A church in outback Queensland has rung its bell for the last time, with Anglicans, Catholics, and Lutherans gathering in the south-west town of Quilpie, for the final service. A growing number of places of worship are closing across regional Australia.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Three strikes, signify the end of an era for this outback Anglican church.
00:10To declare on our behalf that this building will be no longer a church building.
00:14St Matthews is closing after nearly 90 years in the tiny town of Quilpie in the state's south west.
00:20Slowly but surely the numbers of people attending has shrunk and shrunk and shrunk.
00:25With a regular congregation of just three people, the church can no longer afford the insurance and the upkeep.
00:32We have to be open to being church in new ways.
00:36Worshippers from other denominations joined the final service.
00:40I feel like I've been a part of history today.
00:43It's a beautiful little building, part of Quilpie.
00:49The Quilpie Shire has lost up to half of its population in recent decades as people move to the city for work and older residents pass away.
00:57But the locals here are fiercely proud of their bush town and will do anything to see it survive.
01:03The pews, paintings and building itself will be put up for sale, but services will go on in other ways.
01:10Like in the Catholic church across the road.
01:13A hundred years ago that was unthinkable.
01:15While churches in regional areas are closing more frequently, they still hold a special place in a town's history.
01:22We rebuild, we reuse, we abandon, we come back to those places.