St Martin's

Dromedary is a small settlement about 4 kms to the west of Bridgewater.

We have found that sometimes St Martin's is referred to as being at Mangalore.

S t Martin's church was administered from the Brighton parish and was built in 1914. In December 1914 the ladies committee held a fair in the Mangalore Church of England parish hall in aid of raising funds to pay off the building debt. The fair was opened by Rev. C. MacMichael in the absence of Archdeacon Whittington who was unable to attend.

The foundation stone for St Martin's church at Dromedary was laid by Bishop Hay in March 1922. Messrs. Norman Wright and Son were the contractors to build the church. It was consecrated by the Bishop of Tasmania Dr. R. Snowden Hay on the 28th April 1929. The following is a report from the World newspaper in April 1923:

A new brick church at Dromedary (a fine and worthy little edifice) ...

The church took seventy-one days to construct. The debt of £400 was not paid off until 1929.

The women of the district in 1936, conducted a luncheon and afternoon tea at Mr. H. Cook 's clearing sale to assist with repairs and painting of the church. Funds raised amounted to £6-16s, the committee set to arranging a working bee to commence the repairs.

In 1938 an article in The Mercury newspaper reported that the church had been vandalised with stones thrown breaking windows. The photograph taken by Mr. W.J. Rowlands is not a very good one, but we have decided to attach it.

Unfortunately this one was of many churches burnt in the 1967 bushfires and not rebuilt.