Wesley Church

The building known as Wesley Church was built in 1870 for the Methodist Church in Perth. The first Methodists arrived in the Swan River Colony on February 3, 1830 aboard the ‘Tranby’, to found a small religious community on a peninsula of fertile land four miles upstream from Perth, where the present suburb of Maylands is now situated. With a growing population, a larger church was needed, which lead to the purchase of land on the corner of Hay and William Streets at a cost of ₤400 and Wesley Church was built.

The church was designed by Richard Roach Jewell in the fashionable Victorian Academic Gothic style of architecture, which had become much favoured for new buildings throughout Australia and other parts of the British Empire from the 1850s – 1870s.

The total cost of the building was around ₤3,000 – a large sum for a church membership of 138 and a total quarterly income of little over ₤66. An appeal was launched to raise the funds and George Shenton, who suggested that the church be called Wesley Church, generously donated a ₤1,000, with Joseph Hardey contributing a further ₤500 – over half the total cost of the church in two donations!

Over the years since it was built, Wesley Church has been renovated several times, particularly during the onset of the gold rush of the 1890s when more seating was needed, and following an earthquake in October 1968 which caused damage to the steeple. More recently, $150,000 was spent in 1987 to restore the building, and alterations were made to the interior in 2002.