Mount Gambier gives thanks for 140 years of St Paul’s
People
Mount Gambier’s Catholic community gathered last month to give thanks for the graces of the past 140 years and to seek blessings for the future. Former Tenison Woods College principal and parishioner PAM RONAN writes about the history of St Paul’s Church.
For the Mount Gambier community, celebrating 140 years of St Paul’s Church is not just a reflection on past events, but an invitation from Fr Olek Stirrat, our recent assistant parish priest, to be the Easter people, the people of joyful hope, proud of our history and forward facing to be ‘fully devoted to the work of the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 15:58).
St Paul’s was the third Catholic church to be built in Mount Gambier. The first, opened in 1855 by Fr Julian Tenison Woods, was a humble slab hut on Bay Road next to the Court House which provided a great place for wombats to burrow and native cats to play hide and seek amongst the altar vases.
Fr Woods then initiated the building of the second Catholic church which he opened on February 24 1861. St Theresa’s was deemed by many as a ‘work of beauty’ and was situated on three allotments on the corner of Crouch and Sturt Streets. Designed by W A Crouch it also provided a presbytery and a small school was located within the building for several years before the church was finally demolished in 1915.
However, by 1869 St Theresa’s was already too small to accommodate the growing Catholic population so plans began in earnest for St Paul’s Church on land purchased on Penola Road. The deed was transferred to Fathers Wood, Horan and Murphy in 1871, with enough land to accommodate the large church and a future convent and presbytery.
With a final cost of more than £10,000, St Paul’s was formally opened at 11am Mass on Sunday April 19 1885 by the Very Rev Dr Reynolds, Bishop of Adelaide.
The architect was Michael McMullen from Adelaide and the church stood like a beacon on the hill as you entered the township from Penola Road.
Resplendent with both Gothic and Italianate style architecture, the church remains a visual delight with its ornate square crenelated tower built from pink dolomite with grey limestone plinth and dressings, sourced from the South East region. Although they are currently not in use, the bells came from Dublin and the sounds echoed access the township, with bellringers co-creating progressive melodic patterns using the diatonic scale.
The impressive limestone gates were donated in 1926, and the current boundary fence was added in 1936.
Interestingly, only two weeks after construction started on laying the foundations for St Paul’s, the contractor resigned after a quarrel with the architect, and casual labourers – known as ‘day workers’ completed the foundations.
The total cost for the new church including the building, furnishing and interest payments was deemed in 1985 to have been $28,820, which was completely paid off by 1901, thanks to the initial £10,000 loan provided by the Sutton family at Dismal Swamp and the generous contributions made by the local Catholic community.
By the 1960s, with the expansion of Housing Trust homes in Mount Gambier East precinct and the growing enrolments at the Catholic schools, planning began to expand St Pauls by adding two ‘wings’ to the eastern end of the church. Dean Travis project managed the extensions and was renowned for his entrepreneurial skills in establishing churches in several Catholic communities in the South East, and Adelaide as well.
Fr Peter Zwaans at the 140th anniversary Mass
The new additions were added to St Paul’s in 1965. In 1985 the community proudly celebrated the 100 years anniversary with Archbishop Faulkner and Fr Brian Angus, the parish priest of the day, making the celebration both an evangelising experience and a celebration of the generous, committed and resourceful faith community that had kept pace with the growing population and needs of its Catholic schools and the
parish.
Today the dynamic Tenison Woods College maintains strong links with the parish and the recent Easter celebrations at St Paul’s demonstrated a very multi-cultural, multi-age parish community.
The parish website (mtgcatholic.org.au) captures much of the spiritual dynamism of the community led with intelligent foresight and energetic outreach by Fr Peter Zwaans and the
parish teams that beckon all of us to be pilgrims of hope in this Jubilee Year.
Jump to next article
