Surrey Hills, VIC - Uniting
Year Built: 1915
Denomination: Uniting
Address: Corner Canterbury Road & Valonia Avenue, Surrey Hills, Victoria, 3127
Previous Denomination: Methodist
Architect: Albert Phipps Coles
Architectural Style: Romanesque
Traditional Owners: Wurundjeri people
Last Updated: 13/07/2024
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History and Architecture:
The first building was opened on 14 December 1884 when three special services were conducted by Reverends Halley, Browne and King. By 1886, when it was admitted to the Congregational Union, the new church had fifteen members. It was called the Wyclif Congregational Church.
The Foundation stone at this location was laid by the Right Hon Robert Beckett MLC on 13 March 1915. The tender of £1620 from J Broderick was accepted to build the Church.
The Church is a brick building with slate roof which has been painted a uniform cream. It was originally a red brick building with cement render panels which can be identified under the later paintwork. The church is designed in an eclectic Arts and Crafts style with battered buttresses and Romanesque characteristics, including semi-circular window heads, drip mouldings which terminate in bosses, and recessed colonettes. The main gable end contains a large central window, flanked by wide, shallow piers with blind openings, and two windows with colonettes below. Identical single storey porches, with arch headed entrances and blind openings above, flank this central bay. The upper parapet of the front facade contains vertical elements, blind arcading and steep gable ends, with emphasis placed on two vertical elements which rise from the window mullions below.
Clergy:
This list may not contain every serving cleric, past or present, for this church.
Further submissions welcomed.
| Years | Name | Annotation | D.o.B | D.o.D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1885 - 1896 | Rev John Mair | C | ||
| 1887 - 1890 | Rev Peter Ussher | WM | 1835 | 1899 |
| 1890 - 1891 | Rev Arthur Albison | WM | ||
| 1891 - 1893 | Rev Henry J. Ham | WM | ||
| 1893 - 1894 | Rev J. W. Grove | WM | ||
| 1894 - 1895 | Rev W. Rule Jones | WM | ||
| 1895 - 1896 | Rev Lewis Rowlands | WM | ||
| 1896 - 1899 | Rev James H. Ingham | WM | 1847 | 1914 |
| 1896 - 1907 | Rev John Barton | C | ||
| 1899 - 1902 | Rev Albert T. Holden | M | 1866 | 1935 |
| 1902 - 1905 | Rev Frank Lade | M | ||
| 1905 - 1906 | Rev James Bradbury | M | ||
| 1906 - 1908 | Rev Richard Fitcher | M | 1841 | 1925 |
| 1907 - 1909 | Rev John Rickard | C | ||
| 1908 - 1909 | Rev E Watson Nye | M | ||
| 1909 - 1911 | Rev Henry John Lavers | M | 1843 | 1930 |
| 1910 - 1915 | Rev Frederick Vicary Pratt | C | 1932 | |
| 1911 - 1912 | Rev T. B. Lancaster | M | ||
| 1912 - 1913 | Rev T. Dicson | M | ||
| 1913 - 1915 | Rev F. Charles Bremner | M | ||
| 1915 - 1918 | Rev Oswald W. McCall | M | ||
| 1917 - 1920 | Rev C. B. Cockett | C | ||
| 1918 - 1922 | Rev W. Rule Jones | M | ||
| 1922 - 1925 | Rev George Judkins | M | ||
| 1922 - 1935 | Rev Alfred Gifford | C | ||
| 1925 - 1928 | Rev L Shears Saunders | M | ||
| 1928 - 1931 | Rev William A. Millikan | M | 1861 | 1936 |
| 1931 - 1935 | Rev Albert Sussex | M | ||
| 1935 - 1938 | Rev Henry Clarke | M | ||
| 1936 - 1940 | Rev W. Clair Palmer | C | ||
| 1938 - 1943 | Rev Percy O. Parnaby | M | 1971 | |
| 1940 - 1960 | Rev E F W Swan | C | ||
| 1943 - 1945 | Rev John J. Webb | M | ||
| 1945 - 1949 | Rev John F. Parker | M | ||
| 1949 - 1954 | Rev Thomas F. Stanley | M | 1957 | |
| 1954 - 1962 | Rev Alfred Bligh | M | ||
| 1962 - 1964 | Rev W. F. Gibbons | C | ||
| 1962 - 1965 | Rev Charles Gallacher | M | ||
| 1965 - 1969 | Rev Ivan Haywood | M Asst | 2000 | |
| 1965 - 1972 | Rev G. D. Bence | C | ||
| 1969 - 1972 | Rev Reginald J. Philp | M | 1991 | |
| 1972 - | Rev Deryck R. Wong | M | ||
| 1973 - 1975 | Rev J. D. Roberts | C | ||
| 1977 - 1984 | Rev Ian Williamson | U | ||
| 1984 - 1989 | Rev Robert Stevenson | U | ||
| 1989 - 1997 | Rev Lloyd Shirley | U | ||
| 1997 - 2000 | Rev Judith Watkins | U | ||
| 2000 - 2001 | Rev Ravanel Weinman | U Supply | 1933 | 2018 |
| 2001 - 2002 | Rev Clare Tanner | |||
| 2002 - 2004 | Rev Evan Lewis | U Supply | ||
| 2004 - | Rev Robert Gotch | U | ||
| 2023 - | Rev Russell Croxford | U approx date |
Organ:
The Organ was built by Messrs George Fincham and Sons Pty Ltd was subsequently replaced by an electroninc Organ and the Fincham Organ moved to St Benedict's in Warrigal Road.
Both churches at Norfolk Road and Valonia Avenue had installed pipe organs which by early 1983 had been relocated to Saint George's Anglican Church, Mont Albert and Saint Benedict's Catholic Church, Burwood, respectively. In 1983 a new Allen Digital Computer Organ was purchased to be used after rebuilding work at the Uniting Church.
Source:
1. Surrey Hills Uniting A History of the Surrey Hills Uniting Church Melbourne. Graham Beanland 2016.
2. Reyeson Index.
3. City of Whitehorse Heritage Review 2012