Relocation & Restoration of St Stephen's Church - Rotary Club of ...

Relocation &Restoration ofSt Stephen’sChurch

St Stephen’s Church stood ona site in Old Taren Point Roadfor 62 years and had not beenused for 5 years following thecongregation’s merge withSt Philips to become theCaringbah AnglicanChurch

The Church was built fromrecycled material from theOld St Stephen’sPresbyterian Church inMacquarie Street, Sydney

It was named St Stephen’sChurch because it featureditems such as timber, internaldoors, etched glass andleadlight windows from the oldSt Stephen’s Church (100 plusyears old)

The building was heritagelisted and therefore couldnot be demolished

The building had beenvandalised and was in poorcondition

The Church was quarantininga large portion of land, andremoval of the Church wouldenable the property to besold, with the proceeds usedfor the betterment of theCommunity

The Taren Point PrimarySchool lackedaccommodation facilitiesfor school assembly, bandpractice, and communityinvolvement

The Rotary Club of Caringbah,as a community service,undertook to manage theProject and satisfy the interestof the Caringbah AnglicanChurch, the Taren PointPrimary School and variousregulating authorities

New concrete footings

Building mounted onspecial trailer

Building moved tointersection at theapproach to theTaren Point Bridge

Manoeuvred through theintersection

Across the exit from theBridge

And into the grounds of theSchool

Fences were dismantled,overhead cables protected

Without damage to theChurch or the environment

The Church wasmanoeuvred and supportedabove the footings in itsnew location

Foundation walls wereconstructed

The original foundationstone was relocated

The Church was loweredonto the new foundations

And the supporting trailerframe was removed

Landscaping, andrestoration of the Churchproceeded

Concrete paths, steps, newguttering, downpipes,plumbing, stormwaterdrains, and an absorptionpit were required

Underground electricalcabling, externalfloodlighting and newelectrical connections werecompleted

Window repairs,replacement of rottedtimber, preparation ofinternal and externalsurfaces, and painting of allsurfaces was completed

The School Bell, which wasthe original bell used by thefirst fire station inCaringbah, was restoredand mounted

This was a unique and verysatisfying communityproject that drew awonderful response from allthose involved, anddemonstrates‘Rotary in Action’

The relocation andrestoration of the Churchprovides a new use for thebuilding

A recent visit confirmed thepride the pupils and staffhave for this building whichhas become the Arts andCraft teaching facility and isin constant use

The Church was able to sellits land for in excess of$1 million,enabling them to expandtheir community support

Around 80 people representingassociates of CaringbahAnglican Church, CaringbahRotary Club, parents, friendsand teachers of Taren PointPrimary School, joined the 90pupils to acknowledge thecompletion of the Project

To show their appreciationthe school band played andthe pupils sang a song

Appropriate plaques wereaffixed to the buildingrecording the shift to thenew location