Addresses

At 217 Gympie Road, Kedron, Queensland 4031

Type of place

Church, House

Period

Federation 1890-1914, Interwar 1919-1939

Style

Ecclesiastical, Queenslander

Church of Christ & Ministry Centre

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This is an image of the local heritage place known as Church of Christ & Ministry Centre

This is an image of the local heritage place known as Church of Christ & Ministry Centre

Church of Christ & Ministry Centre

Church of Christ & Ministry Centre Download Citation (pdf, 67.14 KB)

Addresses

At 217 Gympie Road, Kedron, Queensland 4031

Type of place

Church, House

Period

Federation 1890-1914, Interwar 1919-1939

Style

Ecclesiastical, Queenslander

The Church of Christ building was constructed after a successful tent mission was undertaken on the site in 1929. Kedron had originally been settled as a German mission in the 1830s, although land was subsequently occupied primarily by farms and tanneries. The sale of these estates and improvements in infrastructure encouraged Kedron’s residential growth in the 1920s. Several churches were constructed in the area during this time, a result of economic prosperity and a renewed interest in spiritual matters. This church was built by the congregation in a single day in May 1929, although alterations and extensions were undertaken in 1934 by H.A. Taylor. The house at 219-221 was originally a house belonging to the Hauff family, constructed around 1894. The Hauffs were farmers at Downfall Creek, although the house owner, Otto, was the sanitation contractor for Kedron Shire. The house was owned by the Hauff family until it was purchased by the church in 1993.

Also known as

Hauff farmhouse

Lot plan

L22_RP26121; L21_RP26121; L23_RP26121; L24_SP166885

Key dates

Local Heritage Place Since —

Date of Citation —

People/associations

H.A. Taylor - 1934 Church additions (Builder);
 Otto Hauff - House (Occupant)

Criterion for listing

(A) Historical; (B) Rarity; (C) Scientific; (G) Social; (H) Historical association

Interactive mapping

City Plan Interactive Mapping

Also known as

Hauff farmhouse

Lot plan

L22_RP26121; L21_RP26121; L23_RP26121; L24_SP166885

Key dates

Local Heritage Place Since —

Date of Citation —

People/associations

H.A. Taylor - 1934 Church additions (Builder);
 Otto Hauff - House (Occupant)

Criterion for listing

(A) Historical; (B) Rarity; (C) Scientific; (G) Social; (H) Historical association

Interactive mapping

City Plan Interactive Mapping

History

Kedron had originally been settled as a German mission for Aborigines in the 1830s. Kedron ten became a farming and tannery district until the mid 1880s, when a few farms were subdivided into small housing allotments. Kedron Park Racecourse (now demolished) was built in 1911 on what is now the site of Kedron High School. Housing expansion gradually occurred, especially along Gympie Road, until the 1920s. But the extension of the Gympie Road tramline from the Kedron Park Hotel to Lutwyche Cemetery in 1925 caused a local building boom, particularly along Gympie Road, around 1924-1927. With the influx of new residents into the area, Kedron took on the trappings of a new Brisbane suburb. Kedron State School opened October 1926. Kedron War Memorial School of Arts (now demolished) opened 1928 at the corner Broughton and Gympie Roads, approximately opposite this church. When the state government established the Queensland Meat Industry Board in 1930 to regulate the preparation of meat offered for public sale, the last of the Kedron tanneries and slaughterhouses closed and the small farms of Kedron soon disappeared.

Several churches were constructed in the area, brought on by the 1920s economic boom and the renewal of interest in spiritual matters after World War I. In Kedron, the Catholic ‘Church of the Little Flower’ was built in 1923 but destroyed by a storm in 1924 and rebuilt. The Methodist Church on Leckie Road was built in 1926, the Presbyterian church hall on Richmond Street and St James Anglican Church on Tenth Avenue in 1928. 

The Church of Christ Ministry Centre at 219-221 Gympie Road was originally a local farmhouse, constructed around 1894 for German migrant Otto Hauff. The Hauff family farmed around Downfall Creek. Otto Hauff held the first Kedron Shire contract for sanitary services until his death in 1912. His burial paddock is the present Wavell High School site. 

E.C. Hinrichsen and E.A. Arnold established a Church of Christ tent missionary on Gympie Road on Hauff’s land in early 1929. The Kedron Church of Christ’s foundation conference priest was George Haigh, who was still alive and a church member in 2011. The mission was so successful that on Saturday 18 May 1929 the congregation built a temporary church and a Sunday School. The Brisbane Courier of 20 May 1929 (p.16) reported that:

“In one day (Saturday) a working bee erected at Kedron a building for the use of the congregation of the Church of Christ. The undertaking was an outcome of the Tent Mission being conducted by E.A. Hinrichsen and E.A. Arnold. The hall, which is about 36ft. x 28ft., with two ante-rooms each 10ft. x 9ft., is being built for a Sunday School and temporary place of worship, and as part of a larger structure to be completed in the future."

Building contractor H.A. Taylor altered the church building in 1934 to plans drawn by architect C.G. Noble. In 1992, The Kedron Church of Christ merged with the Albion Church of Christ to form the Brisbane North Church of Christ. The Albion Church of Christ had been formed in 1911. The Church of Christ purchased the former farmhouse and the land from the Hauff family in 1993.

Statement of significance

Relevant assessment criteria

This is a place of local heritage significance and meets one or more of the local heritage criteria under the Heritage planning scheme policy of the Brisbane City Plan 2014. It is significant because:

Historical

Criterion A

The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of the city's or local area’s history

with an 1890s farmhouse built for a German migrant and with a church built during Kedron's 1920s building boom.

Rarity

Criterion B

The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of the city’s or local area’s cultural heritage

for it contains one of the few nineteenth century farmhouses surviving in Kedron.

Scientific

Criterion C

The place has the potential to yield information that will contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the city’s or local area’s history

as a nineteenth century Kedron farm site.

Social

Criterion G

The place has a strong or special association with the life or work of a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons

having served the local community as a Church of Christ hall since 1929.

Historical association

Criterion H

The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organization of importance in the city’s or local area’s history

being the home of Otto Hauff, who organised the first sanitation service for the large Shire of Kedron.

References

  1. Certificates of Title, Department of Environment and Resource Management

  2. Brisbane City Council, Register of New Buildings, 1934

  3. Brisbane City Council aerial photographs, 1946, 2001, 2009

  4. Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, Building Cards

  5. Brisbane City Council Heritage Unit, Kedron citations (various)

  6. Brisbane City Council Department of Works, Detail Plan No.1282, 1950

  7. The Brisbane Courier, Monday 20 May 1929

  8. “Church marks milestones”, Northside Chronicle, 31 August 2011

  9. Teague, DR., The History of Kedron, Colonial Press, 1976

Citation prepared by — Brisbane City Council (page revised June 2022)

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Federation 1890-1914, Interwar 1919-1939
Ecclesiastical, Queenslander
Church
House
At 217 Gympie Road, Kedron, Queensland 4031
At 217 Gympie Road, Kedron, Queensland 4031 L22_RP26121; L21_RP26121; L23_RP26121; L24_SP166885
Historical, Rarity, Scientific, Social, Historical association