St Andrews Uniting Church, Bundaberg, Heritage-listed church in Bundaberg, Australia
St Andrew's Church is a brick building at the corner of Maryborough and Woongarra Streets in Bundaberg Central. Architect Lange L. Powell designed it in a broad free Gothic style adapted to the subtropical climate, with openable bay windows and eaves carried clear of the main supports. Powell oriented the church along Maryborough Street so the eastern carillon tower dominates the view.
The present church replaced an 1882 Presbyterian church on land bought in 1881. From 1925 the Women's Guild ran a New Church Fund, raising A£3,500 with the Girls Auxiliary and Committee of Management, plus A£2,000 in six months of 1931 and a A£3,500 loan. The foundation stone was laid on 24 October 1931 and the church opened on 3 September 1932, costing over £12,000.
The name St Andrew's comes from the Presbyterian tradition, and the church kept it through the 1977 Uniting Church union and the 2004 sale to the Seventh-day Adventists. Inside, much of the furniture is silky oak, including three rows of dais seats and two carved chairs, one for the Moderator at Communion and one for the pulpit. The communion table and pulpit carry carved Presbyterian emblems, and the baptismal font came from the 1882 church on the site.
The building remains accessible to visitors and features strategically placed windows and eaves that provide cooling during warm months. Its location at a main intersection makes it easy to reach and identify.
The carillon's tenor bell carries the burning bush, the Presbyterian symbol, and the bells were cast by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough, England, donated by Miss Amy Ethel Maud Peirson in memory of her family. St Andrew's was reputedly the first Presbyterian church in Australia with a carillon, and the bells can be heard across the central business district.
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