The Roman Catholic Church

From 1877 to 1881, Mass was offered first in the home of Philip Keegan on the Hazelwood track, then in the dining rooms of Kelleher’s Hotel and Fitzgerald’s Hotel, and then in Murdoch’s Hall, built as an annex of the Cricketers’ Arms Hotel.
Edmond Kelleher, hotel keeper, Timothy O’Connor, labourer, and Edward Crinigan, farmer, bought three adjoining allotments in George Street (where the parking area is now for Coles’ Supermarket) and gave it to the Catholic community as a church site.  The first Church of The Sacred heart was built there and dedicated in December 1881 by Fr. J. L. Hegarty of Sale.




The second Sacred Heart Church was built in 1902 in Commercial Road East, on the same site as the present Church built and dedicated in 1970.
 

In 1954 a temporary building was used as a church and school for the Morwell east district – on Buckleys Hill and served until 1957, when the district was made the Parish of St. Vincent De Paul.
The present Church of St. Vincent De Paul was opened and blessed by Bishop Ryan on 3^rd February 1957. 

The Roman Catholic Presbyteries.
When the Parish of The Sacred heart was created in 1892, a house owned by Philip Keegan on the Hazelwood track became a temporary Presbytery for the first three years.
In 1895, the present Presbytery was built in Commercial Road, and in 1902, the second Sacred Heart Church was built beside it, on the western side.
The Presbytery for the later Parish of St. Vincent De Paul was at first in a rented house in Rowell Street.  Then a modern Presbytery was built in Hunt Street, in 1969. 

The Roman Catholic Convents 
In 1906, the Church purchased the old Donaldson home on the allotment on the Commercial Road - Wilson Street corner, next to the Presbytery, and by 1907 the building had been renovated to become the Convent to accommodate the Sisters of St. Joseph who arrived in March 1907. 
The present Sacred Heart Convent, on the same side of Wilson Street as the old building (the west side) but at the corner of Wilson and Elgin streets was built in 1965.  This was formerly the site of John Hall’s home.

 St. Vincent’s Convent in Rowell Street was built in 1958. 

St. Mary’s Church of England 

In the second plan of Morwell (October 1878) the north west corner of Block 4, bounded by George, Elgin, Chapel and White Streets was shown as allotted to the trustees of the Church of England.
St. Mary’s Church was built there at a cost of 330 pounds and opened in 1886.  Since then, this site, together with that intervening section of George Street separating it from the state School block (Block 3) have been taken over by the Education Department and added to the school.
The present church in Latrobe Road was built in 1959.
The parish hall and community centre was built during the incumbency of the Rev. R. Phillips and opened by the late Mr. Percy Gilbert in September, 1947.
St. Phillip’s Church in Barry Street was opened in 1952.   Recently this property next to the big Catholic centre there) has been sold to the Roman Catholic Church for their necessary extensions.  This year the parish hall in Latrobe Road is to be demolished and a much bigger St. Mary’s Church built there.  The present attractive but smaller church will then become the parish hall – as planned some years ago.

The first vicarage was in Chapel Street, not far from the Church.
The move to the present vicarage next to the church complex and on the corner of Latrobe Road and Buckley Street, was made in 1929.

Incumbents of St. Mary’s Anglican Church

The Morwell Presbyterian Church St. Andrew’s 
During the 1880’s, the parish was first a Home Mission Station under Mr. E. Eldridge.
The Presbyterians may have been the first to provide a residence for their minister, perhaps as early as the late 1880’s, on the Ridge, south of the railway line, and close to the road that now leads to the Morwell Project administration building.  This first Manse was sold in 1914 to Mr. R. Brinsmead, who retired from Driffield to live there until his death in 1935.
The second Manse was built next to the Church in Elgin Street in 1913.  The present Presbyterian Church in Church Street was built 1960-1961 and the new Manse behind the Church in 1963.

 The Presbyterian Ministers at Morwell have been :

  The charge of St. Columba’s Church, Morwell east, commenced as a preaching place at St. Andrew’s.  Land was granted by the Housing Commission in 1953 and a building was purchased and moved to Vasey Street.  Morwell East became a separate charge in 1954. 

Corner of Church and Station Street (now Princes Drive)
Later became the site for Jephcott's Jewwellers
Currently the site for R.G.M. Financial Planners.

The Morwell Methodist Church of St. Luke’s

 In June 1977, the Traralgon Methodist Church celebrated its centenary, marking the 100 years since the appointment there of Rev. William Batten, the first Traralgon Methodist minister.

 In a sense this was also the centenary of the Morwell Methodist Church, since Morwell made part of the Traralgon Methodist Circuit until 1904. 

The Reverend William Batten died in 1878, aged 28, about 15 months after his appointment.  His successor was Rev. David J. Flockhart.  Some of the later superintendents stationed at Traralgon were Thomas Adamson (1887-89), H.E. Merriman (1889-91), D.S. Lindsay (1891-94), T.S. Roberts (1899-1901) and H. Bailey (1901-03). 

The first Methodist Church in Morwell was built and opened in 1883.  It was situated at the corner of the Princes Highway and Church Street, opposite the present Post Office. 

This whole allotment, stretching from Princes Highway to Buckley Street was given to the Methodists by Benjamin Wager Buckley, whose original selection included that area.  Later on, a parsonage was built at the Buckley Street end, and then a tennis court between the church and the parsonage. 

In 1953, this property was sold, making possible the development of the site as a business centre, and the move was made to the present church site further east along the Highway. 

We can assume that the parsonage in Buckley Street was built about 1904, since, in that year, Morwell became a separate circuit with a resident minister, superintendent of the Morwell Circuit. 

After the sale of this property in 1953, a new parsonage in Doherty Avenue was bought. 
The list of Morwell Methodist Ministers from 1904 is :