For the full table of contents and a PDF of the booklet, which includes photos, see the Parish History 1888–1968.
Conclusion
And now a short summary of what has been learnt in the course of this history.
We have seen the record of the growth and development of the parish from the conception of a church in 1888, its opening in 1889, as part of Toowong parish, its early infancy from 1890 when it was formally established, to its present fully adult life.
The parish of St. Andrew, Indooroopilly began in 1890 with a mere handful of people worshipping in a timber building that cost £320 ($640 of our currency today) to build.
Today there are 1,600 families on the parish roll with approximately 8,000 adherents.
The old timber church was erected mainly for a Sunday School and for the temporary services of the church, on a half acre block of land presented to the diocese by Mr. Graham Lloyd Hart with the condition that a brick church would ultimately be erected. This proposed brick church was designed to cost £1,400 ($2,800 of our currency).
Our new War Memorial Church of brick has cost $62,000 in addition to $18,000 for the columbarium and vestries above it; and with the four daughter churches (1) of the Good Shepherd, Brookfield; (2) St. Peter’s, Moggill Road, and (3) the Holy Spirit, Kenmore; (4) the recently dedicated St. Michael’s and All Angels, Moggill, makes our parish property well over $100,000. The parish has been served by 5 rectors, at least 5 interim priests, and 3 others as assistants besides several students now fully ordained priests. In addition we have had 5 lay readers, only 2 being in active service today, and they each have a special licence from the Archbishop to administer the chalice at a communion service if and when required.
There is a short biographical sketch of each of the five rectors as well as a list of curates and those in interim charge.
There was neither parish hall until 1912 nor rectory until 1918, and today the total number of parish buildings is three new brick churches, five old timber churches and one small hut as well as the rectory and the curates residence at Kenmore.
The life of the parish has been divided into three eras:— (1) 1889-1930; (2) 1930-1959; (3) 1959 to 1968.
At one stage each of the daughter churches controlled her own finances, but today all monies from the vast parish of 44 square miles, are under the control of the rector and the church wardens of St. Andrew’s
The cost of all buildings has been met. but there is a bank overdraft of $32,000 (approx.) and a diocesan council loan of $20,000.
With an annual income of $36,000 we are able to cope with financial difficulties as they arise; and all this is largely due to three factors — (1) the phenomenal growth of suburban life during the last ten years; (2) the Wells Organisation planned-giving programmes; (3) the driving force of the fifth rector — the Reverend Michael A. Paxton-Hall.
During the first era 1889-1930, the first daughter church was built at Brookfield in 1892, largely at the instigation of the Reverend A. R. Rivers (later Dean of Hobart), and in 1912 the old parish hall was built in River view Terrace. The reason for this is stated in chapter 5. In 1918 came the Rectory, also explained in that chapter. In 1923 a monthly celebration of Holy Communion began in the Chelmer School of Arts.
During the second era 1930-1959 services at Chelmer were held twice a month until 1940, when the lovely Church of St. David was dedicated by Archbishop Wand. In 1946 St. David’s became a separate parish.
In 1936 the old Loyal Orange Lodge of the Moggill Road was bought and somewhat remodelled to become the old St. Peter’s church which was dedicated by Archbishop Wand in 1937.
Services were held regularly with a monthly communion service and a weekly Evensong. The latter was carried on by Mr. T. C. Brooks, a lay reader who first proposed the formation of a mission church in that area. He was assisted by other lay readers.
He left the parish in 1942 but the services were continued with the help of lay readers and students from St. Francis’ College.
In 1957 Canon Shand, recently retired from St. Luke’s, Toowoomba, was invited by Archbishop Halse to help in the parish. He took charge of St. Peter’s and in 1959 the committee of the church, instigated by the Canon, raised funds for a new church or hall-cum-church which was dedicated by the Archbishop in December, 1959. The old church was moved nearer to Moggill Road in land previously purchased on the corner of Moggill Road and Rylatt Street.
All this was done independently of the mother church.
The third era began with the advent of the Reverend Michael A. Paxton-Hall in June, 1959; it was not long before he discovered the weakness as well as the strength of the parish.
One of the first decisions made under his guidance was the invitation to the “Wells Organisation to enter the parish and conducted a planned-giving programme.
Much of the success in this era is the direct or the indirect results of the three programmes conducted in 1960, 1963 and 1966 (this last one is in its third year of planning) .
In February, 1960, the great work began. A number of men, many of whom, had been interested in the “Aid the Aged” appeal in 1958, offered to help in the canvass of the parish for pledges. A loyalty dinner was held in Finney’s Restaurant in the city, at which the women of the parish did a splendid job as hostesses.
Then the campaign began. A target of £25,000 ($50,000) over a period of 150 weeks was set and $47,000 was reached. A second campaign in 1963 reached $82,000 and a third in 1966 exceeded the set target of $80,000. The loyalty dinners of the second and third campaigns were held in the Refectory of the Queensland University.
During 1960 Operation Roll Call resulted in an enrolment of 1,000 families in the parish register. In 1961, Operation Dovetail, a partial canvass to bring in St. Peter’s pledgers added another 100 families; this brought together many families in the western area of the parish as well.
In 1962, Operation Contact introduced a plan of 11 zones each with a captain and lieutenants to report any needy cases of clerical assistance.
In 1966, Operation Doorknock was very successful in obtaining funds for the Tufnell Homes.
Another important decision was to have the finances of the whole parish under the control of the Rector and the Wardens of the mother church. Previous to this, the daughter churches, chiefly St. Peter’s had more or less managed their own affairs. During the last ten years the lovely hall-cum-church of St. Peter was dedicated by Archbishop Halse in December, 1959, land was bought at Kenmore, and the unused church of the Holy Spirit, West Toowong, was bought, erected on the recently acquired land at Kenmore and dedicated by Bishop Dixon on Whitsunday, 1960. Then in 1965 our own beautiful St. Andrew’s was dedicated by Archbishop Strong on the 4th of September, 1965 and the new Church of the Holy Spirit at Kenmore on the 26th of August, 1966, also by His Grace, the Archbishop of Brisbane and Primate of Australia.
New notice boards have been erected at the several churches, and repairs effected at Brookfield; land was bought at Moggill in 1966 and in 1968 the old state school was purchased, removed to the adjacent land and remodelled to become the church-cum-hall of St. Michael and All Angels that was dedicated by Bishop Hudson on the 14th of July.
Prior to this a celebration of Holy Communion was held at Michaelmas in a marquee on the newly acquired land in 1966 and 1967 and was very well attended, also prior to the dedication of St. Andrew’s the old timber church and the hut were removed to land sold to the parish by the late D. M. T. Forster in 1961 behind his property adjoining St. Andrew’s where there was an old tennis court which was floodlit in 1962 for C.E.B.S. activities.
A weekly newsletter is circulated and since April, 1960, a monthly Parish News has been and still is issued.
There are 12 organisations operating in the parish, 6 of which have been established in this third era and all 12 are helping in parish life.
In 1961, the Rector went to Sydney to investigate the Ministry of Healing. The result was the formation of a Chapter of the Order of St. Luke the Physician.
This has been disbanded recently as the Brisbane Chapter and a branch of the Guild of St. Raphael has been established in its place at St. Andrew’s.
Over the years, most of the furnishings of the churches have been gifts, some as memorials of former parishioners. All these are to be found in a special Memorial Book.
The majority of these memorials in the old St. Andrew’s are now in the side chapel of the new church (a list of them is to be found in chapter 3) and the majority of furnishings in the new churches are straight out gifts, all in position and paid for at the dedication.
The financial difficulties of the second era are recorded in chapter 7 and a general outline given of the problems connected with the erection of the mother church of St. Andrew, and the daughter churches of St. Peter and the Holy Spirit.
Historical matters associated with the whole parish have been given in several chapters, and in matters spiritual — apart from the short biographical sketches of the five Rectors, and reference to those in interim charge — the names of those assistant curates who have helped so well, particularly in the last era, are included.
The various organisations have been mentioned each with a brief reference to the work they do.
And now, in this eventful year of 1968 we record the resignation of one Rector and the appointment of another, and the separation of Kenmore, Brookfield and Moggill from the mother parish of St. Andrew as a parochial district with an appointed Vicar.
This enabled us to hand over a large part of our parish as a mother gives her daughters into the keeping of others, knowing that all she has done for them will return to her as a reward for preparing them for their future independent life, yet still remaining members of the family — in this case the larger family of the Archdeaconry of Lilley and the Diocese of Brisbane.
Finally as a result of all these activities we are an awakened people — both clergy and laity — united in the work of extending God’s kingdom in this particular area of His vineyard.
P.B. September 1968
Percy Brier (1885-1970) was born at North Pine, son of English migrants. By 1898 he had decided on a career as a musician. He secured 99 per cent in the senior examination of the Trinity College of Music, London, and topped the lists, winning a scholarship to study at Trinity College. He was awarded the licentiates of Trinity College and the Royal Academy of Music in 1904, and next year became an associate of the Royal College of Organists.
Returning to Brisbane in 1906, Brier began the professional practice of music. He was an organist at, amongst others, the City Tabernacle Baptist Church in 1912-19 and St James’s Church of England, Sydney. He directed choirs and adjudicated musical competitions. From 1922 he was an examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board. Brier founded the Music Teachers’ Association of Queensland, and established the Queensland branch of the Guild of Composers. On his retirement in 1963 Brier estimated that he had taught 912 students, many of whom achieved prominence.
Brier also composed, including organ solos and church music. He wrote, in addition to this history of St Andrew’s, three textbooks, and autobiography and a historic compilation, The Pioneers of Music in Queensland, later extended to One Hundred Years and More of Music in Queensland.
Brier was a convinced High Anglican from his youth and served his local church, St Andrew’s, Indooroopilly, as parochial councillor, rector’s warden and lay reader.
On 1 July 1915 Brier had married Eva Baynes (d.1943) in the City Tabernacle. ‘I an Anglican, my bride a Congregationalist, the officiating minister a Methodist and all in a Baptist Church!!!’, he wrote in recollection. Survived by one of two sons, his ashes were interred at St Andrew’s Church. The University of Queensland awards an annual prize for composition in his memory, and a Canberra street is named after him.
For the full table of contents and a PDF of the booklet, which includes photos, see the Parish History 1888–1968.