Christ Church Anglican Church

A plaque records: Christ Church - The foundations of this church were laid on - 25.8.1859 and was opened 7.10.1860 - The church was consecrated on 30.10.1861 - The original Christ Church was opened on - the same site - On Christmas Day 1844 and was demolished in 1859. - This plaque was erected on 8 August, 1985 - Rev M Cockayne? ~ Rev R ???????,  Wardens ????????? (Unable to read the three names), Donated by ????????

Two memorial plaques record: (1)To the Glory of God - and in Loving Memory of - William Henry Barber - A faithful worshipper in Christ Church - who died on 20th April 1970. Aged 79 years - The gift of his wife Mary and Family (2) The Altar Candles in Christ Church - are for the Greater Glory of God - and in remembrance of - Mary Ann Barber, 1891 ~ 1976 - Faithful worshipper and communicant - A gift of members of her family.

A plaque records: This plaque was unveiled on Sunday 10th October 2010 - by the Bishop of Canberra & Goulburn - The Rt Rev Stuart Robinson - to commemorate the sesquicentenary - of the first service in Christ Church - on Sunday 7th October 1860. (Names of Rector, Associate Priest, Deacon, Priest, AFP Chaplain, Deacon and Wardens could not be read.)

An information board records: The first Christ Church in Queanbeyan was a small rubblestone structure erected in 1842-44. After the Anglo-Portuguese clergyman, the Reverend Alberto Dias Soares, was appointed Rector of Queanbeyan, he determined to build a larger and more ornate church. With the assistance of the church's eventual builder, Daniel Jordan, Soares designed a new Christ Church in 1859. Jordan erected the building in 1959-60 and it opened, lacking a spire, on 7 October 1860. The 53.4 metre spire was completed by Goulburn contractors Allan McLean and Donald Ross in August the following year. The church was consecrated by the Bishop of Sydney Frederic Barker, DD, on 30 October 1861. - Standing in the church grounds is the former Christ Church School. Soares' prededessor as Rector, the Reverend Edward Smith, had established the school - the first in Queanbeyan - in 1843 and, in about 1850, James Hutchison erected the eastern or lower part of the school building. Soares had a large new schoolroom built to his own design into the western end of the building in 1864-65. The school closed at the end of 1870 and, after several short-lived attempts to revive it, it eventually came to serve as a Sunday School. - On the Rutledge Street frontage stands one of Queanbeyan's oldest structures, the rubblestone stables built for Reverend Smith in the 1840s, while nearby is the large rectory that was designed by Soares and erected in the early 1870s. The grounds of the church were planted with mature trees from George Campbell's Duntroon Estate and the Botanic Gardens in Sydney.