Caboonbah Undenominational Church is a

union church A united church, also called a uniting church, is a church formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations. Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state ...

on the Cressbrook-Caboonbah Road,

Mount Beppo Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

, approximately from

Toogoolawah Toogoolawah ( ) is a rural town and locality in the Somerset Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Toogoolawah had a population of 1,279 people. Geography Toogoolawah is in South East Queensland. Toogoolawah is a centre for gliding and parach ...

in the

Somerset Region The Somerset Region is a local government area located in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland, Australia, about northwest of Brisbane and centred on the town of Esk. It was created in 2008 from a merger of the Shire of Esk and th ...

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. T ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It was founded by

Henry Plantagenet Somerset Henry Plantagenet Somerset (19 May 1852 – 11 April 1936) was a pioneer pastoralist and politician in Queensland, Australia. Somerset was a liberal politician who represented the district of Stanley in the Queensland Legislative Assembly fro ...

, and built by Lars Andersen in 1905 to serve a farming community at

. The wooden structure was designed by Mrs Katherine Rose Somerset and takes its name, "Caboonbah", from the Somerset family homestead,

Caboonbah Homestead Caboonbah Homestead was a heritage-listed homestead at Esk-Kilcoy Road, Lake Wivenhoe, Somerset Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1889 to 1890. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 12 December 1996. It was destroye ...

, nearby.

History

Caboonbah Church was developed as an undenominational or ' Union' church when all denominations in small communities used one building for worship according to their own faith until each denomination could afford a building of its own. Resident Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist ministers residing at Esk by 1905 visited Caboonbah Church regularly. Now Caboonbah Undenominational Church is one of the very few remaining churches in Queensland that still welcomes services for congregations of any faith. The original trustees of this church were John Thomas Milner, David Walker Smith, Charles Henry Soden, Edward William Soden and Robert Dawson Soden “all of Mt. Beppo & Caboonbah”. The Church celebrated its Golden Jubilee with a crowd of 250 sharing luncheon under tarpaulins and its honoured guests on that occasion were Dr. Don Cameron, M.H.R., Mr.

Alec Skinner The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the Network Ten soap opera ''Neighbours'' in 2003, by order of first appearance. Ric Pellizzeri took over the role of executive producer from Stanley Walsh, who left the show in Novembe ...

, M.L.A. and Cr. William Wells (Chairman, Esk Shire Council). The Queensland Times’ report includes a photo of the church. The last regular church service was held at Caboonbah Church in 1978. By that time congregations had become very small and there was a real threat that the church would close. Instead it was decided to entrust a local committee with the maintenance of the church precinct and to hold an annual ecumenical service on the second Saturday in November. This continues today. Hard times continued to threaten Caboonbah Church until it received a welcome bequest from the late Frank Hopkins in 1984 that ensured its continued survival. On 5 November 2005, the Caboonbah Church celebrated its centenary with an ecumenical service at which

Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane The Archbishop of Brisbane is the diocesan bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, Australia, and ''ex officio'' metropolitan bishop In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (al ...

Phillip Aspinall Phillip John Aspinall (born 17 December 1959) is an Australian Anglican bishop. He has been the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane since February 2002 and was also the Anglican Primate of Australia, ...

gave the occasional address.Brisbane Valley Sun, 10/11/2005, p8 There were two burials in the Caboonbah Church cemetery before the church was built: Richard Soden, 2-year-old son of E.W. Soden was buried in August 1904 and his grandfather Richard Dawson Soden (snr.) in January 1905. Headstones from Caboonbah Homestead cemetery were relocated there after they were threatened by rising water from the construction of the Wivenhoe Dam. The cemetery beside Caboonbah Church is now maintained by the

Somerset Regional Council The Somerset Region is a local government area located in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland, Australia, about northwest of Brisbane and centred on the town of Esk. It was created in 2008 from a merger of the Shire of Esk and th ...

and contains the grave of H.P. Somerset ( Member for Stanley, 1904-1920) after whom the region is named.

Description

Originally it had a shingled roof, an unusual church spire and verandahs on its eastern and western sides.Queensland Times, 2/11/1965, p3 One small room is set aside for mothers with small children and another as a robing room for visiting clergy. Ten years later there is a more comprehensive report of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations with another photo of the shingled roof that was replaced with iron immediately afterwards. This report includes a history of the Church and lists 67 ministers of the Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian faiths who had preached at the Church. It finishes with the sentence: “The Caboonbah church is set on a hill and looking towards the mountains from all directions the scene is one of tranquillity and unsurpassed beauty, especially when the sun changes the mountain colours to various shades of blue, green and gold.” Since that time its beauty has been enhanced by the establishment of an olive grove beside its boundary fence so that the first sight of Caboonbah Church by road from Toogoolawah is its tall, white spire rising above the perpetual green of the olive trees.

References

{{Coord, -27.13412, 152.46732, type:landmark_region:AU-QLD, display=title, name=Caboonbah Undenominational Church Union churches in Australia Buildings and structures in Somerset Region