New South Wales

The first record of a Baptist meeting in Australia which we can trace is the following notice, which appeared in the “Sydney Monitor,” of April 27, 1831

“A Mr. McCabe has commenced preaching in the long room of the Rose and Crown Inn, Castlereagh street. On Sunday last (24th) a few persons of the Baptist persuasion attended.” The name is doubtless a misprint for Rev. John McKaeg, and the site was that now occupied by the “Daily Telegraph” building, at the corner of King-street. Subsequently, services were held in a room in King-street, and when that proved too small, in a room in Hart’s Building, Pitt-street, two doors south of Market-street, where, presumably, a church was formed, although no record of its formation can now be traced.

The first baptisms took place in Woolloomooloo Bay, at the foot of Bourke-street. In March, 1832, application was made to the Governor for a grant of land, and the site upon which the Bathurst-street Church now stands was given. A building fund was started at a public meeting held September 28, 1832, and a month afterwards 50,000 bricks and some timber were purchased. Delays then occurred, and about the beginning of 1834 Mr. McKaeg had got into financial difficulties, and his ministry terminated.

The assumption that a church had been formed is borne out by the fact that a request for a pastor was sent to the Baptist Missionary Society, London, but the London records contain no reference to the incident. In response to the request, Rev. John Saunders sailed on July 24th, and arrived in Sydney on December 1st, 1834. Services were held in a room attached to St. James’ Church, between Castlereagh-street and Elizabeth-street, which afterwards was used as the Girls’ High School. An interview with the Governor confirmed the grant of land at Bathurst-street, and building operations commenced on November 26, 1835, the church being opened on September 23, 1836. It cost the modest sum of £1400. The adjacent schoolroom was not erected until ten years later.

The membership of the first church seems to have lapsed, for one is recorded as being formed on November 17th, 1836. Since this included several who were not Baptists, it was formed upon an “open membership” basis, but in 1840, after the transfer of certain members to Pitt-street Congregational Church, the basis was changed to “close” membership, with “open” Communion. Considerable importance was then attached to doctrinal questions, and the property was vested in Trustees for “The Society of Particular Baptists.”

For the information of modern readers it may be explained that the word “particular” refers to belief in “particular” redemption, one of the cardinal points of Calvinistic theology. “Strict” in this connection refers to the restriction of Communion to those baptized, and sometimes to those ‘‘of the same faith and order.’’

In relation to Baptists in the Old Country, it is sufficient to point out that Rev. John Saunders represented not the Strict Baptists, but those who constituted the Baptist Missionary Society. Mr. Saunders remained pastor for eleven years, and was succeeded in 1848 by Rev. John Ham, of Melbourne, who served until his death, four and a half years later.

The church again applied to the B.M.S. for a pastor, and Rev. James Voller was selected. Leaving in June, 1853, the ship was wrecked on Amsterdam Island, but Mr. Voller eventually reached Sydney on December 30th, 1853, and exercised his ministry for seventeen years.

About 1850, Mr. William Hopkins Carey, a student who had been brought out by Dr. Lang, started services at Parramatta, where a church was formed on April 9th, 1851, and Mr. Carey was ordained the following week. Rev. Phillip Lane, who arrived in 1855, served the Parramatta Church for one year and then proceeded to the Hunter River, where he formed the Hinton Church on September 17th, 1857, and one at Maitland in 1861. Services were carried on for several years at Smithfield, in part at least by members of Bathurst-street, be-tore a church was formed there, in 1857.

In 1858 a small church was formed at Kiama, meeting in the Court House. The church at Newtown was formed by Rev. Dr. Hobbs. on June 3rd, 1860. In September, 1862, a few Baptist families gathered around Rev. Robert Moneyment, and met in the Assembly Rooms, Woolloomooloo, the church numbering 25 members. In October, 1863, Rev. Frederick Hibberd arrived, and became its pastor. During his pastorate this church moved to the Masonic Hall, York-street. In December, 1867, Rev. Allan W. Webb became pastor, and the following year the church became housed at Harris-street. Newcastle and Wallsend churches were established in 1864, and at Araluen, then a prosperous goldfield on the South Coast, one was formed on December 31st, 1865.

As already mentioned, Baptists in those days were sharply divided on doctrinal questions, and some Baptists of the Strict and Particular order met in the early ‘fifties in the schoolroom of Mr. Joseph Kemish, in Macquarie-street, and afterwards in a room in Kent-street, under the ministry of Mr. Simeon Emery. In 1858, the congregation of what was known as the Goulburn-street Church was dissolved, and Mr. Emery and his congregation occupied that building.

Pastor John Bunyan McCure succeeded Mr. Emery, and on July 4th, 1861, formed a church of 49 members. In 1863 the church in Castlereagh-street was erected, and for twenty-one years this was the scene of the labours of Pastor Daniel Allen. On the building being sold, the present church, in Belvoir-street, was erected with the proceeds.

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