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ST LUKE'S LUTHERAN CHURCH

Other Name

ST JOHN'S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Location

Bunbury Street CAVENDISH, Southern Grampians Shire

File Number

0196

Level

Stage 2 study complete

[1/1]
23041 Copy of 3910 St Luke s

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
St. Luke's Lutheran Church (formerly St. John's Presbyterian) is a small bluestone building with a pressed metal clad porch, located at the western end of Bunbury Street, approximately 600 kilometres north of the center of the township of Cavendish. A relocated weatherboard hall is located to the west of the church on the same site. The church was previously used as a Presbyterian Church (St. John's) until taken over by the Uniting Church in the 1970s. It continued as a Uniting Church until the Lutheran Church purchased it in 1984. Local contractors Messrs Bell constructed the Church in 1862 to a design of John S. Jenkins, an important local architect.

The church contains a single-manual pipe organ of six stops. Its make and provenance are not known but it dates from about 1860 and is of English origin. Apparently, the organ is one of the oldest remaining in the study area.

How is it significant?
St. Luke's Lutheran Church is of historical, architectural and social significance to the Southern Grampians Shire.

Why is it significant?
St. Luke's Lutheran Church is of historical interest for its unusual changes of denomination since the time of its building. Although the move from Presbyterian to Uniting church was not unusual, the move to sell a church to another denomination, and change the name is unusual. St. Luke's represents the historical changes of the congregations of Cavendish. It is of historical interest as it demonstrates the waxing and waning of popularity in the Presbyterian Church and then Uniting Church between 1862 and 1984. This reflects the changing demographics of the township of Cavendish. The move to sell the church to the Lutheran congregation in the mid 1980s represents the growing popularity of the Lutheran Church, and the settlement of many families of German descent around Cavendish from the mid twentieth century. St. Luke's is of further historical significance for the single manual pipe organ, which dates from about 1860, as this is one of the oldest pipe organs remaining in the study area, which has rare script -engraved draw stops and iron composition pedals.

St Luke's is of architectural significance for its use of the Gothic revival style in a Presbyterian Church, as until the mid 1850s, the Presbyterian denomination that were mostly Scottish and Irish eschewed Gothicism as 'popish' and for its English nationalist overtones.

Group

Religion