St Brigids Catholic Church is a heritage-listed Roman Catholic church at 11 Railway Street, Rosewood, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Reverend Andrew Horan and built in 1909 by RJ Murphy with alterations in 1935. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
History
This large elaborate wooden church was built in 1909-1910 and replaced an earlier, smaller St Brigid's Church, also of timber. It was designed by Reverend Andrew Horan of the Ipswich parish who also donated the cost of the foundations. It was built on the day-labour system under the supervision of builder and contractor, RJ Murphy. A substantial amount of the labour was gratuitously performed by local residents.
Initially, Mass in the Rosewood district was celebrated in settlers' homes, and after 1875 in a room at The Rising Sun Hotel. This practice continued until the first St Brigid's Church was built in 1885. The locality was a prosperous one, with sugar, timber and dairying supporting the predominantly Irish and German population. The foundations of the second church were blessed on 13 December 1908 and the building, which could accommodate a congregation of 1,000, was opened for religious services on 13 February 1910 by Archbishop of Brisbane James Duhig. Rosewood was the first country place in which, as a priest, Bishop Duhig had celebrated Mass.
St Brigid's Church remained part of the Ipswich parish until the appointment of Father Timothy Kelleher as Rosewood parish priest in 1915.
The interior of the northern wall was improved for the 1935 Jubilee Celebrations. Three stained glass windows by RS Exton & Co of Brisbane, and flanking murals on fibre supports by the important Queensland artist, William Bustard, were added. A scroll on the diagonal boards of the lower central section of this wall was probably painted about this time. After 1951 this part of the wall, including the top lancet-shaped sections of the vestry doors, was sheeted. It was painted with a new mural, using a photographic re-assisted technique. The scrolls on the lower sections of the side chapels were probably painted about this time. An early altar table used to celebrate Mass in settlers' homes has been brought into the church.
The altar rail gates, one of the confessionals and the organ have been removed. The rib-and-pan roof was replaced after 1973 and the earlier dark weatherboards are now painted a light colour. Plantings on the main southern elevation and the bitumen roads either side of the church are recent.
The place has been identified in the 1997 Expanded Ipswich Heritage Study as a place of cultural heritage significance to the community.
Although the church building had been slowly leaning for many years, by 2020 it was deemed unsafe and required $3 million to make it level again. As at February 2022, the repair work had not commenced. Fundraising for a project to straighten and restore the church commenced in 2020.
Description
This is a large ornate weatherboard church. It consists of three flush gables, the central one taller and wider, facing Railway Street. In plan it is a simple broad rectangle. Small gabled porches project at the front, and each side. At the rear, a skillion-roofed central section adjoins with gabled landings.
The church is set on timber stumps, about high, with battening between.
Roofs are of corrugated iron, with front and porch gables surmounted by a cross and decorated with triangular timber fretwork panels on curved metal brackets. Three square, capped, ventilators line the ridge of the main gable. Three small steep louvred and gauzed gables ventilate the outside roof slopes. Windows are lancet shaped. Seven, of multiple openings, are aligned along each side; others symmetrically arranged at front, and at the rear. They are operated internally.
Rear stairs to the western side porch have been removed for the installation of a ramp. A detached timber-framed toilet block is under construction, close to the rear western corner. The rear landing is tilted on its stumps and closed to access.
A timber, cross-framed belfry with a shallow pyramidal corrugated iron roof, and bell in place, stands apart, to the rear of the church.
The church is set back some from the street with a triangular grassed forecourt, hedged in part, with tall dense native shrubs. A flame tree (Brachychiton spp) and a fire-wheel tree (Stenocarpus) have been planted on the central axis of the church and forecourt.