by ROB MELLETT
& WENDY CREIGHTON
THE Ipswich Catholic community plans to move the heritage-listed St Brigid’s Church and hall at Rosewood and demolish the presbytery.
It’s a $2 million bid to solve the structural and drainage issues that led to the closure of the 112-year-old church in 2020, due to safety concerns.
Plans to relocate the main building 20 metres to the east are outlined in the documents accompanying a development application to the Ipswich City Council.
The application will also have to be sanctioned by the Department of Environment and Science and the Queensland Heritage Council as the church and the site on which the buildings stand is heritage listed.
The proposed move will be no mean feat as the church is the largest wooden structure in the Southern Hemisphere.
But even before the 2020 closure of the church, the Catholic community was aware it was facing a multi-million-dollar project to secure the building from further damage caused by subsidence and to correct the existing structural failures.
The solution chosen, based on the information in the application documents, is to relocate the church building 20 metres to the east. The move will position it on the site where the recently restumped church hall now stands.
In turn, the hall will be relocated to the current location of the church, after the site has been fully prepared.
This is the solution chosen by the local Catholic community with the backing of the Brisbane Archdiocese and a team of engineers and other experts.
“Advice from the engineers and builders engaged on this project suggest that a ‘clean’ site is preferred for the restumping of the church building, to allow new stumps to reach a sufficient depth to fix the issues of the reactive soils at the site,” it was noted in the application documents.
It’s also argued in the documents that the church hall should be retained due to its heritage values and its use by the congregation as a community hall. The building was the original St Brigid’s Catholic Church, which was officially opened in August 1885 by Bishop Robert Dunne. The building was also used as the first St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School.
The current St Brigid’s church was officially opened by Bishop James Duhig in February 1910.
He had been appointed Archbishop of Brisbane by the time he officially opened the “handsome, wooden, 14 room presbytery” in April 1916. That building was completely destroyed by fire in February 1948.
In July 1949, the Archbishop again travelled to Rosewood to open the new presbytery, which was not built on as grand lines as its predecessor.
It is this building, and its nearby garage, that the Ipswich Catholic community hope to gain approval to demolish.
“This is seen as the most viable and feasible solution to the various problems that have plagued the church building for many years,” it was noted in the application documents.
“It will be expensive. The presbytery and garage have not been used by the church for many years and is unlikely to in the future.
“The relocation of the church will allow the repairs to the church building that are urgently needed to proceed.
“This will enable the church to open and be used again by the Catholic community in Rosewood, the wider Brisbane Archdiocese and visitors to Rosewood, together with the church hall in a closer relationship with one another.”
While the relocation of the buildings is anticipated to cost $2 million, further funds are expected to be needed to repair the existing internal damage in the church caused by subsidence and the two severe hailstorms on October 31, 2021.
• Parish Priest Father Stephen Bliss, in an interview with the Ipswich Tribune early this year, estimated that St Brigid’s Church was on a ‘lean’ that had progressed to about 20cm off centre when it was closed in February 2020. He said the church had been built over a mine on reactive heavy black soil and this, combined with drainage issues, has caused internal and external structural issues.
