Iron Churches
The involvement of clergymen and churches in the New South Wales Parliament has been consistent since the appointment in 1823 of the first citizens to join with the Governor who was a military appointment with absolute authority. Since that time clergymen have been consistently members of the Legislative Council, and since the formation of the Legislative Assembly one hundred and fifty years ago, they have often been elected to represent local electorates.
There is no listing of clergymen who have been members of the NSW Parliament, but my research into the membership of the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly covering each of the past 184 years has shown the following:
Rev Thomas Scott MLC 1824 - 1829. Archdeacon of Australia, Diocese of Calcutta.
Rev William Broughton, Archdeacon later Bishop of Australia, MLC 1829-1843.
Rev Hon John Dunmore Lang, MLC 1843-56. Presbyterian representing Victorians.
Rev Hon Edward Jones Brewster MLC 1846-1848.
Rev George Wells Smailes MLA 1862-1934.
Rev Hon William Robson MLC 1900-1920 Liberal Party. National Party.
Rev Robert Davidson MLA 1901-1910 Liberal Party. Reform Party.
Rev Thomas Simpson Crawford MLA 1910-1917 Australian Labor Party.
Rev James Wilson MLA 1920-1925 Progressive Political Federation.
Rev John (Jock) Garden MLA 1930-1934] Labor Party. Communist Party.
Rev Donald Peter Macdonald MLA 1941-1947 Independent.
Rev Hon John Marsden Mason MLA 1965-1981 Liberal Party.
Rev Hon. Neil Edward William Pickard MLA 1973-1991 Liberal Party.
Rev Guy Andrew Yeomans MLA 1984-1991 Liberal Party.
Rev Hon Fred Nile MLC 1991- Call to Australia, Christian Democratic Party.
Rev Hon Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC 2002 - Christian Democratic Party.
I acknowledge there may be others to be added to this list as some ministers of religion did not use the title “Rev”. Many laymen, who were lay-preachers were members of Parliament, but not classified as clergy.
But there are interesting involvements also with church buildings. The Westminster Parliament in London first met in St Stephen’s Chapel in the Royal Palace at Westminster, first built in 1050 AD. The reason why parliaments sit with government and opposition members facing each other is because members first of all sat in the Choir stalls of the Chapel. Government ministers are so named after the ministers of God mentioned by St Paul in Romans 12. When entering and leaving the House members bow, not to acknowledge the Speaker or President, but because at that end of the Chapel was the altar, and the bow is to acknowledge the presence and authority of God.
In my initial speech in Parliament, I made reference to early research I made into an unknown aspect of church and parliamentary history. I said then: “I appreciate the fact that we sit in this very historic place, not only because a long line of clergymen have been here before me, including Reverend the Hon. Fred Nile, but also because, going back over the years, we have had members who were bishops and archbishops, back to Reverend the Hon. Thomas Scott MLC, Rev The Hon Bishop William Broughton, MLC and Reverend the Hon. John Dunmore Lang, MLC who were members of this House. I hope to uphold the best of the traditions of those great leaders in the church and the community.
I have sat here experiencing a sense of deja vu because in 1964 while doing some research into Australian history I chose to write on the history of what were known as the “Iron Churches”. These were a number of churches constructed in iron smelting works in the United Kingdom which were shipped primarily from Birmingham, although a couple came from Manchester and Glasgow, to Australia during the gold rushes.
Church authorities in Australia wanted demountable buildings that they could get quickly to the goldfields. I decided to trace their history and discover where they were and how they were used. One was purchased by the Methodist Home Mission Department for example. Because it was felt that the iron churches—which had iron roofs, walls, uprights and supports—would blunt the teeth of termites. This one was sent to Palmerston, which is the former name of the city we call Darwin. That church still stands, although it is not used as a church but a motor repair shed. Iron churches are very difficult to air-condition. After well over a century of use it is still standing.
I found another iron church in Ararat. It had also been purchased by the Methodists for use on the Victorian goldfields. On the side of this huge church were four big wheels 5½ feet high and made out of slivers of a huge tree trunk on which they were dragged by teams of oxen around the goldfields. The last goldfield it was taken to was Dunkeld in 1863. It was then dragged to Ararat and left temporarily in a vacant paddock behind the Methodist church. It was still there when I visited in 1965, and it is probably still there today”. (later note: It is no longer standing. The property was sold to the Salvation Army, which demolished the Methodist buildings and built a re-cycling warehouse on the spot.)
Several other iron churches came to Melbourne for use on the gold fields. One of these in its iron crates was shipped to Sydney where it was erected in Macquarie Street. This was St Stephens Presbyterian Church, built in Glasgow in 1855. During the Gold Rush era the congregation imported this prefabricated Iron Church, seating 800, which was erected in 1855 on the State Library site next to Parliament House. It was here that the name St Stephen’s was taken – the Westminster Parliament having met in St Stephen’s Chapel London from 1543 to 1834. Today a brass plaque in the footpath marks the spot.
In 1875 St Stephen’s joined with another congregation in Phillip Street and became a leading centre of Presbyterianism in this country. The NSW General Assembly met in St Stephen’s Phillip Street when it first convened in 1901.
The Sydney City Council resumed the Phillip Street Church (sited partially under the north west corner of the present Reserve Bank) to extend Martin Place through to Macquarie Street. With money from the resumption in 1935 St Stephen’s dedicated the fine, newly built Church which stands on its present position opposite the nationally treasured public buildings of Macquarie Street. Meanwhile the large Iron Church became the first home of the lending Library in 1874 which then became the great Mitchell Library. It remained in service until 1879 when it was re-erected in the grounds of the Lidcombe Hospital, as a chapel, complete with twin spires. It was eventually demolished in 1958.
Another iron church was purchased by the Anglicans and on sold at a profit of £1,200 to the people of New South Wales and that iron Church became the NSW Legislative Council Chamber in which we still sit.
We show visitors the steel structures behind the Chamber walls through a display door behind the Government benches. The wooden walls are covered by magnificent wall paper, reproduced from the mid-nineteenth century patterns, but the walls were constructed from the wooden packing cases in which the building was shipped from the United Kingdom.
It would seem there is nothing much more to learn about the iron churches. My research undertaken in 1964 had reached a dead end. But last weekend, in October 2007 I found another one! You can imagine my excitement. Preaching at Geelong, an older member of the congregation who had worked on the Cario wharves told me that for fifty years there had sat on the docks, huge packing crates containing a prefabricated wrought iron building. Its owner had never claimed it. No-one knew who would shift it, or what it even was. Eventually it was sold at auction, and like a giant metal Meccano set, it was erected as a wedding and reception centre.
I was so excited, I went on a mid-night visit, to see it painted white, sitting above Eastern Beach, Even with its beautiful gardens and some building additions, it was unmistakably an iron church! So the saga of the Iron Churches continues.
Clergymen and churches have been intricately woven into the history of our oldest Parliament in Australia, with clergymen being elected to the Parliament, and the Parliament itself meeting in an Iron Church.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC