The Holy Trinity Anglican Church at Kameruka was built to serve a small South Coast community, but now faces an uncertain future. Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash.
A South Coast parish has moved to reassure residents over concerns that their historic church will be sold.
The Holy Trinity Church at Kameruka, about a five-minute drive from Candelo in the Bega Valley Shire, falls under the Sapphire Coast Anglican parish.
Built in 1869, it was designed by Edmund Blackett, who also designed the quadrangle at the University of Sydney.
Some 156 years on, the parish has recommended to the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn that it be sold.
Parish council chair Ken Traise said the parish reviewed its footprint in the area “five or six years ago” and had decided to focus its mission on Candelo.
In decades past, the area’s Christian community was served by the Kameruka, Tantawangalo and Candelo churches.
“The obvious decision was to consolidate our mission out there at St Peter’s Church, which is the largest of the three, in the village of Candelo,” Mr Traise said. ”The other two churches were without any activity.”
Mr Traise also said it was becoming too expensive to maintain the Kameruka location alongside others in the region.
“They’ve virtually become a maintenance issue. Both the church building and the grounds have become a maintenance issue and a cost [for the parish],” he said.
“We don’t have volunteers out there anymore. We don’t have any funds to look after them [given] the sheer maintenance, the insurance. It’s just a sign of the times.
“That’s the position we put to the diocese, that there would be no future use for them … because our mission would be at Candelo.”
Historian and president of the South Coast History Society Inc Peter Lacey said the church started its life as part of a farming estate.
Sir Robert Lucas Lucas-Tooth would donate the land to the church, while the remainder of his estate hosted cottages, a post office, a school and other facilities for his workers.
“Over time, the estate disappeared – the people living there moved on, the cheesemaking factories disappeared,” Mr Lacey said.
“I think in recent years, it has only been used for the occasional baptism or, more likely, a wedding.”
It had long been one of three churches in the vicinity, alongside those at Tantawangalo and Candelo.
Like many churches, Kameruka had seen a drop-off in attendance and resources, Mr Lacey said.
“Even the larger churches are struggling. They don’t have the larger congregations they used to have 20 to 50 years ago,” he said.
“They’re on a road that has no ending. They’ll eventually just die from neglect because they won’t be upkept [if things continue].”
According to the parish’s website, there are no regular services at the Kameruka church.
Should Holy Trinity be sold, Mr Traise reassured people that their treasured buildings would be in safe hands.
“It is difficult to explain that to local people because they do feel for the history, but all we can say is that the history is not going to disappear,” he said.
“The history will always be there. The church buildings will not disappear.
“Whilst it might change hands, the management of the cemetery really should not change [as that is subject to regulatory requirements].”
Mr Traise said the parish started notifying the community in recent weeks to give people a chance to have their say.
“These churches were built over 120 years ago, and at that time … because people couldn’t travel.
“Time has overtaken them. The villages, the communities, have all moved to the coast. There’s nobody out there anymore.”
A decision on a potential sale is expected later this year.
