St. Thomas Anglican Church

Warrandyte Road, Langwarrin

Church with hall at rear.

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History
The early history of St. Thomas was associated with the establishment of the new township of Langwarrin near the railway station in the 1880s and with the nearby Langwarrin Military Camp. In 1915 Anglican services at the new township were held in the Langwarrin State School. In that year five acres of land were purchased on the north-east corner of Warrandyte and North Roads. This is the site of the present St. Thomas Church. In 1918, it was proposed to move a building, the Church Hall at the Military Reserve, on to the Warrandyte Road site. Anglican services had been conducted at the camp in this League of Soldiers Friends Church Hall since 1915.

A Langwarrin parishioner in 1959, Dr Neville Shute Norway, the well-known novelist, was particularly interested in the Camp and the Anglican Church's associations with it. In April 1919, the Church Hall was taken down and sections of it stored on the Warrandyte Road site. This small hall (27 x 18 feet) was re-erected and dedicated on 2 November 1920 as the Church of St. Thomas. Modifications to the original building were considerable: "the entire structure was re-lined, more appropriate windows were installed, and every effort made to provide a building suitable for its purpose".1

This building now serves as the Sunday School for the new Church of St. Thomas the Apostle which was dedicated on 29 August 1964 by the Most Rev. Frank Woods, Archbishop of Melbourne. The architect was Wiston Widdows. The vicar at the time was the Rev. P.D. Kissock.2

Description
This is an unusual church design but characteristic of its era, exhibiting some Frank Lloyd Wright inspired characteristics which were also favoured by local architects, Chancellor & Patrick, but also showing a marked resemblance to some South-East Asian ethnic hut designs. Inspirations from both Wright and Asian vernacular architecture were fashionable in the 1960s but in this case paralleled with the desire by church designers to break from the constrictions of conservative Gothic Revival forms which had dominated church architecture until past the Second War. The walls are clad with a Moorooduc rubble stone set in a matrix of cement, with the steel deck roof shaped in a particularly mannered form. The weatherboard hall at the rear has been altered but retains its traditional form.

The foundation stone notes that the architects (in association) were Wiston Widows and David Caldwell while the builder was John Walt. The stone was laid 8/9/1963.

Condition
The hall has been altered but the church remains externally near intact.

Context
The church is located at a major corner in Langwarrin, adjacent to new housing and shopping developments.

Significance
Because of its elaborate design, St. Thomas Church is historically significant as an example of the importance of the Anglican Church within the Langwarrin district. The hall also has early associations of the First World War era of the Langwarrin Military Camp, now the Langwarrin Flora and Fauna Reserve.

The church has Regional architectural significance as a highly mannered Modernist church design from an era which meant a rebirth in hitherto very conservative church architecture throughout the country. The use of local stone in the church walls and an almost Fijian or south-east Asian hut form followed the styles of the period which often focused on ethnic sources for their designs. This emphasis relates to the parallel Frank Lloyd Wright inspirations among peninsula architects such as Chancellor & Patrick which also drew on simple ethnic building forms.

Boundaries
Extent of current allotment, including the church interior and exterior, the hall exterior, and public views to both buildings.