Albany 2026: WA’s oldest consecrated church St John’s Anglican Church has been a fixture for almost 200 years

Standing under a clutch of peppermint trees is WA’s oldest consecrated church, having borne witness to almost two centuries of weddings, funerals and community celebrations.

Classed by the Heritage Council of WA as a “fine example of Old Colonial Gothick Picturesque architecture”, St John’s Anglican Church was built largely on the back of volunteer labour, using granite believed to have be quarried from Mt Clarence and Mt Melville.

It was only 15 years after the arrival of the Brig Amity that construction began, with a public meeting in April 1841 kicking off plans to build an Anglican church for the growing settlement.

Having secured the block at the corner of Peels Place and York Street, parishioners such as John McKail — for whom the suburb was later named — began to cut sheoak shingles for the roof, complete the stonework, and haul the timber.

Unfortunately, economic difficulties of the 1840s brought construction to a standstill and it was not until 1848, when a government grant was secured to complete the roof and support a clergyman, that work could resume.

When the Reverend John Rammsden Wollaston arrived in town on July 8, 1848 as the region’s first clergymen, ready to consecrate the church, he found a building without a finished roof, floor or windows.

He also noted another error.

“Church progressing but a great mistake has been made in placing it the wrong way,” he wrote, referencing its unusual east-facing facade, where Christian churches usually face west.

He consecrated a mostly complete building on October 25, with most of the townsfolk in attendance, religious denomination notwithstanding.

A parsonage, rectory, gallery and the distinctive tower were added later, with the striking parapet of the latter becoming one of its most distinctive features.

Among later additions were beautiful stained-glass windows, including one in memorial to King Edward VII in 1912; the Lady Chapel in 1961 which contains a stone from St Paul’s Cathedral in London dislodged during World War II bombings; and the bell in 1854.

The bell, which has the inscription “their sound has gone out into all lands and their words into the ends of the world” in Latin, was a gift from the Reverend Wollaston.

It is rung before every service, and can be accessed only by a ladder through a tiny trapdoor.

These days it is Reverend Canon Karen Cave who stewards the church, having held the role of priest-in-charge since 2019.

For a brief spell during the COVID-19 era, Reverend Cave governed her flock via Facebook live stream, delivering sermons via microphone and iPad.

It is under her caring eye, and with the help of the volunteers lovingly dubbed “garden gnomes”, that St John’s continues to be a safe haven for many in Albany.