St Mary's Church, Anglican church in Busselton, Australia.
St Mary's Church is a stone building with Norman architectural features situated beside a shaded graveyard planted with peppermint trees. The structure has limestone walls and contains early settler graves dating to the 1840s.
Construction began in 1844 with funds from England, making it possibly the oldest stone church in Western Australia. The project reflected the importance of the church in establishing this early colonial settlement.
The church takes its name from St Mary's Church in Portsea, England, where William Marchant Bussell, father of the Busselton settlers, served as curate. John Bussell and John Wollaston designed the building in a modified early Norman style modelled on the chapel at Winchester College. A jarrah pulpit dedicated to John Molloy was installed in 1909, and a porch commemorating John Bussell was dedicated in 1924.
The church stands on Peel Terrace in Busselton, about 200 km south of Perth. The graveyard beside it predates the building, with burials from 1843, and can be walked through; Georgiana Molloy lies beneath the church site and Frances Bussell in a vault under the chancel step. The jarrah floorboards laid in the 1840s were found sound and re-laid during the 1958 repairs.
The adjacent cemetery holds more than 390 documented graves, including those of notable settlers Georgiana Molloy and Frances Bussell. These burial sites provide a record of the people who shaped the early community.
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