Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church

General

Also known as

St Luke’s Presbyterian Church

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

9 September 2022

Type

Religion/worship: Church

Theme

8.1 Creating social and cultural institutions: Worshipping and religious institutions

Architect

Gibson, James William

Construction period

1966, Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church

Historical period

1940s–1960s Post-WWII

Style

Modernism

Location

Address

64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights

LGA

Brisbane City Council

Coordinates

-27.39229737, 153.04617973

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Significance

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

Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church (1966), a highly intact Modernist-style church in a suburban setting, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Presbyterian Church architecture in Queensland during the post-World War II (WWII) period. By the late 1960s, Presbyterian Church architecture in Queensland featured cohesive design responses to the renewal of worship practices. The place is one of the earliest products of this movement and a good representative example of these design responses, as demonstrated in its built form, detailing, and layout.

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

Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a post-WWII Modernist church in Queensland. Architect-designed and highly intact, this importance is evident in its: all-encompassing and unified Modernist aesthetic; restrained materials palette; traditional Christian spaces (nave, sanctuary, lobby), and motifs (coloured and leadlight glass, steeple) presented in non-traditional forms and layouts (low, folded roof form; pentagonal plan form; and broad, modestly-scaled nave with gathered layout); and original furniture (red cedar pews, pulpit, communion table, hymn book cupboards, and noticeboard).

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

Retaining a high degree of intactness and integrity, Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church has aesthetic significance for its beautiful and expressive attributes, which are derived from its architectural design qualities. These attributes express renewed worship practices of the Presbyterian Church and include an all-encompassing and cohesive Modernist style; distinctive form; scale sympathetic to a suburban setting; symmetry; restrained materials palette; minimal use of decoration; and manipulation of light with amber coloured glass illuminating the nave, the roof lantern permitting a central light from above, and placement of artificial lighting.

Criterion HThe place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland’s history.

Architect James (Jim) William Gibson (1932-2018) is a person of importance in Queensland’s history. As a key advocate for the incorporation of the renewal of worship practices into Protestant church designs, Gibson had a notable role in the evolution of post-WWII Modernist church design in Queensland.

Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church has a special association with Gibson, as its built form, detailing, and layout represents the culmination of his ideas and, as a result, the place is an important example of the architectural principles he advocated.

History

Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church (1966), in Wavell Heights, Brisbane, is a pentagonal brick church set within a church complex with mature trees. Built in a post-war suburb, the Modernist-style church resulted from the Presbyterian Church’s post-war building program, and its desire to remain relevant to contemporary society. Its plan, lighting, and furniture arrangement were designed to give the congregation a sense of community and involvement in the service, through gathered worship.

Wavell Heights, part of the traditional land of the Turrbul people, is located west of Sandgate Road, north of Kedron Brook. Prior to the 1940s, most of the area was characterised by dairy farming and pineapple growing, although by 1917 there were some residential subdivisions. The area was known as West Nundah until a public poll in July 1941 selected the name Wavell Heights, after the British General (later Field Marshall) Archibald Percival Wavell.[1] The suburb grew rapidly in the immediate post-World War II (WWII) era. Undeveloped land in Wavell Heights and neighbouring Chermside was acquired by the Queensland Housing Commission, on which by August 1947 it planned to build 450 houses. At the time, it was the Commission’s largest housing project, and it increased the population of Wavell Heights substantially.[2] The Wavell Heights Neighbourhood Society was formed in 1947, and later established a community centre on Edinburgh Castle Road. A non-official post office opened on 4 December 1950,[3] and three schools, including a high school, opened in the late 1940s and 1950s.[4] Although the suburb possessed several churches established in the 1930s, post-WWII growth resulted in a timber Presbyterian church hall being opened on Spence Road in 1952.[5]

The Presbyterian Church and the site at Wavell Heights

The first Presbyterian congregation in Queensland had formed in 1849, and the first Presbyterian Church opened on Grey Street, South Brisbane, in 1851. Other Presbyterian churches opened in newly settled areas of Queensland, and in 1863 Queensland’s Presbyterian congregations combined into a Synod and the Presbyterian Church of Queensland (PCQ) was formed.[6] By 1954, the top four Christian denominations in the Metropolitan area of Brisbane were: the Church of England (34.33% of the population); followed by Catholic (24.35%); Presbyterian (10.74%); and Methodist (10.57%). Presbyterians also made up 11.7% of Queensland’s population at this time.[7]

Presbyterian congregations in Queensland were formed into charges, under a minister, and a charge could include one or more church congregations. Before a fully sanctioned charge was formed, ‘Home Mission’ charges could be established by Home Missionaries.[8] The Nundah Charge, which later covered Wavell Heights, held its first service in January 1932, and was a fully sanctioned charge by the end of 1935.[9]

The Spence Road site of the 1952 Presbyterian church was part of a 10 acre 30 perch (4.1ha) undeveloped block that had been acquired by the PCQ for £4,500 in 1947. The site was originally intended to become an auxiliary hospital, connected to the planned St Andrews War Memorial Hospital in central Brisbane, but despite a cairn of remembrance being dedicated on the Wavell Heights site in September 1949, the auxiliary hospital did not proceed, and most of the land was subdivided for housing in 1972.[10]

The auxiliary hospital plan had included a church, hall, and manse (house for a Presbyterian minister) in the northeast corner of the 4ha site, and this aspect of the project did proceed.[11] The first meeting to form a Presbyterian congregation at Wavell Heights, chaired by the Reverend RJE Martin (then Minister of the Nundah Charge) was called by the Nundah Presbyterian Session on 27 January 1949. The use of one acre (4,047m2) of the hospital site for the Wavell Heights church buildings was later obtained from the Medical and Social Services Committee of the PCQ.[12]

The growth of Queensland’s churches and the influence of Modernism, 1950s-60s

The decision to build a Presbyterian church at Wavell Heights was part of wider trends in Brisbane during the 1950s-60s. The 1950s were a prosperous time in Queensland, with low unemployment and a growing sense of optimism. There was also renewed religiosity across most denominations throughout Queensland.[13] In addition, the population of metropolitan Brisbane grew by 36% between 1950 and 1960, and new housing estates and new suburbs developed. There was a rapid increase in housing density to the west, south, and east of the intended Wavell Heights hospital site between 1946 and 1951, and to the north by 1958.[14] The number of Presbyterian communicants in Brisbane also increased by 54% between 1947 and 1961, from 5351 to 8247; while Presbyterian Sunday School enrolments more than doubled in the same period, from 4201 to 9155.[15]

This increase in communicants was accompanied by a marked improvement in church finances. In Brisbane, the total income of Presbyterian parishes rose from £96,000 in 1954 to £230,000 in 1960.[16] The financial position and building programme of the Wavell Heights congregation during the 1950s was assisted by the principle of ‘stewardship’, or regular donations by churchgoers – and the PCQ had set up its own Committee on Stewardship by the late 1950s.[17]

The growth in Brisbane’s population, church attendance, and improved church finances resulted in the construction of new churches in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1950 it was reported that ‘as Brisbane continues to expand rapidly in all directions, more churches, halls and Sunday schools are being built or planned to cope with the growing population’, and that a £1,000,000 building programme was planned by Brisbane religious denominations.[18] By the late 1950s, ambitious building programmes were resulting in new churches, halls, and houses for ministers in new suburbs, while older timber churches in established suburbs were replaced with brick churches.[19] During the 1950s at least 178 new church buildings opened in Brisbane, followed by at least 160 in the 1960s. The rate of church construction in Brisbane declined after 1964, along with membership in Christian churches.[20]

The 1950s was also a period of substantial change within Christian denominations throughout Australia, as they sought to remain relevant to modern society. Coupled with their expansionary building program, this led to a radical departure from established architectural traditions. Reflecting international trends, church designs moved away from historical revival styles and became increasingly influenced by Modernism.[21] However, it was still expected that a church would be recognisable as such, resulting in a wide range of variations combining traditional church elements, symbols, and functions with new construction techniques, materials, and forms.[22] As the 1950s progressed, traditional church building forms adopted further Modernist features, such as modern brick and metal details, and shallower roof pitches, while retaining traditional spaces, configurations, and motifs. These trends continued into the 1960s, with new roof forms and plan shapes.[23]

The Presbyterian building program at Wavell Heights

The Wavell Heights congregation did not immediately commission a Modernist brick church. The first building erected on their land facing Spence Road was a timber ‘church hall’ (church). The stump-capping ceremony was held on 5 May 1951, but due to building delays the first service was not held until 11 May 1952, and the church hall was officially opened and dedicated on 31 August 1952. The Sunday School which was established in the church hall in June 1952 proved popular, and a second timber building, a Kindergarten (Junior Sunday School) hall, was constructed behind the church hall, with volunteer labour from the congregation, and dedicated on 18 March 1956. By 1957 there were 341 children in the Sunday School, with a teaching staff of 31, and around 200 families were affiliated with the church.[24] Wavell Heights soon became its own fully sanctioned charge, St Luke's Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, in October 1959, with its own minister.[25]

Further church buildings were added. A manse was completed, on a separate lot south of the church hall, in October 1959. The manse was designed by local architect Ray Smith, who in March 1957 had been appointed ‘Advising Architect’ to the Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church.[26]

A new brick church followed in the 1960s, although construction was delayed due to issues of design and budget, and changes of architect. Sketch plans for a multi-purpose building were presented in October 1961 by Ray Smith, with an estimate of £18,000,[27] but this idea had been abandoned by September 1962. Smith was then asked to design a new church building, with a budget of £20,000,[28] and plans for a brick building with two levels were submitted in November 1962 with an estimate of £22,000.[29] Tenders for this closed on 20 December 1963, with the lowest being £36,621.[30] A new design was consequently sought, and the firm of Cross and Bain was appointed on 4 November 1964, with James (Jim) William Gibson (1932-2018), who had joined the firm in 1956, nominated as project architect.[31]

James Gibson, church design, and the renewal of worship practices

While working for Cross and Bain, Gibson designed almost 20 Queensland church buildings (plus other unbuilt schemes) between 1957-77. These were mainly in Brisbane, for the Presbyterians, Church of England and Methodists.[32] An inaugural member of the Queensland Presbyterian Assembly Architectural Committee (1963-77), and its convenor for much of this time, Gibson advocated changes to church design within Queensland’s Presbyterian and Methodist churches. He was also well known within both churches, attending and speaking at events, and was involved in merger discussions prior to the formation of the Uniting Church of Australia in 1977, even designing the logo for the new organisation. In 1977 he became a member of the Uniting Church Architectural Advisory Panel.[33]

In 1967 he prepared the book ‘Except the LORD Build’, a manual of building for Presbyterian congregations for the Australian Presbyterian Church. Gibson's manual was approved by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland in May 1967.[34] Through this manual it was hoped that ‘the community may realise that the design of Presbyterian buildings is motivated by Christian purpose and that Presbyterian places of worship and activity stand as silent witness to the faith we profess’.[35] It stated that the design of a church should be based on how the congregation worshipped, and their preferred locational arrangement of the choir and furnishings (font, pulpit, communion table, pews), rather than adopting traditional church forms (i.e., a rectangular nave), and trying to insert all the functions of worship. The manual also asserted that a church should utilise modern materials, methods of construction, and design techniques, ‘simple in concept but capable of having an impact on the community’.[36]

Gibson also believed that the interior design of a church should reflect 20th century reformist principles and worship practices, and he adopted contemporary ideas for gathered worship spaces, with the congregation closer to the minister than in traditional church plans. The aims of the liturgical renewal movement in the Catholic Church, which promoted a closer relationship between clergy and laity, and more congregational involvement in the liturgy (ritual of public worship), were largely implemented at the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Vatican II) of the Catholic Church (final session 1965), and had an effect on Catholic Church architecture; while reformist principles were also reflected in the changing architecture of Protestant churches.[37]

To facilitate gathered worship, the 1967 book advocated Presbyterian church designs with no barriers between the minister and congregation, and that people should also be involved in the service and ‘close to the centre of the action’, no further than ‘five or six pews’ from the minister. As the Sacraments were of equal importance to the Word, the communion table and pulpit should also be close together, with the font nearby, while the choir and organ should be closer to the congregation, such as near the entrance. Gibson believed that once an internal arrangement of furniture which enabled the congregation to be more involved and closer to the minister was decided, then new external shapes for churches could emerge, with more equal (less rectangular) dimensions.[38]

The design of the new church at Wavell Heights, besides being illustrated in ‘Except the LORD Build’, closely followed the principles Gibson promoted, and reflected the progression of his designs. It successfully combined a number of his ideas,[39] including adapting international designs for the local climate, and his approach to contemporary church design and worship practices, such as concepts of gathered worship, equality of the Sacraments and Word, and association of the choir with the congregation.

In 1965 Cross and Bain’s design by Gibson was approved, working drawings prepared, and tenders called. The lowest tender of £15,488 ($30,976), from Macquarie Constructions, was accepted.[40] Construction commenced in early 1966, but work halted when the builder ran into financial difficulties and a liquidator was appointed on 5 April. On 6 May 1966 the second lowest tenderer, Thomas & Provan, was awarded the contract to complete the building, for $32,990.[41] To make room for the new church, the 1952 church hall was relocated northwards and its understorey enclosed with brick, to provide accommodation for the Sunday School Kindergarten, while the 1956 Kindergarten hall remained in its original location.[42] 

The new church, a one-storey structure, was set back from the street, aligning with its neighbouring residences, which reflected a shift in suburban church architecture in Queensland towards designing buildings that were more similar to residences in materials and scale.[43] In accordance with the principles of renewed worship practices, the building’s pentagonal plan was topped with a folded roof and ceiling to create an inclusive worship space. The rows of pews were set to either side of the sanctuary, rather than directly in front of it. A narrow spire with a skylight at its base was placed centrally over the baptismal font, which was positioned in the centre of the nave, between the sets of pews. Careful attention was paid to natural and artificial light so that more prominence was not given to the sanctuary rather than the congregation that gathered around it. Glazing consisted of deep amber glass set in black steel window frames, and the organ and choir were located opposite the sanctuary and adjacent to an enclosed entrance porch, separated from it by a screen of random-patterned, coloured glass. The pulpit and the communion table were placed side by side, on a common marble base, to reflect their equality within Presbyterian worship.[44] The red cedar (Toona ciliata var. australis) furniture was custom-designed designed by Gibson and made in nearby Northgate by Maunsell’s.[45]

The evolution of Presbyterian ecclesiastical architecture in post-WWII Queensland

A number of plan shapes were used in the 1960s by church designers to facilitate renewed worship practices and particularly to create a sense of gathered worship. As an example of this evolution in plan shapes, Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church marked a distinct shift in Presbyterian Church design.[46] More than 40 churches were opened by the PCQ between 1950 and 1977, when the Uniting Church was formed. Of these, 16 were opened in the 1950s, 22 in the 1960s, and only 3 opened in the 1970s. Those from the 1950s typically had historical architecture with some modern influences (Coorparoo Presbyterian Church, 1951) with further simplifying of historical features in the second half of the decade as demonstrated by Roma Presbyterian Church (1955). Churches like Wynnum Presbyterian Church (1959) marked a change to churches becoming modern in styling; however, they retained their traditional spaces, configurations and motifs in simplified forms, and this trend continued in to the 1960s with other examples like Stanthorpe Presbyterian Church (1963) and Holland Park Presbyterian Church (1965). Other Presbyterian churches in the 1960s experimented with more distinctive and modern forms (St Andrew’s Presbyterian Memorial Church Innisfail, 1960 [QHR 602332], and St Andrews Presbyterian Church Mount Isa, 1960). Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church (opened 19 November 1966) and Stafford Presbyterian Church (opened 1 October 1966)[47] marked another change in Presbyterian Church architecture, being the first two Presbyterian churches in Queensland to include broad naves with seating gathered closer to the minister in response to renewal of worship practices. The church at Stafford included seating on three sides of the minister.[48] However, the architecture of Stafford Presbyterian Church was simpler than at Wavell Heights; it had a square plan form without features like large windows of coloured glass or a folded roof form, and it also did not receive the same degree of publication in the periodical Australian Presbyterian Life. These concepts of responding to renewed worship practices were further developed throughout the remainder of the 1960s (Kenmore Uniting Church, 1968; St George Presbyterian church, 1968) and into the 1970s (Weller’s Hill Presbyterian Church, 1970).[49]

The new church at Wavell Heights

Construction was completed early in November 1966 and the new church was dedicated on the afternoon of Saturday 19 November, while the interior furnishings were dedicated the following morning. It was reported that a ‘five-sided church whose unusual features do not end with its exterior appearance had its two-stage blessing completed yesterday morning’.[50] Notable features included the proximity of the congregation to the pulpit and communion table, with no single person ‘more than five seats away’ from either (there were four blocks of six rows of pews), and the church’s feeling of ‘togetherness’ and its family atmosphere. The interior was ‘bathed in a golden light, from amber panes of glass’, and the red cedar furnishings ‘were chosen to augment the effect’.[51]

The church was built and furnished for approximately $55,000 ($36,000 plus furniture), the majority of the cost met by a £20,000 ($40,000) loan from the Bank of NSW, which was eventually repaid from congregational offerings.[52]

The new church received three mentions in Australian Presbyterian Life in 1966-7.[53] In June 1967, the periodical noted: ‘all commented favourably on the “gathered around” seating arrangement [...] to conduct worship in this building, or to be one of the other worshippers in the service, is to begin to understand what it is to belong in a community – the beloved community of Christ’s people.’[54]

In 2022, only minor changes have been made to the church since its completion. These have included the addition of air-conditioning, the addition of aluminium-framed glazed doors between the porch and nave to facilitate this, and replacement of original carpet with new carpet. In 2020, a new freestanding universal access toilet was added at the southwest corner of the church, replacing a pergola. Stormwater pits were removed from the southern side of the building, replaced by a new full-width concrete path laid in 2015. In 2013 the marble-clad base of the font was replaced with timber, and made portable, and in 2020 the marble-clad common base of the pulpit and communion table was replaced with separate steel frames, although the pulpit and table remain adjacent. Some of the original timber pews have been removed for storage in the 1952 church.

In 2022 Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church has remained in continuous use for its original purpose as a place of worship, and as a venue for baptisms, weddings and funerals, with the construction cost of the church long since repaid by weekly offerings from the congregation. A Korean Presbyterian Church, the Brisbane Logos Mission Church, also worships in the 1966 church.

Description

Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church (1966) is situated in the suburb of Wavell Heights about 10km north of the Brisbane CBD. The church stands facing (east) to Spence Road set back from the road behind an open yard, a hall is located to its north (1952) and another hall to its west (1956). Both halls are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

Designed in a bold Modernist architectural style, the church is highly intact. The church is a single storey slab-on-ground building with a symmetrical pentagonal plan form. It has a low, folded metal-clad roof form with a tall, narrow spire at its centre. The roof appears to float above the low face brick walls of the church, the opening between wall and roof filled with glazing. The roof line extends over a crescent driveway sheltering the main entrance and forming a porte-cochere.

The entry of the church features a floor to ceiling glazed wall with two large double doors. Brick paving matching the colouring of the church’s walls continues from the driveway and into the entry porch. The porch is divided from the nave of the church by a wide screen of coloured leadlight glazing with an entry to the nave either side. Inside, the nave is broad and modest in scale, its ceiling is pale and folded with a skylight lantern at its centre, the base of the spire. a choir alcove is nested at the centre of the eastern end of the nave and carpeted aisles lead to a raised sanctuary at the far (western) end with seating areas either side of these. All glazing to the nave is amber coloured and fills the space with golden light, the lantern at the centre of the ceiling also casts a spotlight. A door either side of the rear wall of the nave open to separate rear rooms - the committee room (south) and vestry and flower room (north). The south-western and north-western corners of the building both have small courtyards sheltered by timber pergolas.

The church retains many of its original fittings and furnishings including original red cedar joinery (pews, planter boxes, and cabinets), downlights and pendant lights. Although slightly altered, the original pulpit, communion table, baptismal font (all removed from their fixed bases), hymn book cupboard (Umbrella stand removed), and memorial and notice board (notice board side shortened) remain in the church.

The church is very intact with only minor alterations and additions including: the addition of a toilet to the southwest courtyard, addition of aluminium frame doors between the lobby and nave and new floor finishes to the nave, vestry and committee room.

Features of Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• domestic scale
• pentagonal plan form consisting of covered entry, porch, church, committee room, vestry, flower preparation room and rear courtyards.
• folded roof form
• rib and pan-profile metal roof sheet cladding
• central spire, with lantern to base featuring amber-coloured glazing
• timber pergola to northwest courtyard
• metal frame construction, welded steel columns exposed to interior
• face brick external and internal walls
• folded and raked sheet lined ceilings throughout
• floor to ceiling steel frame glazing to front entrance with matching glazed double-doors
• metal-framed floor to ceiling and gable infill glazing with amber-coloured glass and awning windows
• timber framed partition between nave and porch with its leadlight glazing and metal framed sliding sash with clear glazing
• original door and window hardware
• original light fittings including downlights throughout covered entry, porch and nave; pendant lights in committee room and vestry
• timber flush panel doors throughout including original door hardware and sheet lined infill above
• brick paved floors to porch and choir stall at eastern end of nave
• carpeted floors to aisles of nave, chancel, vestry, and committee room (all carpets are modern replacements)
• original basin to vestry
• sink and cabinets to flower preparation room
• original sheet-metal gutters and rainwater heads draining to stormwater pits and gravel stormwater drains
• original red cedar furniture and fittings including: pews (some removed but retained on site), hymn book cupboards, noticeboard, pulpit and communion table (not on original base or original configuration), baptismal font (not on original base), planter boxes either side of sanctuary
• crescent driveway passing through covered entry with brick paved surface
• garden bed under covered entry
• concrete stair and path with metal tube railing along northern side
• concrete stair and brick retaining wall to the northwest corner
• open space surrounding church and lawn garden to eastern (front) yard
• brick garden bed with concrete bench seat, timber cross and original frame for church sign (modern sign (2018) attached to frame is not original)
• mature gum tree in eastern yard

Features of Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church not considered to be of State-level cultural heritage significance include:

• modern timber cross fixed to back wall of chancel
• audio-visual equipment including projector, display, and speakers
• air conditioning
• wall mounted electric fans
• light fitting in central lantern
• flat sheet infill (2015) over doorway between committee room and nave
• metal sheet lining in areas of the ceiling in vestry and committee room
• non-original freestanding toilet cubicle in southwest courtyard (2020)
• non-original concrete floor to southwest courtyard (2020)
• solid infill panels to vestry and committee room windows for air conditioner (original glazed panels are stored on-site and are of state-level cultural heritage significance)
• aluminium framed glazed doors between porch and nave
• side of western hall within heritage boundary (1956)
• part of northern hall within heritage boundary (1952)
• basketball court (2015)
• playground (c2011)
• concrete path and drain to southern side (2015)
• modern sheet metal downpipes
• concrete block wall and metal fence to southern side (2015)
• eastern side of drive: tiled section (c1970s-80s), concrete kerb (c1990s), bitumen hardstand area (2013) and timber bollards (2014)
• large trees in playground (south) and northeast of church.

References

[1] 8 chain map, Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, sheet 24, 1917; ‘Tram extensions. Kedron requests’, Daily Mail, 8 October 1924, p.6 (West Nundah Progress Association); Department of Resources, aerial photographs ADA00085586 and ADA00085587, 20 April 1936; 'Wavell Heights tops suburban name poll’ Courier Mail, 18 July 1941, p.9; QHR 650067 ‘Wavell State High School’; ‘Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Wavell,_1st_Earl_Wavell  (accessed 12 January 2022). Wavell was the British Commander-in-Chief, Middle East from February 1940 until July 1941. Wavell Heights was formally christened at a concert at the Imperial Theatre in Nundah in October 1941 (Brisbane City Council Local Heritage Register, ‘Hamlin's Nursery Residence, 35 Odonnell Street, Wavell Heights’). Other naming options had included ‘Beverley Heights’ or ‘Inala (‘Renaming West Nundah’, Courier Mail, 5 December 1940, p.4; ‘Inala new name for W. Nundah’, Sunday Mail, 15 December 1940, p.5).
[2] QHR 650067 ‘Wavell State High School’; ‘Model planning in estate in Chermside’, Courier Mail, 24 May 1947, p.5; ‘Housing Aim at Wavell Heights’ Courier Mail, 16 August 1947, p.1; ‘Homes for hundreds’, Courier Mail, 25 August 1947, p.5.
[3] The unofficial PO was in the premises of Mr CB Grace at the corner of Rode Road and Pfingst Road (National Archives of Australia, Item 5052226, ‘Post Office history file -Wavell Heights’ (including newspaper clipping ‘It’s as much a club as a suburb’, Telegraph, 24 January 1970, p.8)).
[4] Queensland Places, “Wavell Heights”, University of Queensland,

http://www.queenslandplaces.com.au/wavell-heights (accessed11 January 2022); QHR 650067 ‘Wavell State High School’.
[5] 1930s churches in the area included the Nundah Presbyterian Church (Gateway Presbyterian Church in 2022), (1932); West Nundah Methodist Church (Wavell Heights Uniting Church in 2022) (1938); the Catholic Church of St Pascal Baylon (1937); and the Holy Spirit Anglican Church (1904-6 building relocated in 1936).
[6] In 1865 three Presbyteries (covering multiple congregations) were formed: Brisbane (including Ipswich); Toowoomba (including Warwick); and Rockhampton (including Maryborough). The Presbytery of Maryborough was formed in 1870; Townsville in 1886; and Mackay in 1948. A union of Presbyterian Churches formed the Presbyterian Church of Australia in 1901 (R Bardon, The Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, Brisbane, Presbyterian Church of Queensland, 1949, pp.9, 19-33; QHR 600071, ‘Ann Street Presbyterian Church’).
[7] D Hilliard, ‘A Church on Every Hill: Religion in Brisbane in the 1950s’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, vol.14, no.6, 1991, p.243; ‘Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, 30th June 1954’, Volume III, Part I, pp. 102-3, 124-5. In 1977 the Uniting Church in Australia was formed from most members of the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational denominations, although a third of Presbyterian congregations remained in the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
[8] The expansion of Presbyterian charges in Queensland was mainly due to the Home Mission enterprise, which relied on missionaries and money sent from the Home Churches in Scotland and Ireland. Bardon, The Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, pp.139-40, 147-8.
[9] Bardon, The Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, p.246.
[10] ‘Wavell Heights land purchase’, The Telegraph (Brisbane), 30 April 1947, p.10 (purchased for £4,500); Resources, Certificate of Title 11794227, December 1929 (10 acres and 30 roods of portion 584 transferred to the Presbyterian Church of Queensland in October 1948); Resources, aerial BCC000134771, 31 May 1946; ‘Presbyterian Hospital’, Queensland Times (Ipswich), 16 May 1949, p.1; ‘Aid for old in modern design’, Courier Mail, 5 September 1949, p.4; ‘Hospital to be for all’, Sunday Mail, 11 September 1949, p.3; ‘B’Bane Hospital with Country appeal’, Queensland Country Life, 9 April 1953, p.24; Resources, COT 13943155, 7 October 1966 (1972 subdivision). The cairn of remembrance (not extant) was unveiled on 10 September 1949 (‘Aid for old in modern design’, Courier Mail, 5 September 1949, p.4; ‘Replica of cross on hospital site’, Brisbane Telegraph, 8 September 1949, p.10; ‘Hospital to be for all’, Sunday Mail, 11 September 1949, p.3). The St Andrews War Memorial Hospital was eventually established in 1958 in the former Emmanuel College on Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill (QHR 602170 ‘St Andrews War Memorial Hospital Administration Building’).
[11] ‘Aid for old in modern design’, Courier Mail, 5 September 1949, p.4.
[12] ‘Church Progress Campaign, Presbyterian Church, Wavell Heights Q’, booklet c.1957; Bardon, The Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, p.246 (Rev Martin Minister at Nundah from 1942).
[13] QHR 650239 ‘Wilston Methodist Memorial Church (former)’.
[14] ‘Brisbane, Australia Metro Area Population 1950-2022’,

 https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/206170/brisbane/population (accessed 2 February 2022). Brisbane’s population grew from 442,000 in 1950 to 603,000 in 1960; Resources, aerial photographs BCC000134771, 31 May 1946; BCC000439261, 21 August 1951; and QAP0733013, 17 April 1958.
[15] Between 1961 and 1966, the number of adult Presbyterian communicants rose 18%; while Sunday School attendance dropped 1.5% (Hilliard, ‘A Church on Every Hill: Religion in Brisbane in the 1950s’, p.257).
[16] Hilliard, ‘A Church on Every Hill: Religion in Brisbane in the 1950s’, p.257.
[17] It was stated during the Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church’s Church Progress Campaign that ‘Christian stewardship is the practice of the Christian religion, namely – systematic and proportionate giving of time, talents and material possessions, based on the conviction that they are a trust from God’ (‘Church Progress Campaign, Presbyterian Church, Wavell Heights Q’, booklet c.1957, p.3). In 1955 the American-based fund-raising firm, the Wells Organisation, had extended its operations to Queensland, with 'planned giving' and 'stewardship' being the new catchwords (Hilliard, ‘A Church on Every Hill: Religion in Brisbane in the 1950s’, p.256).
[18] ‘Big church schemes. Plans based on more people, greater interest’, Sunday Mail, 15 October 1950, p.6. Planned Presbyterian buildings included church halls at Alderley, Holland Park, Wavell Heights, Seven Hills, with a Kindergarten hall at Kalinga. A new brick church at Coorparoo was well advanced; and tenders had been called for a new brick church at South Brisbane. During the post-war years (1945-1977) over 1350 church-buildings were built in Queensland, with over 366 built from 1955-9 (Lisa Marie Daunt, ‘Communities of Faith: Modern church architecture in Queensland 1945-1977,’ unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Queensland, 4 March 2021, p. 3, and LM Daunt, doctoral research “Queensland dataset”, unpublished, 2020, cited in LM Daunt, submission in support of entry of 650270 Wavell Heights (St Luke’s) Presbyterian Church in the QHR, 14 January 2022).
[19] Hilliard, ‘A Church on Every Hill: Religion in Brisbane in the 1950s’, p.257.
[20] Of the new 1950s church buildings, 34 were Church of England (now Anglican); 33 Catholic; 24 Methodist; 24 Presbyterian; and at least 63 by the other denominations. Of the 1960s buildings, 26 were Church of England (now Anglican), 45 Catholic, 13 Methodist, 20 Presbyterian and at least 63 by the other denominations (LM Daunt, October 2021, collated from “Queensland dataset”. Presbyterian Church building opening years compiled with reference to material held in the Queensland Presbyterian Church Archive (Milton, assisted by Dianne Parker and Lynda Rackley) and various other sources, cited in ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights. A Nomination for Entry to the Queensland Heritage Register’, Andrew Ladlay Architect, November 2021; Daunt, ‘Communities of Faith’ p.9 (decline in church building and church attendance after 1964), cited by Daunt, submission in support of entry of 650270 Wavell Heights (St Luke’s) Presbyterian Church in the QHR, 14 January 2022.
[21] H Gregory and G Pini, ‘Religious Places in Queensland: An Historical Context Study – a report for the Queensland Heritage Council’, Cultural Heritage Strategies, Brisbane, Dec 2003, p.11, cited in QHR 650239 ‘Wilston Methodist Memorial Church (former)’. Modernism had emerged as a movement in architecture in Europe in the 1920s and would become the most important new style or philosophy of architecture and design in the 20th century. It embraced the ideals of Functionalism, new technologies and the rejection of ornament in an endeavour to create new and appropriate architectural solutions that reflected the social conditions of the time (QHR 650017 ‘First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane’, cited in QHR 650239 ‘Wilston Methodist Memorial Church (former)’). In Queensland, modernist ideas had begun to be adopted for ecclesiastical architecture in the late 1930s and early 1940s, including The Shepherd Memorial Church of St Peter’s, Proston (1937) [QHR602813], The Second Church of Christian Scientist, Clayfield (1938), and First Church of Christian Scientist, Brisbane (1940) [QHR650017] (QHR 650239 ‘Wilston Methodist Memorial Church (former)’).
[22] Gregory and Pini, ‘Religious Places in Queensland’, p.87; R Apperley, R Irving and P Reynolds, A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1994, pp.212-13, 230-31 cited in QHR 650239 ‘Wilston Methodist Memorial Church (former)’.
[23] Daunt, ‘Communities of Faith’ pp.192-250, 276-421, cited by Daunt, submission in support of entry of 650270 Wavell Heights (St Luke’s) Presbyterian Church in the QHR, 14 January 2022.
[24] ‘Church Progress Campaign, Presbyterian Church, Wavell Heights Q’, booklet c.1957, pp.1, 8; ‘New Wavell Hts Church’, Brisbane Telegraph, 5 May 1951, p.4 (stump capping); Resources, aerial BCC000439261, 21 August 1951 (foundation work of church hall is visible); ‘70th anniversary of W. End Church’, Brisbane Telegraph, Saturday 30 August 1952, p.20 (opening and dedication on Sunday 31 August); ‘Many enjoy 3 fetes to aid good causes’, Sunday Mail, 18 October 1953, p.8.
[25] Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’.
[26] Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church Committee of Management letter to RS Smith, 27 March 1957, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant); Resources, aerial QAP1089114, 12 December 1960 (manse present). The 1959 manse was sold in 1989 (Resources, Certificate of title 14798197), with the proceeds used to erect a new manse/caretaker's residence (extant by 1991) on the south-west corner of the church site with rear access from Silene Street. This was until recently occupied by the former minister and his family, with the parish vacant in 2021 (Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’).
[27] Letter from Ray Smith to Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church (WHPC) 19 October 1961, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant). The proposed building included 12 classrooms for Sunday School as part of main auditorium, with part height, swing-up screens. The building was to have a steel portal frame with a 54ft (16.5m) span, timber-framed walls, a terracotta tile roof, and a glazed front gable.
[28] Letter from WHPC to Royal [Australian] Institute of Architects, 16 April 1964, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant).
[29] Letter from Ray Smith to WHPC Building Committee, 15 November 1962, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant). This building was to have brick walls and a terracotta tile hipped roof; a vehicle driveway under a roofed portico; a central entrance porch and central aisle; and a church office and minister’s vestry either side of the entrance. The front side wings would contain a choir assembly room (with steps up to the choir balcony above the main entrance) and a nursery; and rear side wings the Committee room, film room, and minister and elders’ assembly room. The basement would contain meeting rooms, toilets and a kitchen.
[30] Letter from WHPC to Royal [Australian] Institute of Architects, 16 April 1964, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant).
[31] Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’. Born in Tenterfield, NSW, and living in Brisbane from a young age, Jim Gibson studied at Central Technical College and the School of Architecture of the University of Queensland from 1951-6, graduating with Diploma in Architecture. He commenced full-time work with Des Searl (Searl and Tannett, Architects) in 1951, and then Cross and Bain in 1956, before joining Goodsir Baker Wilde Architects in 1978 (Appendix 1, Biography of James William Gibson, in Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’).
[32] Gibson-designed church buildings have included: Holland Park, St Matthew's Anglican Church (1958); Indooroopilly Presbyterian Church redevelopment (1960); Toowong, Presbyterian (Uniting) Church (1960); Ashgrove Methodist (Uniting) Church (1962); Manly, Queensland, St Paul's Anglican Church (1964); Stafford Presbyterian (Uniting) Church (1966); Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church (1966); Moorooka, Knox Presbyterian (Uniting) Church (1968); Bundaberg Uniting Christian Education Centre (1968); Yeronga, Pope Street, Methodist (Uniting) Church (1970); Wellers Hill (Tarragindi) Presbyterian, 1970; Aspley Presbyterian (Uniting) Church; Tamborine Presbyterian Church (1975); Strathpine Presbyterian Church (1976); Indooroopilly Uniting Church (1976); St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church Ipswich (vestries) (1977); Chermside West Presbyterian Church (Maundrell Tce); Inala Uniting Church (church extension to existing hall); and Oakleigh Church of the Nazarene (Appendix 1, Biography of James William Gibson, in Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’).
[33] Appendix 1, Biography of James William Gibson, in Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’; J. Gibson interviewed 2018, cited in Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’.

[34]JW Gibson, ed., Except the LORD Build: A Manual of Building for Presbyterian Congregations, Brisbane, Presbyterian Church of Queensland, 1967. J. Gibson interviewed 2018, cited in Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’. For his manual, Gibson referenced various publications from Great Britain and the United States, and also obtained information about various Presbyterian church exemplars being constructed interstate (Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’).

[35] Gibson, Except the LORD Build, p.1.
[36] Gibson, Except the LORD build, pp.10, 13, 19, 26.
[37] Gibson, Except the LORD build, p.22. Vatican II soon led to the construction of Queensland Catholic churches which ‘had both a gathered plan and the altar positioned in such a way that the priest could face the congregation’ (Daunt, ‘Communities of Faith’, cited in Daunt, submission in support of entry of 650270 Wavell Heights (St Luke’s) Presbyterian Church in the QHR, 14 January 2022). Daunt categorises St Luke’s in Wavell Heights as an example of a church design ‘embracing liturgical renewal’ (Daunt, ‘Communities of Faith,’ pp.450-94, cited in Daunt, submission in support of entry of 650270 Wavell Heights (St Luke’s) Presbyterian Church in the QHR, 14 January 2022). ‘Liturgy’ refers to a rite or body of rites prescribed for public worship; or a customary repertoire of ideas, phrases, or observances (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liturgy, (accessed 25 February 2022)).
[38] Gibson, Except the LORD build, p. 22, 26, 29.
[39] L M Daunt, letter to Andrew Ladlay, 11 June 2021, cited in Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’.
[40] The second lowest tender was from Thomas & Provan Pty Ltd at £18,300, while the highest of the 14 tenders received was £24,986 (Letter from Cross & Bain to WHPC, 17 December 1965, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant)). The congregation needed to have ownership of the land it had occupied since 1952, in order to provide security for the bank loan. The current church site of 3 roods 5.6 perches (3,177m2) was eventually granted to Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church by St Andrews War Memorial Hospital in December 1965, although the new title (1966) remained in the name of the PCQ (St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital letter to Secretary, Wavell Heights Parish, 1 December 1965 and Secretary, Wavell Heights Parish letter to St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital, 22 December 1965, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant); Resources, Survey Plan RP111771, 23 July 1966, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant); Resources, Certificate of Title 13943154, 7 October 1966).
[41] Letter from WHPC to Thomas & Provan Pty Ltd, 6 May 1966, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant). In February 1966, Australian currency changed from pounds to dollars, at the conversion rate of $2 per £1.
[42] A kitchen was added to the west side of the Kindergarten hall, later called the Fellowship (youth) Hall, between 1969 and 1974 (Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’; Resources, aerials QAP1938132, 8 April 1969, and QAP2757047 (29 January 1974).
[43] Daunt, ‘Communities of Faith,’ p.612, cited in Daunt, submission in support of entry of 650270 Wavell Heights (St Luke’s) Presbyterian Church in the QHR, 14 January 2022.
[44] Plan of the church in Gibson, Except the LORD Build, p.27; Gibson interviewed 2018, cited in Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’; Description of new Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 4 November 1966, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant). The church also had a Phillips Church Hearing Aid System, with an antenna in the ceiling broadcasting the service to hearing aids, or transistor receivers. A vestry, special committee rooms and a flower room were located at the rear of the church.
[45] Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’; Description of new Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 4 November 1966, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant).
[46] Comparative analysis by the Heritage Branch, Department of Environment of Science, 2022 (this desktop survey identified more than 260 Church buildings opened between 1950 and 1980 and confirmed a noticeable shift in Presbyterian church design in 1966, represented by the Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church. Similar conclusions were reached in Daunt, ‘Communities of Faith,’ pp.462, 478, cited in Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’).
[47] “New Church at Stafford”, Australian Presbyterian Life, October 15, 1966, p.34
[48] “New Church at Stafford”, Australian Presbyterian Life, October 15, 1966, p.34
[49] Comparative analysis by Heritage Branch, Department of Environment of Science.
[50] ‘$55,000 church with new ideas’, Courier Mail, Monday 21 November 1966, p.7.
[51] ‘$55,000 church with new ideas’, Courier Mail, Monday 21 November 1966, p.7; ‘Church on the round achieves its aim’, Australian Presbyterian Life, 10 June, 1967, p.27 (six pews).
[52] Description of new Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 4 November 1966, Presbyterian Archives (supplied by Applicant); ‘Wavell Heights church distinctly planned’, Australian Presbyterian Life, 29 October, 1966, p.28; Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’.
[53] ‘New buildings of Queensland Church’, Australian Presbyterian Life, 1 October, 1966, p.27 (noted church was being built); ‘Wavell Heights church distinctly planned’, Australian Presbyterian Life, 29 October, 1966, p.28; ‘Church on the round achieves its aim’, Australian Presbyterian Life, 10 June, 1967, p.27.
[54] ‘Church on the round achieves its aim”, Australian Presbyterian Life, June 10, 1967, p.27; Daunt, ‘Communities of Faith,’ pp.622, 626, cited in Ladlay, ‘Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church, 64 Spence Road, Wavell Heights’.

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