He that hath no relish for the grandure [sic] and joy of building’, wrote Roger North in 1698, ‘is a stupid ox.’ Unfortunately, despite the considerable progress made over the last thirty years, such oxen abound in Australia. One has but to think of the destruction of Brisbane’s Bellevue Hotel, or of Townsville’s Buchanan’s, its balconies the most artfully cast-iron laden in the country: fire had destroyed the rear of the building, justification enough for the council to move against the façade. Not even appearance on a postage stamp was enough to save it. But it is not only in Queensland that we see the depredations of these Captain Midnights: Melbourne recently saw the Toorak Methodist Church similarly attacked, to the point where it was deliberately placed beyond repair. Developers and the imperatives of capitalism still effortlessly outpace both half-hearted conservation measures and the degree of public awareness necessary to make such sanctions work.