St Davids Anglican Church is a heritage-listed church at 1 Church Street, Allora, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built from 1887 to 1901. It is also known as St David's Church of England. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 24 March 2000.
History
St. David's Church, Allora, is a timber, Gothic Revival style church prominently located at the end of the main thoroughfare of the town. It was constructed in 1887-88 to the design of leading Queensland colonial architect F.D.G Stanley. This building is the second church to be built on the site, which also contains a rectory designed by architect John H. Buckeridge (1901) and a parish hall (1912, 1962).
Allora claims to be amongst Queensland's oldest inland towns. The beginnings of a small settlement at the crossing of Dalrymple Creek was recorded in 1844. A survey of the town was completed by G.F Pratten in 1859 and land sales began the following year. In 1862, Reverend Benjamin Glennie bought land at Dalrymple Creek in the name of Anglican Bishop of Brisbane Edward Tufnell. A two roomed timber slab cottage was built on the site of the present Parish Hall and used as a school, Sunday school and teacher's residence. Reverend Glennie preached here once a month. Prior to this, church services in Allora had generally been held at the Dalrymple Hotel and sporadically at a number of the early stations. One such is recorded to have been held by Glennie at Talgai Station in 1852.
Allora township continued to grow throughout the 1860s. By the end of the decade, Allora was becoming a substantial town, servicing the blacksoil farms established along Dalrymple Creek as a result of the lands acts of the 1860s. In 1868, the first purpose built church of St. David was erected on the site of the present church. It was designed by architect Richard George Suter and was typical of his timber churches that used outside studding to decorative effect. Suter also designed Allora's first national school in 1866 which was similar in design to the church. The original slab hut continued to be used for church services until the completion of the new church and was then relocated in 1870 to form part of St. Matthew's Church, Spring Creek. In 1870 Allora became a separate parish and a new rectory parsonage was built, again designed by Suter.
The first mention of a new church appeared at the Easter meeting on 27 April 1886 when a subscription list was proposed. Plans for a timber church with shingle roof to seat 400 were discussed with architect F.D.G Stanley. The brief was revised to seating for 250, as the initial design proved too expensive. New plans were shown at a meeting in December 1886 and were accepted by the Vestry. Tenders were called in January 1887 and local contractor W.G Gillam's tender of £800 was accepted. Construction was delayed, however, when Bishop William Webber requested a number of changes to the design, including the removal of doors planned for the north and south gable walls. Not all of his requests were able to be accommodated; nonetheless Bishop Webber laid the foundation stone on 5 August. The 1866 church was re-sited within the precinct to make way for the new church and was then used as a parish hall. This building was demolished in 1911.
The new church was informally opened with a service on 23 December 1888, however, the consecration of the church was not performed by Bishop Webber until 1 February 1890. The church at this time was of single skin timber construction with exposed bracing and studding on the exterior and a timber shingle roof. All the principal interior fittings were also designed by Stanley and made of cedar. F.D.G Stanley has been described as "the best known of all Queensland's early architect's because of the quality, diversity and extent of his work". He designed ten churches for the Anglican Church, five of which survive. Six of these were timber and St. David's Church, Allora is the only one that remains the property of the diocese. St. George's Anglican Church, Beenleigh (1875) is the only other surviving timber church of Stanley's design but is no longer within Anglican ownership.