To spot Wesley Church, just look for the striking brick building at the corner of William Street and Hay Street, with one very tall spire shooting up into the sky, surrounded by four smaller ones-a true skyscraper of Victorian Gothic style!
Now, imagine the dusty crossroads of 19th-century Perth. It’s 1867. Horses clop past wooden wagons, and the air is buzzing with the promise of a new city. In the middle of all this excitement stands a nearly-finished church, its walls a clever patchwork of mellow-toned bricks laid out in a chequerboard style as if someone tried to build a grand cathedral from biscuits! Wesley Church’s mighty spire, reaching 35 metres, is already turning heads and making local pigeons dizzy.
But this spot’s story began even earlier-almost like a family adventure! In 1830, a determined bunch of Methodists sailed into the Swan River Colony on a ship called Tranby. Their leader, Joseph Hardey, was a man of vision, and their cargo was hope…and probably a few sturdy hats. They built little places to worship all over the growing colony, but by the 1860s, Perth needed something big and bold. So Methodist members bought this block from James Inkpen, who, with a name like that, really sounds like someone who should open a stationery store, not sell land. The church was planned, the bricks were fired in wood-burning kilns, and Perth’s first mayor, George Shenton, gave a hefty sum (along with Joseph Hardey) to get things off the ground.
The architect, Richard Roach Jewell, was the city’s master of Gothic flair-think pointy arches, dramatic buttresses, and tracery windows reaching high. Jewell’s original design put the bell tower on the north-east, but someone said, “Let’s shake things up!” so it moved to the exact southeast spot you see today. Building such a landmark wasn’t cheap: after all the dust settled, it cost almost as much as a small ship filled with bricks. Talk about enthusiasm for a congregation of only 138 people!
Opening day, April 1870, must’ve been an emotional rollercoaster-a flurry of hymns and nerves. The new bell, which came straight from their ship Tranby, hung proudly in the spire. Their choir, accompanied by the very first church organ in the whole Western Australian colony (installed in 1875), filled the space with music.
Over the decades, Wesley Church has survived both human ambition and the unpredictable shake of Mother Nature. In 1968, the Meckering earthquake rattled its mighty spire so badly that workers began cutting it down. But when they took off nearly 9 metres, the rest stood rock-solid-as if to say, “That’s enough, thank you!” They capped it with a copper cone, and today, the bell from above now sits quietly on display outside, no longer risking another leap from its lofty perch.
In the 1970s, while cities everywhere were tearing down the old to build the new, Wesley Church’s community fought to keep their beloved treasure looking grand. With modern towers sprouting nearby, this church managed to hold its place-while quietly getting a facelift, inside and out, thanks to passionate folks (and a National Trust restoration fund). Services are still held for the Uniting Church community, and this building once registered in the National Estate, now sits high on the State Heritage Register.
So as you stand under the gaze of those soaring lancet windows, imagine the generations-farmers, blacksmiths, mayors, architects-whose sweat and dreams echo through the nave. And hey, don’t forget to wave at the weathercock spinning atop the spire-he’s probably seen more Perth weather changes than the Bureau of Meteorology!
Ready to march to our next landmark? Let’s find out what stories the city has in store just around the corner.
