Surface Hill Uniting Church

The Methodists established the first place of worship on the Gympie goldfields shortly after James Nash’s 1867 discovery of gold here. It was a simple bark hut and soon plans were made for a timber church by local architect Charles G Smith. There was difficulty in obtaining the title to the land as it was under miner’s rights at the time. In fact, there were issues with the church having to pay for the filling in of old shafts through to the 1890s. A fulltime minister was appointed in 1870 and the small parsonage, built concurrently with the 1869 church, was extended. By 1889, moves were made to build a substantial brick church and local architect Hugo Du Rietz designed the new building. The foundation stone was laid on 30 January 1890 and the building completed in August. A new organ was purchased from James Lord, the organist of the Albert Street church in Brisbane. The organ was made by George Benson of Manchester and assembled in Brisbane. The stone retaining wall along Reef and Channon Streets was built by relief labour during the Depression. Restoration to the church occurred between 1977 and 1984.