St Mary's on the Sturt is an Anglican church on South Road, St Marys, Adelaide, South Australia.
The original St Mary's Anglican church was built of native timbers on donated land on the Onkaparinga Road midway between the Sturt and Brownhill Creek crossings.[1] The first service held there was conducted on 4 July 1841 by Rev. C. B. Howard, then took alternate Sundays with James Farrell.
It has been called the third Anglican church in the colony, the first being Trinity Church in 1836. St John's church on Halifax Street, the contender for second place,[2] however, did not hold its first service until 24 October 1841.
The church was built by voluntary labour, of stringybark (possibly Eucalyptus obliqua or Eucalyptus baxteri) timber, on land donated by John Wickham Daw (c. 1797–1872), and all materials and furnishings were paid for by voluntary contributions. The name was chosen by Daw in recognition of his home parish St Mary Abbots of Kensington. England.
This structure was always intended to be temporary, and the foundation stone for a new building was laid at the present site, some 200 metres south of the original, on 27 October 1846 by Miss Fanny Conway.The new building, designed by Moses Garlick (c. 1784–1859), father of architect Daniel Garlick, and built of stone donated by the Ayliffe family, was completed and on 12 September 1847 the first service was conducted by Rev. James Farrell and Rev. W. J. Woodcock.The church was consecrated by Bishop Short on 11 March 1849. That same year transepts, chancel, bell tower (later raised to a height of 36feet), vestry and porch were added.[3] A vicarage was completed around the same time.
St James's church, Blakiston, which was never substantially modified, was opened on 26 April 1847[4] and consecrated in 1848.
The old building served as a schoolroom for many years and was demolished in 1928.[5]
The village of St Mary's on the Sturt, which became the Adelaide suburb of St Marys was named after the church.
The church, its graveyard and its gates were listed on the South Australian Heritage Register on 14 August 1986 and on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate on 15 May 1990.[6] [7]
For most of the history of the church, the incumbent also had charge of Christ Church, O'Halloran Hill also St. Judes, Brighton from around 1855–1865
The remains of several notables have been interred at St Mary's:
A newspaper reference has one James Penn Boucaut, presumably Sir James Penn Boucaut's son, who died in 1873, as the first burial, and a Miss Woodcock, perhaps Gertrude May Woodcock, (died 1878) daughter of Alfred Charles Woodcock, the second.[10]