St Augustine’s First Church

St Augustine’s first church: a gathering place on the hill

Balmain’s Catholic families were raising money for a church by 1847. Adolphus William Young gave land to Archbishop Polding in May 1848 for religious and educational purposes. The foundation stone of St Augustine’s was laid on 4 September that year, and Polding returned to open the completed church on 5 May 1851.

The small stone church occupied a prominent hilltop position. It was extended in 1860 as the parish developed, while a presbytery and school added other forms of community life to the precinct. Its history is closely connected with the families whose contributions helped establish a local place of worship.

A larger church was built in 1906–07, but the first church survived. Reynolds recorded it serving as the parish hall in 1994. The distinction matters: the early church and its larger neighbour are separate buildings with different construction histories. The first church offers a story of continuity through changing use, from a small congregation’s building project to a hall within a larger parish complex.

• Peter Reynolds, “From Adolphus Street to Gladstone Park: Part 3”, Leichhardt Historical Journal 19, pp. 14–19 (PDF pages 16–21).