St Stephen's Church, Ipswich
church building in Queensland, Australia
St Stephen's Church and Hall, part of the Central Church parish and officially Central Presbyterian Church, Ipswich, is a heritage-listed Presbyterian church and associated churchyard at 22 Limestone Street, Ipswich, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. The church was designed by Joseph Backhouse, built from 1865 to 1978, and added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
History
St Stephen's Presbyterian Church stands as the second church constructed on the current site in 1864–1865. This striking Gothic Revival style brick church was designed by architect Joseph Backhouse and continues to be the place of worship for one the oldest congregations in Ipswich.
First church building
The first Presbyterian church service held in Ipswich was by Dr. John Dunmore Lang in December 1844. On 19 October 1851 the Reverend Walter Ross McLeod, of the United Presbyterian Church of South Brisbane, preached to a congregation of 150 people, the largest of any church congregation to that date in Ipswich. Following the induction of the Rev. William Lambie Nelson as minister for Ipswich on 30 August 1853, the congregation began to work towards a permanent worship place for the "Scots Church of Ipswich". By early November 1855 a church, 40 by 26 feet (12.2 by 7.9 m) and with a square tower, had been completed according to the plans and specifications drawn out by John Petrie.
The public source identifies “St Stephen's Church, Ipswich” as church building in Queensland, Australia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Stephen's, Church and Ipswich.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “St Stephen's Church, Ipswich”, the useful work is to connect “church building in Queensland, Australia” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20083756. Authority coordinates are -27.616, 152.763. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1865, 1978, 1992 and 1864.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “St Stephen's Church, Ipswich” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.