Our History

(The following information was summarised from our Centenary Booklet, produced in 2003, and available here).

Origins

Bicton takes its name from John Hole Duffield, granted 500 acres in December 1831, who named it after an estate near Exeter, Devon. After his death in 1859 the estate was divided, and by the early 1900s it was being cut into suburban blocks with houses but no church or school.

The Presbyterian cause arrived via Fremantle, where Scots Church opened for worship on 26 November 1890. Mission work then extended to East Fremantle, where Rev Douglas Smith began services in Pearse’s Hall; a church there opened on 18 September 1898, its foundation stone laid that July.

The old hall, 1902–03

In 1902 the Session of East Fremantle bought a block in Harris Road from Edwin Duffield, to be administered by F MacDonald MLA, Charles Purdie and William Murray. Subscriptions funded a rustic weatherboard hall with an iron roof. Its bank book opened on 23 October 1902 with £27 15s, and the first service was held on Sunday 4 January 1903, conducted by Rev Douglas Smith.

The first public building in the western end of the Melville district, and also called the Lower Bicton Hall, it served as a polling booth and, from 2 March 1903 until 18 May 1904, as the Bicton School on weekdays. A letter of 17 April 1907 cleared the £200 debt; the first child baptised there was Roderick Purdie.

Consolidation

Records are sparse until 1940. A Ladies’ Guild formed in 1931 with 13 members, and on 29 April 1940 a congregational meeting introduced envelope giving and appointed a Church Committee and Board of Management — first steps toward a full charge. Rev Trevor Diggins, an ex-army chaplain, was appointed from 1 July 1955, the Session first meeting on 28 November 1955.

Building and expansion

On 3 March 1957 a tender of £7,313 17s from Concrete Industries Pty Ltd was accepted, and the new hall was dedicated on 27 October 1957, Rev G. Thrum laying the foundation stone. Bicton’s first elders — Ron Kent, Tom Evans and Harold Tebbit — were ordained on 23 February 1958, with Robert Mather admitted later that year. Sunday School attendance reached 150 or more under Tebbit.

White ants invaded the old hall by July 1959. The congregation approved a manse on 28 October 1959, funded partly by selling bricks and three View Terrace blocks; it was dedicated on 11 December 1960 by the Moderator, Rev Thomas Gibson. Diggins served until 1970.

A worship extension seating about 125 was planned in February 1979, a quote of $26,344 accepted that September and the work completed in early 1980 as the Ann Murray Fellowship Worship Centre, funded by Ann Murray’s gift.

Union, demolition and renewal

Through the turbulence of church union in the late 1970s, Rev Bruce Fraser led Bicton to remain a continuing Presbyterian church, withdrawing from the local Presbytery for that of Melbourne North. Fraser resigned in December 1986.

The congregation approved removing the old hall on 6 December 1985 for $400, and it came down in April/May 1986, ending the 1902 building’s life.

A daughter church, Kardinya Lakes, was planted in early 1992 under Rev Keith Morris, then Rev Rod McAuliffe from February 1993, but its minister was withdrawn in November 1994 for lack of finance; worship ceased on 14 April 1996 and its members joined Bicton that month. Rev Stuart Bonnington succeeded Rev Richard Lee in February 1995 and planted a further daughter church at Rockingham. The 1960 manse was sold for $200,000, agreed on 8 October 1995, and replaced for $125,000. The P.W.A. Day Group and the Men’s Fellowship both ended in 1996.

Rev Andrew Robinson was inducted in 2002 and led the congregation into its centenary in 2003.