Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Clunes – St Pauls Anglican Church - 1871 Victoria

After arriving in Clunes and finding out the Information Centre was closed until Thursday, we drove around the corner and along the road in search of  the church.  The entry road to the church is at the rear,  along a path next to the old church hall, past a huge tree, and there St Pauls, an Anglican church built in 1871,  sits in all it’s wonderful old bluestone glory;  high up on the hill, overlooking the town of Clunes.  The church looks forlorn, and stuck to a plain white board was a notice detailing the church session time, each Sunday at 8am.   No foundation stone or plaque could be found explaining when the church was built.  Often we find a small plaque (placed by members of the Congregation or town Historical society), attached to old churches or halls the we are interested in, that sheds light on the who, what, when, where and why of a building.

The Church Hall is built in a very unusual style ; it is large and made of timber weatherboard, painted cream with a small bell tower, (bell in situ), and vertically installed rectangular shaped windows, which are painted green.  A huge tree with a very large, recently broken limb, still partially attached to the main trunk ,shades the old hall.  No details of how old the Church Hall is, could be found.

Carisbrook – Uniting Church - Victoria (circa late 18oos)

Another church in the town of Carisbrook, is the Uniting Church, which may have been a member of the Presbyterian ministry before becoming a member of the Uniting Church in the later years of last century. 
Carisbrook is a small town north west of Ballarat, on the  (B180) Pyrenees Highway, between Castlemaine and Maryborough.
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Carisbrook - St Pauls Anglican Church - 1866 - Victoria

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Today we decided to go back along the road we took  when we travelled from Bendigo to Ballarat, last Wednesday.  As we had decided to use the GPS to direct us to Ballarat, we actually ended up taking the wrong road, yes, those who have a GPS know all about getting lost! 

Yep, we ended up being lost; however, that was not a bad thing as we passed a few churches along the way, hence today's return trip.    We wanted to actually stop and look at the churches, go into them if we could, and to certainly take a few photographs.  So, here is the first of them.

This church is in Carisbrook, a small town north west of Ballarat, on the  (B180) Pyrenees Highway, between Castlemaine and Maryborough.