Wesley Uniting Church, Broken Hill

Wiljakali (Wilyagali) land There were some fifteen groups of Aboriginal people traditionally living in the huge area bisected by the Darling River in the western plains of NSW. The principal group around Broken Hill was the Wiljakali. Their occupation of the area is thought to have been intermittent due to the scarcity of water. The same scarcity of water made the area unattractive for European occupiers and traditional Aboriginal ways of life continued longer there than in many other parts of NSW, into the 1870s. As Aboriginal people were increasingly deprived of the full range of their traditional options, they were obliged to come into stations or missions in times of drought to avoid starvation. By the 1880s many Aboriginal people were working on stations or within the mining industry. Some people ended up living in reservations created under the Aborigines' Protection Act 1909. The influenza epidemic of 1919 had a further significant impact upon the indigenous population, as did the twentieth century federal government policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families. A township was soon surveyed and Broken Hill was initially known as a shanty town with an entire suburb named "Canvas Town" for its temporary buildings. The Foundation stone was laid for the Wesleyan Church on the corner of Sulphide and Cobalt Streets, Broken Hill on 31 July 1888. Those involved in the laying ceremony were Mrs Charles Drew, who laid the foundations stone, Rev. S. Rossiter and Rev. A. S. J. Fry. Mr Hebbard, secretary to the trustees, placed a glass jar with documents pertaining to the building underneath the foundation stone. A little more than four months later, on 9 December 1888, the Rev. James Haslam, Chairman of the South Australian Methodist Conference, officially opened the church. The building measuring had a ceiling height of and a spire high. The original design had provision for a gallery, however, the seating capacity at the time of building was already 600 people. In October 1889 the large stone lecture hall behind the Wesleyan Church was officially opened. The total cost of the church and hall was A£6,000, including the buildings, church furnishings and vestments. The first Willyama High School commenced instruction in the Wesleyan Hall and continued there for five years. In 1895-6 the hall was used as the first primary school while the Burke Ward school was being built. During the 1920s the short gallery fronting the choir loft in the church was removed along with pews in the body of the church to allow for the choir to be held in the body of the church. In 1963 for its 75th anniversary, the church had works done at a cost of A£1,200. This included installation of a wooden cross in length. It is assumed that at this time the choir loft was bricked in to make the place where the new cross was hung. In June 1981 regular worship services at Wesley Uniting Church were ceased. From November 1986 to December 1987 some restorations were carried out on the buildings. These included the removal of the bricked in archway to expose the original choir loft. These works were designed to bring the group back as close as possible with the original layout of the buildings. In 1988 the interior of the Wesleyan Church Hall featured in a commercial in which the famous artist of Broken Hill, Pro Hart, slapped food onto a carpet to create a painting of a dragonfly (which in the narrative of the commercial was successfully wiped off by a cleaning lady). This has been described as "one of the most popular TV commercials ever made in Australia" (Groves). A slap of blue paint remains on the exterior brick work of the hall near its entrance to Sulphide Street. Although on 31 July 1988, on the anniversary of its centenary, the Wesley Uniting Church was rededicated, by 20 August 1995 the last Wesleyan service was held there. Two months later, in October 1996, worship at the Broken Hill Uniting Church was transferred to the church, which was renamed the "Wesleyan Uniting Church". The church and its hall remains in religious use by the Uniting Church. == Description ==

The Wesleyan Uniting Church Group consists of the Wesley Hall and Wesley Church. With the church's founding stone laid in 1888, the group is historically important for its close connection with Broken Hill's early history, dating only from the commencement of mining operations by BHP in 1885. The church and its hall are built in rough hewn stone with brick trim. Located on a corner site near the centre of town, the group is a key streetscape element and local landmark. The Wesley Church is designed in a Victorian Gothic Revival style based on a symmetrical cruciform plan modified to form an octagon in the centre. This central structure is supported internally on four trefoil iron columns with foliate columns at the crossing. The walls are built of local rough hewn stone with brick trim, in this case brick buttresses and brick surrounds to openings. There is a string course running across the walls at middle height. In keeping with the Gothic style the church has parapetted gables and its windows have pointed arch heads. The roof is clad with corrugated iron. A feature of the building is a slender, octagonal spire with ventilated shaft. Internal walls are plastered and the ceiling is timber boarded. The Wesley Hall's design incorporates simple Gothic forms and also some Romanesque influence. Like the adjacent church it is constructed of rough hewn stone with brick trim; the trim is in the form of brick quoins and brick surrounds to doors and windows. There is a central gabled section flanked by a skillion roofed section to either side. The roof is clad with corrugated iron, as are the gable apex and the vertical roof steps between the gable roof and the skillions. On the main facade there are two doors with flanking windows to their outer sides, together with a central window placed higher on the gabled wall. All these openings are of the pointed arch type. The side walls have rounded arch windows, and above these are four paned clerestory windows. Internally, posts with curved brackets support the gabled section of the roof. The internal side of the roof is lined with timber. There is a modest, recent extension housing a kitchen at the rear of the hall. There is a stone, brick and iron fence along part of the street frontage to Cobalt and Sulphide Streets and a church sign. A narrow block of land beside the church on Cobalt Street was recently purchased, allowing space for a driveway to the rear of the property. The church was reported to be in good physical condition as at 11 August 2004. == Heritage listing ==

Dating from 1888, just three years after the founding of Broken Hill as a mining settlement in 1885, the Wesley Uniting Church and Hall Group is of State significance for its associations with the pioneering days of Broken Hill. It demonstrates the early appearance of Methodism and provides evidence of the strong temperance movement of the late nineteenth century in contrast with the town's "reputation for boisterousness, heavy drinking [and] militant unionism". The Wesley Church is also of State aesthetic significance for its austere and intact Victorian Gothic design, being built of rough hewn stone with a tall central spire, a key streetscape element and local landmark. '''The place has a strong or special association with a person, or group of persons, of importance of cultural or natural history of New South Wales's history.''' The presence of the Wesley Uniting Church and Hall is of local significance for demonstrating the early and substantial appearance of Methodism in Broken Hill within three years of the commencement of mining operations in 1885. Methodism may be associated with the large numbers of Cornish miners attracted to the town from South Australia and other mining areas in the Barrier Ranges. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. The Wesley Church and Wesley Hall are of State aesthetic significance for their Victorian Gothic design, built of rough hewn stone with brick trim, a form of construction more commonly found in the arid localities of South Australia than in NSW. The slender octagonal spire and distinctive stonework help make this a key streetscape element and local landmark, situated opposite the town's main recreational park. The place has strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. Wesley Uniting Church Group is of local social significance to the people of Broken Hill as the seat of Methodism in the Barrier region and secondly a venue for many social activities. The Church Group has been a part of the broader community of Broken Hill and remains today a functioning church. The hall is of social significance to people who fondly remember the Pro Hart carpet commercial of 1988, which was filmed inside. The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. Wesley Uniting Church Group is of local significance for its research potential to demonstrate the techniques of stone and brick walling and for its complexity of design and structure with the vernacular materials used. The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. Wesley Uniting Church Group is of State significance for its rarity as one of the earliest groups of church buildings to be erected west of the Darling River, dating from 1888, and for the rarity of its construction materials featuring rough hewn stone with brick trim. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places/environments in New South Wales. Wesley Uniting Church Group is of State significance for its representative qualities as a pioneering church in the far west of New South Wales. == See also ==