ST JOHNS UNITING CHURCH

The one acre site now occupied by the bluestone church of St Johns was gazetted in 1869 as a reserve for public worship for the Presbyterian Church. A temporary structure may have existed before 1874, when tenders were called for the new church by architect George Harriott of Wickliffe. The work was superintended by a local policeman, HS Saville. The nearby squatting run of Fiery Creek was run by John Ritchie from 1853 to 1900. Ritchie, a Presbyterian Scotsman, donated funds towards the building of the church and insisted that it be built of bluestone. The limestone for the dressings was quarried locally from the property of Mr Meeks at Cullen Lakes. In 1977 bush fires swept through the area and almost totally destroyed the church. The bluestone and some of the limestone dressings survived but all other parts, including the roof and all fixtures and fittings, were destroyed. The local community lobbied for the church to be rebuilt in the original style rather than be replaced by a modern church. Accurate rebuilding of the destroyed elements was based on documentary sources. New Zealand white Oamaru limestone replaced the dressings which were lost. A new single storey hall in a contemporary and contextual style and with direct access to the church was added at the rear.

The church is designed in an early English Gothic style, with a buttressed nave of four bays. The tower has a large quatrefoil oculus and angled buttresses with a reduced belfry and diminutive broach spire. Inside the gallery hood mouldings with bosses and the roof trusses are all honest to the original design. The original slate roof was replaced with modern corrugated steel. The 1977 rear addition is excluded from the registration.

How is it significant?

St John?s Uniting Church is of social and architectural significance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?

St Johns Uniting Church is historically and socially significant as a symbol of the rebuilding of one of the institutions and landmarks of the town of Streatham following the disastrous bushfires of 1977. It demonstrates the commitment of the community to the form as well as the spirit of the church.

St Johns Uniting Church is architecturally significant as a representative example of the vernacular design and construction tradition of rural churches of the basalt plains area, notably the coursed squared blocks of bluestone and lead light windows. The large quatrefoil window, the belfry and diminutive spire are unusual and distinctive details.

Group

Religion

Category

Church