Corner of Waldeck and Church Streets
A public meeting held in 1866 resolved that an Anglican Church and cemetery be built. When Mrs Eliza Moore arrived in Dongara six years later, she wrote to her father, a congregational minister in Perth, that “there is no church, no school, nothing”. On her father’s advice, she established a Sunday School. Bishop Hale visited Dongara in 1873, conducting a confirmation ceremony in Dongara School and consecrating the cemetery. The foundation stone was laid in 1884, jointly by Miss Clementine Nairn, Mrs Jane Plester and Mrs Eliza Moore, and the building was consecrated by the Rev Harry Dutton. The building was designed by Francis Bird, an important colonial architect based in Perth, and was built by WH Linthorne. The stone font was installed in 1913 in memory of S and F Burges. Some pews have been made from ships’ timbers collected from the beach, and the bell which hangs from a timber cross member in the garden was used at Fremantle Gaol to remind convict ticket of leavers that they had to be indoors by 10pm. It came from Mrs Eliza Moore’s father, Rev Johnson, who was Chaplain at Fremantle Gaol between 1860 and 1870. The stained-glass altar window was broken by a falling tree and was replaced in 1980 with a window depicting John the Baptist designed and made by the renowned Gowers & Brown of Greenmount.
Reverend Barry May in front of new stained glass window, 1980 I IRME1250
