Ryan, J. S. (John Sprott)

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169 
SURVEYOR GALLOWAY AND 
BRISBANE CHURCH SITES 
by J.S. Ryan 
In a paper' to the Society in August 1980, I gave an outline of the 
career of Surveyor Galloway at Moreton Bay concentrating on cer-
tain types of survey, without dwelHng in any great detail on his 
activities in early 1856. Soon after that address had been given, there 
were found by me various detaUs in the Colonial Secretary's papers^ 
in Sydney which indicated that Galloway, a convert to Anglicanism^ 
had been involved in the applications by various laymen for grants of 
land for their church purposes. As Surveyor he had sent to the 
Surveyor General via the Bishop of Newcastle a letter from 'A. 
Herbert and others' on 5 February 1856, applying 'for a grant as site 
for a parsonage' at Gayndah — a request answered by the Colonial 
Secretary, on 1 May 1856. 
A slightly earlier letter which has been misplaced in Sydney 
Archives is referred to on 27 February by the Surveyor General's 
letter of reply (currently filed with the Colonial Secretary's papers): 
Sir, 
The Lord Bishop of Newcastle having forwarded to the 
Colonial Secretary a Memorial signed by you and other 
members of the Church of England praying that two portions 
of and in the town of North Brisbane may be appropriated to 
Church of England purposes. I have to request that you will 
favour me with your full report in the matter by an illustrative 
sketch showing what you would propose as sites of one acre 
each for Churches. 
The Bishop of Newcastle had sent off the laity's proposal with his 
covering letter on 7 February 1856. The official formal reply to the 
request is the foHowing letter of 22 April from the Colonial Secretary 
to the Bishop of Newcastle: 
Professor J.S. Ryan, of ihe Deparlmeni of English, Llniversiiy of New Ljiglaiid, has 
wrillen mosl of ihe modern biographical work on Surveyor .lolin .hinics ('i:illoway. . 
170 
My lord, 
With reference to my letter of the 14th February," last, I now 
do myself the honor to inform your Lordship this his ExceUency 
the Governor General has been pleased to approve the applica-
tion of one acre of land at the north side of Ann Street in the 
Town of North Brisbane, in addition to that already granted 
for Church of England purposes. 
2. His Excellency has also been pleased to approve of the usual 
areas being appropriated as sites for a Church of England 
School and parsonage on the north of Fortitude Valley to 
which effect the Surveyor General has been apprised you will 
therefore have the goodness to communicate with that officer 
in order that the sites for each purpose may be determined, and 
the description of the land brought forward in abstract for 
final approval. 
(Sgd.) W.G. Ward 
(Letter Book to Clergy, A.O.N.S.W. 4/3624, p.442, No.56/3425.) 
The consequence of these documents is of considerable 
significance for the growth of Anglicanism in what was to become 
Southern Queensland. After the petition in December 1843 of the 
Rev. John Gregor, M.A. and the residents of Brisbane for a licence 
for a temporary chapel, known as St. John's, there had been a suc-
cession of inexperienced clergymen^ assigned to duties between 
Moreton Bay and Wide Bay. The inspection in 1856 by the Bishop of 
Newcastle, William TyrreU, and his later funding scheme for a new 
diocese based on Moreton Bay were clearly assisted very con-
siderably by the activities of John Galloway both as layman and 
surveyor from yery soon after his arrival in Brisbane in late 1855. 
Following the estabHshment of the parishes of Ipswich in 1849, 
and Wide Bay and Burnett in 1853, there followed that of Fortitude 
Valley in 1857, based on the land chosen by Galloway. After the 
arrival of Edward Wyndham TufneU (1814-1896), the first Bishop of 
Brisbane, in September 1859 — in which welcome and settling-in 
Galloway much assisted — there began the development of the 
splendid site which would duly include the later Cathedral of St. 
John, to be more recently described as 'the last great piece of Gothic 
architecture" in the capital. As the various documents indicate, 
Galloway had worked very closely in matters both educational and 
organizational with the Rev. E.K. Yeatman, Chaplain to the Bishop 
of Newcastle and master of the Grammar School. It is not to be 
doubted that he would have been a prominent Anglican in the settle-
ment of Brisbane from his arrival in later 1855 until his departure for 
Sydney after 1872. 
171 
REFERENCES 
1. Printed in slightly reduced form in Journal XI, No.l, as pp. 129-159. 
2. See Letterbook A.O.N.S.W. 4/5439, p.418 and A.O. 5/2482 Register 
Odd Letters, p. 1407. 
3. See J.S. Ryan, 'The Religious Position of the Family of John James 
Galloway, pp.l3-S6, Armidale and District Historical Society Journal 25 
(1982). 
4. This letter is misplaced or gathered elsewhere. 
5. See A.P. Elkin, The Diocese of Newcastle, Sydney, 1955, p. 103 and 
notes. 
6. Stated by E.V. Robinson, p. 166 of his 'History in Granite and Sand-
stone', Journal of the Royal Historical Society, Vol.VIII, No.l, 
1965-1966. 
[In the original article on Galloway to which Professor Ryan has referred 
(JRHSQ, Vol.XI No.l, 1979-80), a sentence at the foot of page 152 should 
have read: 'He was personally to recommend G.L. Pratten to succeed I. 
Perry as draftsman, and to further the careers of Rawnsley and Wood (later 
to be Surveyor at Rockhampton) — two unassuming young men in the 
Galloway mould....'. This correction identifies two important Queensland 
Surveyors of the following decades.] 
Editor 


Surveyor Galloway and Brisbane church sites

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Surveyor Galloway and Brisbane church sites

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