Christ Church, Church Hall & Rectory

In 1898 the congregation made of use of a disused Wesleyan Church on Park Road and obtained the services of a Church Mission with Mr Kitchen as Resident Stipendiary Lay Reader for 27 shillings per week. Lay readers also conducted services and Rev Hassall continued to provide Holy Communion. Around 1900 Mr Kitchen was replaced by Mr Taylor and Rev Tathan became the rector of Sherwood. The South Brisbane Methodist Church offered the Park Road church and land to the Yeronga Anglicans for £200 but the congregation offered only £120 as the church needed repairs and had white ants. The offer was not accepted and the congregation continued to rent the church for £2 per month until August 1900 when the church was sold for removal.

There was a period of some dispute over whether the congregation and its offertories were part of Sherwood parish or the Church Mission. Mr Taylor, the Resident Stipendiary Lay Reader resigned and the Sunday School, despite having 90 pupils and ably run by Misses Grimes, was closed. Services were held on the veranda of 'Yeronglea', owned by Charles Lahey, for a short time. From October 1910 regular weekly services were held by lay readers in the Yeronga Hall with Communion services held monthly by priests from various parishes. In 1910 a parcel of land in Kadumba Street was donated by E.J. Bennett as a site for a permanent church; this was later returned to the donor when a more suitable site was selected. In May 1915 the parish came under the aegis of St Andrew's, South Brisbane. W. Worley became the Stipendiary Catechist and a parochial council was formed.

In June and July 1916, Rev Cameron Hay and the parochial council met with the intention of planning a permanent church building. A sketch plan was submitted and the churches of Indooroopilly and Goulburn, NSW were studied. Nothing more definite was done until January 1917 when the rector of South Brisbane announced that it had been agreed to form a Yeronga Parochial District. The district would include Moorooka, Salisbury, Sunnybank, Upper Mt Gravatt as well as Yeronga and Rev A. Higgins was appointed as vicar.

After consideration of several sites, land in Killarney Street was selected as the most suitable site for the church, being the most centrally placed. In September 1917, the purchase of land was finalised and the vicar bought the balance of the land facing Cork and Dublin Streets and erected a vicarage at his own expense during the 1920s.

 

In May 1918 a meeting was held to further the Church Building Fund. The meeting was attended by the Archbishop who applauded the congregation's decision to build the church as a memorial to those who had lost their lives in World War One. By 1919 the building fund had a credit balance of £200 after the costs of clearing and fencing the site and the (now complete) vicarage. Donations were offered for the church, including a Lectern Bible and brass Altar Bookrest. Memorial Gates at the Park Road end of Honour Avenue were dedicated by the new vicar, Rev A.W. Gilbert on 25 April, 1921.

Socials and concerts continued to add to the building fund and on 6 October 1922 plans for a brick church, designed by the architect, Alan H. Young, were approved. The tender of builder, Mr Stringer for £1567 was accepted. Plans were made for a suitable tablet carrying the names of all those from the suburb killed in the war and it was decided that the foundation stone should record that the church was a memorial church.

The Archbishop of Brisbane, the most Reverend Gerald Sharp laid the foundation stone on Saturday 25 November 1922, and the church was then dedicated by the Archbishop on the 6 May 1923.

On Easter day in 1934, the rector reported that the church bell had fallen as he rang it. He asked for donations and subsequently a new bronze bell was obtained from Messrs Paul and Gray. This new bell was dedicated on Sunday, 8 July 1934 and continues to stand in a tower erected by Mr Gaggin and his son from timber donated by Mr Clarence. The original altar in the church was donated by the contractor who built the church and the texts over the archways of chancel and sanctuary were painted by Mr Wood. Four sets of altar curtains, four sets of burses veils and the necessary altar linen were donated by the Women's Guild and Women's Auxiliary.

A timber church hall was constructed on the site between the church and the rectory in 1953. Additions were made to the front and back of the building in 1995.

The building is slightly cruciform in plan form with an attached entry porch on the south-western end.

 

The external walls are of brick construction coated with a stucco render and strengthened externally with stepped buttresses. Terra cotta air vents provide for sub floor ventilation.

Gable ends which provide a termination point for the stucco render are sheeted with fibrous cement panels and vertical timber cover strips.

The bays between buttresses each contain three lancet windows containing timber framed hoppers glazed with opaque glass. Sills to windows are brickwork coated with a cement render.

The steeply pitched roof and entrance porch are sheeted with terra cotta roof tiles. The apex of each gable end is surmounted by a plain timber cross. Eaves overhangs are lined with tongue and groove boarding.

The entry porch is framed in timber with timber balustrading. The entrance doorway is a double leaf vertical joint boarding with peaked arch.

Access to the entry porch from Killarney Street on the on-site open parking area is by means of exposed aggregate steps and pathway. The metal balustrading to these steps being out of character with the timber balustrading and the building generally.

A simple two post bell tower is located at the north-eastern end of the building.

1. Brisbane History Group, Yeronga Heritage Tour, BHG, 1996

2. G. Hector Cleeland, The Anglican Church at Yeronga, 25 November 1982, Anglican Archives