St Marys, SA - Anglican

History and Architecture:

The first St Mary's church was situated about 200 metres north of the present church, built and paid for by the pioneers of this district. John Wickham Daw who arrived in Adelaide on the Winchester on the 23rd September 1838 with his wife and six children gave one acre of land for the first church in 1841. He named it after his home parish, St Mary Abbots in Kensington England.

On 27th October 1846, Miss Fanny Conway laid the foundation stone ( the whereabouts now unknown) for a new stone church (on the present site), and the Rev. James Farrell read the appropriate service of the Church of England to a large gathering.

Building of the church began on a further acre of land donated by John Wickham Daw, with stone donated by the Ayliffe family, quarried, carted and constructed by the pioneers themselves. Moses Garlick was appointed architect and superintendent of the building project and Captain Ray Boucaut who arrived in South Australia in 1846 helped considerably towards the successful completion of the building. The roof was of stringybark shingles over heavy local hardwood roofing timbers held in place with hand-wrought nails.

A Church of cruciform plan with a square tower topped by a castellated parapet. The unbuttressed walls are of rubble stone with brick quoins. There are narrow, Gothic arched windows to the nave and tower and wider windows with restrained Gothic tracery to the transepts. The extensive Cemetery surrounds the Church. Decorative wooden gates at the entrance to the Cemetery lead to the porch.

An example of the Victorian Free Medieval style and townscape significance for the way it closes a vista.