Leichhardt Church of Christ

A Tent for the Glory of God

No churches conducted a Sunday school in Leichhardt prior to 1953, the year the suburb was named. The Housing Commission built 132 homes in Ipswich in 1952-53, the greatest number of homes built in any provincial area that year (Queensland Times 5.12.1953, page 2). Many of these were in Leichhardt. Furthermore, the RAAF Base at Amberley was not far away, and this was home to hundreds of transient families. A Sunday school was needed. Locals Mr and Mrs Stanley asked the East Ipswich Church of Christ to commence this work with a view to one day establishing a church.

The East Ipswich Church bought land in Samford Road, Leichhardt on 26 July 1952 and Don Risson, then Superintendent of the East Ipswich Sunday School, accepted the challenge. Don’s family owned Risson’s Produce in Nicholas Street, so he had access to a truck. The red Ford he drove daily on deliveries played several roles in the work of the Sunday School. First, Don picked up Church members Norm Fawdry and Eric Turner and drove out to Clarrie Hall’s property at Amberley. Here, they cut trees and tea tree brush, loaded the truck, and drove to the Sunday school site. From these materials, they erected a simple frame with a roof of brushwood to provide shade.

Children gathered beneath this rough shelter at 9 am each Sunday to listen to Bible stories and sing choruses. Merle Jenner played the accordion, and if this sometimes set local dogs yapping, Don recalled, ‘When Merle played you just wanted to sing.’ Keith Ludgater assisted Don with the work. Photographs taken not long after the Sunday school opened in January 1953 record an attendance of about twenty-five children. Among them were four girls from an Aboriginal family who lived nearby and were regular attenders. One of these, Lorraine Daylight, went on to become a successful model. A dog, a piano accordion, and twenty-five children sitting cross-legged on the ground beneath a bough shed. This was the Leichhardt Sunday School in 1953.

The structure served to get things going but Don soon procured an old Air Force hut from Archerfield. Under the guidance of Eric Turner and builder Mr Neumann, men from the East Ipswich Church of Christ cut the hut into three sections, hauled it by truck to Leichhardt, and rebuilt it. The job was accomplished in a single day. Photographs taken to document their efforts depict a Christian family of volunteers and a red Ford playing its part once more. The bush shelter is visible in the background of one of these photographs. Men then gathered several nights a week until the building was lined and the hall was ready for use. It opened 22 November 1953. The following year, with the assistance of Norm Fawdry’s wife, Gladys, Don started Friday night meetings for young people. In a housing commission area, louts enjoyed getting under the building to bang on the floorboards, rousing a canine chorus yet again, but the work continued.

A series of letterbox drops saw the Sunday School double in size, and Don’s truck was called upon once more. After knocking off on Saturdays, he put the sides on the tray so he could head off early on Sunday mornings, collecting children along the way. No permission forms. No seatbelts. No seats! Just a heart for God and concern for children who wanted to hear God’s word. The Sunday School soon settled into the rhythm of Leichhardt community life. Don Risson found working with children and young people in Leichhardt enjoyable and satisfying, as local families supported Sunday School anniversaries and special Friday night youth activities. The combined Leichhardt/East Ipswich Sunday School picnic in Hanson’s paddock at Wulkuraka was an annual event. Egg-and-spoon races, sack races and a picnic feast brought squeals of delight from children and parents alike. The Daylight girls often won their races. No Sunday School picnic was complete without bags of lollies, and these were borne home in triumph.

The wooden building also enabled Gladys Fawdry to start ladies’ fellowship meetings. Attendance continued to grow, and an extension was added to the back of the building in 1955 to house the kindergarten. As people moved into Ipswich from surrounding farms, the church community in Leichhardt swelled, and in 1968 work began on a brick church building. Jim Nicholson from the Marburg Church of Christ was the builder. Funded by interest-free loans from members of both congregations, the church opened 12 April 1969. For some time, the East Ipswich minister delivered the sermon at both churches.

Having retired from the land, the Gerkhe family transferred their membership from Rosevale Church of Christ to Leichhardt Church of Christ in 1959. Eldest son Don Gerkhe was seventeen. In 1993, Don became minister of the church that had been his home since then, and he worked with the local community for many years.

As the Leichhardt congregation aged and the housing policy at the RAAF Base changed, Don had to accept the fact that failing membership and high operational costs meant the church was no longer viable. On 11 December 2011, the final service celebrated the milestones and achievements of a small church that had ministered to one of the city’s less privileged communities for almost six decades. The decision to close the church was a sad time for Don Risson, Don Gerkhe and others who had poured their lives into the Leichhardt ministry, but nine months later Don Gerkhe was excited about the role he then played in bringing another church building to life—this time in Zimbabwe—using funds from the Leichhardt Church.

It is a truth generally accepted that when one door closes another one opens, and whether it is in a bough shed, an old Air Force hut, or a new brick building, God will always find a home in the hearts of those who live for Him. The Leichhardt Sunday School Hall still stands on the Samford Road block in Leichhardt.