July 1966 School Magazine

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July,' 1966

Brisbane Girls 1 Grammar School Magazine

July, 1966

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

On 23rd October, 1903, the first service held in Victoria was conducted by Rev . Robert Knopwood for David Collins and the group of officers and convicts which had arrived there to forestall French occupation and establish a necessary whaling port. The service was held at Sullivan Bay. Three weeks ' later, the first sermon was preached and in the succeeding months , baptisms- and wed- dings were administered and solemnized. There was no attempt to build a church, as Collins felt the site was unsuitable for a colony . Consequently, in 1804, the settlement was abandoned and Collins was transferred , to Southern Tasmania . Another settlement set up at Westernport Bay in 1826 was also short-lived and no church building was established here, either . Permanent settlement first began with the arrival of the Henty brothers at Portland Bay in 1834. In 1835, other parties brought flocks of sheep · to occupy the pastoral land of the Melbourne and Geelong neighbourhoods. Services were taken regularly in a woodshed or barn by members of the Henty family and in 1841 the first clergyman at Portland Bay, Rev . A. C. Thompson, con- ducted services, administered baptism and solemnised a wedding . Land upon which to build a church was granted in 1834, but it was not until July, 1842, and the arrival of the Rev . J. Y. Wilson as resident chaplain, that the work of building a church was attempted with any real vigour . This church was completed in 11 months and in 1952, was still being used as part of the parish hall. The Yarra received its first permanent settlers in 1835, under the leader- ship of either Pascoe or Fawkner. On Batman's Hill in 1836, the first ordained minister to visit the Yarra region, the Rev. Joseph Orton, a Methodist, held a service, using the Church of England rite. Services were also conducted by Captain Lonsdale, George Lanhorne, an aboriginal missioner, and James Smith, later Mayor of Melbourne. The first Anglican clergyman, Rev. T. B . Nayler from Hobart , paid a visit in 1837, and administered baptism. At the first land sales held in Melbourne, five acres were set aside for an Anglican building and a wooden church to seat 100 persons was erected and used as a school during the week . In 1839, this church was moved from Batman's Hill to a site near the present Collins and William Streets and was enlarged. Bishop Broughton visited Melbourne in 1838, and celebrated the first Holy Communion there . He also consecrated the old portion of the Melbourne cemetery, visited the aboriginal settlement and presided at a meeting held to discuss the building of a permanent church. As a result of Bishop Broughton's appeal to the Society for tl1e Propagation of the Gospel for a priest, the Rev. John Couch Grylls arrived but returned to England to settle his personal affairs, then went to Sydney on his return to Australia. The Rev . Wilson continued the work and, when he took up an appointment at Portland, the Rev. Adam Compton became parish priest. The foundation stone of St. James ' Church, Melbourne, was · laid in November , 1839, by Charles La Trobe, superintendent of the district. Although opened in 1842 it was not complete. In 1842, a stone church was also erected as a temporary building at Brighton . The settlement at Geelong depended on laymen such as Charles Slayden, a solicitor, for its worship. In 1843, the foundation stone of Christ Church, Geelong, was laid and in October , of that year, confirmation and communion were first administered here. At the same time, plans were made in Melbourne for the er ection of a second church on Eastern Hill, and in 1846 , a government grant enabled work to proceed . I n August, 1848, the church was opened and dedicated to St. Peter. In 1853, it became the first Melbourne church to be consecrated. In 1R47 Melborune became a separate diocese and Charles Perry was appointed Bishop. By 1851 , the _population of the ,,colony had almost doubled, 1?ut, at tile same time accordmg to Dr. Perry God ... . removed by death, sickness and other cau;es no fewer than nine of my fellow labourers , that is, more than one tl1ird of our entire · body" . Because of this , church building ceased and during 1852, the Church made littl_e progress. In 1853 , the position _was improved by the passing of an act granting money t!') 0:ach of the denommations practising in the colony . Accordmgly, by . the begmm!1!1 of _1855, _the n-qrnber of clergy had risen to 45 and Melbourne itself was divided mto five parishes , St. James', St. Paul's, St. John's, St. Peter's and St . Mark's. St. James' was the Cathedral church and the parish was under the control of the Dean , Dr. Macartney. Schools were built in the parishes and, in Geelong, two . l!',rge churches and six schools were built. Some ~tte,mpts were ~]so made to ID;im~ter to the goldfields, "rather as, spheres for miss10n!'ry exertion , than_ as districts the inhabitants of which might be expected, with the usual assistance from

the Colonial Treasury to provide for their own spiritual wants" . On account of the migratory population, "The Bush Mission Fund" ~as also begun _by Anglicans in Victoria, to maintain clergymen at the goldfields in places like Castlemaine, Ballarat and Sandhurst. Conferences of clergy and laity were called in 1~51 and 1854 to prepare the way for synodical government and a legally constituted Synod was .set up in 1854. Bishop Perry remained Bishop of Melbourne until his . retirement in 1875 when he was succeeded by Rev. James Moorhouse, durmg _whose episcopate the foundation stone of a new Cathedral , _St. Paul's, ~as laid, on 13th April, 1880. The building was designed by Butlerpeld, an Engh~h architect, and was not completed until the regime of M?orhouse s _successor_, Field Flowers Goe. All that was lacking was a central spire and this was fmall;: added_m 1933. During the episcopate of Henry Lowther Clarke, the f?urth Bish_op , M,;1- bourne became an Archbishopric and Bishop Clarke, the first Archbishop m 1905. In 1934, an Assistant to the Archbishop, with the t/tle of Bishop of Geelong, was consecrated, the Ven . J. J. Booth being the first . In 1875, the diocese was divided and Ballarat was formed from the W-:,stern _portion. Ballarat's rise to prominence was owing to the i,<;>ld discoveries of 1851 and the population rapidly rose to 25,000 . To meet the spiritual needs of these people, the Rev. C. F. Parks was sent from St. Peter's, Melbourne and he conducted open air services on the diggings , assisted sometimes by the Re_v . J. H . Gregory. By 1854, an Archdeacon-the Rev. T. C. B . Stretch-was appomted, as well as a resident priest, the Rev. J . R . Thackeray . In 18~5,. the R,;v. John Potter arrived, and in this same year, the first church bmldmg-Chr\St Church-was begun in Ballarat. Pastoral and commercial development continued after_ the first inrush of gold seekers, and their subsequel)-t_ leavi!'g, ?,nd, by 1873, Bishop Perry was suggesting that it was time to subdivide his diocese of M~lbourne. Consequently, an Act of the Diocesan Church Assembly created. the D1o_cese of Ballarat 1 including the Western portion of the Colony of Victoria, and it . came into bemg on May Day, 1875. Dr. Samuel Thornton _was consecrated Bishop. During his episcopate , State aid to churches was withdrawn . and there W';S thus no diocesan source of revenue. By 1895, the Y<;ar of B1sl:_lop Thornton_s resignation, the diocese had a ;;taff of 52 cl,;rgy . Dunng the episcopate of his successor, Bishop Green, St. Aidan's Theological College ai;,d Ballarat Grammar School were founded, the Chapter House built and Chnst Church Catheqr!',I enlarged. Under successive Bishops , M. H. Maxwell-Gumbleton (1917-1927), Philip Charles Thulow Crick (1927-36) and William Herbert Johnson, . the more ?utback areas, Wimmera and Mallee, experienced steady development m church hfe and building. Like Ballarat, Bendigo became famous as a go]~ rninin~ centre, but, unlike Ballarat mining was continued to a lesser degree m Bendigo. The Rev. J . H. Gregory ' pioneered the Church of the area, travelling around . in a C?Vered wagon. In 1855, a stone Church was ope.ned but , blown down m 1856,. it was replaced by All Saint's Church. Population growth, was steady and, m 1885, the creation of the Diocese of Sandhurst, as Bendi_go_ was then known, w~s suggested . However, this was not approved . A similar proposal moved m Synod in 1898, by Canon Godby, suffered the same fate but . m 1900, _he was finally successful in having a Bill passed to create the new diocese . His move was however, overshadowed by the passing of a Bill in 1901 to create the dioc'eses of Bendigo, Wangaratta anp. Giµpsland. Subsequently, the Ven . He!1ri,; Archdall Langley was chosen as first Bishop and, consecrated on St. Matthias Day, 1902 in St. Paul's Cathedra\ , Melbourne, he was shortly after enthrom,d in St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral , Bendigo. To further the work of th<: <;:hurch m an area where settlement was growing, he established the Horne Mission Fund . In 1907 he was succeeded by his brother, John Douse Langley . The present Bishop 'of Bendigo is its fifth . Population in the North East had steadily grown since the ~pening of tl:_le Port Phillip District for settlement. Immigration had resulted m large frmt- growing districts and towns such as Wangaratta, Sheppa~ton, Seymour a_nd Benalla had sprung up . Small industries had been established and the rich sheep and cattle areas well developed . When subd\vjsi_on of the Melbourne diocese was considered, the area north east of the Dividing Range was cho;;en as the diocese of Wangaratta. The Rev. Thomas Henry Armstrong , the first Bishop, was consecrated on St. Matthias ' Da}'., 1?02, and began tl!e work of diocesan organization. Bishop's Lodge was bmlt m 1904, a theological college , St. Colornb's Hall, founded in 1905, and the foundation stone of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity laid in 1908 . The Cathedr_al was opened and dedicated in 1909 and additions made in 1924. In 1927, Bishop ·Armstrong was succeeded by the Rev. John Stephen :Eiart, Dean of Melbourne. The Rector of Z5

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