All Saints Memorial Church, Tamrookum, Queensland
This family owned timber church designed by Robin Dods, was erected by August 1915 and dedicated on 31 August 1915 by the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, St Clair Donaldson, in memory of Robert Martin Collins (1843-1913).
The first Tamrookum squatter was John Campbell and the lessee from 1848 was William Barker. In 1872 he paid £325 for portion 343 and was issued with a Deed of Grant for 1,000 acres (400 ha) which included the homestead (demolished in 1931) and church site.[1]
Pastoralist John Collins of Mundoolun acquired the land in 1878 and in 1879 his eldest son Robert Martin Collins took up residence after his marriage to Arabella Smyth. RM Collins became the owner in 1886.
RM Collins and his brothers established vast pastoral interests in Queensland and the Northern Territory. He was a founding partner in the North Australian Pastoral Company and a pioneer of the frozen meat industry. He was a parliamentarian from 1896 to 1913 and was responsible for the establishment of Lamington National Park, proclaimed in 1915 after his death.
The site for the church and family graves overlooking Tamrookum homestead was selected by RM Collins just prior to his death. The church was built for the family at a cost of £2,098, by William Bywater of Brisbane.
This church includes many memorial gifts such as the triptych, carved altar rails, fonts and communion utensils. The stained glass windows were designed by English church architect, Sir Richard Lorimer, and made by Una Adamson.
The double entrance gates hewn by broadaxe, the flagpole and sundial all come from the homestead which was demolished when Arabella Collins died. The yards and some of Tamrookum’s outbuildings remain.
Electricity probably replaced gas for illumination during the 1950s. The original split shingle roof was replaced by tiles in 1964.
The grounds include two burial areas. The oldest contains graves for station employees, family friends and locals. The other burial area is the family enclosure and RM Collins was the first to be buried here. The oldest monuments are Susan Goodwin’s (1895) a servant, Grenville Arthur Kingsley (1898) son of novelist Charles Kingsley and friend of RM Collins and the grave of Constable George Doyle and Albert Dahlke, an employee, who were killed by the Kenniff brothers in 1902.
A section of the back row in the older area contains unmarked graves for non-Europeans including the 1913 grave of Salingo, a Kanaka, and the graves of William (1928) and Emily Williams (1927), local aborigines employed by the Collins family. A memorial stone (1991) that names the William’s descendants is located outside the nearby Tamrookum Memorial Hall.
Source: Wikipedia 2023
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