by Janine Hill

Building Maleny’s Sacred Heart Catholic church almost 100 years ago was a community effort and parishioners hope the same community will help them mark the church’s centenary.

Anne Minter, one of four volunteers trying to compile the history of Sacred Heart, hopes Maleny residents past and present and their descendants can help them piece together stories of the church.

The Sacred Heart opened and was blessed on 4 February, 1924, and a booklet on its history will be released for its centenary next year.

Anne said Father Leo Hayes, the parish priest at Caboolture, got the ball rolling for a Catholic church to serve the growing community of Maleny.

“A lot of it was a community project. The land was donated by a parishioner at the time, Patrick Daley,” she said.

“The stumps for the church were donated by a community member, John Grigor.”

Measuring 61 feet long, including the vestry and porch, the timber and tin building cost 860 pounds to build.

A feature was a stained glass window, designed by Fr Hayes, featuring a cross and a boomerang rising from a waratah representing timber-getters many of whom came from New South Wales and wattle for Queensland.

Anne said Archbishop James Duhig travelled from Brisbane to officiate at the opening, which was marked by three Masses with Fr Hayes and Fr Albert J Wright, of Nambour.

Anne said the first wedding at the church was that of Lorna Jane Cartmill, of Maleny, to James Norman Lane, a fruitgrower, of Pomona, in 1926.

The original wooden church was replaced with a larger brick building in 1974, and some timber later recycled in other buildings in Maleny.

Locals George Cowie and Patsy Lusk were the first couple married in the new building, she said.

She has trawled through the Catholic church archives in Brisbane and Caboolture in her hunt for information about 100 years of the Sacred Heart church and has searched old newspapers on Trove.

However, there are still a lot of blanks before a booklet to mark the centenary can be produced and she is keen to hear any stories from locals and find photos from those early weddings.

“What we’re trying to do is do the same thing they did at the start. We’re going to the community,” Anne said. “We want to find out if the local people in the local community have any memories – photos or stories – particularly for the period from 1924 to 1974.”

If you can help, phone 5494 3813.