Sydney Murugan Temple, Mays Hill

Turn off the Great Western Highway at number 217 in western Sydney and a small, tree-ringed hill rises in front of you, topped by a gopuram and vimana that could have come straight from Tamil Nadu. As at home, you take off your shoes and wash your feet before going in. Devotees fondly call it simply "Sydney Murugan", and Murugan is the presiding deity. Murugan with Valli and Deivanai has a shrine of his own, and so does six-faced Arumugaswamy with his two consorts. Ganesha, Shiva, Meenakshi, Dakshinamurthy, Durga, the nine grahas, Vairavar and Chandikeswarar are worshipped here too.

The temple's story is a community's story. Tamils who had settled in Australia formed the Saiva Manram and began work on a temple in the mid-1980s, with a clear purpose: worship centred on Saivism and the Tamil language, with Murugan, the ancient god of the Tamils, as its presiding deity. Years of fund-raising and building later, the first kumbhabhishekam took place in 1999. For the fine carving the Manram brought master sculptors from overseas, who shaped every detail by the agamic rules.

Poojas are held three times a day, morning, midday and evening, and congregational worship (kootu vazhipadu) gathers on Thursdays and Fridays. Families come for abhishekams, Navagraha shanthi, rites for the departed and traditional weddings. The temple also runs Saiva religion and pannisai (Thevaram singing) classes for children and yoga classes for adults, promotes Carnatic music, and has a Sydney Murugan Youth Circle to keep the young involved. A new cultural community hall is being built.

The Saiva Manram began building in the mid-1980s and the temple was first consecrated in 1999. A three-day re-consecration ran from 4 am on 5 November 2011 to 7 November 2011. The Saiva Manram still runs the temple and is now building a cultural community hall.