Malvern Presbyterian Church, Melbourne, Heritage-listed Presbyterian church in Malvern, Australia.
Malvern Presbyterian Church is a brick church building in Malvern featuring design elements from the Arts and Crafts movement. The interior displays Gothic tracery windows, timber furnishings, and an auditorium capable of seating around 520 worshippers.
The first Presbyterian congregation in Malvern opened a wooden church on Glenferrie Road on 10 October 1886. In 1904 Robert Haddon was commissioned to design a larger church at 163 Wattletree Road; the foundation stone was laid by elder and Caulfield mayor Charles Duplan Lloyd. The wooden building was moved to the new site as a Sunday school, and the current church opened on 27 July 1906, costing £4,738 plus £1,800 for its Fincham organ.
The congregation's name and identity trace to Scottish and Ulster Presbyterian settlers who gathered in local homes from the early 1880s before the first wooden church opened in 1886. Rev Donald Macrae Stewart, minister from 1903 until his death in 1935, left in 1915 to serve as an army chaplain in Egypt and at Gallipoli. The congregation produced three Moderators of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria.
The church stands at 163 Wattletree Road, with two entrance lobbies flanking the front of the building on a shallow site. The auditorium measures 80 by 42 feet with a 56-foot transept, and its sloping floor gives better views of the pulpit. A choir room and vestry lie to the left, a kirk session meeting room to the right.
The 1906 church was fitted out as a "total work of art": the organ came from George Fincham & Sons of Richmond and the stained glass from Auguste Fischer. The Argus reported the final cost as £4738, plus £1800 for the organ, against a budget of £3000.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,521 contributors worldwide.
