Our History

From the time that God led him to Coromandel Valley, Mr Samuel Gill was a very busy man. For many of the years of the 1840s, the kitchen of his house there was very busy, too, because it was not only the hub for his own farm and orchard, but also served as a schoolroom for the children of the district and as a place of Christian worship. Besides being farmer, orchardist, gardener, postmaster and school teacher, Gill was also the first accredited preacher in the Valley. His denomination was Baptist, but there is not much doubt that folk from other Churches took advantage of the opportunity to meet in his home in those early years.

Before the end of that decade, other people, whose lifestyles mirrored Gill’s, had also begun to open their homes for the purpose of Christian worship and fellowship. Some of these came from Wesleyan traditions and were likely to have had names like Winn or Shepley or Matthews.

Image of Main Road near the church, c.1885.

From the State Library of South Australia, B 57589