St Luke's Redevelopment plans
St Luke’s Anglican Church has been part of the Tarragindi and Annerley community since 1925. The current church building was built in 1956 and the parish remains a thriving church community. The original church became the parish hall and has hosted the St Luke’s Theatre Society for many years. Together with the Parish Centre (the old Rectory), these facilities have provided venues for local groups such as painting and martial arts classes to meet.
We are now planning the next stage of our life within our local community by redeveloping our site to build an Early Learning Centre, as well as new meeting spaces for a wide variety of local groups. We see this as an important part of our engagement with the community.
The Early Learning Centre will be run by the Anglican Schools Commission, whose ethos is to provide high quality education and care for children in an environment which fosters and embodies Christian values. It will have close links to both the parish and a local Anglican School.
A new hall will be able to host community activities as well as a space for the Theatre Society to continue to produce high quality plays. Meeting spaces and other rooms will be available for hire as well as to provide community services such as visiting child health specialists or special interest classes.
Key considerations
A demographic survey has identified that 74% of couple families with children aged 0-4 years have both parents in employment and there is a need for more childcare places in our locality.
We value that St Luke's has been a part of our local community history, and therefore are retaining and renovating the original hall and house in recognition of their cultural values.
Impacts on the neighbouring properties will be minimised by ensuring the plans meet boundary requirements and minimising the height of the development. Perimeter acoustic fences and other measures will be put in place to minimise noise impact and sufficient on-site parking will be provided.
Key elements of the proposed design
1. The church building will remain essentially unchanged as the focal point of the campus.
2. The original hall will be retained but moved to the rear (west) of the site. Later additions will be removed, so as to revert the building to the original 1920s church structure, and it will be refurbished to provide parish offices and meeting spaces.
3. The house to the north of the site (currently the Parish Centre) will be dropped to ground level, refurbished and incorporated as part of the new Early Learning Centre.
4. A new building will be constructed to the rear of the site with the Early Learning Centre on the lower level and a new community hall, including space for the Theatre Society, on the upper level.
5. Noise abatement boundary fencing will be installed around the back and sides of the site.
6. The Memorial Garden will be relocated to a new dedicated area alongside the west end of the church.
7. A covered deck at church floor level will be built on the north side of the church.
8. A new green space will be created at the front of the site, available for parish and community activities, and sympathetic landscaping added throughout.
9. All vehicle access to the site will be moved to the south side of the church, away from the traffic lights, improving safety at the intersection.
10. Sufficient car parking places will be provided, including some under the refurbished hall.
Expected timeline
A Development Application was approved by the Brisbane City Council in December 2021. Detailed design work is now taking place.
Building works are expected to begin in July 2022
The Early Learning Centre and other facilities will be operationalmid-2023