Historical information

The original St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church (1865-1912) was built of clay brick with buttress walls and a slate roof on the corner of Fordhams Road and Maria Street (Main Road), Eltham South, opposite the present-day Wingrove Park. It was blessed on September 3, 1865.

With the arrival of the railway in 1901 and the town centre moving closer to the station, the decision was made to relocate the site of the church to its present-day location on Henry Street at the corner of Main Road. A new timber weatherboard church, also called St Mary's was erected and blessed on October 13, 1912. The church and land cost £1,400 (Evelyn Observer).

The original brick church was demolished in the 1920s and the bricks and windows were recycled to build a dairy on the Brinkkotter farm at Research.

The timber church was destroyed by fire in 1961 and a new modern architectural (1960s) style church was erected in its place and named Our Lady of Help Christians Church.

Physical description

Colour photograph