St John the Baptist Anglican Church, Richmond
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St John the Baptist Anglican Church is a heritage-listed church at Crawford Street,
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...
, Shire of Richmond,
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...
, Australia. It was built in 1909 by Mr Moore of Hughenden. It was added to the
Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As a ...
on 25 February 2000.


History

St John the Baptist Church, Richmond, was constructed in 1909 by Mr Moore of Hughenden. Richmond developed in the late nineteenth century on the banks of a waterhole on the Flinders River, primarily as a service centre for the extensive merino sheep and cattle grazing pastoral activities of the region. By 1878 the Anglican Church had established a presence in
North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...
under the leadership of George Frodsham, the Bishop of North Queensland. In order to serve the isolated northern and western areas the members of the Anglican Synod of North Queensland proposed the establishment of the Bush Brotherhood of St James. This was probably the first time in Australia that a diocese planned to establish the Bush Brotherhood in its area. Although the proposal was approved, nothing happened until 1903 when a Bush Brother was appointed to
Herberton Herberton is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Herberton had a population of 855 people. Geography Herberton is on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland. It is situa ...
as a mission priest. In 1909, at Cloncurry, Edward Travers Crozier was installed as head of the North Queensland Bush Brotherhood. A report in North Queensland 1878-1958 80 Years of Anglican Progress says that the Brotherhood of St Barnabas also worked in the Richmond Parish. Despite the fact that there was no church building, Bishop Frodsham held services in a dance hall attached to a hotel and later in the Richmond Court House where he used the magistrates bench as a pulpit. During a tour of the west in 1904 Bishop Frodsham was reported to be advising the Richmond church community about the construction of a church. In
The Northern Churchman ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...
, December 1906, reference was made to the efforts of the community to double the amount of £105 in the Church Building Fund. By 1907 plans and specifications had been approved for the erection of an Anglican church at Richmond. The church was to be called after St John the Baptist and was to be erected on land donated by Thomas Cox of Hughenden. In 1908 the
Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is a UK-based Christian charity. Founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray, it has worked for over 300 years to increase awareness of the Christian faith in the UK and across the world. The SPCK is th ...
granted £30 towards the construction of an Anglican church at Richmond. Reverend Canon Walter Williams, returning to North Queensland from England, reported to the Richmond congregation that he had been given a silver chalice and
paten A paten or diskos is a small plate, used during the Mass. It is generally used during the liturgy itself, while the reserved sacrament are stored in the tabernacle in a ciborium. Western usage In many Western liturgical denominations, the p ...
for the yet-to-be-constructed church in the town. When Bishop Frodsham visited Richmond in July 1909 he dedicated the newly constructed church. Monthly services were held in the new St John the Baptist Church, with the rector travelling from Hughenden. In 1911 the Church Building Committee reported that the debt on the building was still being paid off. Further reports indicated that the congregation expected to start painting and fencing the church and also that the belfry had been erected and a bell installed. The church could boast a small organ by 1911. By 1909 Hughenden had one priest and one deacon to serve 80,000 square miles. To overcome the shortage of priests the Anglican Synod sought young, unmarried priests from outside the region to serve in North Queensland. By 1913 a Bush Brother had been appointed to Richmond and a large room and verandah added to the vestry for his accommodation. While the Richmond community continued to depend on sheep and cattle for its livelihood, it received a boost during World War Two when an airstrip was constructed outside the town. During the wool boom of the 1950s the Richmond district was host to large teams of shearers and station workers, creating a vibrant economy. During this period there was a building boom including the construction of Housing Commission homes. The construction of the rail extension from Hughenden to Richmond and Mt Isa in the 1960s also gave the local economy a boost. During those years the Anglican Church continued to play a significant role in the Richmond community. A front fence and steel entrance gates were dedicated in 1951, and a steel-framed bell tower in 1981. The church building was clad with metal sheeting and two stained glass windows were added in the front facade in 1988; two stained glass windows were installed in the side walls to the sanctuary .


Description

St John the Baptist Anglican Church, Richmond is a small, rectangular, single-storeyed timber building with a gabled corrugated iron roof. Attached to the rear of the building is a skillion-roofed extension accommodating several rooms, and there is a skillion-roofed open
veranda A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''veran ...
h across the front facade. The church stands in the front half of a flat, grassed block fronting Crawford Street, which is parallel to, and one block from Goldring Street, the main street of Richmond. Apart from backing onto the commercial properties of the main street, the area has mainly residential buildings. The church is approached via a set of decorative wrought steel gates, and a pathway flanked by two trees. To the north-west of the church is a steel
bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
. The exterior cladding of the building is chamferboard, which has been covered with aluminium sheeting of a similar profile. The building sits on low concrete stumps. The front entry door has two leaves with stop-chamfered rails and
tongue-and-groove Tongue and groove is a method of fitting similar objects together, edge to edge, used mainly with wood, in flooring, parquetry, panelling, and similar constructions. Tongue and groove joints allow two flat pieces to be joined strongly together t ...
boarding, and decorative early iron hinges. Internally, the
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and
sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...
combined measure approximately . Most of the internal finishes of the building are
silky oak ''Grevillea robusta'', commonly known as the southern silky oak, silk oak or silky oak, silver oak or Australian silver oak, is a flowering plant in the family Proteaceae. It is a tree, the largest species in its genus but is not closely rela ...
, including the varnished v-jointed tongue-and-groove boards lining the walls and raked ceiling; the timber scissor trusses of the roof framing, which are exposed internally; the arch of the sanctuary; and the
altar rails The altar rail (also known as a communion rail or chancel rail) is a low barrier, sometimes ornate and usually made of stone, wood or metal in some combination, delimiting the chancel or the sanctuary and altar in a church, from the nave and oth ...
. The nave is furnished with eight silky oak
pew A pew () is a long bench (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview ...
s with pegged joints, and the table used as the altar is also silky oak. Mounted on the wall of the nave is a memorial board, which includes plaques commemorating the dedication of the altar rails in 1906, the gates and fence in 1951, and the bell tower in 1981. To either side of the entry doors are two tall
stained glass windows Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
signed by Oliver Cowley and dated 1988, one depicting John the Baptist and the other the baptism of Christ. To the side walls at either side of the sanctuary are two further stained glass windows, installed in the 1990s, in commemoration of pioneering men and women. The extension to the rear is centrally divided, with bathroom facilities added at the south-east corner. Its walls and raked ceiling are lined with fibrous cement sheets. Furniture in this extension includes wardrobes, a lectern, a bellows organ and an iron bed.


Heritage listing

St John the Baptist Anglican Church in Richmond was listed on the
Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As a ...
on 25 February 2000 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. St John the Baptist Church at Richmond, constructed in 1909, is important in demonstrating the expansion of the work of the Anglican Church in small western Queensland communities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly the influence of the Bush Brotherhood in establishing parishes and church buildings in remote towns. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. The interior of the building, which remains highly intact, has a strong aesthetic appeal generated by the clear varnished silky oak lining boards, joinery, furniture and memorials. This interior remains important in demonstrating the aesthetic possibilities of simply-designed, small timber churches of this era. The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history. The place has a special association with the Bush Brotherhood movement in western Queensland.


References


Attribution


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John the Baptist Anglican Church Richmond Queensland Heritage Register Shire of Richmond Anglican churches in Queensland Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register