No. 252 - The former Trevallyn Methodist Church

The Trevallyn Methodist church was a short-lived church that functioned for about 15 years. It opened in 1903 at a location on Trevallyn Terrace (now Bain Terrace) and seems to have closed some time during World War One. In 1927 it was sold and removed to become the hall and Sunday school adjoining St Oswald’s Anglican Church. It still stands alongside St Oswald’s on Bain Terrace.

There is a reference in The Examiner to its opening on Sunday 11 October 1903 and to a ‘tea meeting’ on the following Tuesday:

“The opening services in connection with the new Methodist church at Trevallyn were continued last evening, when a public meeting was held, and was largely attended. Rev. James Haslem presided. Addresses were delivered by the chairman, Revs. Ed. Youngman, B.W. Heath, and J.A. Gault, and Mr H. Kenworthy. ... A collection was taken up in aid of the building fund…. Refreshments were afterwards handed round, full justice being done to the good things liberally provided”.

There are many newspaper reports about the church’s activities in the decade following its opening.  A report from 1904 describes the annual harvest festival service and notes that the church's decorations had “a very pleasing appearance”. A photograph of this scene has survived and has been reproduced below. The last report about the church appears in The Examiner in 1915 and this refers to a church fair. After this it disappears from the newspaper record.

While the history of the Trevallyn Methodist church is unremarkable, it represents one of many early timber churches that were relocated and repurposed. The original church seems to have survived intact although an extension has been built on the west side of the building. Now 115 years old, it is an interesting survivor of the many Methodist churches that were once prolific in the north of the State.


Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

The 1904 Harvest Festival. Source: Queen Victoria Museum QVM:1997:P:0350

An advertisement from The Daily Telegraph - Thursday 8 October 1903

Sources:

The Daily Telegraph, Thursday 8 October 1903, page 2
The Examiner, Wednesday 14 October 1903, page 4
The Examiner, Monday 28 March 1904, page 6
The Examiner, Monday 10 May 1915 ,page 4
The Examiner, Thursday 4 May 1944, page 5


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