of work Italian artist Francesco Floreani during the Great Depression and remains a fascination to this day. St Mary's Roman Catholic Church was well established when a new church building was opened on 29 April 1883. The Reverend Fr Patrick O'Donohue was priest from 1883 to 1888. Early in the 1880s a school was opened and developed quickly so that extensions to the building were added in 1888. There were about 120 pupils in 1890. Fr Cremin oversaw the congregation from 1909 and in this period plans were drawn up to erect a magnificent brick church at an estimated £10,000. The architects were A. A. Fritsch and Harry French. Work started in August 1913 with the a stone being laid by Bishop Phelan of Sale on 19 October. The new church with its tower, described by a witness as, "a free treatment of Romanesque style, built of brick with a slate roof". Bairnsdale experienced growth in church numbers in the 1880s, many of them frequently recording packed congregations, particularly on special occasions. St Johns Church of England often had congregations of over 200 at the morning and evening services. The congregations of that church were headed by the Reverend E. W. S. Hartmann who later died crossing the flooded Mitchell River. He was succeeded by W. G. Hindley, under whom a new brick church was built (still on the corner of Francis and Service Streets) and opened by Bishop Moorhouse on 24 June 1884. Gardens Bairnsdale's centre gardens stretch from the Mitchell River to the western edge of town, a distance of about . The main garden section runs for over through the central commercial district and features beds of flowering annuals and perennials, numerous mature deciduous and evergreen trees, war memorials and a restored historic band rotunda. The rotunda was constructed in 1910 and restored to its present condition in 1993. In 1943 the erection of a monument at the eastern end of the gardens to the district centenary led to that section being called the Centenary Garden. The Country Women's Association (CWA) Younger set took over the beautification of the Centenary Garden in 1947 and planted a tree there in May of that year to commemorate the 21st birthday of Princess Elizabeth. Extensive tree planting with Australian native trees was carried out in the post-war years, providing a colourful display, particularly in spring and early summer. From 1964