St Thomas Church

One of Port Macquarie’s most historic buildings, the St Thomas’ Church is the fifth oldest Anglican Church still is use in Australia. It was built by convict labour under military supervision with the foundation stone laid in 1824. The first service was held in 1828.

The walls consist of 365,000 handmade bricks with construction about 1 metre thick in the nave, and more in the tower. Look for the finger and other marks on bricks, used to tally the number of bricks made per convict. Beneath the floor of the front pews in the grave of Captain Rolland, who died of sunstroke and was buried one month before his second-in-command laid the foundation stone during a service by Reverend Thomas Hassall.

For further information visit http://pmqang.org/history