Last year, on one of Roy's many trips to the Upper Hunter Valley, Roy came across a place which surprised him with its sheer size. Roy visits many places and items, ranging from small to large, but the sundial he discovered in Singleton amazed him. He has never seen such a large sundial, and was interested to find out more about the sundial, and about why it was so big.
If you would like to visit the Singleton Sundial, it is located in Rose Point Park on Ryan Avenue. The park is a large area with plenty of space for a picnic or to kick a ball. Singleton itself has plenty of restaurants, shops and heritage sites to explore so there is plenty in the area to keep the whole family entertained.
The sundial in Singleton was developed as part of Australias bicentennial celebrations in 1988 and according to some it is the largest sundial in the southern hemisphere. Certainly, it is one of the largest sundials in the world and the time is was completed, in 1987 it was recognized in the Guinness Book of records as the largest sundial in the world. As well as being very large the Singleton sundial is a working sundial and does accuracy tell the time by using the position of the sun.
Sundial's have an amazingly long history. In the earliest times, humans probably told the time by looking at shadows and the way the sun moved across the sky. The ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans, and also probably the ancient Chinese, took this a step further though, using constructed sundials to accurately tell the time of day. Others learned to tell the time by measuring the length of their own shadow, and today 'human sundials' are not uncommon in gardens and parks (Roy visited one in Orange - to learn about it click here). Although today watches and clocks are more popular ways of telling the time, sundials remain popular garden features, and also remain accurate representers if time.