amongst a group of the unemployed signing up for allotments at Hammondville.
Grit. The subscription newspaper edited (and often mostly written) by Hammond. Part newsletter about the goings on at Barnabas, temperance journal, part political soapbox. Circulation of 200,000 at its height.
The congregation at a St Barnabas sermon during the early 1930s.
Hammond presides over new years eve celebrations at a Hammond Hotel during the Depression.
A rather gothic looking Depression era St Barnabas reminds us that the area surrounding West Broadway at that time was home to some of the grimmest poverty in the city.