St David's Anglican Church

The district now known as Chelmer, Sherwood and Graceville was occupied by graziers from the 1840s and known as Oxley Point. By 1860 the land was subdivided into farming lots and closer occupation followed. From the 1860s a number of churches of the various denominations began to be established in the area. St Matthew's, Sherwood provided a focus for local Anglican worship from 1868, continuing with the construction of new churches in 1896 and 1923 as the earlier churches were replaced.

Anglican services in Chelmer began in September 1923 in the Chelmer School of Arts building. The first move to provide a church building was made in 1936. The foundation stone of St David's Church was laid by Archbishop J.W.C. Wand on Sunday 17 December, 1939, with half the cost of £1,400 already raised. With the construction of this church, Indooroopilly became the first parish to have built two churches since an expansion scheme to build 110 Anglican churches was inaugurated two years previously. The church was filled to overflowing at the opening and dedication ceremony on Sunday 19 May 1940. Archbishop Wand again officiated declaring that "whatever else may fail, the Christian Church will endure, and we have in this building a symbol of the Eternal in the midst of time". The product of the confidence and commitment of local Anglicans, in being built at the end of the 1930s Depression and the beginning of World War Two, the church was to be a centre "in which future generations would be educated and trained."

The parish continued to grow and after the war St David's Memorial Hall was constructed in 1951. The foundation stone was laid in the February of that year. In 1960 the Church building was lengthened and enlarged to accommodate the ever-increasing congregation.

Exterior

The main gable roof of the nave has parapet walls to both ends. The front parapet, above the apse is crowned with an apex cross. The semi-octagonal apse which projects forward of this wall has a multiply hipped roof. A castellated garden wall surrounds the apse.

The vestry, chapel and entry vestibules project forward from the side walls of the nave. Their horizontal parapet walls, which are castellated and crowned with rendered capping pieces hide their roofs from view. The toilets have a gable roof, perpendicular to the main roof, it terminates with a parapet wall. This parapeted gable and both nave parapets are crowned with a moulded rendered coping. The gable roofs of the entry shelter and porte-cochere are supported by large timber posts.

Their open gable ends are decoratively framed in timber. Stepped buttresses are located at each corner of the building and along the side walls of the nave, vestibules, chapel and vestry. Each buttress has rendered splays, plus a gablet to each corner buttress. Divided into bays by these buttresses, the side walls feature a shallowly arched timber framed window to each bay. Each window comprises either a single fixed stained glass window or two stained or opaque glass casements. Narrower stained glass windows are located in the apse and sanctuary, comprising a single casement or fixed window. A large stained glass window with a triangular head sits with the sanctuary gable wall.

The doors of the building comprise either a single or pair of tongue and groove vertical joint doors within a shallowly arched frame. Each window and door is crowned with a rendered decorative head incorporating a label moulding and trefoil designs to each spandrel. The windows also have rendered castellated sides and projecting sills.

Interior

Due to changes to the building in the 1960s the main interior space of the church (the nave) features materials such as cane-ite and plywood encased steel roof framing and columns. The tiled portecochere on Chelmer Street leads into the southern tiled entry vestibule. The building's timber floor is otherwise carpeted to traffic areas and raised in the sanctuary and apse.

Intactness

The extension and alterations to the building are not clear and give the building a 1960s character internally. More recent stained glass windows make a stunning addition to the building. The southern entry vestibule appears to have originally contained an extra door which has now been enclosed with a stained glass window with chamfer boards underneath. An unsightly stainless steel sink sits externally to the back of the vestry.

1. Sherwood District Centenary Celebrations, 1967

2. Courier Mail, 18 December 1939

3. Courier Mail, 20 May 1940