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St Aidan's Anglican Church

Location 23 Nelson Street,, APOLLO BAY VIC 3233 - Property No B7219 File Number B7219 Level Regional

[1/1] B7219 St Aidan's Anglican

Statement of Significance

What is significant? St Aidan's Anglican Church at Apollo Bay is a timber church in a Gothic style, typical of the simple timber churches built by less wealthy communities in Victoria, mostly before the First World War. It was built and opened for worship in 1905. No record of the architect survives, and the builder was a local resident. St Aidan's is one of only a few buildings in the town remaining from before World War I. The church and the nearby Mechanics Institute are the only pre-World War I public buildings in Apollo Bay which are still in their original location and retain their original function.
St Aidan's Anglican Church stands in a prominent position in the centre of Apollo Bay. It has a simple rectangular plan, with a porch, nave, chancel and vestry. It is entirely of timber with wooden frame and weatherboards on the exterior and interior. The Gothic elements were the steeply pitched gable roof, pointed windows and decorative barge-boards on the gable (now removed). Internally the church is quite remarkable, as the walls and ceiling are lined with pitch pine, which has never been painted and has now mellowed to a golden colour. The church contains memorials to pioneers of Apollo Bay, and also three items of locally made blackwood furniture, an altar, credence table and lectern, which pre-date the church, and before the church was built were used by local Anglicans who held services in a private house.
No additions have been made to the church since it was built. It is substantially intact apart from the removal of the decorative barge-boards in the gable above the porch, and of the roof vents.
How is it significant? St Aidan's Anglican Church at Apollo Bay is significant for architectural, historic and social, reasons at a Regional level.
Why is it significant? St Aidan's Anglican Church at Apollo Bay is architecturally significant for its remarkably intact interior, and as a typical example of the timber churches built throughout Victoria by less wealthy communities before the First World War. These were generally of a simple form, often with no known architect and were built by local builders. They were usually in the Gothic style then common for masonry churches, though their decorative details were derived from domestic rather than ecclesiastical architecture.
St Aidan's Anglican Church at Apollo Bay has historical and social significance as one of the earliest surviving buildings in Apollo Bay, and as one of only two public buildings to survive from before the First World War in its original location and which retains its original use. It is typical of the early timber buildings once common in the area. These used local timber, the product of the most important early industry in the area. It was not until an all-weather road was built in 1927 that other building materials became more common. It contains furniture used before the church was built, when services were held in a private house. It is a reminder of the pioneering days in the town, containing memorials to early settlers, and is itself a memorial to a small number of Otway pioneering families who enabled the church to be built.
Classified: 01/02/2004