Dunkeld Uniting Church for auction with $125,000 hopes

A 1914-built Gothic Revival Church in Dunkeld, 250 kilometres west of Melbourne, has been listed for auction by the Uniting Church.

The Church is selling the property following moves to consolidate all church congregations in the town into a single premises.

The vendors are expecting about $125,000 for the property, consisting of two buildings, the church and a church hall, on two separate titles over 4,000 square metres.

The church is constructed from locally made bricks on a freestone base from Mount Abrupt in an early English Gothic revival style, according to heritage documents. It was designed by architects Clegg, Miller and Cain and built by E. H Patterson of Hamilton.

“The church has a rectangular plan of four bays divided by buttresses, no porch and no chancel or vestry,” heritage documents say.

“The gabled roof is pitched at 60 degrees and is clad with corrugated iron. Architectural details are elaborated in cement render, now painted white. The facade is symmetrical about the front door which is timber and double leaved. Above the door there is a large tripartite window under a simple hood mould. The side windows are treated as single lancets.”

The cypresses in front of the church date back to its construction.

The church replaced an earlier timber church on the property which was built in 1867.

It started life as a Wesleyan Church under the Hamilton circuit, later coming under the Penshurst Circuit and finally as the church increased in popularity it become the centre of the Dunkeld Circuit, according to heritage documents.

In 1902 it became a Methodist church and only became a Uniting Church in the late 1970s.

In 2002 a heritage survey found the church was in excellent condition and retained a high degree of integrity.

“Several additions and changes have been made to the interior of the church since its construction in 1914. These include the erection of an honour roll above the pulpit in 1919, which records the names of those who served and fell in World War One; changes to the lighting system from petrol lamps to electricity in 1939; carpeting the isles and the sanctuary; a communion table and the erection of a Latin Cross in 1959 above the pulpit, relocating the honour roll to the west wall,” heritage documents say.

It will be sold with all its internal architecture such as the pine lined flooring, timber lined ceilings and a series of historic leadlight windows but excluding its pews which the vendors will attempt to return to the families of the original donors.

The church hall, built at a later period, is currently used a Sunday school.

The buildings are connected to power, water and sewerage.

The Dunkeld church goes to auction on April 13 through agent Bart O’Sullivan.