The three 'lives' of St. Matthew's Anglican Church,
1. Introduction
St. Matthew's Anglican Church, Kiewa Street, Albury, was destroyed
in a fire on 14 September 1991 and after an extensive rebuilding programme was
reconsecrated on 21 September 1994. St. Matthew's has a chequered history, with
the present church being the third version, still retaining elements of the
first and second churches, a common thread being that neither of the
developments could be carried through in toto, because all ran out of
funds before the work could be completed.
The following discussion paper will set out the history of the church, its architecture and the conservation actions taken by the conservation architects after the 1991 fire. The paper will raise questions about the appropriateness of actions taken, but will not offer solutions. The document was written as a background paper for a student assignment on heritage legislation and cultural significance assessment as part of the subject PKM 266 'Cultural Resource Management', taught at Charles Sturt University, Albury.
First we will discuss the damage caused by the fire and its immediate aftermath. After this we will discuss both the 1857-59 Blacket church and the 1874-76 Boles church in terms of historic context, architecture and significance, followed by a section on the 1992-1994 O'Connor church. A final section will provide a number of questions to open up debate on heritage management ethics.
In early 1974 the National Trust of Australia recorded St. Matthew's as an individual item together with the associated rectory as part of the St. Matthew's Group, and advised the Albury Council accordingly on 18 September 1974. The record card (cf. Lucas et al. 1992 Appendix 7) does not contain a detailed description. The inclusion in the National Trust Register, whether as "recorded" or as "classified" carries with it no legal rights and protection, but is an expression of the significance of the cultural resource.
The church had been placed on the NSW Heritage Register and on 12 Oct 1979 had been protected by a section 130 Permanent Conservation Order under the Heritage Act (NSW) of 1977. With the promulgation of the Local Environment Plan by the Albury City Council pursuant to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (NSW) 1970 the Permanent Conservation Order was lifted on 3 Oct 1986 according to section 134 of the Heritage Act and the site was placed on schedule 7 of the Local Environmental Plan.
The site situated in the central business district of Albury is zoned according to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and the Albury City Centre Local Environment Plan No. 72 as 3(a) - Business (Regional Centre) Zone. This plan lists St. Matthew's "internally and external as an item of importance." One of the objectives of this zone is to maintain and enhance the historic character of the city centre. Under schedule 1 of this plan the church is listed as a item of environmental heritage. Therefore under section 16. (3) of this plan
" A person shall not , without the consent of the Council , in respect of a building or work specified in Schedule 1- (a) demolish the building or work; (b) alter the building or work; or (c) carry out any development on the land on which the building or work is situated."In section 17.(1) the council shall not grant consent required by clause 16(3) to the carrying out of development in respect of an item of the environmental heritage except with concurrence of the director of Planning.
This paper may be quoted as: