St Mark's Anglican Church and Dunwich Public Hall are a heritage-listed church and public hall at Junner Street, Dunwich, North Stradbroke Island in the City of Redland, Queensland, Australia. The church was built in 1907 and the hall as part of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum. The Dunwich Public Hall is also known as Benevolent Asylum Mess Hall. They were added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 July 2000.
History
The Benevolent Asylum St Mark's Anglican Church (1907) and the Dunwich Public Hall (1913) were once integral structures of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum located at Dunwich from 1864 to 1947. The institution was declared a home for the old and infirm, disabled, inebriates and for a short time lepers. Previously the site had been used as an out-station during the penal settlement of Brisbane (1827-1831), a Catholic mission to local Aborigines (1843-1847) and a Quarantine Station (1850-1864).
The Benevolent Asylum may be likened to the English poorhouses which were established to house and feed those members of the community who were unable to provide for themselves. Under 19th century legislation these poorhouses developed into the stricter regime of the workhouse. Conditions within these workhouses was generally appalling with inmates often being reduced to starvation levels, families separated and inmates forced to perform boring and demeaning work tasks.
The Australian version of the workhouse was the Benevolent Asylum; however it was not a place of committal and was generally considered by the authorities and advocates to be of better social standing. Generally, governments of the period, including the Queensland Government, were loath to recognise the existence of a vagrant class. In the 19th century class structure, poverty was seen as the fault of the individual and governments avoided providing relief to these groups for fear they would establish a level of government reliance. Instead, aid was provided to various charity groups, such as benevolent societies. The government subscribed to a view that this aid should be in the form of kind rather than cash which undermined self-reliance and initiative.
The desperate decline of some community groups saw the government eventually forced to subsidise some charity organisations. Unwillingly, they also assumed responsibility for the aged and infirmed who were unable to care for themselves and had no relatives or friends who could support them.
In 1844 the Moreton Bay Benevolent Society formed as a charity administered by citizens. The society was given responsibility for the Brisbane hospital in 1858 as part of the New South Wales government hand over of hospitals to local committees. In 1861 the Queensland Government passed the Benevolent Asylum Act awarding funds to Queensland Hospitals to set wards aside as Benevolent Asylums.
Whilst the integration of the asylum into the hospital structure may have alleviated some of the pressure for the Queensland government, over expenditure and crowding stretched hospital facilities to their limit, resulting in requests from the Hospital Committee for the asylum to be removed. In 1863 the hospital committee resolved that the hospital and asylum should be separate institutions. It was suggested this new facility could be a combined benevolent asylum and orphanage. The new building would initially house men until funds became available for further extensions when women and children could also be relocated from the hospital.
In 1864 the government proposed relocating the hospital to Bowen Bridge Road. The hospital committee considered this move a prime opportunity to officially separate the institutions. Following a visit to the asylum, Colonial Secretary Robert Herbert agreed with the suggestion, but on reflection, considered a separate building constructed on the hospital site could be used to house the asylum. The hospital committee disagreed and objected to the proposal resulting in Herbert arranging for the benevolent asylum to be housed by the immigration department.