Life of Arthur ‘Mr Eternity’ Stace remembered 50 years on

FOR more than three decades Arthur Stace remained incognito as he chalked ‘Eternity’ across Sydney. The Hammondville community, where he spent his last years, will remember his life this week.

Arthur Stace in Hammond Hotel and, inset, a plaque of how he wrote 'Eternity'.

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FOR more than three decades Arthur Stace remained incognito as he chalked ‘Eternity’ across Sydney.

Much of his one-word sermon was chalked in the dead of night or early morning to remain anonymous.

The mystery man was unmasked by a Darlinghurst church minister.

In his lifetime he’d written the word more than 500,000 times. According to Mr Stace, few suburbs were left unmarked.

Actor Grant Doyle as Arthur Stace in ABC’s The Eternity Man.

A still from the 1994 film Eternity, about Arthur Stace’s life.

It is 50 years since Mr Eternity died at Hammondville.

HammondCare, where he spent his last years, will mark the occasion this week with a high tea and rock cake competition.

The day at Hammondville will also feature art works, historical display and interviews with staff and residents whose lives have been influenced by Arthur Stace, including one resident who met him on a couple of occasions.

Today, HammondCare services a range of people with complex health and aged-care needs, with dementia and aged care services, palliative care, rehabilitation, and mental health programs.

The rock cake connection spans back to when Mr Stace first met Reverend Robert Hammond.

A plaque with the word ‘Eternity’, exactly the way Arthur Stace wrote it.

A self-confessed alcoholic, a scout for Sydney brothels and a lookout for gambling schools, it was a visit to a local church on a cold winter’s night in search of a meal and warmth during the Great Depression that changed him.

Reverend Hammond was giving a sermon at St Barnabas’ Church, Broadway when Mr Stace sought shelter.

After hearing the reverend speak he walked across the road to a local park to pray under a Moreton Bay fig. From that time he was enthralled by the notion of eternity.

“I went in to get a cup of tea and a rock cake but I met the Rock of Ages,” he was often quoted as saying.

“Eternity went ringing through my brain and suddenly I began crying and felt a powerful call from the Lord to write Eternity,” he said in an interview.”

Arthur Stace's signature in the records at St Anne's Hammondville.

His copperplate script ‘Eternity’ is an icon in Sydney, featuring on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the 2000 New Year’s Eve fireworks, in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics and in art, poems and opera.

His connection to Reverend Hammond remained strong. He became the manager of a refuge in Buckland St, Chippendale, providing shelter and food to the unemployed at one of the Hammond Hotels.

By the mid-60s Mr Stace became unwell. A nursing home had opened at HammondCare’s pioneer settlement in Hammondville.

Reverend Hammond established Hammond’s Pioneer Homes during the depths of the Great Depression. They provided affordable homes for struggling families. By 1940, Hammondville had 110 homes, a school, shop, post office and church. They then established homes for senior citizens, one of Australia’s first integrated facilities for disadvantaged elderly people.

Mr Stace was cared for there until his death on July 30, 1967 when he was 82.