Polish Hill River Church Museum
The 1871 church of Australia's first Polish settlers.
The stone church of St Stanislaus Kostka, consecrated in 1871 by Australia's first Polish community, now houses a museum telling the story of Polish settlement in South Australia.
In August 1856, 131 Poles arrived at Port Adelaide aboard the ship August — the first Polish migrants to Australia. Many settled in the hills east of Sevenhill, in a district soon renamed Polish Hill River. By 1871 the community had built its own church, St Stanislaus Kostka, on land donated by butcher-turned-vigneron John Nykiel, with Polish Jesuit Fr Leon Rogalski driving the building program to its consecration that November.
A school attached to the church opened the same year, teaching about 50 pupils in both Polish and English. Today the little stone church holds the Polish Hill River Church Museum, whose displays trace the three waves of Polish settlement in South Australia through photographs, documents, tools and household implements of the pioneer families.
The Polish and Jesuit stories are intertwined here: the priests who served the church came from the mission at Sevenhill, whose winemaking history is told in the Jesuits who planted the first vines.
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Image credits
- Polish Hill River church.jpg by Roo72, Original uploader was Roo72 at pl.wikipedia , Public domain via Wikimedia Commons