Catholic Church of Christ the King, Catholic church building in Taralga, Australia.
The Catholic Church of Christ the King is a red brick Inter-War Romanesque building about 31 metres long and 12 metres wide, with 31 round-headed arched window openings. Its west front has a sandstone wheel window with sixteen spokes above a porch with spiral pillars and carved oak-leaf motifs. Inside, six bays under a barrel-vaulted ceiling lead to a cream marble altar and reredos.
Sydney Smith of Ogg & Serpell designed the church on 17 January 1933, and Clement Glancey completed the drawings. R. M. Bowcock built it in 1934, finishing and furnishing it in six months. An Irish-Catholic rural community funded it after the Great Depression, and it joined the NSW State Heritage Register on 30 April 2004.
The Solemnity of Christ the King had only recently been proclaimed when the church was built, and a stained-glass window shows Christ standing over Australia, while St Patrick's crozier is planted in Ireland. Side altars are dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes and St Joseph, with shrines to St Thérèse of Lisieux and St Francis Xavier, the two patrons of Australia as a mission country.
The church stands on Macarthur Street in Taralga, on the site marked by its red brick exterior and the sandstone wheel window above the west porch. The nave runs west to east, so the sanctuary windows face the sunrise and the Great West Window faces sunset. The building is a local landmark visible from across the town and its surroundings.
The church was built by a community determined to create a sacred space despite economic hardship. This effort shows how faith remained a driving force in this remote rural area.
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