"When from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more immaterial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long time, like souls.” - Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past

Sniffing out the Masonic Centre building on Remembrance Day was disappointing. It was cold and there was no aroma from the building itself or the cafe underneath.

On approach there was the creamy vanilla-in-a-can smell from the Civic Hotel, a scent all pubs seem to use these days to mask the beercarpet and vomit smells I guess.

There was a very nice scent near the Masonic Centre that I thought must have been the Mason’s brand scent but it turned out to be the sillage of a perfume worn by a 60+ woman in a Remembrance Day group. It was light and floral and modern, like something soldiers would return from France with for their wives and girlfriends before perfume was sold at $12 a bottle at the local discount chemist.

Doing some reading on the Freemasons I found out that that their symbols are wine, corn and olive oil because they say the Masons/artisans were paid in these things when building Solomon’s Temple. The scent I’ve decided to assign to the building then is wine. But which one?

Wine Folly is an amazing site created to help make wine appreciation more accessible. Their books have lots of wine aroma profiles that can prompt you notice the different notes in wines. Read their history of wine at the button below.

The Odeuropa Art Historical scent wheel assigns sandalwood as the scent of Solomon’s Temple, or to an artwork depicting it. The smell of the actual temple would have interesting. Thousands of animals were sacrificed there but the scent of the temple incense must have dominated and was said to travel as far as Jericho. The only flowers allowed in the temple grounds were roses and the temple was cleaned with cinnamon - lots of it!

The Foys building is across the road. Sydney icon Juanita Nielsen who was murdered for her work preserving Sydney’s Victoria Street was from the Foy’s family. In a radio series about her I learnt that she had led a shareholder revolt when the family tried to sell Foys. It was an impressive way to start an activist career. What’s the smell of bravery? The cost is sometimes an early death.

Department stores would have smelled very differently in the days of Foy’s. We use chemicals on clothes and furniture etc that we didn’t use then and there would have been less plastic.

I ended up here to smell the rosemary that grows in the garden near the memorial.