19 September – Ann Munro
To appreciate its true significance we must consider the time and the environment in which
our little stone church was created.
The Limestone Plains and Ginninderra district were first sighted by Europeans in October
1820 when Charles Throsby entered the north corner of the area from Lake George in search
of the Murrumbidgee River which he had heard about from the local Aboriginal people.
The discovery of the Limestone Plains gave impetus to the settlement of the district soon
afterwards, when in 1823 Joshua John Moore selected land and built a station, which he
called ‘Canbery’, on a site which is the present day Acton.
In 1825 James Ainslie brought 700 sheep overland from Bathurst for his employer Robert
Campbell. He depastured the sheep on the fertile grasslands on the banks of the Ginninderra
Creek and, with the guidance of an Aboriginal girl, went on to select land at Pialligo on
behalf of Campbell. That selection was to become Duntroon.
Important to the settling of the area was the establishment of a number of small communities.
Ginninderra was established circa 1826, Yass in 1837, Queanbeyan in 1838 and Hall in 1882.
Charles Campbell, son of Robert Campbell, returned to Duntroon as manager following the
drought of 1837-1839 when his father-in-law, George Thomas Palmer, foreclosed on the
Ginninderra property he was purchasing from him. In 1840 the British Government ceased
the transportation of convicts to the colony of NSW and Campbell soon found that, apart
from a few convicts and itinerant bush workers, labour was very scarce. He placed funds at
the disposal of one John McDonald (afterwards manager of The Times) to provide passage for
shepherds and their families from Scotland, and also arranged for others to come out in ships
trading for Campbell & Co. A second wave of settlement began in the early 1850s with free
settlers such as the Rolfe, Shumak, Southwell, Gillespie and Gribble families who would go
on to establish wheat and sheep properties. In later years these immigrant families would
become the nucleus of the Presbyterian Church in North Canberra.
The passing of the Robertson Land Acts in 1861 heralded another wave of new settlement in
the Ginninderra district. The provisions of the Act allowed Crown Lands to be selected in
lots of 40 to 320 acres on the fulfillment of certain conditions, one of which was that the
selectors had to reside on their selection. This led to the establishment of many new
properties, and though they often worked on the larger estates at lambing, shearing and
harvesting times these descendants of the original immigrant families now became small
landholders in their own right, able to manage and farm their land as they chose.
From the arrival of the First Fleet the predominant religion (in fact the only religion) of NSW
was Church of England, despite many of the convicts and some of the soldiers being
Catholic. The reformist Attorney General, John Plunkett, sought to establish equality before
the law. His landmark Church Act of 1836 disestablished the Church of England and
established legal equality between Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians and later Methodists.
The first Presbyterian services at Ginninderra were conducted by the Reverend William
Hamilton in 1838, but the Presbyterians did not have a church of their own until 1863.
Services were conducted from time to time by clergymen from Braidwood and Yass, and
later in the schoolhouse at St John’s Church by the Presbyterian minister from Queanbeyan.
When the schoolhouse became unavailable because of a dispute between the teacher, Andrew
Wotherspoon, and the owner of the building, George Campbell, a meeting held at the home
of George Kinlyside decided to erect a church on land generously given by Pemberton
Campbell Palmer at Upper Canberra, on the fringe of the Ginninderra district. The building,
a wooden structure of 36 feet by 18 feet, built to plans drawn by Kinlyside, was opened by
the celebration of divine service by the Reverend William Ferguson Reid on the first Sunday
of 1863.
In his book Tales and Legends of Canberra Pioneers Samuel Shumack writes that about 1870
a number of the leading figures in the church met and decided to call a public meeting with
the object of drawing up plans for the erection of a suitable church building to replace the
existing one. Accordingly a tea meeting was held in the old building and about 250 people
were present. Many of the speakers spoke of the difficulties faced by the reformers and of
the need for a more permanent structure. This meeting appears to have been a rousing
success because ten years later the wooden building was replaced by a new church, built of
local stone quarried on Black Mountain, and which was opened in February 1873. The
church became the regular place of worship for families from Weetangera and Ginninderra as
well as those from Canberra, and so the little stone church on the Yass Road embarked on its
pilgimage. Samuel Shumack also states that his uncle, Peter Shumack Snr, planted the elm
tree outside the church during the winter of 1871.
In May 1882 history was made when the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was celebrated for
the first time in the little stone church on the Yass Road. The service was conducted by the
Rev R A Steel of the Queanbeyan charge, of which the Canberra church was an outstation,
and some twenty members communicated.
The church’s annual tea meetings appear to have been a much anticipated community event
and were not confined to Presbyterians. Methodists, Anglicans and Catholics all came to
share in the social activities. A gigantic tea would be served in the church from two rows of
tables, extending the whole length of the building. After tea there would be a lecture often
with magic lantern pictures and a group of singers would provide extra entertainment.
The popular annual tea meetings continued and reports in the Goulburn Penny Post and the
Queanbeyan Age speak of other tea meetings when ‘three times the tables were filled with
hungry guests who filled themselves with the good things under which the tables groaned’.
The fortunes of the North Canberra Presbyterian Church were very much influenced by the
economic forces prevailing at any specific time. While it was in its heyday in the late 19th
Century and plans were made to extend the little stone building by 50%, the economic
downturn in the early 1890s and the devastating drought of 1895 – 1903 hit the farming
community hard. Many small landholders sold their farms to larger landholders, the young
people moved away to find employment elsewhere and the number of Presbyterian families
decreased, which confounded the financial position of the small, remaining congregation.
Nevertheless the enlargement did take place, using the same rough stone from Black
Mountain, and was duly completed and dedicated on 27 October 1901 by Rev W Gould of
Goulburn.
The selection of Canberra in 1908 as the site for the national capital had far reaching effects
for the district. In 1911 the Federal Government began to resume the land within the
Territory boundary from its freehold owners and that continued between 1913 and 1917.
Many of the local landholders left the district rather than take a lease on the property they had
formerly owned. Private property was not the only land affected by this development;
schools and church lands were also resumed and notice of resumption of the church land was
received in 1911. On 18 January 1912 a congregational meeting was held at which the matter
was discussed and the Canberra Committee valued the property at £300, whereas the official
valuation was only £250. There was little the congregation could do in the face of the
Government resuming the property at its own valuation but the Committee added a condition
that they would accept the £250, only if a ten-year lease of the property was granted by the
Government. The proviso of the local Committee was met and a lease of the property for 10
years at £5 per annum was granted. This meant that the congregation continued to have the
use of their church, as before, but the land was no longer theirs. The years following the
resumption must have been very difficult, the founding fathers were aging and many of the
conscientious and untiring workers died. With the onset of WWI development of the new
Federal Capital slowed and few new public servants and their families were settled there.
The loss of three of their sons on the battlefields of Europe must have torn the heart out of the
remaining families, and the Queanbeyan church of which Canberra was a charge was itself
experiencing financial difficulties. At a meeting in July 1920 the Queanbeyan Committee of
Management carried the motion that ‘the Canberra building would not be required by us after
1 September 1920’. This, at the time, must have felt like the end of the road for the little
church on the Yass road. The lease with the Government still had two years to run and when
it expired in 1922 the Queanbeyan Committee moved swiftly to have the seats and organ
removed, the land was taken up by Ted Shumack and the little church used as a barn. In
1935 the land changed hands and became the property of John and Fred Southwell who
didn’t use it as a barn but left it to stand empty as a memorial to the early pioneers.
In 1923 the Queanbeyan Session and the Presbytery wrote to the Home Mission Committee
to lobby for a Presbyterian Church in Canberra and finally in 1927 St Columba’s in Braddon
was built, with the threshold stone from the abandoned little church used as its foundation
stone. It was followed in 1934 by St Andrew’s.
In 1940 Rev Hector Harrison, the recently inducted minister of St Andrew’s, was driving
along the new Barton Highway and noticed the little stone church and started making
enquiries about it and its history. The building was in a desperate state of disrepair but the
structure was sound and Hector Harrison, realising its potential, decided to attempt to repair
the building and restore it as a place of worship. On 21 September 1941 a Pioneers’
Memorial Service, attended by over 200 people, was held on the site and a restoration fund
was instituted. The fund received generous support and coupled with the enthusiasm and
hard work by the Minister and the laity the little church was ready for use in a little over 4
months.
The restored building was re-opened at a service in February 1942, under the charge of St
Andrew’s. This service was conducted by Dr C N Button, Moderator of the Presbyterian
Church in Victoria, in the presence of a large congregation, which included the Prime
Minister, John Curtin. It included too a great many Presbyterians of the ‘new’ Canberra –
men and women eager to revive this link with the past; and many descendants of the ‘old’
Canberra, rejoicing at this renewal of worship in the church of their forefathers. On the paper
they signed that day are included the names of Kilby, Cameron, Shumack, McIntosh,
Southwell and Kinleyside.
The Prime Minister spoke of these simple farming folk who had tamed this land and tilled it
and loved it before the time of the Federal City. In particular, he noticed what a very
important part the church had played in their lives – not only as a place of worship, but also
as a centre of ‘their social life’. He noticed too that it was through their contact and
conversation with each other after service that the people of the older, scattered, rural
community learned to share each other’s joys and sorrows. From this time onward a monthly
service was held regularly at St Ninian’s, the name chosen by Hector Harrison, surely the
perfect choice, to link the resurrected little church with Scotland’s first saint and his little
stone church, and our little church resumed its pilgrimage. A Pioneers Memorial Garden,
consisting of a low stone wall and three square stone planters, was created in memory of its
Scottish founders. The wall and planters are made from stone removed from the ruins of the
old Gribble homestead The Valley.
Gradually the church was furnished, chiefly with gifts as memorials to the pioneers and past
members. St Stephen’s Queanbeyan presented the Communion Chair, and the baptismal font
is a gift from the children of Ewan and Ann Cameron. From the inscriptions on memorial
plaques on the pews and under the lancet windows one can trace the history of the pioneer
families who first worshipped in the little stone church on the Yass Road. The Gillespies,
McKeanies, Southwells, Kilbys, Kinleysides and Murtys are but a few of those remembered.
One memorial window and the nearby pew are a War Memorial to the memory of the three
sons killed on the Western Front in WWI: Robert Kilby, died 8 August 1916, buried at
Villers-Bretonneux, Malcolm Southwell, died 15 November 1916, buried at AIF Burial
Ground, Flers and George Potter (foster son of Mrs Finley McDonald), died 1 September
1918, buried at Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension. In the September 1947 issue of The
Echo Hector Harrison wrote, ‘St Ninian’s with its memorial windows and pews looks like a
real sanctuary, it is a church of which we are all very proud’. In 1950 St Ninian’s, which had
been under the charge of St Andrew’s, was transferred to St Columba’s and in 1957 elected
its own Board of Management and became a charge in its own right.
With the growth of Canberra and its inextricable march north the little stone church on the
Yass Road found itself no longer a rural church but a suburban one and the increase in the
size of the congregation meant that an extension to the premises was urgently required. Some
services and Sunday School were held in the Lyneham Primary School and in 1961 the
church hall and an office block were added.
In 1977 with the amalgamation of many congregations of the Presbyterian, Methodist and
Congregational churches the Uniting Church in Australia was inaugurated and, at a
Congregational Meeting, St Ninian’s congregation elected to become part of the new Church.
By this time the increase in the numbers of the congregation was putting pressure on the
available accommodation and it was decided to extend the church once again. In 1978-79 the
six sided extension on the western end of the church was constructed, using the same rough
stone from Black Mountain as the original building. The stained glass window in the new
west wall was a gift from a Lyneham resident, Mr Ron Sayers (not a member of the
congregation) who created stained glass as his hobby. In 1994 the Williams Room was added
to the hall, primarily for the use of the younger Sunday School children but also to provide a
suitable venue for small meetings.
Overnight on 2/3 February 2000 a massive limb fell from the iconic elm tree into the car park
and Pioneers Garden. The tree was very badly diseased and after much soul searching and
with great sadness the Church Council agreed that the tree must be removed; so the little
church lost its sheltering friend of 127 years. The timber was given to the Woodcraft Guild
ACT and some months later the members brought some items which they had made from the
tree and which we could purchase. There was a magnificent rocking horse which had won
first prize in its class at the Canberra Show under the name of Ninian.
One Sunday morning in February 2018 just as the Service was begining, a torrential
downpour drenched the North Canberra region and flooded the church and hall. The service
had to be abandoned and some members carried to their cars. The damage was extensive and
necessitated new carpet being laid in the church and office space and new flooring in the hall.
Over the past few years the church and hall have been used by a number of organisations
from worshipping communities to children’s playgroups. The Hungarian group have
worshipped in the church on a monthly basis for many years. The Free Constitution Church
of Tonga use both the church and the hall as well as sharing in the wider life of the St
Ninian’s congregation. The Karen group, originally from Myanmar, transform the hall for
their services on a fortnightly basis. In 2018 St Ninian’s entered into a symbiotic relationship
with the Benedictus Contemplative Church, which has provided a ‘home’ for Benedictus and
an opportunity for St Ninian’s to move forward in engaging with the wider community.
Landscaping of the site is now underway to help create a spiritual hub, the Waterhole project,
where members of the community can feel safe and welcome. The pilgrimage continues!
For over 148 years the little stone church has stood foursquare on the Limestone Plains; of
drought and fire and flood it’s seen plenty, its fortunes have ebbed and flowed along with
those of the people who built it, who have loved it and who continue to love it. It has offered
sanctuary and strength, peace and encouragement to countless numbers of worshippers, and a
continuing pioneering spirit to those of us fortunate enough to call it ‘our church’.