acjaheretoday

HOLY TRINITY, SEBASTOPOL

(ANGLICAN)ALBERT STREET, SEBASTOPOL, BALLARAT Roof repairs beyond the parish resources. Well, at least it’s not going to be Heavenly Pizzas or an “Arts Hub”. Sebastopol Anglican church, Holy Trinity, on the southern fringe of Ballarat, has been sold to a Sikh group, who will use it as a centre for their community. From Anglicanism toContinue reading “HOLY TRINITY, SEBASTOPOL”

DAYLESFORD UNITING CHURCH

CENTRAL SPRINGS ROAD, DAYLESFORD One of the finest spires in country Victoria. Above the trees that cloak the hill on which the pretty central Victorian spa town of Daylesford is built, three silhouettes stand out as you approach from the south: the spiky turret of the state school, the square Italianate tower of the postContinue reading “DAYLESFORD UNITING CHURCH”

ST CATHERINE’S, SOUTH CAULFIELD

(ANGLICAN)KOOYONG ROAD, SOUTH CAULFIELD Closed after a valiant attempt to keep it going. This unassuming brick church on its grassy knoll above a street corner has finally succumbed to closure after years of hanging on by a thread. It has been shut down for the usual reason – not enough attenders – even though theContinue reading “ST CATHERINE’S, SOUTH CAULFIELD”

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ST KILDA

(CORNER BARKLY STREET AND ALMA ROAD, ST KILDA) For sale after 170 years. It looks as though redundancy might finally have caught up with St Kilda’s splendid Presbyterian church, a church already once snatched from the jaws of closure. With its soaring 142-foot spire a landmark visible from all over the district, this church isContinue reading “PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ST KILDA”

NEIL STREET UNITING CHURCH BALLARAT

(FORMERLY METHODIST)CORNER OF NEIL AND MACARTHUR STREETS, BALLARAT Yet another “arts centre”. One by one, they shut down, the Uniting churches of Ballarat. The most prominent, St Andrew’s, and the Pleasant Street church have already long since passed into secular use (see separate posts). Soon the only church left in the city centre will beContinue reading “NEIL STREET UNITING CHURCH BALLARAT”

ALL SAINTS’ OLD CATHEDRAL, BENDIGO

(ANGLICAN)MACKENZIE STREET, BENDIGO Derelict after a century and a half. This unassuming Gothic Revival church in the Early English style on a hill in the heart of Bendigo long did service as a cathedral. It is now derelict and much desecrated by vandals, who invariably, such is the respect for the past (and other people’sContinue reading “ALL SAINTS’ OLD CATHEDRAL, BENDIGO”

CASTLEMAINE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

(CONGREGATIONALIST, THEN PRESBYTERIAN, NOW COPTIC ORTHODOX)Lyttelton Street, Castlemaine Pinnacled and picturesque in its place on a hill. Exuberant is one word to describe the architecture of the Castlemaine Presbyterian church, the first of the big four churches in the centre of this handsome Victorian town to fall out of use. Its four-pinnacled profile rises highContinue reading “CASTLEMAINE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH”

NORTH MELBOURNE UNITING CHURCH

(UNITING)Corner Curzon Street and Elm Street, North Melbourne Too valuable not to be sold? It had to come. A cavernous church on a valuable site in the inner city couldn’t be left alone forever before someone realised its sales potential, particularly when that church belongs to the Uniting Church, ever keen to turn its propertiesContinue reading “NORTH MELBOURNE UNITING CHURCH”

HOLY NATIVITY, HUGHESDALE

(ANGLICAN)Poath Road, Hughesdale Not reopened after the pandemic. Holy Nativity Anglican church in Hughesdale was dedicated in 1961 as a chapel of ease (a branch church in effect) in the then well attended middle-class suburban parish of St Peter’s, Murrumbeena. It replaced a smaller timber church subsequently used as a hall. Like other such buildingsContinue reading “HOLY NATIVITY, HUGHESDALE”

CHURCH OF THE MOTHER OF GOD, IVANHOE EAST

(ROMAN CATHOLIC)Corner of Wilfrid and Robinhood Roads, Ivanhoe East. Melbourne’s first church inspired by the Modern movement. This church has had a very short life, 66 years, just up to the age of being pensioned off. It was the first Modernist church in Melbourne, the first designed by the firm of Mockridge, Stahle and Mitchelland isContinue reading “CHURCH OF THE MOTHER OF GOD, IVANHOE EAST”