A Very Mobile Church of Many Names and Great Age

As you travel through Cardrona on the way to the Crown Range, you will pass, on your right, the original Cardrona School and a small church named The Lady Fatima Church. But that is not its original name, nor its original purpose, nor its original site. It has had a very chequered history.

Originally, it was an annex to the All Nations Hotel and used as a miners recreation hall, eventually being used for dances, weddings and other social gatherings. The Hotel itself (opened in 1874) burned down in 1895. John Willoughby then purchased the land and what remained from the owner, Mrs Knowles. The purchase included the untouched outbuildings. Tim Enright then arranged to purchase the hall from John for a reported £35 and it was shifted across the road by horse and sledge. The Cardrona community got together and raised funds by various means (such as concerts), to convert the hall into a church for the Catholic faithful. A Mr Bisset was engaged to convert it, and it was reported that “It will be a very beautiful little church when finished. There are leadlights of cathedral glass.”

The work was completed in 1902, and on 11 May it was opened “in the presence of a very large congregation. The church was dedicated for divine service under the patronage of St Bridget of Ireland. ….. The Cardrona people feel very proud of their little church, and justly so, …”[1] So the Church started its new life with the name “St Bridgets”.

“St Bridget” must have fallen out of favour, as by early 1926[2] the church was known as St Johns (as recorded in newspapers of the time). It is not known when or why this change of name occurred, or even if it is correct, but according to the newspapers it was still the name used in November 1946. The last reported wedding in the Church at Cardrona took place on 20 November 1946 between Johanna Scurr and Harry Miller. Tim Scurr reports that the name of the church on his aunt and uncle’s Marriage Certificate is recorded as St Joseph’s – another new name.

In 1952, the church building was moved to Wānaka where it was known as Our Lady of Fatima Church. At some stage it was plastered with roughcast and was used until about 1985 when it was decided to replace it with a new church building. Tim Scurr tells the story, that he heard on the radio of the proposal to demolish the old building and that builders were preparing it for a fire brigade practice! He jumped in his car and raced to town. An hour later he had bought back the building for about $300, but he only had 10 days to remove it. With the help of Bob Galvin and the Wānaka Rotary Club, the building was jacked up off the piles ready for transport. Tim organised for John Scannell to transport the building back to Cardrona. Eddie Jones, a builder living at the Cardrona Hotel, organised the paperwork and marked out the foundations in the school grounds. Then, with the help of Martin Curtis and others, piles were dug in and Tim’s tractor pulled the building into place and set it down on the tenth day.

The church was then renovated, and the roughcast previously applied in Wānaka was removed. The wood underneath was in a sound condition and in the main, only needing a repaint.

This time, the name of the Church stayed the same as was used in Wānaka – Our Lady of Fatima Church.

It now sits proudly for all to see, in the Cardrona Domain, along with the old school buildings.

[1] Lake County Press, Issue 1013, 15 May 1902
[2] Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3721, 30 November 1926