I spent all last weekend at the Ebenezer Uniting Church. This delightful little stone church, just outside of Wilberforce on the Putty Road, is Australia’s oldest church, oldest place of worship, oldest church building in continuous use and Australia’s oldest school house.
The occasion was the church’s 200th Anniversary, having been opened, as you can see, in 1809. The reason why I was there is because I am fortunate enough to be a direct descendant of one of the pioneers of the site, George Hall. George and his wife, Mary, contributed the majority of the money needed to build the building and also gave the most in terms of time spent on the building project. In fact, it is George’s grave that you can see in this picture, right outside the front door.
Of the 15 pioneer families, 11 had marquees on site for the weekend where information and items of memorabilia relevant to each family could be displayed. It was fascinating talking to so many people who are related, either directly or indirectly to the family and, while spending 2 straight days on my feet was pretty tiring, it was a real privilege to have been part of the celebrations.