ST MICHAEL’S CHURCH
BUNGAREE ANGLICAN
PAUL SCOTT
A brief history of this Church is given below. However, if you want to begin your tour of the Church immediately, tap / click on START . You can also access intermediate points in the tour by a tap / click on the following links:
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HISTORY
Year Built: 1864
Address: 431 Bungaree Road, Bungaree SA 5464
Admiral Edward Hawker was a God-fearing man and he asked that once his sons had settled, they put aside land for a church. After establishing Bungaree, the Hawker brothers contributed to the building of St Barnabas’ Church in Clare, but attending a service involved a 3 hour round trip by horse and buggy along poor tracks. Consequently, George Hawker read the Bible in the woolshed on Sundays and once this informal congregation numbered some 100 people, he decided it was time to build a church on the property.
Unlike the other buildings which had been built by farm labour as required, without any formal plans, George Hawker engaged his brother-in-law, the colonial architect Edward Hamilton to design the building.
Thomas Stalley, a skilled stone mason, was engaged to build the church. His family had a long association with the property – a son was later responsible for the masonry and plumbing during extensions to the woolshed, a daughter is buried in the cemetery and another married the studmaster’s son.
Like most of the buildings at Bungaree, the church was built of sandstone quarried on the property and roofed with red stringybark shingles. It was re-roofed with iron in 1882 but the original shingles can still be seen under the eaves.
The beautiful windows were handpainted by Edward Brooks, a talented painter, glazier and plumber based in Adelaide, and cousin to William Beare, the manager of Bungaree at the time. Some of these windows have been restored more recently by Daylesford artist Glenn Mack.
The decorative wrought iron gates from Milan were donated by Adelaide Hawker in 1950, replacing the original wooden gates that now stand at the far end of the Homestead Gardens. More recently a handrail has been added – this was constructed in the blacksmith shop on the property by Frank and Ray Bonner, with memorial plaques commemorating their relatives who had worked at Bungaree.
St Michael’s Church was opened and consecrated on 1st November 1864 by Bishop Short, and donated by G C Hawker to the parish in 1871. The church and its cemetery have served generations of the local community ever since, the ringing bell welcoming the congregation to regular services, as well as baptisms, funerals and weddings.
Bungaree Station is a picturesque rural property situated 140km from Adelaide in the Clare Valley. Established in 1841 by George Hawker it became the headquarters of an extensive sheep station with a village type complex of beautiful sandstone buildings, including the Church, Council Chambers, Store, Woolshed and Homestead. Today over 175 years later, Bungaree remains the home of the descendants and is outwardly unchanged since the early years.
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