St Thomas' Anglican Church

Australia's oldest Anglican church still holding regular services, built in 1824 by convict labour

Address Hay Street, Port Macquarie NSW 2444

St Thomas' Anglican Church is the oldest Anglican church in Australia still holding regular services, consecrated in 1828 after four years of construction by convict labour. The simple Georgian stone building sits at the corner of Hay and William Streets, its proportions modest and its thick walls enduring in a way the later timber buildings around town did not.

Inside, the church retains many of its original fittings, including a cedar pulpit and box pews. The cemetery surrounding the church is the oldest in Port Macquarie and contains the graves of convicts, free settlers, and officers from the penal settlement era — reading the inscriptions takes you directly into the town's early colonial history.

The church is open to visitors during daylight hours. It remains an active parish and holds regular Sunday services. The church and its grounds are listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register and are part of the Port Macquarie convict precinct — a cluster of heritage buildings from the 1820s within a few hundred metres of each other.

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A story
The church was built almost entirely by convict labour between 1824 and 1828. Among the convicts was Thomas Pamphlett, who had been castaway on the Queensland coast for months and explored much of Moreton Bay before being rescued — one of the first Europeans to map those waters.