Ruins of historic Bald Hills church near Victor Harbor for sale with graveyard
The local community began raising money to build the church in 1854. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)
In short:
The ruins of the former Bald Hills Congregational Church and its graveyard are for sale.
The church was decommissioned in 1905.
What's next?
The owners say they will select the right person to maintain the heritage of the site.
While many people dream of renovating an old church into their dream home, some may hesitate at also becoming the owners of this South Australian church's small fenced graveyard.
The Bald Hills Congregational Church was built in the 1850s and is located just a 10-minute drive from the coastal town of Victor Harbor.
It is now up for sale.
While only its walls stand today, the remnants of the church and adjacent graveyard are listed as local heritage sites.
Owner Wayne Kirk and his daughter, Lisa, want to find the right person to maintain the heritage of the church and graves. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)
Inman Valley local Brenton Lush's family helped care for the site from the time the church was deconsecrated in 1905 until it was sold by the Uniting Church about 25 years ago.
His great-great-grandfather, John Lush, is among those buried in the graveyard.
Mr Lush said while there were only a handful of headstones in the graveyard, more burials were believed to have taken place.
The church pictured around 1900, five years before it was deconsecrated. (Supplied: State Library of South Australia)
"Most of them would have had wooden crosses and markers that would have disintegrated," he said.
He said the church had been a ruin for some time.
"As soon as it was decommissioned as a church [in 1905], the roof went down the road a few hundred metres to the Jaggers' house and it became their shearing shed roof," he said.
The property has an asking price of between $370,000 and $400,000.
Room to move with heritage
Heritage consultant and Adelaide Cemeteries Authority board member Sandy Wilkinson said the new owner would become the custodian of the graveyard.
Mr Wilkinson said it was often a misconception that when ruins were heritage-listed nothing could be done with them.
Sandy Wilkinson, pictured at the North Road Cemetery in Adelaide, says it's a misconception that heritage-listing means nothing can be done with ruined buildings. (ABC News)
He said it could be possible for someone to incorporate the old walls of the church with contemporary building work and still meet the Burra Charter, which provided a best practice standard for people managing cultural heritage places in Australia.
"You could build within them, so you get to look at the old character from inside and out. So, leave that broken-away stone but put in plate glass for example," Mr Wilkinson said.
"That is considered a valid approach within the Burra Charter.
"If you destroy something, you can't reverse it, but if you insert new materials next to it, you could rebuild it if you chose.
"I could imagine a Grand Designs thing."
The church and graveyard are on Hancock Road. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)
Mr Wilkinson said while some people were a little hesitant to buy properties that included gravesites, many were not bothered.
"You could plant a hedge around the cemetery if you had the heebie-jeebies about it,"he said.
While the graveyard is also heritage-listed, he said there was no obligation for new owners to keep the farm-style galvanised fencing that had been installed around some of the graves in more recent times.
But there was a need to ensure older relics were not destroyed.
Wayne Kirk and his daughter, Lisa, want the heritage of the church and graveyard to be preserved. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)
Important to local history
Current owner Wayne Kirk said he believed the church was one of the earliest in country South Australia.
He said the stone had been quarried about 1 kilometre away from the hilltop site and the land originally donated for the building of the church was funded by subscriptions from the local community.
It was also used at times as a school and hall, and the limestone mortar on the walls is now scratched with graffiti left by generations of local youngsters using the ruins as a hangout.
Since the Kirk family bought the property at the back of their farm from the Uniting Church, they have tended the land around the ruins and graves.
The site has hosted the weddings of a few family friends and neighbours over that time but has remained mostly unchanged.
The headstone of Catharine McAlpine. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)
Mr Kirk said most of the people recorded on the headstones still had descendants in the area, but there was one broken stone, belonging to a Catharine McAlpine, who seemed not to have any local connections.
Mr Kirk's daughter, Lisa, said the family felt it was important for the heritage of the site to be preserved and valued by the new owners.
"We'll pick the person who will do it right," she said.