New beginnings: the early days of St Johns Anglican Church

ST John’s is the only religious building in Heathcote still standing on the original site granted by the government in the early 1850s.

The first Anglican services were conducted in a tent on the McIvor diggings, but a small stone building, then known as Christ Church, was built in 1854.

A rough cottage was also erected to serve as a parsonage and its first residents were Mr and Mrs Cooper Searle, although their tenancy was short lived.

Mr Searle left the district after the death of his wife in September 1854.

He was succeeded by the Reverend Theodore Budd, an evangelical priest with a keen interest in social welfare.

Budd was instrumental in the formation of the local Mechanic’s Institute, but his time in Heathcote was not easy.

When he left in May 1867, a McIvor Times editorial described him as a “gentleman singularly unfitted for mixing in business and secular matters; a weak physical constitution, combined with excessive veneration and benevolence, rendered him incapable of engaging in actual or intellectual warfare, or rendered him an easy captive to his assailants.”

But it went on to note that “he could and did play the part of the Good Samaritan better than anyone we ever had the pleasure of knowing; we believe that Mr Budd often spent in charity that which he needed to support himself.”

It also described Budd’s congregation, with whom he often clashed, as “peevish” and unsupportive.

The church building itself was also problematic and had required major works in the late 1850s, which had left the parish in debt.

On 13 December 1867 the McIvor Times reported that £300 had been raised locally for a new church, and that this amount was to be matched by the Victorian Government.

It noted “that one hundred pounds of the sum collected had been contributed by the firm of Messrs Moore and Co. of this town, and neither had their liberality stopped here, but they have also, when the building is in a state to receive it, promised a good bell of considerable compass.”

The new church, to be known as St Johns, was designed by prominent Bendigo architects Vahland and Getzschmann, and the McIvor Times was happy to report that it would “be of good brick with stone dressings, to accommodate about 350 persons, and from the excellent quality of our material, we may expect to see in the course of a few months, steady progress made towards the erection of an edifice which will do credit to the town and those who have so generously subscribed to it.”

It was completed in 1869 and the Bishop of Melbourne, Dr Charles Perry, presided at the opening services in October of that year.

The building process had been largely trouble free, except for the bell tower.

There was not enough room for the tongue of the donated bell to swing and the contractor, the ironically named Mr Bell, cut a portion of it off and made up the weight by placing lead above the hammer.

The McIvor Times noted he was “no tintinabulist” and that “this, as a matter of course, has not improved the tone or power of the bell.”

Once the new church was in use, the old Christ Church building became a hall and it was officially renamed Budd Hall in 1894 in honour of Theodore Budd.

It was renovated in the early 1970s when the original stone frontage was replaced with the current brick facade.