St Saviour's Anglican Church, South Johnstone facts for kids
Quick facts for kids St Saviour's Anglican Church, South Johnstone |
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St Saviour's Anglican Church, 2009
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| Location | 26 Hynes Street, South Johnstone, Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Design period | 1919 - 1930s (interwar period) |
| Built | 1938 - 1939 |
| Architectural style(s) | Spanish Mission |
| Official name: St Saviour's Anglican Church (former) | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 24 September 2004 |
| Reference no. | 602431 |
| Significant period | 1930s, 1960s (historical) ongoing (social) |
| Significant components | views to, church, garden/grounds |
| Builders | Mose Romano |
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St Saviour's Anglican Church is an old church building in South Johnstone, Queensland, Australia. It was built a long time ago, between 1938 and 1939, by a builder named Mose Romano. This building is important because it is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register since 2004. This means it is a special place that needs to be protected.
Contents
The Church's Story
St Saviour's Church was finished in 1939. It was built for people who followed the Church of England (now called the Anglican Church) in the southern part of the Innisfail area. People believe that Arthur Brown designed the church. A local builder named Mose Romano built it.
A special church leader, Bishop John Feetham, officially opened the church on April 2, 1939. The church was used for Anglican services until 2003. Today, it is owned by a private person.
South Johnstone's Beginnings
South Johnstone is part of the Innisfail area. In 1880, a man named Thomas Henry Fitzgerald started a port called Geraldton (which later became Innisfail). He came to grow sugar cane. Soon, more people arrived, and the area grew because of sugar farming.
In 1882, a sugar mill was built nearby. Then, the South Johnstone Mill opened in 1916. Growing sugar cane needed many workers. So, people from many different places came to live and work here. These included people from the Pacific Islands, China, Italy, Malaysia, Japan, and Java.
Growth and Challenges
The South Johnstone Sugar Mill helped the town grow a lot after 1916. By 1930, 300 farms were supplying sugar cane to the mill. After the First World War, many people moved from mining areas to coastal sugar farming towns like South Johnstone. The population in the Johnstone area grew steadily from 1901 to the mid-1930s.
In 1918, a big cyclone hit the South Johnstone area. It destroyed many buildings. After that, people started building with stronger materials like brick and concrete. The sugar industry helped the Innisfail area, including South Johnstone, stay strong even during the worldwide economic problems of the 1930s. Many buildings from the 1920s and 1930s, like St Saviour's Church, show popular styles of that time, such as Spanish Mission.
The Bush Brotherhood
The Bush Brotherhood of St Barnabas was a group of Anglican priests. They helped people in remote parts of Queensland. After 1924, they started working in the growing sugar areas. Between 1926 and 1939, the Anglican Church, with help from these Brotherhoods, built many churches in sugar towns. St Saviour's was one of seven churches built during this time.
The Brotherhood priests were volunteers from England. They worked for five years, traveling where they were needed. They helped provide church services in places that didn't have many priests.
Building St Saviour's
People in South Johnstone had been looked after by priests from Cairns and Innisfail since the late 1890s. In 1935, the Church of England bought land in South Johnstone to build a new church. Mose Romano built the concrete church in 1938-1939. It is believed that Arthur Brown designed it in the Spanish Mission style.
Bishop John Feetham officially opened St Saviour's Anglican Church on April 2, 1939. A group called the St Saviour's Ladies Guild worked hard to raise money to help pay for the church.
Later Years and New Uses
St Saviour's Church was a place of worship for many years. However, the population of South Johnstone started to get smaller from the 1940s. From the 1960s, other religious groups also used the building for their services. For example, the Lutheran Church held services and Sunday school there for about 20 years starting in 1969.
In 2003, the church was sold because of the costs of keeping it up. It is now owned by a local business and used as a training center. When the church was sold, its original furniture, like the altar and pews, were removed. Some changes were also made to the outside of the building.
What the Church Looks Like
St Saviour's is a building made of concrete with a corrugated iron roof. It has a rectangular shape. There is an entrance porch at the front and a small room called a vestry at the back. The church faces Hynes Street, the main street of South Johnstone. Its front looks very nice with curved walls and rows of windows.
The front of the church has two windows, one on each side of the main entrance. The entrance porch has a curved top, just like the main building. The porch used to have three windows, but now it has a large open space with one window still in place. The main entrance to the church has arched wooden doors.
The side walls of the church are long. Each side has three groups of windows, and one window at the very back. All the windows have rounded tops and textured glass. There are also five strong supports, called buttresses, along each side wall.
A small vestry room sticks out from the back of the church. It has a wooden door on the side that faces the street. This door has a red arch and a red cross above it. Inside, the walls are light green, and the ceilings are white. The floors are made of concrete. The main part of the church, called the nave, has a sloped wooden ceiling.
None of the original church furniture is still inside the building.
The church grounds have a lawn and a gravel driveway along one side. A concrete path leads to the gate. Two gate posts and two posts from the old concrete fence are still there. They have crosses carved into them. Most of the front fence has been replaced, but you can still see the church clearly from the street.
Why St Saviour's is Special
The former St Saviour's Anglican Church was added to the Queensland Heritage Register in 2004 for a few important reasons:
- Shows Queensland's History: This church helps us understand how Queensland grew, especially with the sugar industry. It shows that during the 1920s and 1930s, even small towns like South Johnstone were doing well enough to build strong churches out of concrete, not just wood. It also shows the important work of the Bush Brotherhood priests who helped the Anglican Church in this area.
- A Good Example of its Type: The church is a strong concrete building in the Spanish Mission style. It is still mostly in its original condition. This makes it a great example of churches built in that style during that time.
- Connected to Important Groups: This church is one of the few remaining churches built by the Bush Brotherhoods. These groups were very important in bringing the Anglican Church to remote parts of Queensland.
