(PRESBYTERIAN)PRINCES HIGHWAY, TERANG A superb church which must be preserved at all costs. This is a magnificent church which would not be out of place as a provincial cathedral – indeed it is more imposing than some of the cathedrals of rural Australia. As a building it is a product of generosity and imagination. AsContinue reading “THOMSON MEMORIAL CHURCH, TERANG”
Tag Archives: Country Churches
ST ANDREW’S, ROKEWOOD
(UNITING)FERRARS STREET, ROKEWOOD I spoke too soon. St Andrew’s Uniting, formerly Presbyterian, church at Rokewood was built in 1866, in bluestone with freestone dressings to a design by Alexander Davidson. The spire, with its unusual adaptation of a broach at the base and canopied upper openings, was added in 1905. The building is now forContinue reading “ST ANDREW’S, ROKEWOOD”
ST PATRICK’S, ROKEWOOD
(ROMAN CATHOLIC)COLAC-BALLARAT ROAD, ROKEWOOD One more disposal in what looks like a clearance sale. The Roman Catholic authorities in Ballarat are at it again, selling off a perfectly good solid church building which will now be mutilated architecturally by being put to some secular use, probably as someone’s house. They’d hardly got the very handsomeContinue reading “ST PATRICK’S, ROKEWOOD”
ST PHILIP THE EVANGELIST, RUPANYUP
(ANGLICAN) CROMIE STREET, RUPANYUP Architect Louis Williams at his best. The last ten years or so have been bad enough for churches in urban Victoria, with closures planned or effected, but in the country they have been disastrous. Scores of churches have shut down, as rural populations decline and townships are turned into ghosts ofContinue reading “ST PHILIP THE EVANGELIST, RUPANYUP”
HOLY TRINITY, GREENDALE
(FORMERLY ANGLICAN)NAPOLEON STREET, GREENDALE Less than half a church, rescued from ruin. This church is not at risk, nor was it ever a completed church, but I include it as a curio of rural architecture. For 86 years it was one of the few genuine ruins accessible from Melbourne. Holy Trinity, or the “half church”,Continue reading “HOLY TRINITY, GREENDALE”
ALL SAINTS’, BLACKWOOD
FORMERLY ANGLICAN, (BYERS ROAD, BLACKWOOD) A mine of history shut down and sold. Another plain and simple country church transformed into a house. This one had quite a history behind it. Melbourne was but thirty years old when All Saints’ was consecrated on 29 October 1865 by Victoria’s first Anglican bishop, Charles Perry (1807-1891). ItContinue reading “ALL SAINTS’, BLACKWOOD”
ST MARK’S, GORDON
(FORMERLY ANGLICAN)CORNER OLD MELBOURNE ROAD and BROUGHAM STREET, GORDON Arts and Crafts touches on a cottage-like church. This attractive little church, half-hidden behind silver birches, has the lattice-windowed charm of a Hansel and Gretel cottage. It has not been used as a church for seventeen years and is now a hat shop. St Mark’s wasContinue reading “ST MARK’S, GORDON”
PLEASANT STREET UNITING CHURCH, BALLARAT
(FORMERLY WESLEYAN METHODIST) PLEASANT STREET, BALLARAT A reminder of Methodism’s onetime vitality. Another Ballarat church – but there were so many. Pleasant Street is an unpretentious but well-designed building notable for the excellence of its Gothic detailing and the rich colours of the brick used in its construction. Ballarat’s population has a strong Cornish element,Continue reading “PLEASANT STREET UNITING CHURCH, BALLARAT”
MYRNIONG UNITING CHURCH
(FORMERLY PRESBYTERIAN)OLD WESTERN HIGHWAY, PENTLAND HILLS Closed as unsafe, though its congregation wants to repair it. “Position, position, position,” as estate agents used to say and perhaps still do. This tiny church occupies one of the best positions of any church anywhere. That will be its attraction when it’s sold to someone wanting toContinue reading “MYRNIONG UNITING CHURCH”
ST JAMES’S, MORRISONS
(ANGLICAN)TABLELAND ROAD, MORRISONS Idly dreaming beside the pines. This church is remote and hard to find among the stands of green-black pines and the straggly gums that screen it from the road, until you round a bend and there it is. It looks abandoned, idly dreaming in pinaceous solitude without even a cart track acrossContinue reading “ST JAMES’S, MORRISONS”
HERE TODAY... 