Convicts & Colonials: Spiritual Life

Our best source of information about what Ipswich was like in the early colonial era can be found in the pages of early newspapers. The Empire in 1855 carried an article about Moreton Bay that compared Brisbane and Ipswich. 

With regard to the provision for the religious wants of the town, there are five buildings used for public worship. The English church is a brick building, centrally situated, but of very small dimensions, and will be used as a schoolroom as soon as a more substantial structure is erected. The Roman Catholic church is a contracted slab building near the banks of the river, having a very un-ecclesiastical appearance. The Wesleyan chapel is also constructed of slabs. The Congregational church is the only attractive looking place of worship in Ipswich, being constructed of chafer-boards in a neat compact style. The church has only been opened four months, and was built at the expense of the Congregational Church Building Society; it will accommodate above two hundred persons, and coat about £600. The present Presbyterian church is of slab, but one of convenient size and architectural pretension, and is in progress; the material is sandstone, of which there are extensive quarries in the vicinity of Ipswich. Part of the cost of its erection will be will be derived from a sum lying in the Treasury to the credit of the Church of Scotland Building Fund.

Anglican Church
The first Anglican services in Ipswich were held in 1851 by Rev. John Wallace in a temporary wooden building in Ellenborough Street, on the site of the old railway station, and afterwards in the old School of Arts building in Brisbane Street. In 1855, Rev. Wallace was succeeded by Rev. John Moseley who was instrumental in the established of St Paul's Church. Work began on the church in 1855 and it was opened on 12 June 1859.

Roman Catholic Church
The foundation stone for the first Church on the St. Mary's site was laid in October 1858 by the Most Rev. Dr. Polding, the Archbishop of Sydney. Father McGinty was the parish priest at the time.

Presbyterian
Rev. William Lambie Nelson, LLD., of the parish of North Esk, Musselburgh, Scotland, was inducted minister for Ipswich by the Synod of Australia on the 30th day of August, 1853, in Sydney, and left almost immediately to take up his duties here. Dr. Nelson preached his first sermon in Ipswich on the 25th of September, 1853.

Methodist
To the late Rev. W. Moore belongs the honour of conducting the first Methodist service in Ipswich, on 30th April, 1848 - the first Sunday after Easter in that year. On that day, too, a Sunday School was formed, and four offered themselves as teachers. The first services were held in the old Court House. A weatherboard chapel opened in 1849 which served as a school as well as a church.

Baptist
The Ipswich Church was the second church formed by the Baptists in Queensland. The first services in connection therewith were held in a bowling alley on the last Sunday in June, 1859, and were conducted by the Rev. B. G. Wilson of Brisbane, who, with the Rev. Thomas Deacon, assisted by Messrs. Kingsford, Hinton, and Moore, administered the Lord's Supper at the close. In January 1860, the church was formed by the enrolment of seven foundation members-namely, the R e v. Thomas Deacon (the chosen first pastor), Mrs. Deacon, Edmund Gregory, Mrs.  Margaret Gregory, Thomas Woolley, Josiah Hinton, and Mrs. Thomas Towell.

The owner of the bowling alley requiring the building for the purposes, Mr. Deacon offered part of his own garden in West Street, on which to erect a chapel.

Congregational
The foundations of Congregationalism in Ipswich were laid by the Rev. Thomas Deacon, grandfather of Lieutenant Colonel W. T. Deacon, C.B., one of the present aldermen of the city. The reverend gentleman arrived from England in March, 1851, when the town had a population of about 800. He first held services in the Old Court House, which was situated on the site now occupied by the Post Office. A room in Messrs. Hughes & Cameron's premises, Nicholas Street, was then secured. Mr. Deacon was a Baptist minister. In March, 1853, a meeting was held, at which it was decided to form a church to include "the two denominations usually called the Baptists and Independents," and to be called the United Congregational Church.

Bremer Mills, Congregational Church
A Congregational Church was established at the Bremer Mills at Bundanba (now Bundamba) which had become a self-sufficient community. The Congregational Church approached the owner of the property, Joseph Fleming to discuss establishment of a 'Mission Station' for the families of his workers. Joseph Fleming donated half an acre of land for a chapel which was a school during the week and a place of worship on Sundays. The chapel opened on Good Friday in 1858.