Christ Church Anglican Church, Bungonia

About

Christ Church Anglican Church is a heritage-listed Anglican church at King Street, Bungonia, Goulburn Mulwaree Council, New South Wales, Australia. The current church was designed by William Kemp and built from 1877. The church is administered by St Nicholas Anglican Church, North Goulburn. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 1 October 1999.

One of the largest land owners, Robert Futter of Lumely Park, donated 320 acres in 1832 for the township. He was one of several major pastoralists, including Dr David Reid of Inverary Park and James Styles of Reevesdale. Bungonia predated Goulburn and Marulan and was originally slated as a major settlement on the Great South Road. Goulburn eventually assumed that primacy but it was not before significant stone buildings sprung up at Bungonia.

Gazetting of the Bungonia Township in 1833 included dedication of sites for a church, parsonage and glebe, and a base course for stonework was laid in 1836 on the designated site. The contractor however withdrew and fresh tenders were called in the same year: The advertisement notes that plans and specifications were with the prominent Colonial architect John Verge. Early Bungonia planners made provision for a court house, jails, police station, schools and even an orphanage.

There is no evidence that building activity continued beyond the partial erection of the church walls although a foundation stone was subsequently laid between 1839-1840. Work on the parsonage however proceeded, allowing the formal appointment of the first resident minister to the Parish of Bungonia, in effect the Southern Highlands, in 1841.

By 1841 Bungonia had 16 households, a police station and lock-up, at least one store, two inns and a population of 82.

In 1841, the first Bishop of Australia, Bishop William Broughton indicated that a church built of slab timber with lath and plaster internal walls and a high pitched roof had been built at Bungonia. The shingles were split from trees on Bungonia Creek. By 1845 this wooden slab church was called a poor temporary structure and a foundation stone for a more permanent church may have been laid.

To what extent this Christ Church continued to be used for regular services is unclear. The unfinished walls of the previous Christ Church were still standing but no records exist to confirm brick additions had been added to the wooden church. Comments made in 1878 suggest that the wooden church was unsafe and virtually unusable whenever it rained or during winter.

Bungonia was the first outreach for the religious movement. Ministers such as the famous "galloping parson", Rev. Thomas Hassall, serviced it amongst a vast area.

In 1861 the Parish of Bungonia was incorporated into the newly created Diocese of Goulburn, and in 1865, a meeting was held at Bungonia to appeal for the erection of a new church on the old foundations. However, for reasons that may include economic depression in the Goulburn district in the 1860s a foundation stone was not laid until 1877. It is uncertain when the "temporary" slab church was demolished (1878?). Some of the timber survive in the woolshed on one of the Early Colonial Estates in Bungonia, Inverary Park.

The third (present day) building was designed by architect William Kemp, the first articled pupil of Colonial Architect Edmund Blacket and then first Architect appointed to the Department of Public Instruction, (now the NSW Department of Education ) responsible for designing many of the earliest schools in Sydney, including the Ultimo Technological Museum (predecessor of the Powerhouse Museum ): Christ Church is the only known church to be designed/supervised by Kemp.

When it was formally opened on Friday 24 May 1878, the church was unfinished - the windows were covered in with calico, the interior walls unplastered and the church lacked doors. Interior fittings were temporary. For this reason Christ Church was not formally consecrated until 1893. An account, transcribing speeches that were made at the ceremony, was published in the Goulburn Herald on 27 October 1893. Other reasons for the delayed consecration include severe drought and economic depression in the 1890s (arguably the most severe in historic times).

In 1888 Bungonia was absorbed into the parish of Marulan - beginning a shifting pattern of affiliations that continues up to the present day. Between 1905-1906, an attempt was made to revive Bungonia as a separate parish but the appointment only lasted a few months. The rector serving Christ Church from Marulan over the same period is the last known "parson" to have occupied the parsonage which was then leased and then in 1958 sold.

Loss of most of the diocesan records has meant that the new "church" effectively passed into de facto "oblivion" for much of the twentieth century. The few surviving documents suggest that isolation and lack of funds to support a local clergyman in remote parishes such as Bungonia continued to preoccupy the Diocese. For example, Ministers serving Christ Church were given a travel allowance equal to 35% of their stipend. In spite of the long distances over unmade roads, the churches were expected to provide much of the "grass roots" social support in the rural communities.

Memorial plaques in Christ Church point to the substantial replacement of the internal fabric since the 1940s. Most of these item relate to or were owned by earlier incumbents and parishioners. For example Altar Window and a second window at the rear of the Nave were replaced by stained glass about 1960. It is not known whether any special ceremony was held to mark the centenary of the opening of Christ Church in 1978.

Closure of the Anglican church at Marulan in 1981 - due to the disproportionate cost of maintaining the building relative to the (decreasing) size of congregations - resulted in the transfer of jurisdiction over Christ Church to the Parish of North Goulburn. Predictably, the move provoked a fear amongst Bungonia residents that Christ Church (with an equally small congregation) would also be closed.

Interest in Christ Church and the Bungonia village as historic places surged in the 1980s when the number of persons residing in or visiting the district rose substantially. Reasons include the upgrading and sealing of roads to Marulan and Goulburn (diminishing the sense of isolation), subdivision of many of the large Colonial estates and the upgrading of camping facilities at the Bungonia State Recreation Reserve (allied with increasing interest in the Bungonia Caves which are among the deepest in the southern hemisphere). The heightened local interest in Christ Church as a heritage site is exemplified by the compilation of a local history of "Christ Church Bungonia" in 1988 (manuscript) and its formal but private publication to "celebrate the centenary of the church on October 24th 1993". Another local resident has privately published a history of the Bungonia cemetery. The expanding local population has provided a new congregation base for Christ Church. Weekly services were re-instituted in 1996 were are centered around community services conducted by local residents and/or lay preachers from North Goulburn.

Receipts from weekly services were used to maintain the fabric of the church and fund its charitable role in the Bungonia district.

In 2018, regular services are no longer held at Bungonia. St Nicholas' Church in North Goulburn continues to be responsible for the church.

One of the largest land owners, Robert Futter of Lumely Park, donated 320 acres in 1832 for the township. He was one of several major pastoralists, including Dr David Reid of Inverary Park and James Styles of Reevesdale. Bungonia predated Goulburn and Marulan and was originally slated as a major settlement on the Great South Road. Goulburn eventually assumed that primacy but it was not before significant stone buildings sprung up at Bungonia.

Gazetting of the Bungonia Township in 1833 included dedication of sites for a church, parsonage and glebe, and a base course for stonework was laid in 1836 on the designated site. The contractor however withdrew and fresh tenders were called in the same year: The advertisement notes that plans and specifications were with the prominent Colonial architect John Verge. Early Bungonia planners made provision for a court house, jails, police station, schools and even an orphanage.