Ringwood Historical Society

Churches played an important role in Ringwood from the earliest years of the township.
Early churches were usually simple timber structures which sometimes literally moved locations as the population moved, say from near the antimony mines in the early days to near the station in the 1880s.

The Church of England was first established in Mt Dandenong Road opposite the Club Hotel (”Daisys”) in 1883. That modest building served until 1915 when a new site was purchased on the corner of Main Street and Pratt Street and a substantial timber structure erected.

In turn the Church moved (this time the building physically moved) to Ringwood Street (corner of what is now Civic Place) on part of what was the old Ringwood State School. That Church in turn became too small by 1967, by which time Eastland had been built opposite. The site was sold for commercial development and the Church once again moved, this time to its present site in Warrandyte Road.

The Methodist Church bought land on the corner of Main Street (Maroondah Highway) and Melbourne Street in 1905 and built a simple structure and hall. It relocated in the 1930s to the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Station Street.
The first Catholic Church building was also a modest timber structure on Main Street opposite Mt Dandenong Road opened by Archbishop Carr in 1893.

Following the formation of the Parish of Our Lady’s Ringwood in 1920 land was purchased on the corner of Wilana Street and Bedford Road. The foundation stone of a modern brick building was blessed by Archbishop Mannix in 1929.

Other denominations and Churches were also represented including the Presbyterian Church in Adelaide Street and the Salvation Army in Warrandyte Road.