St John’s Church

The original wooden church of St John was to be remodelled and enlarged but ended up being replaced in 1924 by a larger and more permanent concrete structure.

Fr Cecil Loneragan, the parish priest of Coonabarabran/Baradine at the time, planned for a ‘large concrete building, airy, lightsome and cool’. The church was blessed and opened by Bishop O’Farrell on March 16, 1924.

An historian described the church as ‘idiosyncratic Gothic with interesting buttresses and a compact chancel’.

In the 1980s, the church was reconfigured – the altar and sanctuary were moved to the western end and a sacristy was added. The chancel now serves as the entrance porch.

The old wooden church was utilised as a school building from 1926 when the Sisters of St Joseph arrived in Baradine and opened their convent school.

St John’s Church celebrated its centenary in 2024.