UNITING CHURCH (FORMER WESLEYAN CHURCH)

The Uniting Church (former Wesleyan) complex at Kangaroo Flat comprises a substantial gabled bichrome brick Gothic Revival church (1871) and a brick Sunday School (1936). The buildings are located on elevated ground behind a small open landscaped park close to Kangaroo Flat's historic centre. The 1871 church, designed by Melbourne architects Crouch and Wilson, superseded an earlier (1858) church within the same allotment. The 1858 church then became a Sunday School, prior to its demolition in 1936 and replacement with the present Sunday School. Despite the unsympathetic modifications and additions to the east, the 1871 church remains a substantial and prominent structure with a strong Gothic Revival character. The gabled west facade of the 1871 church, facing High Street, is subdivided into three elements, having a central geometric arched west window and doors in each flanking bay, with three oculus windows outlined in cream brick. The main window has four lancets rising to support three quatrefoils with seven linking triangular lights. The side windows are all simple lancets with diamond-pattern lead pane joints, and heads expressed in cream brick. The plinth is of rough-cut sandstone and there is a decorated wrought iron cross at the gable apex. The steeply pitched roof has slate tile cladding. The lower gable edges are finished with two kneelers delineated in cream brick. The facade also has a pair of diagonal two-stage buttresses in red brick with cream brick off-sets, a treatment repeated on the six other buttresses to the side walls. The plan is a basic nave, and there is no chancel expressed externally.

The Uniting Church is of local historical, social and aesthetic/architectural significance. 

The 1871 Uniting Church (former Wesleyan Church) is historically significant (Criterion A) as the centre of Methodism at Kangaroo Flat since 1858, with the present church the focus of Methodism since 1871, initially as the Wesleyan Church and since 1977 as the Uniting Church. The Methodist sects were well represented in the former Marong Shire from the earliest years of European settlement, reflecting the presence of Cornish miners in the district. The presence of the Methodists, and this substantial 1871 church, also provides evidence of the diversity of religious communities on the broader goldfields. The 1936 Sunday School additionally is of significance, and provides evidence of the ongoing role and presence of the church in the local community into the first half of the twentieth century. Socially (Criterion G), the Uniting Church is significant as the focus of the Methodist community, initially the Wesleyan Church and later the Uniting Church, since 1871. 

The Uniting Church is also of aesthetic/architectural significance (Criterion E). The building, although unsympathetically modified and extended, remains a substantial and prominent gabled bichrome brick Gothic Revival church. It is an example of the work of Crouch and Wilson, noted Melbourne architectural practice, which demonstrates the tri-partite facade treatment which was a characteristic of the firm's churches. Elements of note include the central geometric arched west window with four lancets rising to support three quatrefoils with linking triangular lights; three main gable oculus windows outlined in cream brick; side windows with simple lancets and diamond-pattern leadlights; picturesque steeply pitched roof; wall buttressing; and brick quoining. The church also has landmark qualities by virtue of its scale and presentation, as well as its location on a generous, informally landscaped and elevated site at the south of Kangaroo Flat's historic core. The 1936 Sunday School is also of note. While appropriately subservient to the church in scale and footprint, the smaller building has elements of interest including the distinctive cruciform pitched truss roof with two transverse wings to each side of the main gable; use of red brick with a rough cast gable end, and decorated panels in clinker brick; a central gable vent and a broad bracketed gable eave; and the Gothic influenced four-light timber-framed central fanlight window, flanked by a pair of two-stage buttresses.