Our History

St John’s Anglican Church is centrally located in the Dalby CBD at the intersection of the Drayton St and Cunningham St Dalby.

Foundation of a Parish

The earliest records of the Church of England in Dalby show that in 1852 Archdeacon Glennie, of Toowoomba, visited the township and held service and baptism in the home of the Ross family. The first resident minister of the church was the Rev. B. G. Moberley, who took charge here in the early 1860s. It was soon after he came that the first Church of England was built, a brick building on a site near where the present State School residence stands. This brick church was later replaced with a wooden church (which later became the parish hall) This building was used until 1923 when the present picturesque church was erected. St Johns rectory is numbered amongst the oldest buildings of the town, and has been erected for more than half-a-century. It is built of timber which was pit-sawn at the Bunyas. The greater part of the timber used in the interior is cedar and is still in a good state of preservation.

A Part of Dalby's History

 The first Mayor was F. W. Roche, a man whose public activities were so appreciated that the main part of the town was on the South side of Myall Creek and was called Rochetown. Mr Roche was a staunch Anglican and very wealthy. He laid the foundation of St. Johns Church of England in 1866 and also provided Mr Moberley, the first Church of England Minister, with a Parish. Many years before Dalby became a municipality Anglican services were held here, and it was about the time the town received its charter that a Church of England was built here.