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St Mark's - PictonDate:
The following article was published in Western Ancestor, Vol.1 No.5, (publication date unknown but likely about March 1980) on page 4. No author is acknowledged, but it may have been written by Brian Croker or Yvonne Coate. Spelling, grammar and punctuation is as per the original text.
ST. MARK'S - PICTON. St Mark's, Picton, 6 kilometres from Bunbury on the Perth Highway, stands surrounded by peppermint trees in beautifully kept grounds. The Picton Church was built by Rev. John Ramsden WOLLASTON, M.A. with the help of his sons and congregation on his own land (previously owned by Captain Coffin) which he named "Charterhouse" after the famous English School where he was educated. When complete, he made it over to the Church. At the age of forty-nine years Wollaston decided to migrate from England to Western Australia, and was delighted when the British Government gave him an appointment as Chaplain. Imagine his dismay on arrival in the Colony when he learned that the stipend of £100 per annum would not be paid until he had a church. Housing his family in a cottage that had been built by shipwrecked American whalemen, he, although not a physically strong man set about designing his Church using sawn-timbers and wattle and daub for the walls and rushes (some 800 bundles of which were boated across the estuary) for thatching the roof. In April 1842 building began and suitable trees were selected and felled from the nearby forest. A deep pit was dug alongside, the severed logs then rolled above the pit, and the framing timbers and boards were cut by hand. The windows, now of leaded glass, were originally made from calico treted with oil and turpentine and painted with cross stripes. By Sunday 18th September 1842 the Church was plastered with clay and white-washed with lime and it opened with more than 100 people from Australind, the Vasse and Bunbury. The total cost had been £129. 1s. 10d. The first churchwardens were Messrs. George Eliot and Ommanney and the first celebration of Holy Communion was held on 9th October 1842. At first Wollaston called his congregation to worship by sounding a horn but in April 1843 a ship, the "North American" was wrecked at Bunbury and he brought the ships bell which he mounted on a tree in the churchyard. This bell now hangs in the miniature belfry and is a link with the early whaling days. At the turn of the century minor repairs were effected at the expense chiefly of Mr R.H. Rose who had taken over "Moorlands", but in the 1930's its condition was such that demolition was mooted. However, the Rev. Arnold Fryer of South Bunbury instigated restoration and most of the old timbers inside and out were replaced. A small portion of the original wall was preserved and may be seen on the south end of the building. However the dimensions were not altered and the Church now stands, almost the oldest in the State, much as Wollaston saw it. This wooden building, which makes no pretensions to Architectural significance, has, with its shingle roof and diamond-paned casement windows, a dignified simplicity. The old prayer book Wollaston used at the first service lies open for all to read. Near the Church entrance is a granite cross commemorating upon its base Wollaston's work as first chaplain to Port Leschenault. In the Church are two memorials, one to Wollaston and one to Arnold Fryer. Among the names of the old families who worshipped in the Picton Church were: John Ramsden Wollaston became an Archdeacon in 1849. In 1848 he was transferred to Albany and from this time covered thousands of miles on horse-back, visiting the colony's far-flung settlements and it was only a few weeks after returning from his fifth pastoral visit, having ridden nearly a thousand miles, that he died at Albany on 3 May 1856, at the age of sixty-five.
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