Sacred Heart Catholic Church – The Parade, Yea
Built in 1902, Sacred Heart Catholic Church overlooks the township of Yea from its uppermost point along one of Yea’s premier boulevards; The Parade.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church is a fine classical example of a Victorian Academic Gothic church. Gothic architecture was perceived by the pious Victorians as an expression of religious, and therefore, moral values. Its revival was thus seen as virtuous and equated with moral revival. For this reason an ecclesiastical character was predominant. As befits such architecture, Sacred Heart is a smart red brick church with elegant lines which demonstrates the excellent stone masonry of the builders. It was built for the princely sum of £2,369.00, a considerable amount more than the £600.00 it cost to build its neighbor, St Luke’s Anglican Church. The current red brick Sacred Heart Church replaced the original 1890 timber church building. It was built by the Reverend Patrick O’Reilly and was blessed an opened by the Most Reverent Thomas Joseph Carr (1839-1917) on the 26th of October 1902. It features a steeply pitched roof of slate tiles and plainly fashioned walls that are decorated with stone detailing. It features common qualities of Victorian Academic Gothic architecture including a parapeted gable, wall buttresses with stone capping marking structural bays, and lancet stained glass windows with elegant tracery around them.
Yea is a small country town located 109 kilometres (68 miles) north-east of Melbourne in rural Victoria. The first settlers in the district were overlanders from New South Wales, who arrived in 1837. By 1839, settlements and farms dotted the area along the Goulburn River. The town was surveyed and laid out in 1855 and named after Colonel Lacy Walter Yea (1808 – 1855); a British Army colonel killed that year in the Crimean War. Town lots went on sale at Kilmore the following year. Settlement followed and the Post Office opened on 15 January 1858. The town site was initially known to pioneer settlers as the Muddy Creek settlement for the Yea River, called Muddy Creek until 1878. When gold was discovered in the area in 1859 a number of smaller mining settlements came into existence, including Molesworth. Yea expanded into a township under the influx of hopeful prospectors, with the addition of several housing areas, an Anglican church (erected in 1869) and a population of 250 when it formally became a shire in 1873. Yea was promoted as something of a tourist centre in the 1890s with trout being released into King Parrot Creek to attract recreational anglers. A post office was built in 1890, followed by a grandstand and a butter factory (now cheese factory) in 1891. There was a proposal in 1908 to submerge the town under the Trawool Water Scheme but it never went ahead. Today Yea is a popular stopping point for tourists on their way from Melbourne to the Victorian snow fields and Lake Eildon, and is very popular with cyclists who traverse the old railway line, which has since been converted into a cycling trail.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church – The Parade, Yea
Built in 1902, Sacred Heart Catholic Church overlooks the township of Yea from its uppermost point along one of Yea’s premier boulevards; The Parade.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church is a fine classical example of a Victorian Academic Gothic church. Gothic architecture was perceived by the pious Victorians as an expression of religious, and therefore, moral values. Its revival was thus seen as virtuous and equated with moral revival. For this reason an ecclesiastical character was predominant. As befits such architecture, Sacred Heart is a smart red brick church with elegant lines which demonstrates the excellent stone masonry of the builders. It was built for the princely sum of £2,369.00, a considerable amount more than the £600.00 it cost to build its neighbor, St Luke’s Anglican Church. The current red brick Sacred Heart Church replaced the original 1890 timber church building. It was built by the Reverend Patrick O’Reilly and was blessed an opened by the Most Reverent Thomas Joseph Carr (1839-1917) on the 26th of October 1902. It features a steeply pitched roof of slate tiles and plainly fashioned walls that are decorated with stone detailing. It features common qualities of Victorian Academic Gothic architecture including a parapeted gable, wall buttresses with stone capping marking structural bays, and lancet stained glass windows with elegant tracery around them.
Yea is a small country town located 109 kilometres (68 miles) north-east of Melbourne in rural Victoria. The first settlers in the district were overlanders from New South Wales, who arrived in 1837. By 1839, settlements and farms dotted the area along the Goulburn River. The town was surveyed and laid out in 1855 and named after Colonel Lacy Walter Yea (1808 – 1855); a British Army colonel killed that year in the Crimean War. Town lots went on sale at Kilmore the following year. Settlement followed and the Post Office opened on 15 January 1858. The town site was initially known to pioneer settlers as the Muddy Creek settlement for the Yea River, called Muddy Creek until 1878. When gold was discovered in the area in 1859 a number of smaller mining settlements came into existence, including Molesworth. Yea expanded into a township under the influx of hopeful prospectors, with the addition of several housing areas, an Anglican church (erected in 1869) and a population of 250 when it formally became a shire in 1873. Yea was promoted as something of a tourist centre in the 1890s with trout being released into King Parrot Creek to attract recreational anglers. A post office was built in 1890, followed by a grandstand and a butter factory (now cheese factory) in 1891. There was a proposal in 1908 to submerge the town under the Trawool Water Scheme but it never went ahead. Today Yea is a popular stopping point for tourists on their way from Melbourne to the Victorian snow fields and Lake Eildon, and is very popular with cyclists who traverse the old railway line, which has since been converted into a cycling trail.