Photo: https://darklybrightpress.com/tylwyth-teg-ii-more-welsh-fairylore/

Jonathan Ceredig Davies was born on 22 May 1859 at Llangunllo, Cardiganshire, Wales. He was a traveller, genealogist and folk-lorist according to the Dictionary of Welsh Biography (2022). Jonathan had his first travel experience at the age of 16 (1875) when he left home to go to the newly founded Welsh Colony of Patagonia. He returned to Wales in 1891 but left again in 1898 to go to Western Australia where he spent four years. Some of that time was in Collie. The Collie Mail on Saturday 25th January 1913 reminisces about the time ‘Patagonia Davies’ was in Collie. The Collie Mail notes that he conducted the first Anglican Service in Collie in 1898 ‘in the railway goods shed, the first Sunday after his arrival in the district - a truck serving as a reading desk and pulpit. About forty people attended and the singing was A1 at Lloyds. …A strong wind blew through the partly open building and put out all the lights, so the minister had to preach in the dark, the people listening attentively till someone released the brake on the truck in which the minister was preaching and set the truck in motion much to his chagrin.” The Collie Mail recounts many adventures had by this Lay Reader in the course of his time in Collie including getting lost while trying to find an outlying timber mill camp to minister too. Summing up the Collie Mail article says “Judged as a man from a religious standpoint ‘Patagonia’ was 18 carat, his whole heart being in his work’. In 1902 J C Davies wrote his own account about his adventures called Western Australia: its history and progress a copy of which can be found in the State Library of WA as well as the Collie Library.

Photo: Davey Jones, his wife Ellen and daughter Gwen at their home Carnarvon Castle in Collie. Gwen is reported to be the first child born in Collie. Source is the State Library of WA.

Jonathan Ceredig Davies struggled to get his small Anglican congregation to commit to building a church. The Collie Mail (1913) reports that in 1899 he did manage to get the first Anglican Church in Collie erected but he had to put in 40 Pounds of his own money . He also secured donations from his home country and raised funds through concerts (Collie Mail, 25 January 1913). It was a bare, little wooden building without wall linings or a ceiling. There is a photo of this building which he called St David’s (not to be confused with St David’s Catholic Church at Worsley) in his book about his Western Australia adventures (Davies, 1902).

At that time a South West Diocese had not been formed there was just one Diocese for all of Western Australia. Bishop Riley came from Perth to open St Davids on the 5th October 1899 (Davies, 1902).

The very first wedding held in the St Davids Church was on Easter Monday 1901 when Mr F C Carthew, of the railway department, was married to Miss Mary Shaw, only daughter of Mrs J Williams of Collie. By then the Rev. A G Cutts was officiating (Bunbury Herald, 13 April, 1901).

During the course of 1901 the church in Collie was granted separate mission district status by the Perth Synod (Bartlett, 2004) and the first Annual Parishioners Meeting was held in June of the same year. A full report of this meeting was given in the Collie Miner newspaper on Saturday 15 June, 1901. The meeting was held in the Mechanics Institute “..there was a large attendance, and the proceedings were of a most unanimous nature” (Collie Miner, 15 June, 1901). The Revd. A G Cutts presided and acknowledged the incoming Priest Revd G H Holley.

The election of office bearers was as follows:

Mr R Gee as Clergyman’s Warden.

Mr C Short as People’s Warden.

Vestrymen were as follows:

J Ewing (MLA), R Barnes, W D Bedlington, A W Hayden, H Speight and F H Watt.

W D Bedlington and J J Harwood were elected Synodsmen.

Photo: The first Collie Municipal Council 1901. Left to right: Standing: H. Spate, W.D. Bedlington, A. Hayden, H. Christie, Jas Armstrong, H. Leeson, F. Salmon (Town Clerk); Seated: H.E. Wells, J. Johns, J.C. Coombes (Mayor), John Evans, D.W. Jones. State Library of WA.

The Collie Miner reported on Saturday 10 May 1902 the proceedings of the Annual Meeting of Parishioners for the Anglican Church. By that time the Anglican Church in Collie had changed its name to St John the Evangelist. Why this occurred is not recorded. The congregation also had a new Priest the Revd. W Clarke who began work in November 1901.

It was noted in the Collie Miner article that much work had been carried out on the old St Davids Church, “ the lining and dado around the church…a bell has been placed upon the church.” Yet there was still so much more to do.

In the 12 months since the last Annual Meeting there had been 20 Baptisms, 4 Confirmations, 2 Marriages, 4 Funerals and 23 Communicant members for Easter. A new Ladies Guild had been formed, the choir was continuing under Mr Dickenson as choirmaster and Miss Terry as organist. There was also a Sunday School and Mr Shortland was Superintendent of this with 78 names on the roll.

The new appointments consisted of:

Mr R Gee as Rectors Warden.

Mr G T Roberts as People’s Warden.

The vestry members were as follows:

A W Hayden, H Speight, R Barnes, D D Ferguson and T Evans.

The Anglican Parish of Collie changed the name of the Church yet again in 1915 when the new brick building was erected this Church is called All Saints Anglican Church Collie and has remained that name ever since.