St.
Mary’s Anglican Church, Busselton,
WA
Built of limestone and jarrah wood and consecrated in 1848, St Mary’s
Anglican Church is the oldest stone church in Western Australia. The
foundation stone was laid with due ceremony by Mrs.
Frances Bussell on March 4, 1844.
The inscription reads:
To the honour and praise of Almighty GOD,
The foundation stone of this Sanctuary,
to be erected with funds collected by friends of
the
Bussell family, (of Cattle Chosen, in this district),
for the use of the members of the Church of England,
was laid by Frances Louisa, relict of the Rev. William
Marchant Bussell,
on the 4th day of March, 1844.
(
click here for source )
Some
members of the Heppingstone family rest in the cemetery
adjacent to the church. The following text came from
the assessment documentation, which put the church
on the Heritage
Council of Western Australia’s Register
of Heritage Places.
“In
1998, the grave of Alfred Pickmore Bussell and
his wife Ellen had its headstone replaced with small,
oblong, horizontal slabs in a modern style, with
the cracked original headstone buried beneath
them.
Ann Bryan’s headstone, damaged by Cyclone
Alby in 1978, was subsequently repaired, but
by the late
1990s it had been further damaged, and the original
headstone was mislaid. In 1998, a replacement
oblong horizontal headstone with inlaid details
was erected
over her grave.”
—
per John Bussell, letter to the Heritage Council,
28 November
2002,
on HCWA file P0402
Descendants of
