All Saints Anglican Church, Yandilla

All Saints Anglican Church and cemetery Yandilla is a heritage-listed Anglican church at Gore Highway, Yandilla, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built about 1878 by John Baillie. It is also known as All Saints Church of England. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

All Saints Church is a timber church erected at Yandilla Station by the Gore family about 1878 on the site of an earlier church, which it closely resembles. The graveyard around the church is believed to have been established in 1863 supplanting the previous custom of burial close to the homestead. The Gores were from a family of Irish landowners. They came out to Australia as a family, largely for reasons of health, following the death of their father, a clergyman, and the youngest son. Another son, William, became the Rector of All Saints Parramatta, while Ralph and St George Gore travelled to the Darling Downs in 1841 with sheep purchased from the Macarthurs. They established a run at Grasstree Creek, later known as Yandilla, and were joined soon after by brothers, Robert and St John and their wives. St George sold out his share in 1846 and took up Bodumba and Canning Creek. Later St George became a member for Warwick in the first Queensland Legislative Assembly and the first Minister for Lands. In 1846 Tummaville station adjoining Yandilla was acquired by the Gores. The family were devout Anglicans and had a paternalistic sense of responsibility towards the welfare of their workers, there being a considerable number of people living on Yandilla apart from the Gores. Pastoral stations provided accommodation for workers and facilities such as a store, blacksmiths and other trades essential for running a station in an isolated area. In 1843, the visiting Commissioner for Crown Lands reported that 30 people were in residence and a woolshed and 11 huts had been built. At the time, Yandilla was part of a parish which extended in theory from the Hawkesbury River to Cape York Peninsula. Visits by a minister were rare and irregular, the first service at Yandilla is thought to have been in 1843. The first itinerant minister for the Darling Downs was the energetic pioneer clergyman Reverend Benjamin Glennie. His first visit to Yandilla was on 28 August 1848. From 1850 he was based at Drayton and visited Yandilla regularly. At the same time, a Sunday School was conducted by the ladies of Yandilla for children living on the station. There is thought to have been a chapel there from the earliest days though this may have been part of the homestead.

Reverend William Gore had visited Yandilla from time to time and conducted services during his visits. In 1860 he bought into the family firm and eventually became the major shareholder. The "village" at the station by then had over 100 inhabitants and a new church was built close to the homestead in 1863. It was described in the Darling Downs Gazette as:being of sawn timber and the dimensions 30 feet by 20 feet, with a very little chancel and porch attached. The roof is an equilateral triangle and has a very fine effect. A splendid stained glass window is being prepared and is intended to be placed in the eastern end of the buildingIn 1861, a minister had been appointed to serve 8 stations in the area, but the first service was held by Reverend Gore, who seems to have held services when the regular minister was not available. The church was, however, used by workers of all religious denominations on the station. Catholic services were held there from 1862 and Presbyterian services from 1891. The present church was built in 1878, during the management of William Gore's eldest son Francis, who ran the property from 1866 until his death in 1904 and who was deeply involved in local and pas

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