Residents of Sydney have always flocked to Coogee to worship the sun; now they are converging on the coastal suburb to pay homage to an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a gatepost.
Hundreds of believers have transformed the post – part of a picket fence on a headland by the beach – into a shrine, with rosary beads, icons and flowers piled up around it, since the vision was reported earlier this week.
Yesterday the pilgrims wept, sang and prayed. Many claimed they could see a veiled figure in the post and said they were certain it was the Holy Mother. "She's wearing a blue robe on the outside and a white robe on the inside," said one woman, Chad Areiji.
Fr Denis Holm, of St Brigid's Catholic church in Coogee, said it might be an optical illusion. But he added: "If people are experiencing a sense of peace by being there, I see it as a good thing."
Henrietta Dean, a resident, was less sure. "I see a fence post, and I've seen that same fence post for many years," she said.