Brisbane, QLD -St Paul's Presbyterian

History and Architecture:

The congregation initially worshipped in a wooden Church in Creek Street and then built a handsome stone church in 1876. Their church building stood originally near the corner of Creek and Adelaide Streets in the city.

Former Queensland Colonial Architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley was commissioned to design a building well beyond immediate requirements. A stone, gothic-styled building complete with buttresses, belltower and a spire rising 150 feet (46 m) above the ground.

Cruciform in shape, the design incorporates a nave, aisles, and well defined transepts. The chancel is truncated. Essentially the plan is symmetrical, with the addition of a small southwestern entry porch for the spiral staircase to the belltower.

The steeply pitched gabled roof with ventilation gablets is clad in broad profile galvanised iron. Three distinct types of stone have been employed in the construction: rough dressed Brisbane tuff, probably from the Spring Hill and Windsor quarries, for the walls and buttresses; durable Helidon sandstone for the window facings; and a softer and less robust sandstone, possibly from Breakfast Creek or Goodna, for other facings and decorative work.