Mareeba Uniting Church is a heritage-listed former church at 189 Walsh Street (corner of Rankin Street), Mareeba, Shire of Mareeba, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Eddie Oribin and built in 1960 by L. Tinslee. It was originally Mareeba Methodist Church. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 25 June 2021.
History The former Mareeba Uniting Church was built in the town of Mareeba on the Atherton Tableland in 1960 and is one of a series of innovative buildings designed by Queensland architect Edwin Henry (Eddie) Oribin (1927–2016). Originally established as Mareeba Methodist Church, it was built during a period of Christian modernisation and growth, and served as its congregation's place of worship from its dedication in August 1960 until January 2021.
The Atherton Tablelands, west of Cairns in Far North Queensland, was named after squatter John Atherton, who was the first person to establish a cattle run in the area in the late 1870s.Edwina Toohey, From Bullock Team to Puffing Billy: the Atherton Tableland and its hinterland: Aborigines and settlers 1860s to 1994, Central Queensland University Press, Rockhampton, 2001, p.1. In the 1880s, the Atherton family established a wayside inn and store at the crossing of Granite Creek, supplying goods to traffic passing between Port Douglas to the north and the new tin mining township of Herberton to the south.Toohey, From Bullock Team to Puffing Billy, p.3. A settlement developed on the southern side of Granite Creek, on the traditional lands of the Muluridgi people, and was surveyed by E. B. Rankin as the town of Mareeba in 1891.'Town of Mareeba' Survey Plan, Cat. No. M3563, surveyed by E B Rankin, 1891Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Partnerships (DATSIP), Cultural Heritage Database and Register accessed Apr 2021Commonwealth Native Title Tribunal, accessed 27 Apr 2021. In 1893, it became a railhead when the Cairns-to-Kuranda railway line was extended, and by 1919 Mareeba was the district's most important town. Owing its prosperity to a diverse agricultural economy, post-World War II (WWII) Mareeba grew to become the largest tobacco-growing centre in Australia, and in 1954 the town's population reached 3,369.
The earliest church services in Mareeba were conducted by visiting clergymen in the 1890s, from temporary premises such as the Mareeba State School (completed in 1893). The first church built in Mareeba was a United Protestant Church, constructed in 1896 on Walsh Street and shared by the Methodist and Presbyterian congregations for more than 60 years.'Pioneer Reminiscences of Mareeba, Visit of Rev. E R B Gribble', Cairns Post, 31 Mar 1931, p.11. In 1954, the combined population of Methodists and Presbyterians in Mareeba was 752, of which just over half (388) identified as Methodist.Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1954. No. 5 - Religion & Local Government Areas and Non-Municipal Towns (1000 Persons or more), p.120.
Methodism arose as a group movement within the Church of England in the early 18th century during the industrial and agrarian revolutions.Helen Gregory and Gail Pini, "Religious Places in Queensland: An Historical Context Study - a report for the Queensland Heritage Council", Cultural Heritage Strategies, Brisbane, Dec 2003, p.79 It spread rapidly throughout the United States of America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries through itinerant preachers and later throughout the world through Methodist missionaries. The term "Methodism" arose from the methodical way the Christian faith was approached and included an emphasis on preaching, evangelism, a love for singing, and social activism.Gregory, "Religious Places in Queensland", pp.79-80.
The 1950s were a period of substantial change and reform within the Methodist and other Christian denominations throughout Australia, as they sought to become more relevant to modern society. Developments in theology and liturgy, coupled with an expansionary building program, led to a radical departure from established architectural traditions. Reflecting international trends, church designs moved away from historical revival styles and became increasingly influenced by Modernism.Gregory, "Religious Places in Queensland", p.11. However, it was expected that a church would still be recognisable as such, resulting in a wide range of variations combining traditional church elements, symbols, and functions with new construction techniques, materials, and forms.Gregory, "Religious Places in Queensland", p.87Richard Apperley, Robert Irving and Peter Reynolds, A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1994, pp.212-13, 230-31. A new flexibility in the spatial organisation of modern churches resulted in an immense variety of plan arrangements that broke away from the traditional cruciform or rectangular plan. These altered church interiors reflected the community celebration of worship, without distance between clergy and people.Ian Breward, A History of the Churches in Australia, Oxford University Press, New York, 2001, pp.363-64Peter Hammond, Liturgy and Architecture, Barrie and Rockliff, London, 1960, p.81.
Many new Methodist churches, Sunday school halls, and parsonages were constructed throughout Queensland in the 1950s, replacing older buildings and meeting demand in new suburbs and growing regions. In addition, the church constructed new buildings to support its various charities and organisations including aged-persons homes, hostels, Young People's Department (YPD) Camps, and Kings College (opened 1955) at the St Lucia campus of University of Queensland.'Why is Queensland Methodism progressing?' Methodist Times, 9 Oct 1958, pp.5,12'More about Methodist progress in Queensland', Methodist Times, 16 Oct 1958, pp.2, 14-15'Two colleges to open soon', Central Queensland Herald, 17 Feb 1955, p.16.
Methodist optimism in the post-WWII period was demonstrated in "a series of nationalistic [sic] evangelistic campaigns, which climaxed in the "Mission to the Nation"".David Hilliard, "A Church on Every Hill: Religion in Brisbane in the 1950s", Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, vol 14, Issue 6, (1991), p.253. Carried out between 1953 and 1957, the Mission was the largest attempt ever made by the Methodist Church to reform the nation, emphasising the Christian faith as the only answer to social and industrial problems. Meetings were held in capital cities and main provincial centres throughout the country, conducted by campaign leader Reverend Alan Walker. Attracting large crowds, the crusade received wide newspaper and radio coverage. During his Queensland tour in 1954, Rev. Walker visited the Atherton Tableland on Sunday 4 July, where a massed service was held in Atherton in Merriland Hall, a WWII igloo.'Mission to the Nation', Cairns Post, 15 Jun 1954, p.5.
After this event, the decision was made to progress with building a separate Methodist Church at Mareeba. The minutes of the Mareeba Circuit quarterly meetings note that in October 1954 a letter from the Northern Commission requested that steps be taken towards the building of a Methodist Church in Mareeba as soon as possible. To help finance the construction of new buildings, the Methodists arranged to sell their half of the United Church property to the Presbyterian Church for £2300, which was paid by the Mareeba Presbyterian Church in early 1957. Donations and legacies from parishioners also contributed to the church building fund.Minutes of the Quarterly meetings 1954-68, Box 5188, R 538 Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Queensland Records, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Australia.
A memorial fund was established in July 1958 for the proposed new church and by October that year, more than £508 had been raised for this purpose.Mareeba Methodist Church Quarterly Meeting Minutes, JOL, R538/44 Box 5188: Meeting 11 Jul 1958, p. 49Mareeba Methodist Church Quarterly Meeting Minutes, JOL, R538/44 Box 5188: Meeting 13 Oct 1958, p.51. Utilitarian war memorials in post-WWII were popular and many public buildings, including memorial churches, were funded with the assistance of the Commonwealth government's tax deduction scheme for donations to war memorial funds.K S Inglis, Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape, Miegunyah Press, Victoria, 1998, pp.353-5. In the case of the Mareeba Uniting Church, the memorial was an incorporated tower, rather than the whole building.
The site for the proposed new Methodist church was on the corner of Walsh and Rankin streets, towards the southern end of town. The church had purchased two lots there in 1940 as the site for a manse, which was completed in early 1941.Department of Resources (Resources) Certificate of Title 20346057'Stump capping', Cairns Post, 20 Nov 1940, p.8. In 1942, the church purchased a third adjacent lot to the south.(Resources) Certificate of Title 20363015. In preparation for relocating to the new site, a church hall was constructed on this lot in 1956–57, leaving the corner of the property vacant.Minutes of the Quarterly meetings 1954-68, Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Queensland Records. Over the next few years, fundraising continued and Cairns-based architect E H Oribin was engaged to design the new church.
Edwin Henry (Eddie) Oribin was born in Cairns in 1927. As a teenager during WWII, he lived in Brisbane, where he obtained work with the Allison Aircraft Division of General Motors, rebuilding aircraft engines at Breakfast Creek in an early example of an Emil Brizay-designed igloo (demolished). Returning to Cairns in 1944, Oribin commenced architectural training with Sidney George Barnes, Chief Architect of the Allied Works Council for North Queensland, whose training gave Oribin a solid grounding in structural design and construction. In 1950, Oribin moved to Brisbane to work and study, and on 10 February 1953 he obtained his registration as an architect in Queensland, returning to Cairns the following month to begin a partnership with Barnes. This partnership lasted until Barnes' death in 1959, after which Oribin continued on his own until 1973 when he closed his full-time practice.Martin J Majer, E H Oribin: The Work of a Far North Queensland Architect, B Arch thesis, The University of Queensland, 1997, pp.4-9. Afterwards, Oribin engaged in other design projects and designed his own homes, which were all located outside north Queensland. Oribin died in 2016.
Oribin undertook a wide range of work in north Queensland between 1953 and 1978. Oribin closed his full-time practice in 1973, but undertook some design projects prior to leaving far north Queensland in 1979.Majer, E H Oribin, pp.13-14 Throughout his career, he was devoted to experimenting with different structural and aesthetic ideas, drawing inspiration from a wide variety of Australian and international publications. Characteristics of Oribin's work included meticulous detailing, structural creativity, and concern for the modulation of light.Ian Sinnamon, 'Assessment under provisions of s.29 of the Act, of objections to the entry in the Queensland Heritage Register of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, 114 Rankin Street Innisfail', Assessor's Report, 29 Nov 2003, p.5. He was also known for his model-making skills and superb craftsmanship, often creating objects himself.Majer, E H Oribin, pp.67, 91.