Where are we?
Cnr. Tobruk and Blakemore Streets, Wagga Wagga NSW 2650
The ACR is located in the centre of the Government Housing Estate area of Ashmont, Wagga Wagga. The church complex is located directly opposite the Ashmont Mall which includes a Service Station, a drive-through bottle-shop and a Pub. About a third of the dwellings in Ashmont are privately built and of a more substantial nature. Ashmont has extremes of socio-economic conditions across its boundaries. Ashmont has a total population of about 4,229 compared with 55519 for Wagga Wagga. Ashmont is located west of the town centre on the road to Narrandara. It is relatively isolated and marginalised from the town centre by a light industrial/commercial area.
Analysis of statistics from the Bureau of Statistics census data and local primary school enrolments, indicate higher frequencies in Ashmont of the potentially more needy areas of single parents, young families, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, and the unemployed. 1992 census data reveals…
- 18.8% of families in Ashmont/ Glenfield, are one-parent families with offspring, compared with 14.4% in Wagga Wagga. (45% of Ashmont Public School enrolments come from single parent families).
- 30% of the population of Ashmont is under the age of 15, compared to 24.4% for Wagga Wagga and 21.4 % for NSW.
- 26.9% of the total population of Ashmont is between the ages of 15-29 years, compared to 25.8% for Wagga Wagga and 21.6% for NSW.
- Census registrations indicate 3.9% of the total population of Ashmont are Aboriginal/ Torres Strait Islander descent, compared with 2.6% for Wagga Wagga and 1.7% for NSW; whereas 24% of Ashmont Public School enrolments indicate themselves to be Aboriginal/ Torres Strait Islander descent.
- 10.2% of persons in Ashmont over the age of 15 are unemployed, compared with 6.3% for Wagga Wagga.
Welfare needs in Ashmont are high. Over the last 20 years, the ACR has had contact with the local community through activities like Kid’s Clubs, Breakfast Programs, Op-shop, and Drop-in centres.
The ACR often has broken windows. One day, just before a prayer meeting, as the rector was picking up the broken glass, a parishioner remarked, “ We shouldn’t have to do this!” The rector retorted, “This is exactly what we should be doing- picking up the broken!” We’ve come to see ourselves as ‘the broken glass ministry’ where the broken glass is a reflection of the broken lives that need to be mended in Christ.
