Community & Business
2 June, 2023
Trip back in time as Southbrook celebrates 100th anniversary of St Brigid's Church
Visitors arrived from as afar away as Brisbane and Warwick to join the Southbrook community in marking 100 years since the opening of the townships grand little church, St Brigid’s Catholic Church, on May 21. Below are details from a brief history of the church, compiled by Kaye O’Connell.
Around 1875 Southbrook formed part of the extensive Toowoomba Parish and a priest would make his quarterly visits out to Southbrook on horseback.
Mass was celebrated at ‘Glencairn’, the residence of Mr Donald Mackintosh, later a Member of the Legislative Assembly.
In 1907 Pittsworth was made a Parish and South-brook formed part of this.
The first Parish Priest was Rev Fr John Ryan and after his arrival Mass was celebrated every month, first in homes and later at the School of the Arts Hall.
With a view of building a church, Fr Ryan purchased a block of land near the Southbrook Hall for the sum of £90 but the church was never built there and the vacant land was eventually sold by the Diocese in 1995.
Before going on with the project, the Parish was obliged to pay £300 as its share to liquidate the existing debt on the Parish buildings.
In the meantime, around 1920, Fr Ryan was succeeded as Parish Priest by Fr Garrett Murphy.
A building committee was elected with Mr Phil Heffernan as chairman, Mr BA McHugh as treasurer and Mr Chas Gamble as secretary, later succeeded by Mr PD Boland.
This committee, assisted by the zealous guidance of Fr Murphy, soon had the project under way.
On a visit to the Parish by Archbishop Duhig, Fr Murphy and the committee finally selected the site (from many others) on which to erect the church.
The land, around two acres, was donated by Mr Thomas Torpie who had built the Southbrook Hotel and whose son, John, then a pupil of Southbrook Central School, later occupied the position as Administrator of St Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane.
Bishop John Ahern Torpie was to become the Bishop of Cairns diocese from 1967 until his retirement in 1985.
Thomas Torpie’s father, John, originally took up the land on which St Brigid’s Church is located.
He is the great grandfather of Southbrook resident and St Brigid’s parishioner, Mr Tom O’Connell.
It was decided the church would be built in brick and the tender of Muller Bros of Toowoomba was accepted.
The foundation stone was laid by Archbishop Duhig on January 22, 1923 and the church was blessed and opened on March 11, 1923 by Archbishop Duhig after a slight delay, owing to the Archbishop being in America, on its completion.
Much of the furnishings and church requisites were donated by parishioners and the total cost was estimated to have ben £5000.
On July 31, 1930, a dance was held at Southbrook Hall to celebrate the church becoming debt free.
Parish secretary Mr Pat Boland received from Rev Fr Burke a gold watch and chain in thanks for his hard work and dedication.
From the 1920s to the late 1970s an annual Boxing Night Ball was held at the local hall as a fundraiser for St Brigid’s Church.
This was one of many dances, fetes and fundraisers to occur throughout the years.
Abridged - see the full story in the print edition of the Pittsworth Sentinel, June 1, 2023.
