North Pine Presbyterian Church (former)

General

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Also known as

North Pine Presbyterian Church

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

21 October 1992

Type

Religion/worship: Church

Theme

8.1 Creating social and cultural institutions: Worshipping and religious institutions

Construction period

1883–1884, North Pine Presbyterian Church (1883 - 1884)

Historical period

1870s–1890s Late 19th century

Style

Gothic

Location

Address

901 Dayboro Road, Whiteside, Whiteside

LGA

Moreton Bay Regional Council

Coordinates

-27.26116324, 152.95305344

Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

The North Pine Presbyterian Church (former), built in 1884 and moved to its present site in 1985, is the earliest surviving church in Moreton Bay region and is important in demonstrating the development of the Presbyterian Church in Queensland and of Petrie in the late 19th century as a regional centre.

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

The church is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a small, timber-framed church built in late-19th century Queensland. Highly intact, these include its: modest size; symmetrical, low-set, gable roof form with projecting gable roof front porch; timber-framed and -clad construction with single-skin elements; nave; vestry; and lancet windows. It also retains early characteristic fittings including pews, cabinet, organ and stool.

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

The church is important for its aesthetic qualities, displaying beautiful attributes. This is brought about by its modest size, symmetrical form, exposed construction, decorative timberwork in a modest Carpenter Gothic style, and its simple nave with regularly-spaced lancet windows.

Criterion GThe place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

The church has a strong and ongoing association with the Moreton Bay community. Established in 1884 through the efforts and fundraising of the community, and with sustained use as a church since, it has served as a prominent venue for spiritual worship, social interaction, community support, and valued customary traditions for more than 135 years.

History

The Former North Pine Presbyterian Church was built in 1884 in Petrie and was moved 2.5km northwest in 1985 to form part of a historical village tourist attraction in Whiteside. It is the oldest surviving church in the Petrie district and is a good example of a small nineteenth-century Queensland church of single-skin timber construction.

The North Pine River area is part of the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi and the Yuggera Ugarapul People.[1] Convict timber getters were recorded in the area in the 1820s, and in the early 1840s pastoral runs were established on either side of the North Pine River. In 1859 Thomas Petrie established a 6400 acre (2590ha) run, known as Murrumba, which extended to Sideling Creek in the west, Redcliffe Point in the east, and to the Pine and North Pine rivers in the south. Petrie was also involved in timber getting, utilising the rafting ground at Sweeney's Reserve [QHR 602687], southeast of the present Petrie town centre.

Closer settlement in the area commenced in 1862, with the sale by selection of portions in the ‘Redcliffe Agricultural Reserve'. Having had his pastoral leases cancelled by this reserve, Tom Petrie purchased a homestead block (portion 23, east of the school site), and leased nearby Portions 24, 25, 29 and 30. A coach route from Brisbane to Gympie, with a staging post at Petrie's ‘Murrumba Homestead’, was established in late 1868 by Cobb & Co. A road bridge was built next to the ford at Sweeney's Reserve in 1877, and the North Coast Railway was constructed north from Brisbane to Caboolture by 1888. Tom Petrie took advantage of the railway running through his property to subdivide part of it as the North Pine Terminus Township in 1885. This became the nucleus of the township of North Pine. In 1877, Tom Petrie also donated land for the establishment of the town's first state school.[2]

The first Presbyterian church in the district was known as the ‘Short Cut’, ‘The Pine’, ‘The Crossing’, or the ‘North Pine’ church, and was located several miles east of the suburb known today as Petrie. This church was demolished in 1915. As settlement surrounding the small town of North Pine increased in the 1870s, so too did the need for a new and more conveniently located church for the Presbyterian congregation.[3] 

In 1877, North Pine settler, William Townsend, gave one acre (0.4ha) of his 40 acre (16.1ha) selection along the North Pine River, to the Presbyterian Church. A church was not immediately built on the site. In 1881, however, a congregation meeting was held to discuss the construction of a new church. At this meeting Tom Petrie proposed that ‘a new building, to take the place of the one at the riverside, be put up on the church grounds on the hill’.[4] A building committee, comprising of several leading community members, including Messrs Petrie, McCulloch, Gordon, and White, was established. In July 1883, tenders were called for the construction of the church. The successful contractor was local builder and farmer, James Foreman, at a cost of £142. In 1883 the progress of the work was reported, ‘Mr Foreman has in hand another church, which he hopes to finish soon’.[5] It is not known if an architect was associated with the design of the church.

On 8 June 1884, the completed church was officially opened and was described at the time as a ‘fine building’. Standing centrally on its elevated allotment, the church faced northeast to Old Dayboro Road, a main thoroughfare from North Pine, south to Brisbane, and was central to the growing township. Early photographs (undated) show it to have been of ‘single-skin’ timber construction. It was lowset and had a simple rectangular nave with a steep gable roof, a small projecting front porch. It had pointed arch windows either side of the porch and down the sides of the nave.[6]

The distinctive single-skin timber construction technique evolved in Queensland from the mid-1860s. In this period, architects Richard George Suter, working for the Board of General Education in Brisbane, and Richard Hugo Oswald Roehricht, as chief draftsman for the Great Northern Railway at Rockhampton, were exploring similar architectural ideas for what was initially called ‘outside studding’. Exposing the structural frame and the outside face of the internal lining to the exterior increased the architectural expression of buildings and allowed for economic construction. Schools and churches built using this technique were a key influence in the widespread adoption of single-skin timber construction throughout colonial Queensland.[7]

The North Pine Presbyterian Church committee meeting minutes record that on 25 April 1887 the committee accepted a Collins and McTaggart tender of £5/10s for painting the interior of the church, and Mr Whitmore’s tender of £15 for the erection of a small room at the back of the church (likely the vestry), as well as 10/- for ‘fixing in ventilators and cutting/fixing louvre windows in the gable ends’.[8]

Over the years, many social events have taken place within the church grounds, including Sunday school classes, fundraising fetes, picnics and community meetings.[9] Minutes record that funds were raised from the congregation between 1890 and 1892 to purchase an organ for £30. In 1911, following the death of Tom Petrie in August 1910, North Pine was renamed ‘Petrie’ in his memory. The church, however, remained known as the North Pine Presbyterian Church.[10] 

Further fundraising events for the church were held in the grounds of the Petrie family’s Murrumba Homestead, hosted by two of Tom Petrie’s daughters, Ida and Jessie, who continued to reside at the property following his death: ‘the picturesque grounds of Murrumba lent for the occasion by the Misses Petrie, made an ideal setting for the fete … The ornamental trees, planted so many years ago by the late Mrs Tom Petrie, made a delightful background to the stalls scattered beneath their shade’.[11]

In June 1916, an honour board, dedicated to church members who had enlisted in World War I (WWI), was unveiled. The silky oak board was designed and built by Brisbane furniture manufacturers, F Tritton Ltd (Tritton’s).[12]

During World War II (WWII) several large military training camps, collectively known as Camp Strathpine, were situated in the Petrie district. Both US troops and Australian troops were accommodated at the camps at various times throughout the war. The North Pine Presbyterian Church congregation welcomed servicemen attending church services and provided supper on Sundays following the evening service.[13]

In October 1983, the congregation celebrated its centenary and the event was attended by more than 200 people. One year later a new brick church was constructed beside the original one.[14] The WWI Honour Board was transferred to the new church at this time. The 1884 church was subsequently relocated in 1985 to a new site in nearby Whiteside for the establishment of North Pine Country Park (in 2020 known as Old Petrie Town), a historical village tourist attraction. Operated by the Pine Rivers Shire Council, it included other old buildings moved onto the site.

In 2020, the church remains consecrated and is used for interdenominational services and weddings.[15] As the oldest remaining church in the district, the former North Pine Presbyterian Church has been an important spiritual and community centre since 1884.

Description

The former North Pine Presbyterian Church is a small, timber-framed church located in the historical village tourist attraction ‘Old Petrie Town’ in Whiteside, a suburb near Petrie. It stands in a prominent position surrounded by open lawns with its entry facing approximately north to a large grassed ‘village green’.

The church is lowset and has a steep gable roof over the main body, a small gable roofed front porch, and a lower skillion roof over an attached rear vestry (likely an extension made in 1887). The vestry has a floor level one step higher than the nave.

The church’s main body and porch are of single-skin construction with framing exposed externally, stop chamfering on corner studs, and diagonal bracing toward the building corners. The rear vestry is clad externally with weatherboards.

Features of the church of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• lowset form comprising rectangular main body with attached front porch and rear vestry
• open space on all sides providing an attractive setting and facilitating abundant natural light and ventilation of the interior
• symmetrical composition of front elevation and internal layout
• open understorey with no perimeter enclosures
• timber-framed single-skin construction of porch and main body; weatherboard cladding of vestry and apex of main body’s rear gable; panel of fixed timber louvres on the front and rear gable apexes of the main body, ventilating the roof space
• gable roofs (porch and main body) and skillion roof (vestry) clad with corrugated metal sheets; unlined eaves
• front porch
  • access on both sides via short timber stairs (stairs are later replacements of slightly longer stairs)
  • pointed arch openings in both side walls
  • unpainted timber board floor (shot-edge)
  • walls lined with vertically-fixed, beaded timber boards
  • unlined ceiling
  • timber former pew adapted and fixed to porch wall to form a bench seat
  • lambs-tongue-profile timber skirting boards (skirting board stops to fit around bench seat, indicating the board may post-date the pew)
• main body, comprising a single rectangular room (nave) with an altar at the far (south) end
  • front doors – low-waisted, timber-framed double doors with bolection moulding; early metal hardware (James Carpenter brand No 60 rim lock with matching strike plate, pressed metal ball knobs, an iron bolt, and hinges); flat timber board architraves
  • floor lined with wide, oiled tongue-and-groove timber boards
  • walls lined with vertically-fixed beaded tongue-and-groove timber boards
  • coved ceiling lined with wide, edge-and-centre beaded tongue-and-groove timber boards; two decorative, pressed metal ventilation panels in ceiling
  • timber joinery – lambs-tongue-profile skirting boards; moulded chair rails; simple round cornice beads
  • timber-framed lancet windows in front and side walls with colonial hung sashes and simple timber sills and architraves, early ceramic and brass catches, and early decorative transparent paint finish on the interior side of the glass
  • group of three lancet windows positioned centrally on the rear (altar) wall of the nave into the vestry behind and the evidence the pulpit originally stood in front of this window (the skirting board below this window is cut to accommodate the pulpit, which has been removed from this position)
• vestry
  • timber-framed door lined with beaded timber boards from the nave into the vestry behind; pressed metal ball knob from a removed rim lock, with the lock’s location evident as an unpainted area and a strike plate notch in the timber door frame
  • floor lined with unpainted timber boards (tongue-and-groove)
  • rear exit door from vestry with early timber-framed, braced-and-ledged door, lined with beaded timber boards; rear timber stair (stair is a later replacement of a shorter stair)
  • timber-framed double-hung window
• furniture – large silky oak pulpit, decoratively worked and clear-finished, with one (of an original two) small timber stair up to its dais; early dark-stained, clear-finished timber cabinet (wall-mounted in the northeast corner of the nave); early dark-stained, clear-finished timber organ and matching timber organist stool (nave); early dark-stained, clear-finished timber pew (vestry)

Features not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• front and rear stairs and their balustrades (locations of stairs is significant)
• understorey stumps
• water goods including roof sheets, gutters, downpipes, and flashings
• flat sheet and cover strips lining the vestry walls and ceiling
• all other pews not mentioned above
• later door and window hardware not mentioned above
• all other furniture and cabinetry not mentioned above including altar, lectern, psalm boards, crosses, hangings, clock, cupboards, chairs, tables, and vestry kitchen and cabinets
• electrical fixtures and fittings including lights, fans, projector, and cables
• landscaping, lawn, garden beds, vegetation, signs, roads, and paths

References

[1] Queensland Government, Map 1, South East Queensland’s Traditional Owner Groups, August 2017.
[2] QHR 602841, Petrie State School, Department of Environment and Science; also spelled ‘Redcliff Agricultural Reserve’ in 1862.
[3] Upper North Pine Presbyterian Church Centenary, 1873-1973, Moreton Bay Regional Council Library, Local History Collection, p.1; The Presbyterian Church of Queensland, Pine Rivers Charge, Centenary 1883-1983, pp.3-4; ‘New Presbyterian Church, North Pine’, The Queenslander, 12 July 1873, p.2.
[4] The Presbyterian Church of Queensland,  Pine Rivers Charge, Centenary 1883-1983, p.6; Lawrence S Smith Ed., Tracks and Times, A History of the Pine Rivers District, Pine Rivers Shire Council, 1988, p.202.
[5] ‘North Pine River’, The Queenslander, 8 December 1883, p.912.
[6] Photograph, North Pine Historical Society <northpinehistorical.com.au/self-guided-tour/site-30/> accessed September 2019.
[7] QHR 600001, St Georges Anglican Church, Department of Environment and Science.
[8] The Presbyterian Church of Queensland Pine Rivers Charge, Centenary 1883-1983, 1983, pp.7-10.
[9] ‘North Pine River’, Moreton Mail, 29 May 1886, p.5; ‘North Pine Presbyterian Church’, Moreton Mail, 16 August 1889, p.8; ‘Pine Personalities’, The Telegraph, 12 December 1891, p.2; ‘Temperance’, The Telegraph, 7 January 1893, p.2.
[10] The Presbyterian Church of Queensland Pine Rivers Charge, Centenary 1883-1983, 1983, pp.7-10; ‘Death of Mr.T.Petrie’, The Telegraph, 27 August 1910, p.6; ‘North Pine Station’, The Telegraph, 7 July 1911, p.5.
[11] ‘Fete at Petrie’, The Brisbane Courier, 10 May 1928, p.23; Dimity Dornan and Denis Cryle, The Petrie Family, Building Colonial Brisbane, University of Queensland Press, 1992, p.109; In 1951 the Catholic Church purchased the Murrumba Homestead and subsequently demolished it. A new building was constructed on the site and it was reported the cedar doors from Murrumba Homestead were used in this new building; Sunday Mail, 6 January 1952, p.15.
[12] ‘Honour Board Unveiled’, The Brisbane Courier, 15 June 1916, p.7; ‘F Tritton’s Furniture Warehouse’, Queensland Country Life, 1 August 1903, p.21.
[13] Queensland Government, ‘Camp Strathpine’, Queensland WWII Historic Places < ww2places.qld.gov.au/place?id=2061> accessed October 2029; The Presbyterian Church of Queensland Pine Rivers Charge, Centenary 1883-1983, 1983, pp.17-18
[14] The Presbyterian Church of Queensland Pine Rivers Charge, Centenary 1883-1983, 1983, p.15.
[15] ‘Come to North Pine Country Park’, Sunday Mail, 4 June 1985, pp.30-31.

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