Synod Hall

The Anglican Synod Hall is located near St James Cathedral on Melton Hill. The first Anglican Church services in Townsville were held in the courthouse from 1866. The hall opened in January 1898, and was likely designed by Walter Morris Eyre. He was a member of the Cathedral Committee and was supervising architect for the Cathedral from 1890. The hall was originally known as Jubilee Hall. It had been commissioned during Queen Victoria’s Jubilee year of 1897. The name changed to the Synod Hall, after it hosted the Ninth Synod of the Anglican Diocese of North Queensland in September 1897, shortly after the building opened. Apart from its use as a parish hall, the building was home to a Japanese School in 1899, while a Chinese School operated from the nearby Mission Hall. It also hosted classes for St Anne’s Girls Church of England Girls’ School. Cyclone Leonta caused extensive damage in Townsville in 1903, including the destruction of the Mission Hall and damage to St James’s Cathedral. Services were held in the Synod Hall while repairs were undertaken to the Cathedral. After a new hall was built in the 1980s, the Synod Hall hosted the Townsville Little Theatre group.