The three 'lives' of St. Matthew's Anglican Church,
2. The fire of 1991 and its aftermath
St. Matthew's Church, 625 Kiewa Street, Albury, NSW, is an Anglican Church with
a long history of regional importance, today serving the community of Central
Albury. The church, as its congregation, has a rich history and formed an
integral part of Albury's heritage.
The temperature reached during the fire was so high that the lime plaster and render of the church's interior calcified and crumbled. Further, the rapid thermal expansion of the plaster/render relative to the underlying brick and granite masonry exacerbated the spalling process. Plaster, however, has survived on some of the pilasters including the ornate capitals. Some of the mullions and the tracery of the windows were also affected by the heat and exhibited spalling of the stone fabric. The tracery made from local Table Top sand stone was more affected by the heat than the tracery made from New Zealand Omaru white stone.
The stained glass windows, held together by lead cames, blew out in the heat or collapsed when the lead melted. All windows, with the exception of small window in the porch of the Boles' church, were destroyed. The fact that the windows had iron mesh protection on the outside (against stones and birds) meant that the windows fell to the inside and thus became embedded in the rubble.
Most affected was the southern transept, where the fire had started, with the chancel and the northern transept, as well as the Boles section of the nave also being burnt out. The least affected, even though destroyed, was the Blacket nave, furthest from the start of the fire and closest to Kiewa Street and thus the fire fighters.
The exterior of the western door was intact, even though it was severely charred on the inside. It appears that much of the wooden Murray pine floor survived except in the southern transept, where the fire stated.
Unaffected by the fire were the Boles and Blacket porches on the southern side, the northeastern vestry and the tower with the bell cote. The Boles porch retained its original doors complete with the very large stock lock. The Boles porch was the only location where a stained glass window survived, as well as the only location where a section of the original Boles slate roof remained intact. Even though the clergy vestry remained unharmed in the 1991 fire, its roof had been reslated after a fire in that part of the building in the 1960s.
Photos taken during the fire fighting exercise and immediately thereafter show that the Blackett nave was intact, even though the plaster had spalled off the walls (cf. Jones 1993a, p. 34).
Between the fire and the end of the year documentation of the damage, as well as the extant fabric, was conducted by Ian O'Connor for the insurance assessment. Some of the photos taken during this occasion are reproduced in Lucas et al. (1992).
It is unclear to what extent systematic collections of material occurred during the clean up. Some material such as the metal braces for the timber trusses were collected and eventually reused.
The conservation assessment note that the floor in the Blacket nave appears to be of Boles period as it is of the same height and of the same material as the floor in the Boles nave. Further, the study notes that the original floor may have been at a lower level (Lucas et al. 1992, p 7).
To prevent the facades of the transepts and the western and eastern ends from collapsing, frames and brackets were set up as temporary reinforcements.
Following the conservation study the centre of the church was graded by a front end loader and the flooring removed. In addition three of the four remaining bays of the Blackett nave were removed.
To place the conservation options into perspective, let us now review the history and architecture of the Blacket and Boles Churches.
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