St Andrew’s Anglican Church Mullewa celebrates century of devotion

Generations of Mullewa’s Christian community travelled from across the region to celebrate the proud history of their church last weekend, gathering to mark 100 years since its first service.

St Andrew’s Anglican Church has spent the year celebrating its centenary, with the official anniversary on November 16 honoured on Sunday following a mural dedication and service marking the laying of its foundation stone earlier this year.

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Among the congregation were descendants of pioneering families who were instrumental in helping establish St Andrew’s, who visited from other Mid West towns including Northampton and Geraldton.

Elizabeth and Horace Peet’s walk out of the church after their wedding in 1925, which was only the second wedding at St Andrew’s, was recreated.

Their daughter Margaret Moorhead, who married her husband Harry there in 1952, now lives in Geraldton but still has a strong connection to the old building.

“My grandmother, Mary Angelina Peet, strongly supported the building of an Anglican church in the town,” she said.

“Her signature can be seen on the official church documentation when St Andrew’s was dedicated by Archbishop Riley in 1921.

“And once the church opened, she regularly played the organ at services.”

Long-term Mullewa resident Herbie Richards said his grandfather, Herbert Samuel Richards, forged the wrought-iron cross which was placed on the church roof in the 1920s.

Herbert Samuel was also a carpenter and used railway sleepers to carve the bishop’s chair which is still used today.

Herbie and wife June were married in the church in 1958 and are its longest-serving parishioners.

They served on the church vestry for more than 50 years and regularly volunteer to clean and repair the church buildings and maintain its grounds.

Their daughter Beth made the church’s wooden hymn board, and over the past 100 years, five generations of the Richards family have been associated with St Andrew’s.

Also in attendance were Northampton residents Paula and Norm Reynolds, whose great-grandfather Nathan Rumble, a Tenindewa farmer, used the base of a windmill to construct the church’s bell tower in the 1920s.