ST GEORGE’S CHURCH
MAGILL, ADELAIDE ANGLICAN
PAUL SCOTT
St George’s Church is an Anglican Church in Magill, an Eastern suburb of the city of Adelaide in South Australia. It is a very old and historic Church, having celebrated its 175th birthday in 2023.
A satellite view and brief history of this Church are given below. The following set of links will enable quick access to various parts of the Church: just tap / click on the link.
SATELLITE VIEW
The satellite view shows the Church and its location in a large property on the corner of St Bernards Road and Church Road. Access is from St Bernards Road, and there is a large car park just South of the Church Hall. Behind the Church is a large historic cemetery.
We see that the Church has an east-west access with the sanctuary at the eastern end. This means that the liturgical directions which we use (for example, East with a capital letter denoting the orientation of the sanctuary) coincide with the geographical directions. The Church has a regular nave to the West (left), and a curious wider asymmetric addition to the East (right). From inside the Church this extension appears as North and South transepts, with a smaller North porch, and a chapel in the Northeast corner. Space to the Southeast corner is set aside as a sacristy.
We shall walk right around the outside of the Church in a clockwise direction, beginning at the lych gate (visible) on St Bernards Road, and then explore the interior, starting at the West end of the nave.
The Church has a large hall to the South with the Church office, and various meeting places. The Cemetery deserves a website of its own!
HISTORY
Years Built: 1847-48
Address: 43 St Bernards Road, Magill SA 5072
St George’s Church Magill claims the proud distinction of being the first Anglican Church consecrated in the colony of South Australia.
The land on which the Church was built was given by John Finlay Duff, Captain of the Barque Africaine. The foundation stone was laid on the 18th of January 1847 by the wife of Frederick Bayne Esq. of Stradbroke. The original building was completed in one year at a cost of 280 pounds, all from private subscription. Nearby creeks of Magill provided cobblestones to build its walls, and the beams and timbers for its roof are of pit sawn Blue Gum.
On the 30th of January 1848 His Lordship Bishop Augustus Short of Adelaide, consecrated St George’s, solemnly dedicating it for Christian worship before a crowded congregation far in excess of the two hundred and fifty people it was built to hold.
The earliest baptism was of the son of a butcher of Makgill (Magill’s original name) recorded on the 13th of February 1848. The earliest burial was recorded little more than a fortnight after the consecration of the Church. Only seven weeks after his arrival in South Australia, the infant daughter of Bishop Short was buried on the 16th of February. Her name was Caroline Phillippa Augusta Short. She was one year old. Following on were four more burials of children under three years of age.
The first marriage took place on the 21st of February 1849. We have third and fourth generations marrying in “the little country Church in the hamlet of Woodforde, Makgill”.
Still calling the devoted to services each Sunday is the original bell inscribed “Pybus, Adelaide, February 9th 1847”. It is the earliest recorded casting of a bronze bell in South Australia.
https://magillanglican.wordpress.com/activities/historical-group/
